LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Xinh was an icon

Editor, the Journal,

To say that Xinh was an icon would be an understatement.

I got to know her when I ran the shucking competition with Jef Conklin at OysterFest for 15 years or so. This was during the years when she won her championships. She was a world-class shucker. More importantly, she was a world-class person.

Over the years, the shucking competition evolved. There were the locals, old-timers and newcomers, people coming from different parts of the world that made our area their new home. Restaurant people from Seattle came down. It was a disparate group of people that had to learn to trust each other. Xinh was a part of what brought all those people together that over time became a family that gathered every fall.

She always had a smile. But loved to bring up some problem she was having with something or other. It was always fun to listen to her. It was with good humor and she was determined to figure it out and forge ahead. It was a part of her charm.

People would just gravitate to her. People would come to Mason County to do articles or TV pieces about something or other. Sunset magazine and the TV show “Dirty Jobs” come to mind. There was no intention to do it about her but somehow she became the focal point. I think they just could not resist her.

We would go up to Seattle to some of the restaurant events to promote the shucking competition. She would always be there on behalf of Taylor Shellfish, holding court. And loving it.

To say she was a great chef or great shucker is true, but I think she was the most beloved person I have ever known. That will be her legacy.

Steve Whitehouse, Shelton

Bull puckey

Editor, the Journal,

Today I just read Schyler P. Raadt’s letter to the editor captioned “American virtue.” I don’t know when I have read such a pablum-puking crock of bull puckey. I too recently spent an evening with Sheriff Ryan Spurling where he outlined the successes and problems facing law enforcement in this day and age of enlightened justice.

Contrary to Mr. Raadt’s assertion, the problem of excessive criminal activity in this nation and especially this state stem from too much of what he advocates in his letter. We need to stop coddling these renegade criminals who steal cars at will and use them to commit crimes against businesses. Due to our pablum-puking legislators and governor as well as judges, these criminals have no fear of incarceration which is doubtful due to the absurd restrictions placed on law enforcement’s ability to apprehend them.

Mr. Raadt states, “I worry that our sheriff may not see that people only turn to crime when they lack freedom and equality in their pursuit of happiness.” Oh, my God, what kind of fantasy land does he live in? These punks crash and steal and shoot and kill because they can with little chance they will be caught and if caught, little chance they will be severely dealt with. Contrary to Mr. Raadt’s assertion building more jails is the answer. We also need to build and staff more facilities to contain the criminally insane.

In this state, law enforcement is handcuffed at every turn. Our governor started it when he unilaterally and by fiat abolished the death penalty. When he did that, he took away one of the strongest tools in law enforcement’s tool box. Without the death penalty, the Green River killer’s victims’ bodies would never have been found. The Legislature enacted and the governor signed the most ridiculous piece of legislation imaginable when they prevented the cops from pursuing suspects. Even after some adjustment they can’t stop cars with defective equipment. What’s that about? Well, we all know what that’s about.

The police don’t dare wrestle some combatant with a drug-weakened body to the ground because he might die on them and they could go to prison themselves.

All of our law enforcement officers are to be commended in the face of the obstacles to their performance of their duties for not going to the coffee shop at the start of their shift and coming out at the end.

Stan Walster, Grapeview

Bombing babies

Editor, the Journal,

A madman attacks a school bus whose guard is sleeping and slaughters 20 children. Angry citizens attack a school where the madman is hiding and kill the madman along with 200 children trapped in the school. That is literally what Israel is doing in their war on Gaza to eliminate terrorist Hamas.

The history of war tells us do not do what your enemy wants. Hamas wanted this war and Israel has fallen into its trap. The fanatical Muslims of Hamas believe they will be met by Allah as martyrs and rewarded with 40 virgins. In their effort to kill Hamas, along with the collateral killing of thousands of women and children, the Israelis will be met with worldwide condemnation and be feeding the monster they’ve been fighting for centuries: Anti-Semitism. I’m not a Jewish scholar but I believe Semitism does not favor the wholesale slaughter of innocent civilians. Opposing that slaughter does not make one anti-Semitic, though that is a false association by many.

The ironic tragedy of Israel’s war on Gaza is it is increasingly tantamount to the Nazi’s siege on the Warsaw Jewish ghetto during World War II.

The long-going conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is certainly a complicated problem but the bombing of babies is simply not a solution. We supply those bombs to Israel. As Israel’s essential ally, we can stop that. There are other ways to protect Israel. Israel may eliminate Hamas but they are creating a legacy of many more.

J. Anderson, Shelton

Some questions

Editor, the Journal,

The left is conflicted between science, ethics, logic and politics. Donna Holliday blamed the “Christian right” for “crimes” against humanity but provided no proof. Evidently our “crime” is being Christian. Robert Graham challenged Holliday for her shotgun approach. Holliday, Darrell Barker and J. Anderson then sarcastically accused Graham of hate.

Democrats say to follow science for COVID but ignore science elsewhere. Science says the unborn are human, making abortion murder. Democrats mutilate our Constitution; they butcher the Second Amendment on the right to bear arms and ignore the 14th Amendment which gives everyone the “Right to life, liberty ...” Democrats eliminate the death penalty for violent criminals but celebrates death for the unborn. How screwed up is that? Can any Democrat answer these seven questions on abortion factually or is sarcasm your only defense?

1. How can Democrats believe in science and humanity, and still support killing the unborn?

2. The unborn at 6 months are viable. When does partial birth abortion become infanticide?

3. Is a 48-hour cooling-off period and counseling before having an abortion reasonable?

4. If an unborn is executed because a woman was raped, shouldn’t the rapist be executed also?

5. Women demand reproductive rights; 50% of abortions are girls. How would these girls vote?

6. Democrats promote DEI for those already born; where’s the DEI for the unborn?

7. COVID shutdown Shelton’s Planned Parenthood Office. Isn’t that great?

Rationality and humanity are foreign words to Democrats. Killing an innocent unborn is reproductive rights; saving brutal murderers from the death penalty is humane. That argument is repulsive. Will anyone answer my questions? The choices: admit the truth, hide from the truth, or attack me. I don’t expect a rational discussion; I expect journalistic sarcasm.

Ardean Anvik, Shelton

Can’t support both

Editor, the Journal,

For a decade, I have watched masses of people all over the world march the streets in support of women’s and LGBTQ rights, sometimes causing destruction and chaos. Would someone please tell me why these same millions of people are calling for the annihilation of Israel, the most supportive of LGBTQ and women’s rights in the world, while supporting Palestinians and Hamas, whose culture and ideology is abusive to women who have no rights in their world, and worse, punish homosexuality by death? Can’t support both.

In the early hours of Oct. 7, evil incarnate crossed into sleeping Israel on hang gliders or slinking through the tunnels Hamas built with the money Israel had given to rebuild Palestinian hospitals and schools.

Wearing body cameras to show to the world their atrocities against the vulnerable Jews, they spread through the quiet Israeli Sabbath morning, raping, shooting, beheading, burning alive, slashing the unborn from mothers’ wombs. Hamas is their own publicist and proud to show their work, yet Israel is accused of genocide and war crimes?

Twelve hundred Israeli innocents were killed that morning. That is the population ratio of terrorists killing 55,000 Americans in one morning. No one would dispute our right to retaliate. Hamas hides strategic weaponry in hospitals and schools, using Palestinians as human shields, children as suicide bombers. How do you fight an enemy that hides behind women and children as they attack you?Hamas, who was elected by the Palestinian people, cares nothing for the Palestinians, blocking their evacuation as Israel is encouraging it. The son of a Hamas leader who left the evil body stated that the best thing for the Palestinians is to allow Israel to eradicate Hamas. A cease-fire from Hamas would bring peace. A cease-fire from Israel would bring Israeli annihilation.  

Katie Groves, Shelton

Killing the barred owl

Editor, the Journal,

U.S. Fish and Wildlife plans to decimate the barred owl population by shooting over 400,000 over the next 30 years. They say they’re doing so to give the spotted owl more foraging opportunities and supposedly to “save” the spotted owl.

The environmental impact statement tells us, “This could affect not only spotted owls, but entire eco-systems.” You can read about this in the Nov. 24 issue of The Capital Press Newspaper. (Article was written by Don Jenkins). This article goes on to say that “the EIS draft states USFWS does not have sufficient information to verify whether barred owls are effecting specific species.”

The article states, “More than 20,000 barred owls would be shot the first year. Thereafter, 13,400 to 17,400 would be killed each year for 30 years.” They plan to do their killing in forested areas of the Olympic Peninsula, the Cascade Range and Northern California.

There was a terrible proliferation of rats across both Mason and Thurston counties for several years. Many people were looking for remedies to kill them. We had never had them prior to this. They got into our hayfield and we had trouble controlling them. Where was the DNR when this happened? Barred owls came to our rescue and the rats are gone. We started hearing the wonderful sound of the barred owls coming from the forested areas nearby. Now, DNR wants to destroy the barred owl, using the spotted owl as an excuse.

Nature has taken care of itself for thousands of years. Why try to change it?

Other species have been increasing in this area, but I won’t name them because DNR may want to go after them, too. It’s like Marshawn Lynch says in the plumbing ad on TV, “What’s next?”

Sylvia Larson, Shelton

Bad headlines

Editor, the Journal,

I wrote my first letter to the editor (to the Journal) on Feb. 28, 2019. It was a thank-you to Mr. Ardean Anvik for his “accurate, well-reasoned, and effective” letters despite his being ganged-up on by antagonists.

The title given to my letter then was, “Letters page valuable asset to community.” This, I thought, was a good one. It was brief, accurate, and let the reader know what was coming. I still consider the letters section the best part of the Journal, with only a few exceptions. It’s the genuine voice of the people and most stimulating.

Good things break, though. A brief back story: On Oct. 26, a Ms. Donna Holliday of Shelton wrote what was, in my view, a poorly constructed letter claiming that some persons called “Christian nationalists” and evangelical Christians were at the “root” of all deviltry in the U.S. today. I was impelled to respond. My brief analysis of Ms. Holliday’s letter was published Nov. 9.

Then, the Journal jumped in. In the newsroom, some Pulitzer-seeking staffer decided to spray reader-repellant on my letter and type above it the pathetic, meaning-free title, “Reader’s critique.” Wow! What a grabber! Wonder what that letter was about?

Well, on Nov. 16, the Holliday-Graham letters had been published and all hell broke loose. I was ambushed by four members (some semi-literate) of the Donna Holliday fan club.

My response to the letters:

1. Barbara Denton, Shelton – This letter was the most temperate of the lot, though I often wonder why kids still need “safe places.” Are there no teachers? Parents?

2. Donna Holliday, Shelton – Alas, we can expect more fact-free messages from Donna.

3. J. Anderson, Shelton – Believes only he has the correct opinion on abortion. Sad.

4. Darrell Barker, Shelton – Shredded his thesaurus seeking really big words. Needs new one.

R.E. Graham, Union