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PAGE 4
JUNE
ANDREW J. MCNAB -TARTAN PUBLICATIONS, INC., PUBLISHER
KAREN HENSLEE, GENERAL MANAGER
SAM LOWRY, EDITORIAL STAFF
GREG SKINNNER, EDITORIAL STAFF
Commitment to unbiased and
fair coverage will continue
Leadership changes in civic institutions can be jarring, but they nearly
always offer positive opportunities -- if people see them that way and act
accordingly.
Goldendale already has new hospital management and a new school super-
intendent. Last week The Sentinel followed suit, changing its leadership.
As with the hospital and the schools, our new general manager is a woman.
Differing from the other institutions, however, The Sentinel's owner,
Andy McNab, has placed the paper in the hands of a long-time local, Karen
Henslee.
We are thrilled with the choice, positive that Karen's knowledge as a 27-
year Goldendale resident and her skills as an eight-year Sentinel employ-
ee will keep the paper vital and always improving. You will notice a change on this page as well.
Since last summer, Dan Richardson's editorials have offered direct and
challenging commentary on issues that needed just that approach.
With Dan's departure, Sam Lowry and Greg Skinner will share respon-
sibility for the editorial content in these pages and, for the visible future,
editorials too.
Each of us sees the world through a different lens; both of us promise to
be mindful of subject and tone, and the responsibility that goes with
speaking for a 125-year-old community institution.
Here are some of the main things we believe the editorial writer needs
to aim for:
• Historical perspective and useful commentary that reflects a higher
interest in the community than as a source of news fodder.
• A wide scope: We two expect to look at the 1,800 square miles of the
county, Appleton to Alderdale.
• Opinions: You will not find them in our stories; you will find them here.
Our new second job as editorial writers will involve weighing in on issues we
also report. It can be a tricky business. We are not the first to do it. We prom-
ise honesty, thoughtfulness, and attention to the community's interest.
-- SL and GS
,er isn't
It's easy to forget how much air travel has changed over the years. I remem-
ber the days when a person could walk into an airport, hand over his suitcase,
and get on the plane.
Now, we arrive hours before takeoff, park the car
miles away, and spend half the morning answering Th6
questions about how our bags were packed. Then BAG][
we jump on a conveyor and ride through the air-
port -- just like a bale of hay entering the barn. F6~
Someday I'm going to tell the baggage clerk, "No,
:I didn't pack my bag: My wife packed it. And nei-
" th~f)~ou, tibr I are~shppose~l to kn0w what's in it."
All of this hassle comes inthe name of progress and security. I can't speak for
everyone, but I felt better in the old days -- when I could see where my baggage
went.
The concept of airline '~nubs" with huge planes and enormous airports has
gone too far in my opinion. We' re getting to the point where it costs more to
park the car than it does to buy the plane ticket.
Why can't the airlines help upgrade the smaller airports where a person could
find his way around, instead of building a monstrosity no one can even get into?
I have fond memories of flying into the little airport at Pendleton, Oregon -
many years ago when United Airlines still scheduled flights there. The
Pendleton Airport was small then, and I don't suppose it's any bigger now that
United has abandoned the premises.
I sat in that airport one morning and watched the wind howling down the
runway. You can't see the wind in many parts of the country, but you can in
Pendleton. The wind there is full of things: Russian thistles, Jim Hill Mustard,
pieces of driftwood.
This particular morning, windows rattled and lights in the airport lobby
began to flicker. I wondered if this was a normal day for that part of the coun-
try.
A woman staggered in from the parking lot to report someone tried to open
the hood on his car. The wind peeled the hood back like someone opening a new
can of Spam. "Must have been a tourist," the woman surmised.
Soon after that a 5v-gallon oil drum went rolling across the runway. I figured
the breeze was freshening.
Airport personnel suggested it was probably an empty oil drum I saw. "Ihe
planes don't fly when the full ones are blowing."
I handed my suitcase to a luggage clerk, and he handed it to the guy behind
him. I don't know what that fellow did with it.
I wasn't worded, though. It's pretty hard to lose your luggage when there's
only one airplane.
The baggage derk was the same person who took my ticket and ushered me
onto the plane. I think he was in charge of security, too, judging from the little
badge on his shirt. Those were the days before metal detectors, photo I.D.s, and
$1o per day parking.
Some folks might like the big modern airports, but I don't. If I had my
druthers, I'd still be flying out of Pendieton.
THE GOLDENDALE SENTINEL
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER FOR GOLDENDALE AND KLICKITAT COUNTY, WA
ESTABLISHED 1879 • PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY FROM OFFICES AT
117 W. MAIN • GOLDENDALE, WA 98620
TELEPHONE (509) 773-3777 • FAX (509) 773-4737
EMAIL: (NEWS) SENTINEL@GORGE.NET OR (EDITORIAL, ADS,
COMMUNITIES, HOMETOWN) GSENTINEL@GORGE.NET
THE GOLDENDALE SENTINEL STAFF
BETH SCHRoDER, PAGE LAYOUT/DESIGN
AMY WALKER, GRAPHIC DESIGN
HELMUT ADLER, ADVERTISING SALES & CIRCULATION
Deadlines:
Display Advertising: 5 p.m. FridayI
Classified Advertising: Noon
Monday
Legal Notices: 10 am. Tuesday
News and Letters: Noon Friday
Subscriptions:
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In Klickitat County - $29, $52
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Goldendale, Wash. 98620. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Goldendale
Sentinel, 117 W. Main St. Goldendale, WA 98620-9526.
1lie I;oldendale Sentinel
ERS FROM THE COMMUN
Johnson wrong
on gay marriage
To the Editor:
Steven C. Johnson states cor-
rectly that ideologies have conse-
quences, but that is about the only
accurate thing he says. A conse-
quence of Mr. Johnson's ideology
is the embedding of a clutch of
prejudices in a welter of half-
truths and non-truths.
For example, he cites the experi-
ence of his Kenyan friend with the
huge, ever-increasing death toll
from AIDS. But in Africa, AIDS is
almost exclusively a disease of the
heterosexual population. Given that
this is his faulty premise, he
deduces that allowing gays to enter
the state of matrimony -- a state
that encourages sexual fidelity --
will "exacerbate" the death toll from
a disease, which is most efficiently
spread by sexual promiscuity.
About those "millions of AIDS
deaths" we may anticipate in this
country: by the end of 2002 (the
latest date for which I found statis-
tics) the death toll for the entire
U.S. epidemic was slightly over
500,000, and the current rate of
infection is far lower than it was at
the outset. Granted, a half-million
deaths is bad and sad enough, but
far short of Mr. Johnson's apoca-
lyptic vision and nowhere near to
sinking our national budget.
Mr. Johnson attributes the ills of
our current moral state, of which he
appears to see homosexual mar-
riage as the most recent expression,
to that old whipping boy, the sexual
revolution. Social change across an
entire culture requires multiple
causation, and I doubt that one
could find agreement even amongst
scholars as to what those causes
are, or even what the enduring
changes might be.
Nor is there anything "inex-
orable" about the extension of mar-
riage rights past homosexuals to
other kinds of relationships. The
society still retains its right to
define marriage, and one enlarge-
ment of that definition does not
require o~hers. In particular, there
are laws against any form of sexual
exploitation of children, and this
society would be stubbornly resist-
ant to altering those protections.
Mr. Johnson expresses fears for
the welfare of children in a society
that allows gay marriage. He is con-
eerned that "underparented"
youngsters will have multiple
mothers, fathers and grandparents,
and that they will wind up in foster
care or living on the streets. I sub-
mit that children already suffer
those ills because the one group
that legally can marry cannot seem
to stay married. With a divorce rate
nearing 60 percent (I believe that
the actual figure is 57-58 percemt)
the marriage certificate has already
been degraded to a status little
above the driver's license or the
hunting permit Mr. Johnson men-
tions. It is not the homosexual union
[;>AY IN,
DAY OUT-- !~ TIN'
KIDS' FAVORITE
TARGET...
FATHER'S
--WHEN I'M,
that threatens the future of marriage could be. And why do
and the integrity of the social fabric; fear-based ar
it is the heterosexual union and its together gays with
practitioners that are tearing apart incest? It's been the
the American family. Gays would be ried people who
hard-pressed to foul up matrimony divorce rate out of
worse than their straight counter- help from gays. And
parts have already done. "sexual revolution,"
So Mr. Johnson need not look for having plenty of
gay monsters under the bed when Too mare
he can just look around at his ually molested by a
friends and neighbors or, perhaps, before the sexual
look in the mirror. In the immortal began.
works of Pogo, "We have met the It is the ignorant
enemy and he is us." beliefs of people like
Freida S. Batten Christian Evan
Goldendalekeep gay and lesbiala
(and there are
Johnson doesn't attitudes like yours that (
gay youth to commit
have facts straightthe church has blood o~
Mr. Johnson, it's people like you and will have to answer
that give Christianity such a bad day for its treatment
name. In the first place, you don't als. Attitudes
have your facts straight. The Right encourage gay
defense budget is far more spendy murder, discrimination l
than all social programs combined, because they paint a
as less than human
bashers feel they
Christianity a service.
A recent report puts the defense
budget at 50 percent of the 2005
fiscal budget. Social programs are a
mere 33 percent. Welfare is funded
by the state. You hit on the "hot
spots" to rile people up, as the
Christian conservative right always
does. Are you .implying~that-the~
AIDS epidemic in Africa has some- tOO
Kerry,
thing to do with homosexuality? promoting di
Aids in Africa has been spread
largely by the rape of women by Reply to Wayne L.
straight men and then passed on to Internal dissent in
the children. Or your statement encourages the enemy
about social security for gays. Mr. our troops and costs
Johnson, do you personally know longing the war,
any gay or lesbian couples? I know stay of people like
plenty and the average time togeth- Democrats of this
er of those I know is between 25 to you Wayne for putti!
50 years. If two people have been many real Americans
together for 30+ years, have the words of truth,
worked and put into Social Kerry and the
Security, why shouldn't they be know the meaning
allowed to receive the other's Social name finger
Security? How does that take away stabbing,
from you or anyone else? sight is the
From my viewpoint, it is the which Kerry has
many conservative/fundamentalist many, many, times.
churches that keep Goldendale
from being the peace-loving town it
At home on the range with young writers,
During a spring storm, a group of ",Guest Column the
fourth-graders are considering how will they
their lives will change. I've asked Kate Krautkramer correctly? Probably.
them to think about anything that scores better than
might be different for them tomor- Writers on the Range Colorado's test. Most,
row, or even 30 years down the road. be deemed
A bunch of hands go up, and the first thinks he's a dog. Another girl writes, But trying to
student I call on looks out the window "I dream of snowflakes being worlds ty for compassion or
and says, 'The drought will end." we don't know about." A boy writes, like trying
The next boy says, "Grandpa will "I think of my hands being as swiR as put a yardstick
give me the ranch." the wind." Writing
Like a lot of people I work with at Sometimes when the children read he lives, a
South Routt Elementary in Yampa, what they've written, I feel jealous. "Above Blue Star
Colo., these children live dose to the They are so sure about the earth and the snow on the
land. They're growing up with the the elements, so na~rally devoted to hits the pinks
weight of aranching ethic; they know observation. I want to be able to it look so beautiful.
more than I ever will about cattle, hay speak as intelligently about the mak- sky and see the
and weather, ings of a good laying hen as Sarajane retiring from a busy
My job is to teach them how to Rossi does. crescent moon
write. I try to get them to feel, analyze I can't say that every child in my
and communicate. I try to get them to school is salt of the earth. Our little Sometimes, whe~
think lyrically. I believe it's an impor- town is situated just off a state high- read, I stop worrying
rant job. Some of the parents in our way between two of the biggest ski just listen. The kids
tiny district worry about the limited resorts in Colorado. There is a large a
number of programs an elementary ranching community; there are also me imagine what
school with just 172 students can pro- students whose parents work for the writers and thinkerS
vide. The principal and superintend- railroad or in construction, or who given a few school
ent worry about disappearing funds drive every day to work service jobs in funding for
and declining enrollment, the neighboring resorts. But the size staff.
Next year, the sixth grade, which of the district draws the students
used to be part ofthe middle school in together. On average, two-thirds of expressing
the next town over, will be moving the children v/ho start kindergarten their mountain
into our building. Our district is los- in a class of 25 will graduate from they look getting on 1
mg one of only four admires" trat°rs' high school with the same kids, 13 the end of the day --:
as well as two teaching positions. We years later, gers and platform
all worry about the budget and what When the lo-year-olds read their Carhartts and
is best for our kids. work, troubles, faults and fears vault ing one another
So I teach poetry, lessons on onto the page. Children listeningnod; talking about what
"writerly" voice, figurative language, they identify with a dog dying, having rains.
sentence fluency. One girl reads a parent leave home, having no Kate
about her ranch, where there is "a breakfast in the house, having a hay utor to Writers
sweet smell of fresh stacked hay" and crop fail because of no rain. service of Hit
"where hills and fields are covered in Will these same students do well (hcn.org). She
hungry cows." She tells how the piglet on a high-stakes standardized test? In Yampa, in western