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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
December 18, 1975     Shelton Mason County Journal
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December 18, 1975
 
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.i The State of Washington will have a new form of representative government if a plan devised by a veteran political worker is successful. Bagley Mann. who at 58 has participated in the pofitical wars long enough to be termed "grizzled" by grizzled reporters, announced this week the formation of Share-The-Clout Associates. The new business, with offices in the glove compartment of Mann's car, will offer a unique new service to citizens of the state. "'The average voter is the forgotten man in Olympia when the legislature is in session," said Mann. "If he is not affiliated with a lobbying group which pumps money into the political pipeline, he might as well spit his shout into the wind of a hurricane, as the saying goes. "'Share-The-Clout Associates will put the little guy on an equal footing with the big-money boys by pooling small amounts into one large bribe.'" Mann said his firm will publish a list containing every conceivable type of legislation which a citizen might be interested in seeing passed or defeated. A citizen can check off a box in front of the item he desires, pay Share-The-Clout any amount he wishes (with a minimum of 50 cents) and Mann and his associates take it from there. "'Using a computer, we put the money into its proper category, then see that it gets to the legislator or legislators who can do us the most good," Mann explained. "We might funnel it through a law firm, for instance, or we might come up with some new ideas for applying the clout." As an example of how effective his plan might be, Mann pointed out that if I00,000 citizens wanted the maximum interest rate on credit lowered to five percent and donated an average of two dollars apiece, Share-The-Clout would have $200,000 to get the job done. "That may not be the most impressive sum ever spent to buy a bill," he said, "but it is better than crying into your breast or beating your beer." Mann is excited about the prospects for Share-The-Clout. He claims it is not the money he will make that turns him on - the firm will deduct a small fee to cover expenses and a small estate in Palm Springs for the founder - but the impact his plan will have on government. "Here is a new concept in representative government," he said. "The average citizen, the celebrated man in the street, the little guy, will actually have a say in how his government is run. It boggles the mind. It will also narrow the gap between what the politician says when he is seeking election and how he performs during a session." By ROBERT C. CUMMINGS The item veto power which legislators succeeded in taking from Governor Dan Evans a few years ago has come back to haunt them. It now has them racking their brains to f'md a way to amend the state's gambling laws so that numerous modifications acceptable to the Governor won't be cast in the role of innocent bystanders because of other provisions which are objectionable to him. Their problem is that the original gambling law was enacted before adoption of the constitutional amendment which prohibits the chief executive from vetoing less than a complete section. Most of the sections in the original act are unusually lengthy. There is one section which covers more than five complete printed Mann has not as yet put a name to his new form of .... pages goverrmaent is .......... MIOir Nothing toward"deinocracy. As a result, the 1975 bill, "That's not a bad term," he said, "for a system that gives every citizen the clout of a labor leader, a corporation president, or a garbage hauler." II~gWlllll01NWHf~ HIHHHmHHHIIHHI Mack McGinnis' IIHHIHHIHHIHIIIHHIIIIWIIHHmHIIIIHHIIIUlIHHIIHHHIHHIIIIIIHI About that female Marine officer who was forced to resign for messing around with enlisted men, Barb Petrick comments, "The brass will probably accuse her of tampering with the males!" (Joe Browne in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) George Dinneweth tells about the highly rated young footballer who kept falling down in his first game without being touched. Afterwards, he apologized to the coach: "That's the way the rookie stumbles." (Mark Beltaire in Detroit Free Press) amending the original, necessarily contained as many as a dozen or more changes in a single section. The Governor was willing to go along with most of the amendments. But several of the lengthy sections contained at least one proposed change which he considered onerous. He had no choice but to let the entire section stand, or veto all of it. So he chose the latter course. Just like that old proverb, it was a case of "one bad apple spoiling the lot." Innocent Bystanders Innocent victims of the blanket vetoes were such respected organizations as PTA's, county agricultural fairs and other nonprofit organizations. They would have benefited from some of the more modest changes which, if offered alone, would I By TONA MEDINA Sometime early next year, in spite of widespread opposition, the first "behavior modification prison" is scheduled to open at Butner, North Carolina. The euphemism for this brainwashing factory, which will have a psychiatrist as warden, is the Federal Center for Correctional Research Behavior modification of prisoners - through drug therapy, electroshock treatment and other devices - has caused a lot of controversy this past year. But it seems as though the people that it most concerns have been silent about it - prisoners. From much debate with other concerned prisoners, ! think i can say why Butner is regarded with dark suspicions and even fear. Many of us in prison are aware of the heavy drug therapy that is routine for some inmates and we have to wonder what it will be like in a place like Butne[. Knowing that the techniques may be clothed in the respectability of psychiatry, we speculate that electroshock therapy and even psychosurgery brain operations may be used to alter our behavior. We worry about which of us will have to be among the first "volunteers" to apply for Butner. We also think about a possible double standard in regard to the center; will the Watergate type of prisoner have his behavior modified there? In short, prisoners believe that a brainwashing factory is a poor substitute for social justice. The term "brainwashing factory" is not mere hyperbole. Other opponents of the program --attorneys, psychiatrists, judges have used the identical term in this context Other fair-minded people are disturbed at the thought ot the government "modifying" the behavior of those il chooses lo imprison. Such a practice conjures up visions of "Clockwork Orange." One of those disturbed is Dr. Peter R. Breggin, head of the Center for the Study of Psychiatry in Washington. "This sort of research is aimed at keeping control in the prisons, not on helping the inmates get out," he says. "It's Communist style brainwashing under the guise of behavior modification." And in a recent decision on behavior modification, United States District Judge John W. Oliver said that the true purpose of the program was "not to develop behavior of an individual so that he would be able to conform his behavior to standards of society at large, but to make him a 'better' and 'more manageable' prisoner." Even back in the 19th century, when solitary confinement was the only method of prisoner behavior modification, Charles Dickens wrote: "I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body; and because its ghastly signs and tokens are not so palpable to the eye and sense of touch as scars upon the flesh, because its wounds are not upon the surface, and it extorts few cries that human ears can hear, therefore ! the more denounce it, as a secret punishment which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay." As for me, ! look on "behavior mod" in the same light George Jackson did when he said in "Soledad Brother:" "! can still smile sometimes, but by the time this thing is over I may not be a nice person. Mr. Medina is currently serving a 20-w'ar ) sentence in the Federal lenitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia,/or hank rohhery. Page 4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday. December 18, 1975 have been acceptable to Evans. The House Commerce Committee, under chairmanship of Frank Warnke (D-Auburn), following a careful study of the veto message, has spent the last couple of months carefully sifting the objectionable material out of the 1975 measure. Now taking shape is a bill for presentation to the 1976 Legislature which the committee hopes can escape the veto pen. Though the committee members haven't conferred personally with Evans, the committee has worked closely with Chi Doo (Skip) Lee, the Governor's legal aide. Just A Few Words In many cases, the job of "cleaning up" the bill has involved the deletion of just a few words from some of the lengthy sections. For instance, the phrase "games of chance" has been taken out of the section relating to "small-scale gambling," which would legalize bazaars and "carnival nights" occasionally staged by PTA's and other non-profit groups. In the section authorizing pools on baseball, football and scores of other athletic events, the ceiling on the price of chances has been cut from $10 to $1. The Lottery Issue Again Similarly, another slight change is expected to make a section palatable to the Governor which would permit drawings for merchandise prizes at agricultural fairs. The section is considered necessary due to an Attorney General's opinion which held that because the chances usually are given to patrons when they buy their admission tickets, the holding of a drawing constitutes a lottery. which was enacted as a legislative alternative to an initiative to the Legislature. Many of the proposed changes are "housekeeping" amendments. But some of the changes would speed things up a bit by shortening the time lag between the time the final order is filed and when the permit holder may start construction. There also is a proposal which put the burden of proof on the Department of Ecology in requests for reviews. Another amendment would require the Department of Ecology to notify local government when it believes a permit should be rescinded for noncompliance. The department may appeal to the Shoreline Hearing Board for rescission of the permit only if the noncompliance continues for 30 days and the local government entity has failed to take action in the meantime. Registration by Mail? A House Constitution and Election subcommittee is preparing another attempt to enact legislation to permit voter registration by mail.' Technical education in a technological age is worthless, according to one of America's most persistent advocates of liberal education. ....... -, ,, "The only education worth having in an age of rapid change is liberal education," said Robert M. Hutchins, President of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Santa Barbara, California. "The aim of American education in an age of rapid change should be to do what it can to help everybody gain complete possession of all his powers," the former President of the University of Chicago wrote in The Center Magazine. "It is now clear that the only thing we can do is what we ought to have been doing all along." He made clear he is calling for a liberal education for all, not just for an economic or intellectual elite. Hutchins said liberal education, instead of vocational or technical education, is more crucial today than when it was advocated 70 years ago by John Dewey. "The most obvious fact about society is that the more technological it is the more rapidly it will change," wrote Hutchins. "it follows that in an advanced technological society futility dogs the footsteps of those who try to prepare the child for any precise set of conditions. "Hence, the most impractical education is the one that looks most practical, and the one that is most practical in fact is the one that is commonly regarded as remote from As these drawings usually are offered by local merchants who reality, one dedicated to the comprehension of theory and are valued loyal supporters of the principles. fairs, sponsors of these annual"In the fairs are especially desirous of having the drawings legalized. Disclosure Changes Disclosed First changes in the public disclosure law enacted by Initiative 276 will be recommended to the 1976 Legislature by the House Constitution and Elections Committee. They have been requested by the Public Disclosure Commission, and are intended to simplify administration of the act. One of the major changes would give the Public Disclosure Commission enforcement powers. Currently the commission reports "apparent" violations to prosecutors, with the latter deciding whether an actual violation occurred. Not only does this result in lack of uniformity in enforcement, but in some cases violations fail to get attention because a prosecutor's staff is too busy with more serious cases. If granted the authority, the commission plans to levy nominal fines of $10 or so for late filing, but wants power to levy fines up to $1,000 for flagrant violations. Any fines levied would, of course, be subject to appeal to the courts. Shorelines, Too Another act scheduled for some changes next session is a spinoff of still another initiative, the shoreline management act, present state of technology, and even more "By golly, you're right! You CAN hear Bill Knowland and Chiang Kai-shek turning over in their graves!" Editor, The Journal: It seems everyone is very good at telling all the bad things about anything they can think of but never take time to tell the good things. Well, I recently spent about 2½ weeks in the Mason County General Hospital. I wish to say I have never been treated any better than I was nurses and doctors and staff were super. The the kitchen were also l had to start carefully as l did not solid foods for about two They really did their best r now In the early post-Hiroshima years, people lived with the knowledge that extermination of the speoes scientific possibility. They comforted themselves assumption that nuclear weapons were so horrible nation would dare to use them. Out of the debates of that period on the danger of atomic emerged a dominant theme; namely, that statesmen bluster and threaten, but they would never actually nuclear push buttons. The top military planner of the United States, has now made it plain that the unthinkable has thinkable. He may have been reflecting his apt other countries might press forward with disadvantageous to the United States if they believe too squeamish to use the bomb in any showdown. The other nuclear nations hold the same basic Their view of their security makes the human secondary to their national interest. All the nuclear including the Soviet Union, China, and France, are in the same patterns of reflexive thinking on the ultimate force. Atomic weapons are an essential part foreign policy and long-term strategy. Accordingly, attempt to convince one another they are prepared t0! the way in support of national objectives. We are forced back, therefore, to a consideration C realities that came into the world on August 6, 1945, destructive warfare became total. The first there is a basic conflict between national interpreted by the nations themselves, and the securityc human species as a whole. Originally, a nation's purpose was to protect people; in today's "protector" becomes the adversary. certainly in any future state thereof, the kind information that is central in American obsolescent, if not obsolete. "Now, the only possible adjustment tlaat we can child is that which arises through putting him in possession of all his powers." Hutchins said such a liberal education would neither training nor the imparting of information, but! use them in a different fashion. "The training would be in techniques the child need under any conditions, in any occupation, at any his life," Hutchins wrote. "Such techniques are language and mathematics, are implicated in everything we do. The information be such as to confirm, refute or illustrate the principles discussion." Denying he underestimates the need for competence, Hutchins said that where it is rec have to be obtained on the job, due to ra technological change. He called for a new definition of liberal "appropriate to the world we are now characterized by very rapid change, by vast stretches time, by the emergence of a world order and by the demand for wise citizens and good men." Using that definition, Hutchins said, an tried to assist the formation of the world community * seek to connect rather than divide men; it would seeg so by drawing out the elements of their common "It would be theoretical rather than practical, though men do different things, they can all understanding. "It would be general rather than specialized, though all men are not experts in the same subject, ought to grasp the same principles. "It would be liberal rather than vocational, though all men do not follow the same occu minds of all men should be set free." Stating his case for a liberal education for all, few, Hutchins wrote: "When we talk about liberal education today plagued by reminiscences and overtones of aristocracy and snobbery. It is assumed that insidiously undemocratic is afoot. "But I suggest that true democrats are those that everybody must be educated for freedOf anti-democrats are those who think there are two people, those who can be educated and those who trained, those who can become human beings and are, in Aristotle's phrase, 'natural slaves'." Hutchins is the author also of a new book, "The Society," in which he developed further the views in his article in The Center Magazine, Mailing Address: Box 430, Shelton, Wa. 98584 PtlOrle Published at 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, Mason Washington 98584, weekly. Second-class postage paid at Shelton, Washingtoq. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $6.00 per year in Mason in advance -- Outside Mason County $7.50 EDITOR AND PUBLISHER .....................