Letters to the Editor

Ivermectin thoughts

Editor, the Journal

After reading some letters to the editor criticizing the unvaccinated for not getting the experimental jab that apparently doesn’t work anyway, I wonder why ivermectin works so well in India? Their cases dropped like a rock when they started using it. Japan is now, why not use it here? Is there another agenda afoot? It will not kill you. It’s been on the market for years and besides that my wife and I would be dead now.

Ralph E. Aldrich

Shelton

Blame it on Biden

Editor, the Journal,

We’re nine months into the Joe Biden presidency; where does America stand? Biden said he’d get Americans out of Afghanistan; he didn’t. He left $85 billion of military equipment behind; these weapons now belong to the Taliban and will be used against us.

Dozens of ships at Los Angeles, Seattle and other ports are backed up, waiting to off-load cargo. Lack of port facilities and truckers is the cause as dozens of container ships await port facilities for 12 days. Biden blames corporate leadership; he wouldn’t know leadership if he tripped over it.

Biden canceled U.S. oil leases and then pleaded with the Middle East to increase oil exports as we approach $5 a gallon for gas.

Attorney general has weaponized the FBI to go after domestic terrorists, defined as parents protesting school boards in Virginia. Burn a federal building in Portland, Oregon, you won’t be charged. Yelling at a school board meeting in Virginia and you get arrested.

Biden allowed over 1 million unvaccinated illegals into our country; it’s estimated that over 16,000 illegals have been released from ICE custody with COVID-19. Biden’s using a small airport at Abilene, Texas, 180 miles west of Dallas, to send illegals all over the U.S. Millions of folks, including health care and police, might be fired all over the U.S. because of Biden’s vaccine mandate; yet unvaccinated illegals are OK. Mexican cartels now shoot at Texas National Guard brought in to protect the border Biden’s abandoned. Biden is arrogant and has utter contempt for the American people.

Quinnipiac University Polling shows Biden is no leader, not trustworthy and incompetent. Biden’s rating: Open border 23% approve, 67% disapprove; 50% of Democrats and 82% of independents disapprove his handling the border. Biden’s aiding and abetting illegal immigrants.

Only 44% believe Biden’s honest; 56% believe he’s not; 41% believe he’s a good leader and 56% says no; 49% believes he cares about people, 48% believes he doesn’t. His use of military, 37% approve; 58% disapprove. Foreign policy, 34% approve; 58% disapprove.

The Trafalgar Group poll says only 39% of Americans approve of Biden’s presidency; 56% disapprove. Biden’s $3.5 billion Build Back Better bill will bankrupt America; CNN says two-thirds of Americans oppose this bill. Inflation’s up over 6% in just nine months.

Gallup says Republicans better handle international crises than Democrats: 54% to 39%. Republicans better handle the economy by 50% to 41%. The public sees GOP is better for prosperity and security. America can’t afford Biden’s incompetence.

Run-away Joe gives a speech, then runs away taking no questions. Double-digit murders every weekend in many cities but Joe worries about vaccinations. We have a dishonest president who lies and a do-nothing vice president who giggles.

Ardean Anvik

Shelton

For shame

Editor, the Journal

For shame. Comparing a public health crisis response to the Holocaust is ludicrous. I hope Sandy Tarzwell’s quote in last week’s Journal was personal and not representative of the school board. Otherwise, I would have to be grateful I no longer have a child in the Shelton School District.

Judy Bidwell

Shelton

A vote for Joe

Editor, the Journal

Joe is a military veteran, gave his time and energy as a volunteer firefighter and is a constant leader for this community. Many times, I have watched him make quick and accurate decisions in complex situations. Therefore, I supported him three and a half years ago when he first ran for the Shelton City Council. He continues to have my support and I ask you to support him as well.

Thank you, Joe Schmit, for your continued passion to serve.

Bob Burbridge

Shelton

The public good

Editor, the Journal,

Regarding the statement made by Sandy Tarzwell, school board member: If she doesn’t believe that public good should triumph individual rights, does that allow her to drive 100 mph down Interstate 5, breeze through stop signs or disregard wearing a seatbelt?

Margaret and Chuck Chambers

Shelton

Tarzwell needs to read

Editor, the Journal,

Your front-page quote of Shelton School Board member, Ms. Sandy Tarzwell, commands a comment. Let me explain:

Last weekend, my wife and I attended a memorial celebration for the husband of a family friend who died from uncontrolled sepsis. He died because he needed specialized care that was not available in any hospital from Olympia to Seattle. That care was not available because all the units with the equipment and staff he needed were full. Full of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients who received treatment while our friends’ husband, fully vaccinated, died waiting for a bed that did not become available.

This tragedy needn’t have happened. It shouldn’t have happened. Had the equipment and space been available he would have made a full recovery. Ms. Tarzwell, however, apparently believes someone’s personal conviction is more important than a dying man’s needs.

If a citizen wants to play Russian roulette with his or her life, that’s their business. But you pays your money and you takes your chances. Forcing someone to forego life-saving medical care just because you want to make a point is not OK.

Finally, Ms. Tarzwell’s comparison of COVID and the Holocaust betrays an astounding ignorance of the Holocaust. Ms. Tarzwell needs to take a trip to one of her school libraries so she can read about Auschwitz, Dachau, Sobibor, Bergen-Belsen and dozens more. These were “camps” where millions of people were murdered after ghastly torture, disease and depravities beyond normal comprehension. To compare vaccines that save millions of lives with the Holocaust is an insult of the highest order.

Bob Dick

Shelton

Re-elect Schmit

Editor, the Journal,

I am giving my full support to Joe Schmit for his re-election to the Shelton City Council so he can continue serving its citizens.

The citizens of Shelton need the leadership of Joe Schmit.

Since his election, Joe has built a consensus among the members of the council. Joe serves the citizens of Shelton and assists in guiding Shelton forward.

So please join me and my friends in re-electing Joe Schmit.

Ross Gallagher

Shelton

What about kids?

Editor, the Journal

What a mess our world has become. With the blame games, fear factors, mandates and much more. As we see health care workers, law enforcement, firefighters and all those who have worked tirelessly from the beginning of this pandemic, only now are told they will take the vaccine or be let go, this is so wrong on many fronts. Those with natural immunity and those who carry the antibodies from having the virus are being told they must take the vaccine. This is against not only our Constitution, but our human rights.

Now, our children’s education is at stake. We see a superintendent who has the authority to make exceptions but has chosen not to. Why? We are not Seattle, (King County) we are Mason County strong, and we are against forced job losses. To Mr. Jessee, if you want support and financial support, you need to listen to the parents and the voters. Keep these teachers. Even when influenza has forced school closures, rarely, flu shots were voluntary. To all those who are threatened, contact the WA Civil Rights Council and ask for a copy of “Doctrine of Informed Consent.”

Irene Goldsby

Shelton

Vaccines and Nazis

Editor, the Journal,

I picked up the Journal today and the first thing I read was Sandy Tarzwell’s idiotic comparison of vaccine mandates to the Nazi extermination of 6 million Jews. I don’t know Tarzwell, whether she is ignorant, misinformed or simply repeating what others have said on the subject of vaccine mandates. I have no quarrel with her stand on vaccines. But I do object to this outrageous comparison of a public health-related issue to the evil, organized mass murder of 6 million Jews, plus a few additional millions of other human beings unwanted or hated by the Nazi hierarchy. I demand that she apologize to our Jewish neighbors and friends, and to the good people of our community.

Gary Gozart

Union

Unvaxxed defender

Editor, the Journal,

I just saw three hot items advertised on TV. First, we had a Tony Fauci prayer candle consisting of a 4-inch candle inside a glass cylinder with the image of our Patron Saint of COVID himself painted on it. Next, the word “vaccinated” was stamped out of gold sheet and strung on a gold necklace. Finally — sit down for this — we saw a Nativity set with all the human figures wearing ancient Arabic robes and … masks. Sigh.

Closer to home, and not at all as funny, we have a letter from Mr. Pieter Booth of Shelton (Oct. 14). He takes on all you unvaccinated folks, and though many have perfectly valid reasons for not getting jabbed, this rather aloof scold labels you all as selfish whiners. This, of course, is unfiltered nonsense.

To help Mr. Booth quickly spot these egocentric evildoers, maybe we should have a symbol worn by the unvaccinated such as the letter “U,” much like the red “A” worn by Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel. The letter would be the same size as the varsity ones seen on high school jackets and sweaters and surely as deserving of ridicule and scorn as Hester’s red “A.”

How about just branding the unvaxxed with a big “U?” Most readers have seen westerns and scenes of roundups with all the smoke and cattle wrestling. The problem is, cattle don’t wear clothes. Brand some guy on the rear, he puts his pants on, and poof — the brand is hidden. Bad idea.

I think the best stigma would be a 3-to-5-inch-high gold star made of cloth and sewn on the unvaxxed person’s jacket arm or left breast. Heck, you could see one of those filthy vermin a block away. Oops. Wait a sec. I think this was tried way back in the early 1940s in Europe, but it didn’t turn out so well. Definitely do not do this.

Mr. Booth, perhaps instead of heaping scorn on your fellow Americans faced with a personal medical decision, look outward and heap the scorn on our actual adversaries such as China, Russia, Iran, North Korea or any other bad guys.

Remember, Joe Biden will be no help at all. He can’t heap anything on anybody, unless it’s more ineptitude.

Robert E. Graham

Union

‘Selfish’ anti-vaxxers

Editor, the Journal,

Calling every person who does not get the COVID vaccine “selfish” is as stupid as teaching children that everyone born white are supremacists and everyone born black or brown is oppressed. Critical race theory, coming to a school near you.

My family and I are all vaccinated, I support and encourage vaccinations. It can mean the difference between living or dying of COVID, and yes, writer, you can infect another if you are vaccinated and catch COVID. I personally know people who caught COVID after fully vaccinated, one fully vaccinated family infecting each other, the father dying. Truth be told, the unvaccinated are usually more cautious to prevent their infection or spread than the vaccinated falsely confident and possibly contagious.

I believe the reason we don’t have a better vaccination percentage is due to (1) Political pandering: From the lies of the World Health Organization to Trump derangement syndrome, politics has and continues to muddy the COVID waters. Before the election, Kamala Harris stated, “If Donald Trump tells us that we should take it, I’m not taking it.” This sentiment echoed by the president-elect, liberal media and politicians and opinionated writers. Conservatives are pro-vaccine, but anti-dictatorship; choice, not mandate.

(2) Confusing “scientific” messaging: pros, cons, do’s, don’ts, yes, no’s, risks, nonrisks, to mask, unmask, double mask, 3 feet, 6 feet. Some people cannot get a vaccination. Extremely allergic people, people with some forms of autoimmune disease, people with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. These are not selfish people. To the writer mentioning the story of the dog sled to Nome carrying diphtheria serum, with all due respect, you cannot compare a healthy person concerned about taking an unknown vaccine into their body with that of dying children taking a trusted serum. I assure you, anyone dying of COVID, vaccinated or not, will take whatever “serum” works with no argument, politics be damned.

(3) Dictatorship methodology inconsistent with American freedoms: I seem to remember the mantra vocalized by the left; “My body my choice.” Remember that? I guess that only applies to killing unborn children. Biden recently initiated his incredibly cruel federal mandate, of which Congress and Postal workers are exempt, to fire any unvaxxed employee with no exceptions and no unemployment from their civilian and military jobs. At the same time, his VP Harris was across the country preaching that government should have no part in our personal life and choices regarding our health, (referring to abortion). Oh, the hypocrisy of it all.

Our economy already decimated by continued unneeded government unemployment “dole” when businesses are open, but struggling for lack of workers, President Biden’s federal vaccination mandate will cause skyrocketing crime, death and hunger with only a skeleton crew of police, firefighters, 911 dispatchers, hospital personnel, dock workers and families with no source of income. Forcing vaccine mandates for Americans when he opened the border nine months ago to a continuous flow of unvaccinated, many contagious, foreigners bused and flown to all parts of our country? Unconscionable.

Katie Groves

Shelton

Yes on Schmit

Editor, the Journal,

I’m writing in support of Joe Schmit for City Council Position 6. Joe is a family man and a forward thinker who loves this city and the people in it. I have the utmost respect for him and what he does for this community.

Joe is always looking for ways to help and support the City of Shelton. Although he wasn’t born in Shelton, he has laid his roots in the heart of the city and is a true Sheltonian who will do anything to help Shelton reach its potential.

As a current member of the City Council, his values and motives shine through every day.

Joe Schmit has my vote for City Council Position No. 6.

Leanne Gunter

Shelton

School board talk

Editor, the Journal,

Re: Shelton-Mason County Journal, Oct. 14, 2021, “Deadline Monday for school employee vaccinations”

In this article, Shelton School Board members Sandy Tarzwell and Marty Best managed to capture this reader’s attention with their far-right talking points. Now we know where they stand on vaccines.

If they keep talking in public meetings, we may learn a lot more about which other far-right talking points they endorse and what measures they are willing to take to promulgate their personal agendas.

But really wasn’t that just a bit extreme comparing COVID public health measures to Hitler’s extermination of the Jews? Shelton teachers likely just shook their heads as they learned of the remarks made by the two school board members.

SSD Board members, you now have our attention. It’s obvious that you have a personal agenda that isn’t in the best interest of the community’s public health.

Brenda Hirschi

Shelton

Turn lights on

Editor, the Journal,

Dusk, dawn, rainy, foggy, if your lights are not used, you are at risk, especially being seen from behind.

A lot of cars have their front head lamps turned on upon starting the car, but tail lights do not come on until you turn them on.

My idea is for all automakers to have headlights and tail lights come on each time you start your car. I am shocked that our State Patrol, police department or insurance companies have not suggested that all exterior lights on your car to be turned on every time you leave your driveway.

Accidents happen due to neglect. Stay safe.

Gordon Keller

Union

Schmit is it

Editor, the Journal,

This summer I had the pleasure of meeting City Council member Joe Schmit. I threw a million questions at him: Questions about housing, utility costs, community, improvements the council has made since its inception, why he deserves to be re-elected. I was surprised by his enthusiasm for public service, and the fact he’s been a public servant his entire life. I was pleased to hear his ideas for making public utilities and housing more affordable in Shelton. But more than that, I was relieved to hear that he’s not interested in being a council member for personal gain. He serves Shelton. He works to better all of our lives. He doesn’t make rash decisions, but listens to all sides. We need someone to hear us and stand up for Shelton. If you’re looking for a true representative on the Shelton City Council, Joe Schmit is it.

Heather Lucas

Shelton

I support Schmit

Editor, the Journal,

I am trying to direct more of my attention to local matters. The interesting race is in the City of Shelton. Here we find a contest between Joe Schmit and Tyler Elliot. I have read the debate published in the Journal and seen Mr. Elliot’s YouTube videos. They provide the basis for my support for Mr. Schmit.

The issue that comes up in this race was the recent effort to create a 400-unit low-income housing development in the City. The explanations for the failure of the project seem contrived. Suddenly, there was a wellspring of support for environmental concerns from unusual quarters. The loudest voices were from NIMBY’s who simply did not want the riffraff anywhere near them. Given that the median income in Mason County is well below the state’s, there is a good possibility that the riffraff is most of us. I suspect that if the proposed project enhanced their property values by the requisite amount, they would have torn the trees out with their bare hands. Mr. Elliot seems of this persuasion.

I give credit to Mr. Schmit for showing foresight. Anyone can disagree on the merits of any project. Mr. Schmit seems the only candidate who is willing to show the need for foresight in a changing environment. What I get from Mr. Elliot is that he simply wants it all to stay the same.

Mr. Elliot doesn’t want the area to see the same ills created by urban sprawl. Yet, his thesis is the one the guarantees just that. The reason people are talking about the need for affordable housing in Shelton is that without it, you will get the exact same problems as Seattle. The result is not in ideology. It is in capitalism. If you have an area where more people want to live, and you don’t expand the housing stock to accommodate it, you will have a housing problem. Trying to artificially maintain a status quo is not capitalism. It’s trying to create a planned economy on a local level. Besides, the ills are already here and there is no positive proposal coming from Mr. Elliot to solve it.

Major metropolitan areas have the same patterns regardless of which party runs the place. Seattle has the problems it does because that city gained 100,000 people in 10 years. This is 1.5 times Mason County’s population. That’s just Seattle, not the rest of King County. The population pressure is forcing growth farther from its center. You can see this happening if you drive north on state Route 3 in Belfair. It is coming here. We know one place we don’t want to accommodate that growth. I give credit to Mr. Schmit for trying to grapple with that in the face of affluent opposition.

Mr. Schmit also grapples with the reality that preventing urban sprawl would require building in urban areas. Hello, the last time I looked, Shelton was the urban area of Mason County. Avoiding the economic and growth trends in Shelton and acting like it won’t come here is wishful thinking. It has not worked anywhere else, so I can’t imagine why Shelton would be the first place it does work.

But Mr. Elliot’s focus seems on maintaining a status quo. Let me ask you. Where do your kids go after they graduate high school? Do they stay here? Or is Shelton a nice place to be from? That is what I see in Mr. Elliot’s thinking. It is not what I see in Mr. Schmit’s. Thus, my recommendation.

Andy Makar

Hoodsport

One nation, divided

Editor, the Journal,

We will be forever divided. Let me give you a few examples.

Let’s start with the border. I have been to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and several times to Mexico. Why are we having so many illegal immigrants crossing our borders? Several nations, including Brazil, would be a better choice, but there is nowhere like the USA. Your letter writer, as the typical leftist wants, expects others to pay the costs. I would like his address. I am sure that you can take care of a family of four if he has any compassion. They can eat from your fridge, live in your house, and make sure that they will not be a drain from our middle class or poor by any form of welfare. Blame colonialization all you want, but time to grow up. Stunned that he didn’t mention racism as the far left usually does.

Months ago, we had a letter titled “Traitor.” U.S. Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Jerrold Nadler, if anyone, should be tried for being a traitor for pushing a known falsehood of foreign collusion on an elected president. Did our military genius mention the death penalty? I too have taken the oath to protect this nation from all threats.

Last but not least, the left has slaughtered millions of unborn babies with “my body my choice.” If you are so worried about COVID please double-mask, wear a face shield and glove up. Comparing diphtheria and Nome to COVID is moronic. Good luck kicking and who are the sheeple and idiots? Please stay home and hide or diaper up as you can still catch COVID after being vaccinated. As one writer, a supposed scientist which didn’t say what he was a scientist of, wrote how can anyone be so selfish? Maybe scientific or diagnosed medical reasons? Maybe none of your business.

Jim Marquart

Shelton

Tarzwell’s comment insulting

Editor, the Journal,

The large print quote in the Journal on the front page last week does not deserve the place of prominence that it was given. Further, the statement by Sandy Tarzwell, Shelton School board member, is reckless and irresponsible.

Comparing the vaccine mandate to the extermination of 6 million Jews by the Germans during World War II is a serious, serious distortion and has no basis in fact. It has long been the role of the United States of America, state and local governments to ensure public health and safety.

I have been to the Memorial and Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. I have spoken to survivors of Nazi horrors. It is insulting that anyone, much less a school board member, would liken the vaccine mandate intended to protect our population to the killing machines of the Nazis. The purpose of the Nazi regime was to annihilate Jews, Catholics, mentally and physically challenged people, and other specific groups.

The purpose of the COVID-19 vaccine is to slow or stop a deadly disease. It is not focused on protecting only one group of people, but people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds. The purpose of a mandatory vaccine is to protect the public health of the populace, just like the polio vaccine and other vaccines have done.

A United States Supreme Court case, Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11, decided in 1905, upheld states’ rights to mandate vaccination (against smallpox in this case). “The police power of a state embraces such reasonable regulations relating to matters completely within its territory … as will protect the public health and safety … It is within the police power of a state to enact a compulsory vaccination law …” (Id. 11)

See also, Mandatory Vaccinations: Precedent and current laws Jared P. Cole Legislative Attorney Kathleen S. Swendiman Legislative Attorney May 21, 2014, Congressional Research Service 7-5700 http://www.crs.gov RS21414.

This letter is by no means a full legal briefing on the topic.

Suffice it to say, former President Donald Trump when he issued the directive to conduct what he called “Operation Warp Speed” to hasten the development of a vaccine and President Joe Biden who encouraged immunization of the public had public health in mind for all persons, not limited along political or other lines.

Scientists have been working for over 20 years on the creation of a vaccine against coronaviruses in general. This immediate crisis saw additional funding in the U.S. with similar efforts across the world. As a result, we have been able to see extensive progress in the development and utilization of a vaccine for this specific coronavirus.

In closing, a vaccine mandate does not compare or come anywhere close to the horrors of Nazi Germany. The quoted statement was, again, reckless, and irresponsible.

Victoria Meadows

Shelton

A vote for Joe

Editor, the Journal,

Committed, compassionate and dedicated leadership.

There are three main reasons why Joe Schmit should continue to serve our community as a Shelton city council member.

Joe is committed. As a city resident, he has shown that he wants to positively contribute to his neighborhood and the City of Shelton. He is motivated to make our community a better place for his family and all people to prosper.

Joe is a dedicated leader. A lot of time is required to understand the many different issues the city council must make decisions about. Furthermore, as a representative of the city with the Economic Development Council and Macecom (911) boards, he adds value to how we manage the growth here. Shotgunning social media criticisms is not how Joe leads. Instead, Joe studies to develop plans to positively move the community forward.

Joe is compassionate. He values different perspectives and does not demean other people. The homelessness, mental health and substance abuse issues many people in our community are facing do not just sprout up out of the sidewalk. The roots beneath the surface, as Joe has identified, originate with the lack of affordable housing.

Shelton and our community benefit from the committed, dedicated and compassionate leadership that Joe provides.

Jim Morrell

Shelton

‘We’ are the people

Editor, the Journal,

Possibly the part which bothers me the most regarding President Joe Biden’s statement regarding the COVID-19 proposal mandating inoculations is the “we” part, as in "We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin ...” It smacks of Queen Elizabeth’s admonishment to a Sir Walter Raleigh’s faux pas, to whit, “We are not amused” — the use of the royal “we”: the implication being we are the aristocracy. We are the monarchy! Asserting the atavistic belief that God himself appointed all rulers and the entire gang of aristocrats and national leaders to their position of magisterial power: “Do not jest with me, the Queen of All England and etc., Sir Walt!”

Our nation was founded upon the successful repudiation of monarchal rule. We have abandoned the aristocracy — perhaps.

Our nation’s beef with England included our enlightened belief that “We The People ...” not “You the Aristocracy” have the right to rule this nation.

Mr. Biden’s royal “we” preface to his mandates for vaccination in our fight against the COVID pandemic alarms me as it implies the United States is drifting toward a monarchical rule. I’m alarmed at legislation, edicts and mandates emanating from our elected officials that become law with little or no input from the citizenry. We’re losing our voice — and with it our traditional hope that “government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this earth.”

Let “we the people” resist the processes of becoming an aristocratic monarchy wherein we are ruled by the self-selected enlightened ones: the wealthy, famous and politically connected.

Let us never surrender our freedoms.

James Poirson

Shelton

Camel fleas

Editor, the Journal,

Things that made my head explode this week while reading the Oct. 14 edition of the Shelton-Mason County Journal:

“I don’t necessarily believe that public good should triumph over individual rights.” Sandy Tarzwell, member Shelton School Board.

“... the governor does not have the authority under RCW 3852 to mandate vaccines for adults, vaccines are only for children.” Marty Best, member Shelton School Board.

Apparently, the brain trust of this board will receive some new blood after the next election when three unopposed members will be added to a board already deficient in common sense.

These are dark times, and the folks in charge of educating our children are more interested in protecting an individual’s “right” to infect at will, than an individual’s responsibility to get vaccinated to protect the folks traveling this highway with us.

Rights and responsibilities.

Some folks want all of the rights but none of the responsibilities of living in a civilized society, in a civilized country, in the year 2021.

I have a special curse I like to save for folks I really hope have an uncomfortable life experience, and it goes like this: “May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your nether region, and may your arms be too short to scratch.”

Sandy, Marty, I am looking at you.

John R. Price

Shelton

Best ballot protest

Editor, the Journal,

Thank you to the Journal for the reporting of School Board remarks around vaccination and masking. The School Board has clout and power in how and what our children learn. This defiance of science in a county already suffering low vaccination rates and at least one school, Pioneer, closed because of COVID-19 infection is reckless.

The remarks made by S. Tarzwell and M. Best are incredible, not supported by scientific data or history, and they are dangerous.

Tarzwell trivializes the Holocaust. Since when is safety first (for children) the same as murder? The murder of 6 million humans? Whether the efforts by President Joe Biden and Gov. Jay Inslee are effective or not — it is their intention to save lives “for the public good.” As a registered nurse, I land on the side of medical science and have no doubt these efforts do save lives.

Marty Best is running unopposed to retain his seat on the board, which in view of his irresponsible remarks is a threat to our kids and our county. Since when do we consider black-listing, destroying the lives of Americans exercising their right to political ideas (and using our political institutions to do so) as Sen. Joe McCarthy did, the same as providing a safe environment for kids, staff and teachers? It is illogical to compare McCarthy’s misguided, amoral hearings to the uncontested scientific majority using tried and true methods to save lives?

I’m writing my name in as an opponent to Marty Best and invite others to do so in protest.

Constance Simpson

Shelton

More Joe

Editor, the Journal,

I write this letter in support of Joe Schmit for the position of Shelton City Council. I have known Joe since he became a resident the Shelton community. What impressed me most about Joe is how he immediately met people throughout the community and became an involved citizen. I believe that he has the total community’s best interests in mind while representing the citizens of Shelton.

I was fortunate enough to have a conversation with him recently about the future growth of Shelton and the surrounding area. Whether we want growth or not, it is going to happen. The question is, do we want it to “just happen” or do we want to be proactive and manage the growth that coincides with the wants and needs of the community members? I believe that after much thought and communication with his constituents, Joe will use feedback to form a proactive vision that will benefit the community as a whole.

Please join me in supporting Joe for Shelton city council.

Don Welander

Shelton

Nazi comment placement

Editor, the Journal,

I hope this was meant as a rebuke to the elected official who made that statement concerning Germans and the extermination of the Jews, not as someone to be lauded. To begin, people of German nationality, as well as many other European peoples, were made to do horrendous things under the Nazi domination. You clarify it was the Nazis in the article below. Equating murder to the elimination of disease is quite another thing. We have been saving untold numbers of lives for a very long time now with vaccines, and it just scares me to think that so many these days don’t seem to know or care about this. It should never have needed to come to a mandate if people would just think about their families and neighbors and do what’s necessary. I don’t think by placing this at the top of the paper you are doing your community a favor.

Bruce Whaley

Olympia

Vote ‘no’ on fire levy

Editor, the Journal,

In 53 years of voting, I have only once voted against a fire district levy. That “no” vote was for the last levy run by Mason County Fire District 6. I plan to vote against the levy lid increase currently proposed. The state of Washington has a 1% tax levy lid to save voters from being gouged by local taxes. Voters approved that maximum lid for MCFD6. Chief Clint Volk complained to the Mason County commissioners that that was not enough money to run our 10-square-mile fire district even though it was already the second highest rate in the county, so now we get to vote to give them still more money. First, Volk asked the Assessor’s Office why our assessed property values here in Union aren’t high enough to bring in as much money as other local districts using the same taxing formula. His solution is to ask that our properties be reassessed at a higher rate to bring in more money and that we vote for additional taxes above the state levy maximum. For what do they need the money? To hire an additional two full-time employees? They are certainly not overworked as they claim. There is now a chief, an assistant chief (hired this year) a captain and a lieutenant who are also furnished vehicles by the department. A lot of administration for 233 days of actual calls. Yes, I know they train, too. Not the point.

Citizens have asked multiple times for MCFD6 to actually tell us what they do, as in posting on their Facebook page what the month-to-month callouts are. They have never complied, so I did my own research and received the MACECOM callout log for MCFD6 for 8/2019-8/2020. What stands out to me is that on 132 days during that period there were no callouts at all. Of the 320 or so listed callouts on the remaining days, 10% of them are “service” calls … like changing the batteries in a smoke alarm or shutting off your water main. There are callouts for “chest pain and difficulty breathing,” some “unknown sicknesses” and “falls,” “fainting” and heart attacks. What the public needs to know is MCFD 6 does not and cannot provide advanced life support services, which means if any of these events are truly life threatening, another fire department has to come and transport us to the hospital. For the injections and oxygen support the MCFD6 staff can do, it seems to me an aid car would be sufficient. They can help you get up if you fall in your bathtub and transport you if you have a broken leg. Instead, commissioners approved the purchase of a 2021 state of the art ambulance for a cost of over a quarter of a million dollars, $257,000 to be exact. By the way, those services are provided under the EMS (emergency services levy) we have already approved. Instead of lobbying the assessor to raise our taxes or asking us to raise our lid assessment to the highest in the county, they ought to be looking at reasonable ways to spend our tax dollars. While they have nearly $1 million in their expense account, (source: Mason County auditor) they still chose to purchase this vehicle on credit. And still ask us for more. So, all these expensive supervisors can actually have some people to supervise? Vote “no” on MCFD 6 levy lid request.

Andrea Love

Union