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K©MENCOMMENT
]OURNALEDITORIAL
Columnists like
Gay were few
and far between
There never was a newspaper colum-
nist quite like Henry Gay.
Oh, sure, we had plenty of colum-
nists back in the day.
We can remember reading Emmett
Watson, or Ross Cunningham, even Denny
McGougan when they were larger than life
in the P-I, the Times and
The News Tribune.
Those writers got your
attention in their daily
or weekly ruminations.
They wrote for the larg-
est newspapers in the
state. They were funny
or serious; they decried
and they preached. You
By JOHN had to read them if you
KOMEN wanted to know what
people were talking
about.
Watson, for example, had his "needle"
column in the now-defunct Seattle Post-In-
telligencer. You read Watson to see whether
your name was there and whether it was
mentioned in fun or needled with gentle
sarcasm.
Watson would jump from the P-I to The
Seattle Times, or back, when either the
mood or a better salary moved him. But he
was always readable. Watson was a hard-
of-hearing, rumpled piece of humanity who
in his latter days rambled about Seattle's
environs with a pet poodle.
There are those among us who will for-
ever remember, and miss, Watson.
Cunningham wrote on the editorial pages
for The Seattle Times. His was a lofty perch
from which he pontificated on state matters.
He was sorely vexed and insulted when
the leaders and politicians he wrote about
didn't do as he decreed. You didn't want to
get on the wrong side of Cunningham if you
served in Olympia.
McGougan wrote an "item" column for
The News Tribune when it was The Tacoma
News Tribune. Efforts to make the paper
seem less parochial removed "Tacoma" from
the paper's name plate. It was a move that
rankled many of its readers.
But, upset or not, they would get the pa-
per to read McGougan. He won great reader
popularity by regularly poking fun at the
big Metropolitan City to the north. He'd
sprinkle in a few scornful comments about
Seattle among the name-dropping local
items that filled his column.
For many years, McGoug~an provided the
only bit of color in the dull, drab Trib.
Let us not leave without mentioning
Jack Jarvis, Frank Lynch and Herb Robin-
son among columnists we would read and
either chortle with delight or grimace with
d i sagreement.
But there was only one Henry Gay. For
32 years, he served as owner, publisher
and editor of the Shelton-Mason County
Jou rnal. For many of those years, he wrote
a weekly column that was widely read for
its no-nonsense comment and opinion. He
didn't like Ronald Reagan and he heaped
scorn on Gov. Dixy Lee Ray. There were no
sacred cows in Gay's columns.
His readership went far beyond the
boundaries of Mason County. Gay's col-
umns were seen by hundreds of thousands
of readers, not just the 7,000 residents of
Sbelton and the county's 45,000. The Seattle
l' l carried his weekly column, and it was
syndicated in newspapers throughout the
Northwest.
One biographer said, "]'here has not been
anything in journalism quite like Henry
Gay's twenty-year reign against stupidity,
illogic and malice in public life in the Shel-
ton-Mason County dournal."
It wasn't just his colmnn that gained him
notoriety. Gay's no-holds-barred philosophy
of journalism meant you reported and printed
everything you felt the readers ought to know,
whether the readers wanted it or not. He ruf-
fled local feathers and got unwanted national
attention. The headline over a Gay biography
labeled him "The Scom'ge of Shelton."
It was Dec. 31,1998, Gay was 72 years
old, when he stepped down as editor and
publisher. There would be no more Henry
Gay columns. Three days later, stricken by
cancer, he died in Shelton.
• John Komen, who lives on Mason Lake,
was ]bt 40years a reporter and editor, TV
anchorman, national "1"¢ network correspon-
dent, producer, columnist, editorial writer
and commentator. His column, Komen
Comment, appears each wee~k in the Shelton-
M,,~'otl County Journal,
Shelton-Mason County
Let's take the first step to heal this holiday season
ast Friday's school past thai ihmily membe~ ~)r just lost what was most im- your family, find reason:
shooting in Newtown, friends could have identified portant to them -- their chil- to get together with them.
3onn., left an entireand prevented this tragedydren, grandchildren, nieces, Sometimes we take for grant-
country with more questions from taking place? nephews and friends, ed the people in our lives
than answers. It's on everybody's minds Mason County residents who are most important. The
Why did 20-year-old Adam and weighs heavily on their might not know exactly howfamilies who were affected by
Lanza fatally shoot 20 stu- hearts. It shocked a nation, to process what happened, this horrific crime won't get a
dents and six adults at San- as well as Mason County. It's like asking us to under- chance to.
dy Hook Elementary SchoolWe must never forget what stand the impossible. But we We can have a discus-
before killing himself?. What happened. We must mourn can heal. sion on gun control and try
could possibly motivate athose who died too early. This holiday season, tell to track down answers to
man to murder children and We must think about those your family members how this heinous shooting later.
school staff members? Were families who in this joyous much you love them. Instead Right now, we need each
there any red flags in Lanza's and festive holiday seasonof finding reasons to avoid other.
¢
:, i;
Is chamber
vote ,legit?
Journal Letter Policy
Editor, theJournalThe Shelton Mason County The Journal welcomes and encourages your letters to
ChamberofCommercemem- the editor. We will print signed, original letters of local
hers will be voting for the busi-
ness, citizen and volunteer of interest. We will not publish letters that are libelous
the year to be announced at the
chamber's annualawardsgala, or scurrilous in nature. Signed letters should provide
Will their vote really count
or has the chamber already contact and address information for the Journal.
decided who will receive an
award? pouring rain, they wander the been glad to come to school one Modesto, Calif., and killed
aisles of the store, or two days a month to defend children with a pitchfork. The
Judith Giroux These poor people obviously their child as an armed citizen? older children knew how to use
Sheltonhave severe problems. Could It has been said that public firearms, but the firearms were
perhaps one of these "lost" peo- schools are the least safe place locked so they could not defend
Letl~_~__k ple be the next one to perfbrm in America. A violent person their younger siblings, who
O0 another atrocious act? We need might think twice before do- died. I met a couple that knew
to look beyond ore" secure little ing a heinous deed if he or she that family.
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oeyono lives and consider these poor knew that he or she would be
The second thought that
people's safety and ours.killed in the process. In Miami came into my mind as I was
ourselves and other places, the crime praying for the families of the
Sally Holt Loomis rate went down when citizens children in Connecticut was
Union armed themselves, the deaths of all the children
Editor, the Journal ]]ae Boston Journal of the 2,000 years ago at the hands of
As 1 watch the incompre- ed staff Times in1768 reported that it King Herod. That terrible trag-
hensible TV reports of the Arm was prudent and legal that citi- edy occurred around Christmas
mass killings in Connecticut, zens "should provide themselves too. "Rachel weeping for her
I am beginning to realize that COL~d defend with arms tbr their defense." child because they are n°t'"
the mentally ill and disturbed The article quoted Mr. Black- Jesus said in Luke 22:36
people of our country do not sch OI stone (the writer whose words "... he that has no sword, let
have any or, at least, adequate O S have been studied by lawyers, him sell his garment and buy
medical care. I live in Union including Abraham Lincoln,one." If we heed his words,
and dlive into Shelton two or Editor, the Journal both here and abroad for centu- or if we have read Aristotle,
three times a week, usually • ]'w0 things have been m my ries) who explained that keep- Cicero, Livy, Rousseau and
in the morning, for errands, mind since the tragedy in Con- ing arms for our own defense countless other thinkers, we
etc. Every time I drive down- necticut. "is to be made use of when the would see the wisdom in our
town I see homeless people One, no one was armed or sanctions of society and law are Bill of Rights to "keep and bear
walking the streets carrying trained to defbnd against a found insufficient to restrain the arms." Can we learn to set the
then belongings. They are just vicious intruder 'fhore was violence of oppression." defense of our children?
walking, probably to avoid the no protection for the children. And gtms are not the issue.
authorities. I often shop at How many mothers and fa- Some years ago, a murderer Julie Moore
Safeway and when it is cold or thers of those kids would have broke into a farmhouse near Shelton
USPS 492-800
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason
County Journal, RO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584.
Published weekly by Shelton-Mason County Journal, Inc.
at 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, Washington
Mailing address: RO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584
Telephone (360) 426-4412 * www.masoncounty.com
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Owned and published by '
Shelton-Mason County Journal, Inc
Karl Sleight, publisher
Newsroom:
Adam Rudnick, editor
Natalie Johnson, reporter
Gordon Weeks, reporter
Emily Hanson, sports reporter
Advertising:
Dave Pierik, Sr. Acct. Executive
Maggie Burdick, ad representative
Front office:
Donna Kinnaird, bookkeeper
Renee Chaplin, circulation
Cricket Carter, mailroom
supervisor
Composing room:
William Adams, graphics
Pressroom:
Kelly Riordan, production manager
Travis Miller, press operator
Mary Northover, press assistant
Page A-4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012