Letters to the Editor

Czar Vladimir

Editor, The Journal

I am naturally standing in support of Ukraine. Part of this is that I am a rare bird, second-generation American and 100% Ukrainian. And a Uniate to boot. So, I have some perspective in this.

The war criminal, Vladimir Putin, claims that Ukraine belongs to Russia. This is laughable given that it is an indisputable sovereign nation, recognized as such by Russia itself. Now, if the war criminal wanted to induce Ukraine into a closer relationship, he could have done so easily. He could have run Russia in a way that was not repellant to the Ukrainians. As it was, he runs a kleptocratic oligarchy. The Ukrainians understandably saw that and said “no thanks” and turned westward.

That Ukrainians have looked to the West is not new. In fact, it started about 500 years ago. When you look at Ukraine, it starts as more Russian and Orthodox in the East and becomes more western and Catholic as you go west. That reflects the migration of Ukrainians toward identifying as Europeans instead of Russians. There are other scores to settle too. Don’t think they have forgotten about the famines of the 1930s, and the whole unpleasant Soviet era.

As it is, Czar Vladimir has committed a flat-out war crime. His is a pure war of aggression. What I find strange is the words coming out of the mouths of Republicans. I never would have guessed the party of Ronald Reagan would have so many members being apologists for Putin. Or suggesting that an unprovoked attack was our fault. Or remaining silent while their party leader praises him as being a genius. Yet here they are.

It is especially puzzling that a phony like ex-President Donald Trump is deriding our nation. He can complain all he wants. He is the one that tried to blackmail Ukraine for his personal gain. He is the one that sided with a war criminal over his own nation’s defense network. He is the one who obfuscated when the British prime minister accused Putin of poisoning people on British soil. And who can forget all the footsie that was going on between his campaign and Russian operatives. Heck, his campaign manager was getting paid off by Russian oligarchs and supplied internal polling data to Russian intelligence. Now he calls President Joe Biden weak. And Republican leaders parrot it?

Now, I don’t know how this all winds up. Russia has a much larger military. I suppose they can capture territory if they’re willing to use enough of it. But they haven’t been projecting the image of invincible warriors either. But I have a funny feeling that Ukraine will be giving him heartburn and indigestion for a while.

On a separate note, I give a special shout-out to the Republican leader of the Senate election committee, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida. Scott has pointed out that he doesn’t think 60% of Americans have any skin in the game. So, he has announced that the GOP platform, and it must be since it is the only one they have propounded, is to tax workers and the elderly so they can maintain tax cuts for him and his rich buddies. And if you think they are not aimed at you, just look at the Mason County economic demographic. The GOP is now officially the party of new taxes and Putin.

Andrew Makar, Hoodsport

Thoughts on debt

Editor, The Journal

A letter in last week’s Journal made some interesting observations about our national debt. I agree that debt is something to be avoided whenever possible but it is not necessarily the evil the writer makes it out to be.

While comparing national debt to household debt vs. income, he overlooks the fact that many families have home mortgages that exceed their annual income. I know the five houses that I purchased over the years each cost more than my annual income but that debt was spread out over 20 to 30 years. Similarly, our national debt is financed by Treasury securities that can span years, even decades.

Infrastructure, military and even social programs are budget items that can result in our nation incurring debt. While the need for any individual budget item can and should be debated, most Americans would generally agree that bridges, highways, research of all kinds, a strong military and even high-speed broadband internet for rural communities are worthy expenditures.

I am more concerned by tax breaks that allow the ultra-wealthy and major corporations to avoid paying any taxes, forcing the financing of our government onto a shrinking middle class and those struggling with poverty. But, that is just my opinion.

James Biehl, Shelton

Race reflections

Editor, The Journal,

The people who know the most about racial conflict constantly inform me that as a Caucasian, I’m a systemic racist. I think genetically this is referred to as a linked gene.

The only cure for this malady is a frontal lobotomy — alas — I prefer the moniker of systemic racist to the cure.

As a systemic-racist apologist, I’ve known only one “person of color” well enough to feel comfortable in their presence — Sarah Winchester, our cleaning lady — and this only because I was too young to notice race.

Sarah, married, but no children, would entertain her fellow bus passengers on the weekly commute from the Cleveland Hough neighborhood to Gates Mills suburb about the shenanigans of “The Poirsons in Gates Mills!” our five — soon expanded to seven — children. She was proud of us and I think she thought of us as the children she never had.

Sarah would lift me up on the laundry drying machine so I could watch her fold clothes while laughing hysterically at the comedy shows.

She was a strong woman — she’d pull the refrigerator away from the wall so she could wash the floor under it.

She introduced us to the marvelous and child-proof recipe of peanut butter on celery.

Once a burglar broke into her apartment. She expressed her disapproval of his presence with a rubber pipe. The police arrived to the burglar cowering under a sink in the corner imploring the officers to “Please! Please! Get me away from that mad woman!”

Then the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland experienced racial riots. Sarah’s husband was shot and killed sometime in the predawn hours on his way to light the furnaces at the J & L Steel Mill. The killer was never found.

Then-President Lyndon Johnson subsequently invited Sarah to the White House to personally apologize and commensurate upon the tragedy. Sarah spent her first moments with the president apologizing for exchanging the government-issued plane ticket for a bus ticket and a proper dress. President Johnson allowed as to how this was understandable and would not cause her a problem.

Sarah never recovered from this tragedy. Mom continued Sarah’s contract with us until the nip or two from the parent’s liquor cabinet became noticeable in her work.

Sarah died on the street near her home dodging out into traffic to greet a friend. No charges were filed as it was ruled an accident.

James Poirson, Shelton

Difference of opinion

Editor, The Journal,

When I respond to letters I do not use the writer’s name because I am responding to an opinion with an opinion on a particular issue. It isn’t about the person, just a difference in opinion.

But, this time I am going to use a name as was mine used.

Mr. Robert E. Graham, I would like to thank you for your service in Vietnam.

I am sorry you came home to such mistreatment. I have never understood the reason for such action. I am also sorry anyone was sent to that war.

I also felt respect for those who burned their draft cards, those who chose to go to Canada and for the soldiers who came home and protested what they had just experienced.

I think that war was not lost by the soldiers on the ground but by our leaders here at home. Remember Robert McNamara and how each president since Harry Truman kept escalating our involvement? And how about the revelations of the Pentagon Papers?

As for the action of Jane Fonda, the act that earned her the name “Hanoi Jane,” was a terrible act that afterward and to this day she regrets. Her words in protesting that war were right. Protests in this country helped get us out.

Having said all of that about Vietnam, that wasn’t even the point of Mr. Grahams original letter. His actual point was in his last paragraph. “The act of COVID manipulation for political gain is indeed treacherous.”

I wonder if Mr. Graham thought that if he thought Jane Fonda was wrong in 1972 she must then automatically be wrong in 2020? One act in 1972 was wrong, her words of protest were correct as were her words in 2020.

Manipulation of COVID for political gain began with ex-President Donald Trump and continues to this day with Republican governors, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers.

Oh no, was that my “shotgun” again?

Well, Mr. Graham, I am about to “bare my teeth,” come a “blazing” with more of my “tirade.”

I see on Feb. 24 a letter “Name calling” pegged you. I see your connection to Trump and FOX has allowed the name-calling, scandalizing Trumpian attitude to come out. You clearly made my point about angry FOX watchers. And yes, I know FOX viewing is high. Do you realize FOX entertainers such as Carlson,

Hannity, Ingram, Pirro, etc. were not hired to report the actual news? Roger Ailes created FOX to simply make money.

What makes money? Not reporting the actual news. It’s making viewers feel fear of the “other” and angry about what they tell you the “other” is doing to you. FOX doesn’t want viewers to think, just feel.

There have actually been studies done on the effects of watching FOX programs. FOX creates very angry, suspicious viewers. Studies have also found FOX viewers are actually more ill-informed than people who watch no news programs at all. (Yes, you can look it up).

Actually people don’t have to watch FOX or CNN or MSNBC to form an opinion on issues and people. Oh-oh, here comes another “shotgun” moment.

We don’t need these outlets and their “expert analysis” to tell us what kind of a person Trump is. Just watch any speech he has ever given. Now Russian President Vladimir Putin has started war with Ukraine and again Trump, Carlson, Pompeo, Bannon and their gang continue to show us who they are.

Yes, Mr. Graham, I am a staunch Democrat. Became even more so as I watched Trump take over the Republican Party. I am upset by what Trump and his cowardly Republican friends are doing to our country.

I hope everyone is paying attention to the Jan. 6 Committee on the insurrection. Oops. Was that yet another “shotgun” to the “deniers?”

No, I do not have TDS, there are actual facts to back up my opinions.

Mr. Graham, thank you for bringing a bomb to what you characterized as a “shotgun” fight.

Donna Holliday, Shelton

Money views

Editor, The Journal,

Sunday morning, watching KING 5 news, they had a report on what was going on in Olympia. On this segment they were talking about how the state has a surplus and that the Republicans have recommended a reduction on the state sales tax of 1%. I do not know who the politician was who was speaking, but she said that that would not help the

economy, so instead they are going to make the state and county fairs free. Are you kidding me? With over 7% inflation, gas cost up over $2 per gallon and the increase on everything in the grocery stores. The best that the Democratic Party can come up with is to let us go to the fair for free?

How about lowering the taxes that everyone pays every day of the week? That will help everyone put food on the table, pay the electric bill, pay the gas bill, fill the tank so that we can go to work and earn a living and yes, pay more taxes. And it would help all of us that are on a fixed income or who are disabled and on disability.

Let’s all review just what our elected officials get paid, and in July every one of them is getting a 1.75% pay raise. Here are their salaries: governor, $187,353; lieutenant governor, $117,300; secretary of state, $134,640; treasurer, $153,615; attorney general, $172,259; auditor, $132,212; superintendent of public instruction, $153,300; insurance commissioner, $137,700; commissioner of public lands, $153,000; and legislator, $56,881.

And remember, legislators are in session in odd-numbered years for 105 days and in even-numbered years for 60 days.

Maybe it is good that they are not spending more time working on ways to increase taxes.

It’s time that we the people, get more for our tax dollar. How about refunding the police? School choice? Property tax relief? How about $30 car tabs? How about giving the money back to those that actually paid it? Wild ideas, I know.

Keith Martin, Shelton

Minor housekeeping

Editor, the Journal,

There is a trove of big news this past week, but first, some minor housekeeping.

In a letter titled, “Name-calling” (Feb. 24) Ms. Karen Skinner of Shelton scolded me harshly for doing what comes naturally, that is, making fun of liberals. She apparently found many of my more colorful comments in past issues of the

Journal and revealed them in her otherwise joyless letter. I do believe I live rent-free in her head.

I’m not sure Ms. Skinner fully understands what “name-calling” means in this context. I’m confident that if my words were libelous, the Journal would rightly not publish them. I urge everyone to read Ms. Skinner’s letter which I retitled, “Tales From a Fever Swamp.”

Ukraine is, as we have known, at war with Russia. There’s an exodus of people out of the capital city of Kyiv. It’s very early in the conflict, but the chatty-Kathys in the punditry are breathlessly talking about the present and suspected future. The Russians have the heavy metal and troop buildups and should take over the country, but ...

Does anyone remember the 1984 movie, “Red Dawn,” with Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen? I predict something like that. If this thing goes several months or more, Ukrainian citizens, who are a tough bunch, could go to ground — start a full insurrection — and watch the Russians flee the country, just as they fled before the mujahideen in Afghanistan in 1989.

Sanctions against Russia? You’ve got to be kidding. With Joe Biden as president, the U.S. is the weakest player in the game here. Putin scoffs at sanctions. If Germany gets serious, we may see movement, but we shouldn’t hold our breaths for any meaningful progress.

Two of the greatest political blunders in the last decade must include Hillary Clinton’s August 2016 speech in which she called half of Trump supporters “deplorables.” (Mr. Kurt Schlichter, a columnist at Townhall.com, has named her “Stumbles McPantsuit.” Hey Ms. Skinner, are you writing this down?)

However, the greatest botch of many to come, had to be Joe Biden’s infantile and disastrous canceling of the Keystone Pipeline when he took office in January 2021.

This, and other “green” presidential decrees, started an inevitable slide into a complete loss of U.S. energy independence (a “freebie” from ex-President Donald Trump.) This surely would have, could have been, a big chip to play in any game of sanction poker. (Hey Joe, you sure fixed that old meanie Trump, didn’t you?)

Oops, let’s not forget Ms. Skinner and her letter. First, I’m so glad, Karen, that you discovered that Mike Pence is a very shrewd politician. Second, let me thank you profusely for recycling some of my old barbs. I appreciate the free press.

Robert E. Graham, Union