LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Wonderful article

Editor, the Journal,

Wonderful article by Justin Johnson, featuring Erin Ranney, the young wildlife photographer from Mason County. She is certainly becoming an elite member of her profession.

Her passion for helping other young women to reach their career goals is outstanding.

Tim Sheldon, Potlatch

Bathrooms, locker rooms

Editor, the Journal,

Ms. Holliday asked for definitions of diversity, equity, gender and inclusion. Webster’s New Third International Dictionary defines diversity: being different or having differences. Being different is no issue; forcibly pushing differences on others is my concern. If transgender men and women truly believe, they should complete the transition by committing surgically. Adults can understand transgender men; kids can’t. Transgender men shouldn’t be in girl’s locker rooms. Science says there are two genders; women have XX chromosomes, men have XY. Science is science until proven wrong, scientifically, not emotionally.

Men are generally stronger than women. Years ago, Title IX was created to encourage girls in sports. This law helped create professional women’s sports like the WNBA. Now Title IX is being destroyed by President Joe Biden who’s stripping money from schools who won’t permit transgender men to compete in women’s sports. Women’s sports will soon be a memory. Equality means sameness of status or achievement. Equity is free and reasonable conformity to acceptable standards of right, law, and justice without prejudice. Equality says we all start even in life; equity says we all end in a tie. Free indicates a choice; inclusion is the act of including. Female impersonators in a school classroom where attendance is mandatory is not a free choice. Good educators begin with the 3 Rs; they teach kids how to think. Union teachers indoctrinate students; they teach kids what to think. Originally parents, not union teachers, had educational control. The leftist philosophy created perverted ideas like men in girl’s locker rooms. They call it inclusion and equity. Unfortunately this philosophy is becoming popular. I hear the KKK has invented the rainbow sheet. How’s that for inclusion?

Boys want to be cowboys, girls want to be princesses but we don’t send kids to cowboy or princess school. We shouldn’t encourage transgender lifestyle. Kids are susceptible to new ideas. Transgender confusion is best handled by the child, parents and doctors, not educators. Adult transgender folks can handle their own issues, but don’t force their opinion on others. Target Stores and Budweiser have lost sales due to pushing their transgender beliefs on customers.

Holliday said letters are opinions. Conservative letters are opinions based on science, logic and facts. Leftist letters are opinions based on feelings. Lefties write with emotions using name calling in lieu of facts. We neuter their arguments so they don’t like us. Boo, hoo, hoo, sob, sob.

Why waste school time on these issues when schools are failing; see test scores before and after COVID. Many local school board members are missing in action. Four weeks ago, I asked gender inclusive coordinator, Title IX administrator, Civil Rights compliance coordinator to answer questions about naked males in a girl’s locker room. No answer. Why?

Ardean Anvik, Shelton

Two topics

Editor, the Journal,

First topic: Yesterday I was driving north on Interstate 5 near milepost 90. A white pickup truck loaded with debris driving in the righthand lane had a great big rolled-up rug and it just slow-motioned off the truck and luckily bounced to the road shoulder. The load was not tied down. I have seen just as you have all of the stuff along the roads like pillows, cushions, mattresses, barbecues, furniture, cooler parts, pieces of firewood, and so on that have flown out of trucks. And then there is the paper and plastic stuff that people have thrown deliberately out their vehicle windows. And there are the piles of cigarette butts that people have dumped their loaded ashtray of cig butts on a parking lot. I know a lady who was driving and had a large piece of metal on a road that came through her windshield and now she is blind in one eye.

Second topic: It has been very rainy and very warm and all of the grasses and bushes are growing very well. I strongly suggest that you have the area around your property cleared to reduce the fire danger.

Please stay safe, and stay kind, and stay nice, and stay courteous, and stay responsible.

Earl W. Burt, Bremerton

Taylor hearing

Editor, the Journal,

Taylor Shellfish is attempting a 50-acre seeding farm development in the middle of Oakland Bay. Very few residents even received information. Please join us in-person or by Zoom for the hearing June 14 at 1 p.m. Contact me for latest details as well as copies of flyers, postcards, etc. at [email protected], 360-304-9609.

Susan M. Gonzales, Shelton

No to oyster bags

Editor, the Journal,

As a long-time resident of the Oakland Bay area of Shelton, I was deeply distressed to hear the news of the proposed Taylor Shellfish Farms Oakland Bay floating oyster bag culture array for purposes of raising oyster seed and farming oysters. This large-scale endeavor would encompass a large portion of the water in front of many waterfront homes in the area, affecting the views of all the residents, and affecting the residential value of their properties. Many of the residents of the Oakland Bay area have chosen to invest in their properties by updating and/or remodeling, hereby enhancing the value of said property, thereby resulting in higher taxes to the county. Would this unsightly oyster bay contraption affect those values? I believe it would. Mason County would receive a lot less tax revenue. It might be interesting to know the amount the Department of Natural Resources would charge for the lease of these waters; and the Mason County taxes that Taylor Shellfish would be required to pay if the lease was approved for the proposed oyster bag floating array.

The loss of use and negative ramifications of the floating oyster bag array regarding recreational uses on the water cannot be underestimated. It would seriously impede boaters, water skiing, canoeing, kayaking, etc.

In this time of many threatened species, I find it ironic that Taylor Shellfish is proposing such a grandiose project that will definitely have an adverse effect on the ecosystem and wildlife of this fragile bay and estuary. Can you imagine killer whales, salmon, seals and other sea creatures trying to navigate their way through the maze of unending thousands of feet of suspended floating plastic mesh bags? The impact from this project would monopolize and overwhelm the shallow bay, thereby polluting the water with an exorbitant amount of oyster feces. The unnaturally large number of oysters will also rob other wildlife of their food sources. The hanging bag array will have a negative effect on the already established minimal flushing of water, (ingress/egress) from the shallow bay, affecting oxygen levels in the water. There is the issue of plastic from hundreds of bags and ropes leaching into the water. Marine life could be caught up in plastic mesh bags that have come loose and drown. Would no net loss be upheld in this instance? The existing condition of shoreline ecological functions should remain the same as the SMP (Shoreline Management Program) is implemented. The no net-loss standard is designed to halt the introduction of new impacts to shoreline ecological functions resulting from new development. As much as possible, shorelines should be reserved for “water-oriented” uses, including those that are “water-dependent,” “water-related” and for “water enjoyment.” The SMP states that the interests of all the people “shall be paramount in the management of shorelines of statewide significance.” The SMP establishes the concept of preferred shoreline uses, including controlling pollution, preventing damage to the natural environment, or are unique to or dependent upon use of Washington’s shorelines.

The environmental impact of this proposal should not be underestimated. Let us safeguard our natural environment and preserve the future of Oakland Bay for all the people. The vitality of Oakland Bay is dependent on us to be the stewards and caretakers of our precious waters, not the destroyers.

Kathy Kent-Lanning, Shelton

City by the bay

Editor, the Journal,

I was in San Francisco some years back on personal business. It was a jarring experience.

Back then, next to the Golden Gate Bridge, was a beautiful, charming city on a hill by the bay, where little cable cars climbed halfway ... well, so goes the Tony Bennett song. Today, it’s a smelly, drug-addled, dung heap where no one wants to live, visit or even drive past. Seattle is close behind.

Anyway, there I was, minding my own business on a sunny California afternoon, when I found myself trapped in a sidewalk throng as a Gay Pride parade moved past. It was compelling, bizarre and disgusting.

Leading the procession was a small group of people carrying the bright gay pride flag, multicolored and decorated with a large rainbow. (The “rainbow coalition.” Get it?) The rainbow design was on two small floats.

Most participants were young males, each stripped to the waist and wearing tight leotard pants, all with a large hole cut out in back so bare buttocks could protrude. These young men were prancing and gyrating to raucous music from a loudspeaker while occasionally pantomiming intimate sexual acts with each other.

All the while, some participants with clown-face makeup pushed a frozen treats cart through the crowd and were handing out to small children (for free) popsicles, each molded into the shape of a phallus. I was relieved when I was able to weave myself out of the crowd and felt that I had just witnessed a scene from Dante’s “Inferno.”

I would ask Donna Holliday here if you are proud of this “parade.” I thought you might give it a pass since your May 25 letter suggested you might be indulgent towards people in the LGBTQRSTU ... “alphabet soup” community.

Untold thousands of words have been written on this topic, and I could (and might still) add a few hundred more. There is much to discuss, from childhood fantasies to gender dystopia, to surgical removal of sexual body parts (so as to serve certain political agendas.)

In my view, one of the scariest phrases in the English language is, “gender-affirming care.” This one reeks of partisan invention. I believe Americans are both tolerant and forgiving. We will accept most anything and remain silent so long as you don’t try to shove your opinions in our faces. That gay pride parade was a perfect example of such a “shove.”

R. E. Graham, Union