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~-JULY 26, 2017
GOLDENDALE, WASHINGTON
After two biting editorials in The Sentinel against
wanton incidents of racism committed in Golden-
dale against a pastor of a church here, feedback
continues to be overwhelmingly supportix/e of our
stand. Calls, drop-in visits, and emails are still
pouring in expressing appreciation, and it is very
gratifying to see how outraged so many people are
that such blatant demonstrations of racism have oc-
curred here.
There has been some outrage reported against
The Sentinel from the recent editorial, and it bears
a brief comment. The outrage was not against our
stand against racism. It was against our use of the
word "retarded." The reaction stems from an inexact
reading of what we wrote and a kneejerk reactivity
to a word without regard for the
totality of how it was used.
Here's the sentence in ques-
tion from last week's editorial:
"That means the spiritually
retarded people in this town who
practised that racism are vastly
outnumbered."
How dare we call anyone
retarded, went the criticism against The Sentinel.
Many of the comments weren't merely chiding; they
were venomous and foul-mouthed. Some announced
a campaign to end The Sentinel's existence because
of their fury over our use of the word "retarded"
and the cruel insensitivity it demonstrated. After
all, one commenter reminded her readers, this is the
same paper that compared the late Edwin Charge to
Saddam Hussein.
It's possible that some people actually thought we
were calling our local racists retarded and thereby
demeaning them, or perhaps the developmentally
challenged who might not appreciate being painted
with the same brush as racists. Just in case that's
true, let me point out the term "retarded" was not
used in isolation by itself. Very pointedly, the word
was used together with the word "spiritually" The
full term was "spiritually retarded." That's an
entirely different thing than just calling someone
retarded, as reason will readily make clear. More
than one reader took that complete two-word term as
an abundantly accurate description of anyone who
abhors people because of the color of their skin; we
know because they told us so. And I stand by that
description--honestly, I don't know a more dogent
term for such an attitude.
Let me circle back to the comment about us com-
paring Edwin Charge with Saddam Hussein. We
tpok a 10t of fla.ck from people whoapparently didn't
read the story with comprehension, given that every
supposed fact referenced with horror in our story
about Charge was entirely inaccurate, as was this
new statement. (Charge, you will recall, is the young
man who accidently lept to his death while fleeing
police after being caught shoplifting at the Walmart
in Hood River.) Our story never compared him with
Saddam Hussein. What did wesay, then? We'll invite
anyone with that question to review the story again,
very carefully.
Back to Goldendale racism: it could be that our
sources have been scared off, though I have no idea
why that would happen. One in particular Who
promised to provide much more information on
condition of anonymity (which we granted) has not
returned. The person was so anonymous that we
didn't get contact information. Please come back.
You are safe. The town is with you 99.9 percent.
THE GOLDENDALE SENTINEL
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF KLICKITAT COUNTY, WASHINGTON
ESTABLISHED 1879' PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY FROM OFFICES AT 117 W. MAIN
STREET' GOLDENDALE, WA 98620' TELEPHONE: (509) 773-3777' FAX: (509) 314-4201
EDITORIAL:
Lou MARZELES, EDITOR & PUBLISHER
JARYD CLINE, SPORTS EDITOR
BRANDON CLINE, REPORTER
MAX ERIKSON, REPORTER
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.corn :¢ :: ~ IIUW/~I/hI2~/llIY IN/-~lt¢lW ¢
RUNS FASTER!
TT IT
Put out 'Burn Out'
Last night my husband and I
watched a film called "Chasing
Coral." This film documents in
visual terms the die-offs world-
wide of coral reef ecosystems (it
is currently streaming on Netflix).
Coral reefs are essential to the
ally getting our freedom as true Court. But the Republican-elected
Americans and working together judge, after research, ruled neg-
to make this a better country. We ligible fraud, though more by
need the National Guard working Republicans than Democrats,
with the police to clear our coun- and boosted Gregoire's winning
try of these horrible miscreants, margin to 133 votes. Chastened by
Best regards and keep up the his party's own judge, Rossi aban-
good work. doned his expected Washington
State Supreme Court appeal.
life cycle of species in the oceans. Herb and Sherry Renner
Oceans without life will have dev- Master Chief, USN, Retired, Norm Luther
astating, irreversible impacts on and proud Navy wife Spokane
all life on land.
It is a fact that climate change Gotdendale
is happening and one of its many State tax system a disaster
manifestations is the rapid
increase in the water tempera- .lobs finally coming
ture of oceans worldwide. It is The Washington State tax sys-
confirmed that the increased It is encouraging to see a new tem is the worst in the country.
water temperature is causing the business (and jobs) coming to Gol- It is the most regressive, which
massive die-off(bleaching) ofcor- dendale--Auscrete Corporation. means the lower income families
als. Whether or not you agree that Hopefully the city will ensure pay a bigger percentage of their
human activity is causing climate that the new facility's lighting is income in taxes than the wealth-
change, the accumulation of car- dark-skyfriendly, helpingto main- ier. Low- and middle-income
boa from human activity in the tain dark skies for the Goldendale households pay up to seven times
atmosphere is making it worse, Observatory. In recent years we've more in state and local taxes as a
much worse, seen the County upgrade the light- share of their incomes than those
Shouldn't we as a community be ing around the Courthouse, and at the top.
in solidarity with efforts by others have seen our PUD plan for LED The top richest 1 percent of
worldwide to reduce or eliminate lights that are considerate of dark Washingtonians (greater than
our activities that contribute to skies. With the exciting upgrades $500,000) pay 2.4 percent of their
the ever increasing carbon lev, coming to the Observatory, let's income in state and local taxes
els in the atmosphere? Aug. 18, make sure we continue this trend, while the lowest 20 percent (less
19, and 20 is the weekend for the than $21,000) pay 17 percent of
annual Goldendale Festival of Jim White their income in taxes.
The Washington State legisla-
Wheels, when the town will host ?'rout Lake ture just passed the 2017-19 state
an event that is sure to produce a operating budget. They came up
mega load of carbon from an activ- with about $1.6 billion this cycle
ity that serves no useful purpose. Is Trumpsuppressing voters7 to pay for schools as required by
I'm referring to the "Burn Out" the Washington Supreme Court to
event. The following Monday, Is suppression of Democratic ensure fair pay for teachers across
Aug. 21, is the total solar eclipse, voters the goal of President the state.
and the town and the region will Trump's Presidential Advisory Too bad they did it by making.
be flooded with visitors from all Commission on Election Integ- the tax system worse. Beginning
over the world to witness that rity? Prior voter fraud claims by in 2018 the State's share on our
event. Many of them will be in the commission's activist vice- property tax bill will increase to
town for the weekend before that chair and early Trump supporter, pay for schools and local school
Monday. Wouldn't Goldendale like Kansas Secretary of State Kris levies will decrease. Households
to be seen as a town that is proac- Kobach, prompted the nonparti- living in areas of the state with
tive in its efforts to join with the san Brennan Center for Justice to high property values will see a big
world community that is working respond (5/11/17): "Kobach could spike in their property tax bills,
to curb our carbon emissions? have a platform for his exagger- even as their incomes don't go up.
Shouldn't the community recon- ated and debunked claims. His Our legislature is equally
sider the "importance" of the record in elections and voting divided. Democrats control the
Burn Out event and cancel it? reveals that...he has spent the last House and Republicans control
decade pursuing policies that are the Senate. Progressive revenue
Deanna Kentharmful to many Americans -- options proposed by Democrats,
Wayne Kent particularly those Americans who including a capital gains tax on
Goldendale are not white, who are elderly, or the sale of high-value stocks and
who are low-income. Americans bonds and a progressive realestate
should be wary...now that Presi- excise tax were flatly refused by
Racism has to stop dent Trump has chosen to put Kob- Republicans.
ach in this role." A good thing is that several tax
With a very sincere heart, we This triggers memories of loopholes were closed including
thank The Sentinel for the past bogus Republican-alleged voter on bottled water, big oil and the
two weeks of explaining the rac- fraud in Washington's close 2004 out-of-stateinternet sales tax. Gov.
ist activity against our Pastor Pat gubernatorial race between Dem- Inslee rightly vetoed a tax exemp-
of the UnitedMethodist Church ocrat Chris Gregoire and Repub- tion for manufacturers. But in a
here in Goldendale and the possi- lican Dino Rossi. Initial machine state that has the most unfair tax
ble continuance against others in count favored Rossi by 261 votes, system in the nation, these steps
the community, machine recount by 42, but final forward were simply not enough.
Our German ancestors arrived manual count elected Gregoire by
as indentured servants at the 129 votes. Rossi filed suit to over- Ray Klebba
same time that African slaves turn the result in Republican- White Salmon
were being imported, eventu- friendly Chelan County Superior
lh ni a enhnet
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