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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
December 20, 2012     Shelton Mason County Journal
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December 20, 2012
 
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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. | | 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 Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, Washington Shelton-Mason County Journal is a member of Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $37 per year for Mason County addresses, $51 per year in state of Washington but outside Mason County, $61 per year out of state. 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