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The INDEPENDENT, January 20, 2011
The
INDEPENDENT
Published on the first and third Thursdays of each month by
The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064.
Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410.
Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net
Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net
Mentor Noni Andersen
Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based dyes
Opinion
New year and new council
It is definitely a new year, with positive changes at
the latest Vernonia City Council meeting. Before the
regular meeting, council held a work session to define
procedures so less time is wasted and more work gets
accomplished. They also discussed holding work ses-
sions on complex issues, instead of making snap deci-
sions on issues that require more information, focus
and discussion.
Mayor Josette Mitchell deserves credit for running
the meeting in a proper and business-like fashion. In
past meetings, councilors often spoke over one anoth-
er and there often was more than one conversation go-
ing on at once. Mitchell made it evident that she will not
tolerate inappropriate behavior, when she told Coun-
cilor Kevin Hudson to stop interrupting and that his be-
havior was rude. Being told once should have been
enough, but she had to tell him twice before the coun-
cil was able to get to the first agenda item (see council
story on page 4).
Mitchell also took the opportunity to retrain Hudson
on the rights, responsibilities and privileges of his coun-
cil position. Hudson was reminded that no individual
councilor has any power. A quorum of the council (at
least three) is needed to make policy or requests of city
staff. Mitchell also helped clarify that councilors have
no authority to micro-manage the work of city staff or
contractors.
Good job, Mayor.
We also want to add that new Councilors Willow
Burch and Marilyn Nicks have already made valuable
contributions. Burch spoke in the work session to
stress the importance of citizens continuing to have a
voice at meetings (those wishing to address council still
need to fill out a form and hand it to Recorder Joann
Glass). Nicks added value with her comments and
questions each time she spoke. Both Burch and Nicks
are paying attention and were well-prepared for the
meeting.
Hudson was angry, demanding, complaining, and
simply rude because of his concern over the renewal of
Vernonia Police Sergeant Mike Kay’s K9 contract. We
don’t know what the City is doing about the contract;
we do know what we received when we asked the City
for information on the K9’s activities – nothing. We
asked for training documentation and records of any
arrests, tracking of lost or hiding persons, drug search-
es or drug seizures. We were told that the City did not
compile these records. The lack of such information
should concern all citizens and city officials.
Out of My Mind…
by Noni Andersen
Since the shootings in
Tucson, there has been a
lot of talk about toning
down political and social
discourse to reduce what
is often violent imagery.
Whether that would re-
duce the amount of vio-
lence in the United States
may be unanswerable.
But it would be worth a try.
To recap the tragedy, a man shot and killed six
people and wounded 13 others at a public event
held by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords to
meet with constituents. It seems most likely that
the shooter is mentally ill.
This column is not about blame or inadequate
mental health care. It is about language and im-
ages that imply approval of violent behavior, or
which use demeaning, dehumanizing terms,
when it is known that some people consider vio-
lent speech a call to action.
This last election exposed some of the most
violent political language I can recall hearing,
and I’ve been listening for a lo-o-o-ng time. The
words of Senate candidate Sharron Angle that
called for “taking out” her opponent, and that if
Washington doesn’t change, we might need
“Second Amendment remedies”, could be misun-
derstood only if her opponent was a Papa John’s
pizza, and the Second Amendment referred to
something other than the ownership of guns.
When asked, she denied any intent to encourage
violence. So…why use language that encour-
ages violence?
Sarah Palin’s “target” list, with the crosshairs
of a gunsight on a map of each Congressional
district where she wanted to defeat the incum-
bent, included Giffords’ district. Giffords’ oppo-
nent followed up by inviting people to a fund rais-
er to “Get on Target for Victory in November.
Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office.
Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly.” Of
course they deny any intent to encourage vio-
lence. So, if they don’t mean what they say, why
use imagery that implies approval of violence?
Most people would not consider those graph-
ic or word images to be invitations to violence.
Unfortunately, some people are unable to control
their responses to violent imagery. Others are
teetering on the edge and hear language such as
“baby killer” as justification for harming or killing
those who provide legal abortions.
Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, on a “Meet the
Press” show about using more civil speech, said
we should “treat others as fellow children of
God.” Before that phrase, however, he called the
Tucson shooter a “deranged lunatic who had no
respect for this nation,” and an “evil person.” He
used words to dehumanize a person, which
makes that person so much easier to hate.
If people did not respond to words or images,
there would be no quotations from Shakespeare,
Hitler, Will Rogers or the Bible; there would be no
beer ads, Nike logo or American flag.
The language we use tells more about us than
about others.