Dear Readers,

A sweet and caring official sat down to break bread with my wife and me at last April’s Nisqually Valley Home, Garden & Trade Show and said,
“You don’t always have to sleuth looking for the bad things here.”

I replied I do no sleuthing, rather I read and educate myself on key issues and share what I have learned on this Blog, and participate in the political debate by attending as many public Council meetings as possible, speaking up when I feel important to do so. That less than a handful of citizens are at any given public meeting does not in any way diminish my actions.

I had to ask this person,
“Why are there so many things that are so glaring and just look bad here; appearance of conflict of interests, the perpetration of incorrect facts about water, Thurston Highlands debt, $400,000 for flush toilets at the park, bank failure & another bank’s conflict of interest here, the outright deceptions from the Mayor, City Administrator & Community Development Director on a whole host of issues keeping the true facts of City Hall news from the public, and on, and on and on?”
One does not have to sleuth very far, as all of this is right before our eyes here for those that want to see!

If no one speaks up for change, then all of Yelm’s dirty little secrets will stay buried under a bulging carpet.
Is that what this community wants?
Perhaps, yes; the silence from the public is indicative of that.

Henry A. Giroux said in Truthout:
“In the current American political landscape, truth is not merely misrepresented or falsified; it is overtly mocked. As is well known, the Bush administration repeatedly lied to the American public, furthering a legacy of government mistrust while carrying the practice of distortion to new and almost unimaginable heights. Even now, almost a year after Bush left office, it is difficult to forget the lies and government-sponsored deceits in which it was claimed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, Iraq was making deals with al-Qaeda and, perhaps the most infamous of all, the United States did not engage in torture.”

This permeates right on down to our local politics, as well!

Rosemary and Walter Brasch said in Truthout:
“Joseph Pulitzer, one of America’s most respected and powerful publishers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, once said there are three rules of journalism – ‘Accuracy! Accuracy!! Accuracy!!!’ The media’s failure to verify the truth violates not only Pulitzer’s three rules for journalists, but also a basic lesson of Newswriting 101, now forgotten in the 24/7 ratings-obsessed news media – it’s more important to get it right than to be the first.”

That certainly applies to our local newspaper’s “journalists”, who so ardently rush to get stories out on a deadline without gathering all of the facts before they go to print, as I can attest first-hand. Their misreporting facts and never correcting the errors does not well-serve their readers and the community, no matter their desire to not be “made wrong”, as demonstrated by the defensive posturing in some of the Editor/Publisher’s Op-Eds.

We have election ballots arriving in our mailboxes this week and unfortunately only 2 people showed up for open Mayor and Yelm City Council positions and both decided to run for the open Council seat against each other, rather than against an incumbent.
Bless them for wanting to serve the public.
One can only hope that the winner will be able to hold their own against the onslaught of a Mayor and several Council members who had no opposition, nor forum in which the public could hear their views for the next term. That apathy here is very sad, although I can certainly see why people would not want their good name dragged through the mud here of the “local, established political cabal”, as one longtime city property owner called it.

Say what you will about this Blog and me personally, and that’s fine, even if speaking falsely about me in hopes that such dirt will stick, just like Council member Isom and the Nisqually Valley News have done, ad nauseum.
However, some people must read this blog, for the hundreds of unique visitors spending more than 30 seconds each day at this site is quite astounding.

The silence in this town from the public on issues of importance to them and their future is really quite amazing. And, the efforts by City officials and the local newspaper to stymie the facts from being properly given to the public is well – quite, shameful. 500 people voting for an unopposed Mayor and Council members out of 5,500 residents is NOT a mandate!
However, the City of Yelm citizens get exactly what they want, don’t they?!

In closing, to respond to that sweet man’s questions to me last Spring:
“Why do you write so much dirt about the city?
You don’t always have to sleuth looking for the bad things here.”

this quote from Copernicus sums up my answer:
“Cowardice is seeing what is right, and failing to do it.”