Letters to the Editor

EDITOR'S NOTE

The Journal will begin publishing letters supporting or opposing candidates in the 2022 primary election in early June, approximately eight weeks prior to the August primary.

Voter registrations

Editor, the Journal,

I am the County Election superintendent and I would like to respond to the letters to the editor in the May 5 edition. My staff received phone calls from voters who experienced a visit from canvassers. One voter was under the impression that election staff was going door to door to check on whether people were legally registered to vote, they were concerned. Another voter just wanted to inform us about their encounter. I don't know how the canvassers are identifying themselves, but there appeared to be some concern.

In reference to address concerns, there is a process in law to challenge a voter's registration. RCW 29A.08 describes the process. Mason County has not received a properly filed voter challenge in years.

Voter registration records are updated when a notification of a change occurs. Notification can be from the voter, U.S. Postal Service, Vital Statistics, Department of Licensing, the Office of the Secretary of State, etc. When a notification is received, the voter record is updated and a proper notice is sent (RCW 29A.08.030) to the voter. Proper notices for specific circumstances are sent to attempt to acquire the required information to ensure the voter's ballot will be based on their residential address and/or sent to their specified mailing address. We work hard to keep the voter rolls up to date but are not able to make changes without proper notification.

In the next few weeks, we will be mailing a new voter registration card to every registered voter in Mason County with return service requested. We will get a notice from the U.S. Postal Service for any voter that may have moved or for other undeliverable reasons, this will help us keep our voter records up to date.

We will continue to work to keep the voter rolls as up to date as we possibly can while protecting every voter's right to vote. We cannot legally cancel a voter's registration based on anonymous third-hand information. As the County Election superintendent, I invite any person who has questions or concerns about voter registration or the voting process to contact me directly at (360) 427-9670 ext. 469 or [email protected], I would be happy to help clear up any misinformation.

Marie Stevenson Mason County Election Superintendent

Sadness, gladness

Editor, the Journal,

The sad, the happy, one week apart.

As I opened the Journal on May 12 and saw the passing of Mark Woytowich, my heart skipped a beat. I did not know him, and I did not spend time doing the outdoors traveling like he did, but I never failed to read his columns each week. As he wrote each one he made me feel like I was there experiencing everything. Without his weekly stories, the Journal will not be the same. I send his wife, Linda, a hug full of caring and special love. I "met" her in his last column he wrote, with her in it.

One week after Mark's passing, a happy time. People received an invitation from the North Mason Regional fire department for an open house and tour, refreshments, program and ribbon cutting. It was for the opening of the 21,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art fire station. Chief Beau Bakken was very grateful and emotional as he acknowledged every person in the audience who had a part in the past seven years of making the dream for North Mason come true. Mark Woytowich was one of the people to be acknowledged and thanked, for what he had done.

In the past seven years of many ups and downs, Chief Bakken was advised by many, "Don't give up." There will never be another station like we are privileged to have here in North Mason County.

If you have ever called 911 or not, be thankful for the people who put their lives on the line every time they leave the station, and they are all special and deserve this new state-of-the-art facility. From Chief Bakken, Assistant Chief Scott Cooper, all the officers, and women in the offices are a caring group.

Lois Gibbons, Belfair

Voting questions

Editor, the Journal,

I have a question. It seems to me that we constantly have laws passed that are not a vote of the people.

Last year, we had a letter stating that the vote we cast is only an opinion vote, and that the law was the law.

My question is what happened to the vote of the people and by the people? Why are we stuck with the primaries? Why can't we vote for who we want?

Dorothy Olson, Elma

Response to response

Editor, the Journal,

The League of Women Voters of Mason County's response to my letter is incomplete and as usual, self-serving. The LWV caused the controversy by not being honest about their speaker, who is a candidate by her own announcement and every other measure short of next week's official filings. The LWV had to know this as their members are heavily involved in Democratic Party news. Again, the fact this was not disclosed shows very poorly on the candidate and LWV. The LWV letter also is careful not to be honest that the organization not only studies issues but takes positions and actively advocates for initiatives/referendums during elections and other legislation. This advocacy puts the organization clearly in one political party's camp, whether the LWV admits to it or not. To the LWV and the candidate: Just be honest.

Bob (Robert Gay) Rogers, Shelton

Is this America?

Editor, the Journal,

Children in America ... Most of us have heard of the recent discovery of deaths of Indigenous children at Canadian boarding schools. A review of conditions in such schools operated by the U.S. federal government has begun. The New York Times on May 11 reported, "The initial investigation found that 'approximately 19 federal Indian boarding schools accounted for over 500 American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian child deaths.' " That number is expected to grow, the report said. Remember, children were taken forcibly from their families by the U.S. government and put into such schools.

Some might say, "But that was in the past." Yes, but the schools were operated until 1969. Yes, but consider the words of Matthew Walther, editor of The Lamp, a Catholic literary journal written this month in The New York Times: "No matter what we do, in a post-Roe world many children who would not otherwise have been born will live lives of utter misery, and many of our fellow Americans will be indifferent to their plight." Is this the America we claim? America the beautiful? America ... great? Children living lives of "utter misery?" Why? Because of dogmatic religious fervor? Certainly not because the majority of Americans are opposed to abortion.

Marilyn Vogler, Shelton

A sacred sensation

Editor, the Journal,

In response to murder, execution. There are myriad reasons to oppose the death penalty. Knowing anything of substance about the death penalty, appeals process and the prison system would be a helpful starting point. It was soon obvious your letter was more about abortion which is likely another issue you do not fully understand since six-month pregnancies are not being given the death penalty.

I am a lifelong Catholic and though I try, not as liberal as Jesus. For nine years I was on the Steering Committee for the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. I volunteered at two prisons over eight years. During this time, I was engaged to a police officer who was killed on duty. The only solace I had was that my beliefs against the death penalty felt so deep that they held me up. My wound was as deep and terrible as every person who lost someone they loved. Instantly I understood that such love and pain was sacred.

There are many people who have lost loved ones and oppose the death penalty. Many crimes are senseless and murder is not immune to that. Most people who have lost someone to violence would choose to reduce violent crime over seeking capital punishment. 

Capital punishment is far more costly than life without parole. Many counties could not afford it. Many death penalty convictions were commuted over errors during appeals. In the U.S., 187 people have been exonerated. If you look at other countries practicing the death penalty it is a telling list, including China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt. No other western nation practices capital punishment.

Our tax dollars should serve purpose, not vengeance. Money invested in programs that provide therapeutic care to abused and neglected children, provide parenting classes, anger management, drug treatment and a robust mental health system would reduce violent crime. Most politicians understand that but it does not make headlines or provide sound bites. I believe some support of the death penalty is misguided support for victims. 

The real work to improve our communities is hard, usually unseen and takes time, patience and compassion. If you are truly concerned about abortion, support women and children. Advocate for affordable child care and housing, maternal health, paid disability and maternity leave, and all the things that are real barriers for women bringing children into the world. Some women cannot afford to even be pregnant. 

I have had friends and coworkers who were on bed rest for weeks during pregnancy, hospitalized for dehydration or pre-eclampsia or had to deal with gestational diabetes. You cannot face these conditions without meaningful financial assistance and support. All of these women I knew had support including good health care and benefits so they were able to keep their jobs and have their babies. Only two already had a child but it is important to remember many mothers need practical support during pregnancy. Adoption is not a practical solution to every pregnancy. 

You can also do your best to inform yourself on the realities of domestic violence, sexual coercion and rape. It is hard to communicate the despair and powerlessness one feels in those experiences, but stripping a woman of the most profound choice over her body would be another violation. 

Women do not need to be made powerless by their government. We need empowerment. 

Jeanette Howard, Shelton

Taxpayers take hit

Editor, the Journal,

In response to Ms. Staley's recent letters to the editor, I would like to provide an example of the benefits and privilege for the rich right here in Mason County.

Earlier this year, the Board of County Commissioners approved an update to the Belfair Urban Growth Area, adding undeveloped land. The majority of added undeveloped land belonged to one wealthy landowner, making it possible for the construction of approximately 2,000 housing units.

Part of the consideration for adding this land to the urban growth area was how to handle the additional infrastructure required for the increased housing and who would pay for it. These upgrades would include things like roads and sewer, as well as various other necessary infrastructure improvements.

Most cities and even counties charge impact fees for each unit built to help defray the costs for the increased traffic. Impact fees for just the transportation mitigation range from $3,736 in Shelton per unit to $4,976 in Port Orchard and $4,300 in Kitsap County.

Mason County staff presented to the commissioners alternative traffic improvement costs ranging from $13 to $18 million. The staff recommended the commissioners approve a transportation mitigation impact fee to cover the full amount of the recommended alternative, roughly $5,000.

Unfortunately, our county commissioners unanimously voted to assess a transportation impact fee of $1,000.

Basically, what this means is that the county coffers will receive about $2 million of the $13 to $18 million needed to make Belfair traffic less frustrating.

The citizens of Mason County are on the hook for the balance, leaving you, as county taxpayers, to pay millions of dollars to cover the shortfall. Because the developer doesn't have to pay his fair share, those millions will end up being additional profit to the developer/landowner. Heaven knows even without the additional 2,000 units, Belfair traffic is frustrating at best right now.

Bottom line: Landowners and developers get a sweet deal and taxpayers pick up the tab.

Brenda Hirschi, Shelton

A major leak

Editor, the Journal,

I think most normal Americans have concluded that, along with the garbage, we should also drag to the curb the entire Biden Administration. This week's load was especially bad.

Here we were, minding our own business, when bam!, some highly partisan fanatic working at the Supreme Court leaked a rough draft written by Associate Justice Samuel Alito to Politico, a multimedia journalism outfit that you can find online.

The draft was a proposed decision by the court to transfer the provisions of Roe v. Wade (which allows abortions) to the states. Hey libs, even the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg thought this was the proper way to deal with Roe. Anyone who has read or even heard of the Tenth Amendment to our Constitution knows this should have always been the law.

Democrats have long ago decided that abortion is the political hill they are willing to die on, and with this leak (long and carefully planned, I'm sure,) they are willing to do just that. With wanton disregard for the law, (2020 election, anyone?) they have:

1. Quickly gathered a screeching mob of protesters outside the Supreme Court building which was childish and annoying, but legit.

2. Used the internet to dox justices presumed to be sympathetic to the new ruling; it was reported that some left-wing groups offered stipends to protesters, but gatherings in front of private residences are specifically not legit.

3. Cheered on the unknown leaker as a hero to the left; many, however, (including yours truly) have a strong suspicion as to the identity of this piece of human debris. If found out, the creep will likely be disbarred and hopefully sentenced to long prison time.

4. Abetted this most egregious breach of confidentiality at one of this country's greatest institutions, but couldn't care less.

The Democratic Party, certainly as recently imagined, no longer exists in the United States. We can now clearly see - and hear - what it has become.

Robert E. Graham, Union

Mom and baby

Editor, the Journal,

Someone released confidential information from the Supreme Court to the press. Because of this disclosed information, pro-abortionists picketed outside homes of Supreme Court justices believed to approve overturning Roe v. Wade.

On Mother's Day, pro-abortion activists protested at Catholic churches nationwide. St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York received bomb threats. One Molotov cocktail firebomb was thrown at a pro-life organizational office. BLM, antifa and current protests show that violence is a weapon in the Democrats' toolbox. Will Democratic leaders be as critical of these left-wing mobs threatening the lives and homes of these justices, their families, priests and church-goers as they are of the Jan. 6 rioters? Not likely.

The left demands tolerance that is evidently a one-way street. Democrats promote abortion emotionally and violently because they have no arguments promoting abortion logically and scientifically:

My body, my choice is a lie. There are two bodies involved, mom and baby.

My body, my choice is a lie. Left-wing governors required vaccinations or get fired from government jobs during COVID. Choice was not an option then; it can't be an option now.

Abortions are unavailable. A lie. The unborn can still be killed in various states.

Settled Law is not settled as Plessey v. Ferguson Separate but Equal education (1893-1954) being overturned by Brown v. Board of Education proved. Roe v. Wade is not settled law.

Different states will have different abortion requirements. True. They also have different taxes, different sentences for crimes and different benefits. This is called federalism.

No death penalty for murderers as it's cruel, but killing babies is OK; so say Democrats.

The unborn baby is human and after six months can live outside of mom's body. Science says so. The left worships science for climate change, yet believes in partial-birth abortion.

How is aborting a human baby with a heartbeat at six months not murder?

Invaders are given constitutional protections upon illegally crossing our border. Why are not viable babies also given constitutional protections? Is mom's belly that formidable a barrier or is there a double standard in the White House? Protect illegals; abort babies?

Former President Bill Clinton said Democrats want safe, legal and rare abortions; 62,000,000 abortions later show abortions are not rare. Can we talk or do you want 62,000,000 more baby deaths?

Even with the death of Roe, some states will still provide abortions. For those states that don't permit this human destruction, Planned Parenthood will most likely provide free housing and transportation to abortion-providing states. A Washington state advertisement might say: "Come for the abortion, stay for the seafood!"

Ardean Anvik, Shelton

Secure the border

Editor, the Journal,

Enforce our laws. 221,000 illegal immigrants caught in March 2022, a 22-year high. April 234,000.

Only one out of two is caught, so double the number. Restore law and order. Restore the mission of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Our government needs to address the border crisis.

In 2020, there was 14.5 million illegal immigrants in our country. Under President Joe Biden's first year in office, this increased by 1 million to 15.5 million. Current estimates for 2022 is another 2 million, due to Title 42 expiring May 23, with the majority of illegal immigrants will not be returned to Mexico and released into the U.S. In 2020, the cost to you the taxpayer $143.1 billion, up another $9.4 billion in 2021. Stopping building the wall cost taxpayers $72 million. Over 100,000 young Americans have died from fentanyl that flows across the border. There has been enough fentanyl caught (not including that gets through) to kill hundreds of millions of citizens. How many COVID illnesses and deaths were from millions of illegal immigrants entering our country illegally?

If our government will not address the border crisis, what are our options? After considering that the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party paid for the Russian disinformation, the existence of Hunter Biden's laptop and his business dealings, plus Democrats twice impeached former President Donald Trump, I dislike saying this but we need to impeach President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris (the border czar) and Homeland Security Mayorkas in the future. This is only the start of the list, many of the current Cabinet members need to be replaced and many Congress members need to be voted out.

I am reluctant to say this after what happened during the last impeachments. The hatred for President Trump, led to the media lying to us, to Congress members lying to us (ex. Nadar I have evidence, and numerous statements from Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, etc.), the FBI not doing their jobs (including receiving and acting on feedback from CIA that it was manufactured information). The facts are coming out and people will be held accountable. I still cannot believe that Democrats moved forward with impeaching the sitting president. There was no way he would be convicted. The cost to us was a dysfunctional government with Democrats and Republicans that have a hard time working together and trusting each other, that Congress wasted time, effort, and our tax dollars pursuing impeachment, and they lost focus on other things more important.

It hurt our foreign policy. The Democrats opened the door to impeaching the current president in office twice. They set the new standard-may I say a new low one. The border crisis is different. Our government should enforce our laws. Immigration, law and order, and protecting the citizens of this country. Over 20 states are suing the federal government over not securing our southern border, stopping the wall, or lifting Title 42. States are spending billions of dollars on border security, sending their law enforcement and National Guard to supplement the job the federal government should be doing. Three notable states that have not joined this effort include Washington, California and Oregon. Why not? Our current president, vice president, Cabinet members, their administration and currently Democratic Congress has done nothing to secure the border and put in place strong deterrents to reduce illegal activities.

Let's review what is going on at the border and why the facts (not manufactured lies or hatred for the president) that support impeachment.

President Biden stopped building the wall. President Biden invited people to come. President Biden promised amnesty to every illegal alien in the USA. The Democrats supported and communicated the reasons to come to the USA. Here is our plan, or no plan, or what we have in place for you (illegal immigrants). We will allow you in, but you need to show up for your court date (95% don't); we will transport you to our cities at night and release you into our cities; we will provide you with food, housing, education and health care; protect you from deportation (sanctuary cities, restriction on ICE enforcements); you don't need to be COVID-vaccinated or wear masks. For many we will pay you COVID benefits, child care, housing, etc.

If you are homeless, we will provide for you. In some places you can vote. You can find a job and we will ignore the impact of lost jobs to our citizens and legal immigrants in this country. If you are pregnant or become pregnant and your child is born in the U.S., your child will become a citizen of the U.S. President Biden appointed his vice president to head up the border crisis. She has done zero, which reflects on the president. What have the president, the vice president and his Cabinet members contributed? Zero progress, no to little visits to borders, no action by Congress, no policies, no deterrents, reversal of Trump actions on borders, etc. ICE is not allowed to pursue illegal immigrants. Currently, they reimplemented Title 42 which allows illegal immigrants returned to Mexico, and now allowing it to expire to further the problem of illegal immigration into our country. People are waiting for it to expire, and the rate of illegal immigration will double or more. The net results they are estimating over 18,000 a day being caught at the border. Current estimate is that for every one caught, one gets through. One estimate based on current rates, plus Title 42 expiring, that 20% of our population will be illegal immigrants by the end of Biden's term unless something changes. Do I have your attention yet?

Our current government led by President Biden ignores that illegal immigration flooding in from our southern border is risking the lives of everyone in the U.S. Drug smuggling is up with fentanyl killing more than COIVD in some age groups (No. 1 cause of deaths age 18-45). The quantities of fentanyl flowing into our country via cartels and China is enough to kill hundreds of millions. President Biden, his administration and Cabinet are supporting the Mexican cartels. One estimate is they get $8,000 per illegal immigrant crossing the southern border, times 1 million in last year is $8 billion. Add on the billions made on illegal drug smuggling, child and sex trafficking.

How are they protecting the citizens of this country? Captured 42 terrorists last year on terrorist watch list. Since we only catch one out of two minimum, where are these people? Every day we see crime rates in U.S. are at up and at new highs. Probably due to soft on crime, lack of support of police (defund police) and general disregard of law and order (ex. immigration law enforcement). Maybe crime is up because of drugs flowing into our county? Maybe because of criminals, gang members, people with mental and health issues, sex and child trafficking flowing into our country? Oops, don't forget the terrorists entering our country - when is this going to bite us?

So, in summary, illegal immigration is at 20-plus-year high and getting worse. Our only hope to get our government to address the border crisis is to impeach our president, vice president and Cabinet members, plus vote out Congress members who have done nothing to address the border crisis. Send the message that we are fed up, we need strong deterrents at the border, and that we support the people who throughout the country are doing their best to prevent crime, illegal immigration and enforcement of our laws. Our president and media need to apologize to the Border Patrol agents falsely accused of whipping migrants.

How many more citizens will be murdered, assaulted or be a victim of crime by an illegal immigrant or because our southern border is not secure, before something is done? How about the terrorists in our country? When do we stop the drugs and cartels? Out to all of those not enforcing our laws, soft on crime, soft on law and order, and ignoring or in disbelief that there is a border crisis.

Howard Ringoen, Shelton