Letters to the Editor

Ka-ching, ka-ching

Editor, the Journal,

If I may be so bold as to slightly edit Mr. R.E. Graham's letter of April 20 by lining through some of his words and replacing them with [mine]: "This was very difficult for me [but not nearly enough that prevented me from writing this letter]. I confess to having a very, very dim view of today's Democratic [Republican] Party, from its reckless spending [after Donald Trump trashed the economy by disregarding pandemic warnings] to its recent lurch to the far left [right] and to the constant and outrageous lies by [former] President Joe Biden [Donald Trump] to the American people."

Hmm, your statement appears to have all the earmarks of a boiler-plate rant from Fox News. Now, let's talk about that "ka-ching of a cash register." Might you have confused it with the sucking sound of the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017," whose cuts (ka-ching) have never trickled down ... or maybe "Emergency Proclamation 8444" seeking to divert $8 billion previously allocated to other programs to build a wall on our southern border (ka-ching), which we were told was going to be paid for by Mexico and has never been completed (wonder what happened to all that $$$?) or the tariffs imposed on Chinese goods by Trump that American consumers pay (ka-ching) or perhaps you mean the monies allocated by a bipartisan Congress to address the economic upheaval from the coronavirus epidemic, especially for the companies upon which your dividends depend and who were some of the larger beneficiaries of those monies (ka-ching) ... It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how much Republicans complain about government largesse, they're always willing to take as much money as they can get (corporate welfare, ka-ching). Now, Republican-run states and Republicans could always refuse to accept climate change abatement and infrastructure monies to help balance the federal budget (ka-ching). I'll save my IRS funding and Biden's "wealth" response for next week.

Bill Pfender, Shelton

Save Sherwood

Editor, the Journal,

Thank you for featuring the free screening of the locally made documentary film, "We Speak for the Forests," in your April 20 edition.

On April 4, members of Washington's Board of Natural Resources voted to approve the sale of 154 acres of 80- to 100-year-old legacy trees in Sherwood State Forest, Mason County. The proposed timber "harvest" will include trees that are more than a century old.

Eight-mile long Sherwood Creek flows through Sherwood Forest into Case Inlet and sits downstream of the proposed clear cut area. The Sherwood Creek watershed is home to multiple salmon species and the once abundant Olympic oyster, the only oyster native to Washington.

Sherwood Forest lies between the LakeLand Village and Trails End neighborhoods with over 900 homes in LakeLand Village alone, working to purify the air, filter the water, prevent erosion, and act as an important buffer against the increasing climate impacts of flooding, drought and excessive summer temperatures.

All Mason County residents are connected to the proposed project site through the larger Kennedy-Goldsborough Watershed and a shared love of the recreational and healing properties found in the forests, canals, inlets, rivers and streams of Mason County.

There is no need to clear-cut this forest. Washington's Department of Natural Resources forest inventory records reveal that there are thousands of acres of plantation forests on state trust lands in the South Puget Sound region currently available for harvest.

As a resident of Mason County, I expect the community, county and state agencies that touch this action to provide accurate information and records about this proposed clear-cut project and exercise due diligence in implementing the public engagement that is the heart of the democratic process.

As a voter in this county and country, I expect full transparency and accountability in the process that led the Department of Natural Resources in February of this year to designate this clear-cutting action as having no significant environmental impact.

To the elected and appointed public officials involved in this sale, I ask for your leadership in working with local residents to shape our community's and children's future.

Peggy Morell, Union

Real America

Editor, the Journal,

Gradually "Subie-do" my Subaru, now eligible for antique license plates, developed a slight wobble while under way. Being arguably the most frugal resident of Shelton, I took her over to Cary's Tire and Repair in downtown Shelton for diagnostics and subsequent repair. My visit reinforced my observation that Shelton is remarkably unique as a small-town paradise. Mechanic Chris played taxi cab driver - out and back to our local Timberland Library - with an intermission to complete his diagnostics of the problem: up on the lift checking tie rods, worm gear, ball and socket assemblies (whatever) resulted in the surprise and unique conclusion that the problem was low tire pressure. I return to the front desk to pay owner Cary for this service - and surprise - no charge! Even the air was free! As an aside, I'm scheduled for relocation to Portland, Oregon, the first of June this year. I'm gonna miss this town - there's just so much that is good and right here. A place I now think of as "The Real America."

James Poirson, Shelton

Intolerance

Editor, the Journal,

While going through some college papers on creative writing, I found a clipping of a poem that I had submitted to the Journal on June 29, 2020. The poem had been sent, in a letter, to columnist, Abigail Van Buren (better known as "Dear Abby").

The letter, from "Stuart," decried in a poem what he felt was the tragic rebirth of bigotry here and elsewhere. A reader who read Stuart's letter and poem wrote to Dear Abby: "Whenever I hear about intolerance, I'm reminded of an old poem (I do not know the author). It made me think. Perhaps it will touch one of your other readers as well. The letter included the poem below and was signed, George R. Goldie, IV, Oxnard, California. Dear Abbey's response was "Dear George: The poem is long, but it's worth space in this column. Read on:"

The Cold Within

Six humans trapped in happenstance,

In dark and bitter cold,

Each one possessed a stick of wood,

Or so the story's told.

Their dying fire in need of logs

The first woman held hers back,

For of the faces around the fire,

She noticed one was black.

The next man looking across the way

Saw not one of his church,

And couldn't bring himself to give

The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes

He gave his coat a hitch,

Why should his log be put to use,

To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought,

Of the wealth he had in store;

And how to keep what he had earned,

From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man's face bespoke revenge

As the fire passed from sight,

For all he saw in his stick of wood

Was a chance to spite the white.

The last man of this forlorn group

Did naught except for gain,

Giving only to those who gave,

Was how he played the game.

The logs held tight in death's still hands

Was proof of human sin,

They didn't die from the cold without,

They died from the cold within.

With all that is happening in our country and around the world, it is my fervent hope that this poem might remind us all of the need for tolerance.

Cheryl A. Dunning, Shelton

Explain yourselves

Editor, the Journal,

On Dec. 9, 2021, the Shelton-Mason County Journal ran a story about the low-barrier nonprofit shelter Community Lifeline applying for an amendment to expand the number of shelter beds from 35 to 50. Public hearings were held on Dec. 6, 2021, and May 16, 2022, at the Shelton Civic Center that included testimony from the public and surrounding owners who described noise, verbal and physical threats, assaults, garbage, drug and alcohol use and vandalism. Mike Olsen, a former Shelton city commissioner, is quoted as saying he moved from the area partly due to the degradation of the neighborhood. The amendment was sent to the City of Shelton hearing examiner. See Journal articles dated 12/9/2021 and 6/23/22. On June 13, 2022, Shelton hearing examiner, Terrence McCarthy, rejected the amendment to increase the Community Lifeline shelter beds, saying the expansion would "add gasoline to a fire." He further stated they could apply again for the amendment "once they reduced their negative impact upon their neighbors and the surrounding area."

On April 20, the Journal ran an article stating the Community Lifeline grant amendment was approved by Mason County commissioners. This grant will allow Community Lifeline to increase their bed capacity from 35 to 50 for a price tag of $57,235.

Why were there no public hearings? Who decided that public hearings were not necessary? Why wasn't it referred to the Shelton hearing examiner? Has Community Lifeline reduced their negative impact upon neighbors and the surrounding areas?

That answer is "no," it is worse than it was less than a year ago when the people spoke and the hearing examiner rejected the amendment. Why was this amendment approved without input from the people? Who is responsible for this workaround?

Why did the Mason County commissioners go against the will of the people? If they didn't know the background on this issue, they should have. If they did know the background and proceeded forward without community input, they no longer represent the will of the people of Mason County and should resign immediately.

Pam Burger, Shelton

Thanks for life

Editor, the Journal,

I am writing this letter to thank all the health care providers who worked together to save my life during a medical crisis I experienced in November. When I became very short of breath and weak during the early weeks of November, my daughter took me to the Shelton Health Care Center as I was familiar with PAC Andrea Buser and PAC Mike Myers; they have been my primary health care providers for years. Receptionist Marti was very reassuring and PAC Mike Myers recommended that I should go to the Mason General Hospital ER immediately, for evaluation. My diagnosis was blood clots in my right lung and both legs. I spent eight days in the hospital. When I was released from the hospital, I was using oxygen and although I was not as short of breath, I was still very weak. My daughters who live out of state came to help out. After my out-of-state family members returned to their families, I had my grandson and daughter stay with me as I continued to try to gain my strength back. Then, in December, I began to worsen and my daughter took me back to the Mason General Hospital ER. The diagnosis was pneumonia and flu; I spent eight days in the ICU ward over Christmas. My out-of-state family members returned to be with me and my local daughter, grandchildren and great-granddaughter; as they weren't sure that I would ever go home again.

Thanks to the quick actions of the PAC providers, I received emergency care at Mason General Hospital; which saved my life, twice. I am no longer using oxygen, have regained much of my strength and am driving again. This Easter I was able to cook our family dinner and enjoy just being alive; thanks to the excellent care that I received during both of my hospital stays. I want to thank Dr. Lindahl and Dr. Wesson, the nurses, med techs, physical therapists, X-ray techs, lab techs, dietary and housekeeping for taking such good care of me during these times of medical crisis. Each of you has been an integral part of my recovery; for which I will be forever grateful.

Sandy Deyette, Shelton

Election truth

Editor, the Journal,

There were two events this week that shed light on the election debates. I challenge our Auditor Steve Duenkel to respond to these.

First, one Robert Zeidman, a software expert and (ironically) a Trump voter, took Mike Lindell up on his $5 million dollar challenge to prove him wrong. Turns out the data that Lindell had was absolute garbage, and proving it wrong was easy. A mediator, no doubt picked by Lindell, agreed. So, all the nonsense about proof that Lindell put out was just that. And I now have 5 million reasons to make that assertion.

Second, Fox News settled its defamation case. It seems that behind the scenes, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and even Rupert Murdoch himself knew that the claims of fraud that were being made on air were false. They went on air anyway, looked their viewers straight in the eye, and with a straight face told them the lies. Why? To keep the stock price up. Now, Fox has not made a public apology in words. But they made 787.5 million apologies in dollars.We have been going through an election debate that has shown us how blatant lies have been used to introduce bad ideas into the voting process. One of those ideas is that we can solve our problems with hand counts. This idea ignores the facts on the ground. The mechanics of tabulating election results requires two things: repetition and number crunching. Machines are really good at both of those tasks. People are really bad at both. The average person's mind is going to wander all over the place. They are also far more prone to making mistakes.

Mr. Duenkel should know this. I note that he was an auditor at Boeing. I have done audit work too. I know that a big part of auditing is reconciling mistakes. Why is that such a big task? Because people screw things up all the time. Mr. Duenkel has spoken of anomalies in the system. There is another name for anomalies - mistakes. And people make them all the time. That is what they do. They aren't being nefarious. They aren't malicious. They are human.

I had a finance professor in college who was also a high-powered consultant for Fortune 500 firms and startups. He told us that one of the first things he did when he was consulting for a company was to ask for a trial balance when he walked in the door. If it balanced to the penny on the first shot, it was an indication that somebody was cooking the books. Hence the bookkeeper's saying that trial balances don't. They always have to be reconciled. The reason is people make mistakes all the time.

My problem with the election integrity crowd is that outsized allegations of massive fraud are made with absolutely no proof. When it comes to machines, we audit them all the time. Trial runs are done before counting. In close elections we have recounts that always validate the machine count. The idea that you will have manual tabulation of ballots with numerous races will be done in one night, then you are simply out of your mind. And if you sit down and try to plan how you would set that system up, you would wind up with a Rube Goldberg flowchart that would just be begging for an huge error rate. There simply are too many moving parts. You would wind up with a mess. It is high time to move beyond the stolen election myths. The elections work remarkably well. The only thing that proposed changes will add is confusion and opportunities to dispute elections. Additionally, the recent trend in election integrity all have something in common. They all make the process harder. They all make access to voting narrower. They all add complexity. And they are all aimed at "those voters." This isn't going to add integrity. In fact, the more complex you make it, the more problems you will have. Why? When you give people an opportunity to make more mistakes, they will take you up on it. The simpler the system, the less likely you will have errors. We actually have a pretty good system in Washington right now.

Andrew Makar, Hoodsport

To the dump

Editor, the Journal,

I'm taking the April 13 edition of the Journal to the dump. Tell you why in a moment.

In the aforementioned paper, for reasons unknown to a rational universe, a guest column appeared on page 5 by Mr. Billy Thomas. It was a very hefty entry - over 40 column inches - longer than all the other letters combined. A short blurb on Mr. Thomas tells us he is "a community leader and activist" serving as director of marketing at Peninsula Credit Union, board chair of the YMCA, and board member of both Sound Learning and the Mason General Hospital Foundation. He seems a most ambitious and busy young man - his picture is in the paper.

In his column, Mr. Thomas implies that the citizens of Mason County are irredeemable racists and then, in a fit of didactic righteousness, tells them how to cure this ugly blemish on their moral characters. It's easy. We can remedy this, you see - are you seated? - "by embracing antiracism."

Oh barf, oh retch. The infinitive "to embrace" is classic elitist BS right out of a faculty lounge. To a college or university faculty member, one doesn't just do something, he or she must "embrace" it to show that he or she really, really cares.

Let me try: "I'm going to go embrace taking out the garbage," or, "I'm embracing socialism today and am voting a straight Democratic ticket." Such abuse of our language takes many forms. Just read this rather scary column by Mr. Thomas and see if you can count them all. Hint: words like "diversity," "equity" or "inclusion" are all Democratic Party buzzwords and all are red flags. Beware.

In sum, Billy, your column (or sermon, as I call it) shows a complete lack of understanding of, and lack of respect for, residents of Mason County and Shelton (your "audience" as they say in the writing biz.) In my many years here, I've found them to be friendly, courteous, energetic, educated and patriotic.When you hopefully continue your research, I would suggest you look at the results of presidential elections in the county voting records. Although it has been reported that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, check the results of the two or three before that one. People here are not hot, bubbling cauldrons of racial hate, all anxious to find machine guns and mow down anyone with dark skin.

Based on your comments, Mr. Thomas, I judge you to be both a Biden-voter and the epitome of a wokester. I assume that you, as a good Democrat, understand what some newscasters now mean when they refer to Mr. Biden's top advisers as his "Check the box Cabinet." Hint: This refers to his obsession with diversity. As a wokester, perhaps you were jarred by the latest news from the world of corporate finance. Alissa Heinerscheid, vice president of marketing for Anheuser-Busch, has taken a leave of absence from her job. She had decided to print a picture of a grinning Dylan Mulvany on every can of Bud Light. The backlash from Bud Light drinkers (who Alissa called "fratty") caused her company to lose over $5 billion (so far.) Wow. Talk about not knowing your audience.

I have a few words for the editor-in-chief: I deem Mr. Thomas' guest column in the April 13 issue of the Journal unworthy of appearing in a newspaper I have for some time thought dedicated to truth and fairness. To assume that the residents of Mason County and Shelton are racist is a grave insult. I believe you owe your readers an explanation for why you saw fit to publish Mr. Thomas's presumptive, arrogant and ignorant column. Every week, I toss the trash into the bed of my pickup and take it to the county landfill. I don't need to see it in the Journal.

R.E. Graham, Union

GOP and values

Editor, the Journal,

Did you ever play a sport in school? Do you play a sport now? Do your kids or grandkids play sports?

Why?

Ask anyone, even professional athletes, why they participate in sports and their first answer is always love of the game. Friendships, competition, belonging. All the same reasons transgender people participate.

The purpose is not a state championship or a scholarship. The purpose is not a Super Bowl ring, a green jacket, a World Series, not the grand slam of tennis, not even the millions of dollars some can make. Those accomplishments are not the purpose, they may be the dream, the goal but they are not guaranteed to anyone.

The U.S. House of Representatives just passed a bill they call the "Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act" (all Republicans; will not get through the Senate).

Protection from what? From girls who just want to play sports, who just want to be their true selves?

If you have ever not been welcome, not because of something you did or said, for simply being you, then you have an idea of what transgender people are subjected to. If you have ever felt "not good enough," then you know what politicians are doing to transgender children, human beings.

Actually, this federal bill has nothing to do with girls sports. This bill is just the first step to federally go where Republican state laws are going. Republicans are trying to make it a crime to be transgender. They are passing state laws to make it illegal to give and get medical care transgender kids need. They are banning books from school and public libraries. Teachers can be fired for simply answering a question. They do not want transgender people to even exist.

Transgender people have been on this Earth since the beginning of human existence. Science, medicine have made their lives a little easier in just being able to feel like who they know they are.

Republicans have no solutions for the real problems of this country, so they use the most vulnerable among us and make them the problem. They have made LBGTQ people the thing to be feared, the monster to be eradicated. They do not see a human being.

The current Republican Party wants to own "family values," morality, parents rights, personal rights, even freedom.

There is no value in diminishing someone else's family. There is no morality in degrading someone for just trying to be who they are meant to be. You cannot claim "parents rights," when taking away the rights of other parents. You cannot take away very personal rights from someone else and claim to be for individual rights. How can you be for freedom while taking freedom away from someone else? When will we learn from how we have treated fellow human beings throughout our history?

Oh wait, Republicans are trying to erase our history because it may make people feel bad. So here we go, we are adding a new chapter, if they will allow it to be written. But they will not allow it to be read or discussed.

Donna Holliday, Shelton

Judge was right

Editor, the Journal,

Reps. Dan Griffey and Travis Couture made an unfounded, purely political statement to their fellow Republicans blaming the judge for Chantel Peterson's suicide as bail had been set at $5,000 and Ms. Peterson (or someone on her behalf) was able to post the bail.

Apparently, in their minds, suicide does not occur in jail. Yet, the leading cause of death in jail is suicide. In fact, I recall reading an article, the very week Ms. Peterson committed suicide, about another person who committed suicide while in a Washington jail. Furthermore, the two representatives fail to acknowledge the extensive harassment Ms. Peterson received by members of the public through social media. I suspect she was also harassed in person.

At the time the prosecutor asked for an increase in bail, Ms. Peterson was in full compliance with conditions of release, presumably as the prosecutor failed to mention any violations or changes in circumstances to justify an increase in bail.

While I most likely would have set a higher bail at the outset (depending on what information was provided to me), the law requires presumption of innocence, which is clearly ignored by Griffey and Couture. The law also requires reasonable bail, except in capital cases, both for the safety of the public and to assure appearance of the accused in court. As Ms. Peterson had not violated the conditions of bail and she did appear at her duly scheduled hearing, the purpose of bail had been met. Indigent persons are entitled to post bail just as much rich people are.

The judge considered the bail schedule of $5,000, which takes into consideration the seriousness of the offense – Assault 1 (attempted murder). She also considered the lack of criminal history and Ms. Peterson's ties to the community as she was required to do. I would suggest to Reps. Griffey and Couture that it is time to re-evaluate the bail schedule. Their attack on a hard-working, intelligent judge, whose focus is on maintaining a fair and just process for all who come before her, over this one case out of hundreds, is misplaced. I get the public's emotions in this matter, but public pressure should not influence a judge's fair and impartial review of a case, which was what the prosecutor and the representatives should respect.

While I may disagree with the bail amount on this one case, I fully support the judge who had and still has the courage to do her job fairly and impartially. Judge Cadine Ferguson-Brown has my endorsement.

Victoria Meadows, retired judge, Shelton