What does a press secretary do?
“Well,” Jody Powell once told me, “if you remember the circus parades that came through town in your youth, the scruffy guy at the tail end, with the half-pint in his back pocket and a bucket and a shovel for picking up after the elephants and horses, that guy was a press secretary.”
What does a press secretary do?
“Well,” Jody Powell once told me, “if you remember the circus parades that came through town in your youth, the scruffy guy at the tail end, with the half-pint in his back pocket and a bucket and a shovel for picking up after the elephants and horses, that guy was a press secretary.”
Editor’s note: This is the complete text of North Kitsap senior Talitha Aban’s speech she delivered to the North Kitsap School District Board of Directors at its June 5 regular meeting.
The South Kitsap School District bought itself a bit of controversy last week by rushing to anoint Dave La Rose as the successor to Bev Cheney when she steps down as superintendent next spring.
But although conspiracy theories abound to explain why the board acted with such unseemly haste, until the facts prove otherwise we’re going to stick with Achim’s Razor, which states that the simplest solution to any question is usually the correct one.
Gasoline now averages $4 a gallon. It is a level that most thought they would never see in their lifetime. And, it is expected to go higher – possibly to $5 per gallon by the end of the summer.
The price hike has far exceeded any cost of living adjustments people get in their pay or retirement incomes. It is making it much harder for people to get by and causing many to cut back on things that make life enjoyable such as vacations, family outings, visits to family and friends.
It is putting a big crimp in the national economy. People are now beginning to discover how much of our daily lives use petroleum-based products: roads, driveways and tennis courts that use asphalt; plastics in piping, containers and molds. It is a reliance on items that most cannot conceive of doing without.
So, it begs the question – how far can this go before everything really goes south?
Of course, if there are major changes in government policies on energy use and consumption and the public takes its blinders off by realizing it is a big part of the problem, then something can be done to avoid a calamity.
The oil embargo/crisis of the 1970s could have been the turning point on putting the US onto the road of energy self-sufficiency. Instead, we blamed Carter and his seemingly unfeeling response to people not wanting to turn the heat down: “put on a sweater.” We wanted Reagan and his view that America can do no wrong and that whatever path we take, it is the right one. We didn’t need to conserve energy or look at requiring fuel-efficient cars. We should let the marketplace decide what we should have. If we wanted to drive fast in big heavy vehicles that consume gas, then so be it. What matter that oil is a finite resource and when it runs out, that’s it. Since it would not happen in the foreseeable future, why worry about it?
Well, that time is approaching far more rapidly than anticipated. The energy consumption of China now rivals the United States and its economy is much stronger than ours at this point. The demand has exceeded the available supply and with the free market in action, prices have gone up dramatically.
Just as the conclusion reached in “Who Killed the Electric Car?” pointed to all facets of society, so, too, can the culprits in the price hikes in gasoline and petroleum production be identified. The oil industry has been likened to a drug pusher by getting the United States hooked on gasoline for powering its transportation vehicles. Consumers have become heavy users, ever demanding bigger size and comfort over fuel-efficiency and smaller cars. Government policies have kowtowed to the automobile and energy industries, thereby stymieing any real progress in making the United States energy independent.
For too long we have been told we can have whatever we want without any cost to ourselves. And, certainly, we don’t need to pay attention to what may happen in the future since that will be someone else’s problem, not ours.
It is a selfish, self-serving approach to life that we are loath to give up.
Years ago, I forget how many, but at least 20, someone gave me a picture they took of me and I was surprised to notice a brown spot about the size of a quarter on my cheek.
It’s not that I hadn’t ever noticed it before, but if it was becoming significant enough to catch the eye in a photograph, I figured I should look into it. I delved into the American Medical Association’s Family Medical Guide, where I learned I was sporting what’s called a pre-cancerous skin spot caused by over exposure to the sun many years ago.
I.e., if you don’t do something about it, it will continue to grow and develop into one of three types of skin cancer.
Up for a pop quiz?
Who is it that makes the promise to guide, advise and watch over each one of us? It is God, of course, and he makes this promise in the Bible’s Old Testament book of Psalms. To find the verse, turn to the center section of your Bible and look for Psalm 32 before moving down to verse 8.
If you continue to read a few lines further you will learn that God’s unfailing love surrounds those who trust in him. How many times have you needed to hear this kind of assurance from God this past week alone?
Whether we like it or not, change is inevitable. But the key to accepting change, and even embracing it, is to look at it for its positive qualities. That’s what we’re doing here at the Central Kitsap Reporter. While many of our readers are used to a Wednesday and Saturday CK Reporter, and have been for many years, today’s issue is the first of a once-a-week only CK Reporter.
Scanning the CK Reporter’s new-look pages, tallying your likes and dislikes, pros and cons, you’ve probably mulled through the articles (hopefully) wondering, “Who’s this Wesley character? And, where is Paul?”
As noted in his final column, Paul recently transferred within the company to work on our growing Web site, leaving behind a desk, chair and “beat” list for somebody to assume.
Yep, that somebody is me; Wesley Remmer, the newest education, health, transportation, environment, social services, growth and “other” reporter to land in Silverdale.
Good grief. The North End’s biggest bashes of the year are in serious danger of being scaled back by epic proportions. Poulsbo’s Third of July and Kingston’s Fourth of July festivities — that’s 48 hours of community celebration — are both having quite a time fundraising this year.
Many folks remember the 1972 Seattle billboard: “Would the last person who leaves Seattle please turn out the lights?”
While some of you may already know me, it’s only polite to introduce myself to all of Bremerton at once.
I’ve been with the Central Kitsap Reporter more than a year and now it’s time to add another feather to my cap: Bremerton Patriot staff writer. That’s right, this Silverdale gal is invading the city of Bremerton.
My beats at the CK Reporter include business, cops and fire, among other things, and I’ll work those same beats in Bremerton.
By now, readers may have gotten a little used to change at the Bremerton Patriot. Since the paper got its start in 1999, the majority of those changes have been in staffing. Today’s new Bremerton Patriot, however, is just the start of what readers can soon come to expect.
And while change isn’t always easy, the key to accepting and even embracing it is to look at it for its positive qualities.
Years ago, I forget how many, but at least 20, someone gave me a picture they took of me and I was surprised to notice a brown spot about the size of a quarter on my cheek.
Every now and then someone puts a book into your hands and says, “You must read this.”
You think, “Hmm, as many books as there are published every day, why would this one prove meaningful to me?”
And yet, it always does. Doesn’t it?
It’s as if the rich kaleidoscope of books they share contain important messages you need to hear and the people themselves, well, they’re some sort of angel.
Years ago, I forget how many, but at least 20, someone gave me a picture they took of me and I was surprised to notice a brown spot about the size of a quarter on my cheek.
Its not that I hadn’t ever noticed it before but if it was becoming significant enough to catch the eye in a photograph, I figured I should look into it.
I delved into the American Medical Associations Family Medical Guide, where I learned I was sporting whats called a pre-cancerous skin spot caused by over exposure to the sun many years ago.
I.e., if you don’t do something about it, it will continue to grow and develop into one of three types of skin cancer.
With the confidence borne of someone who won’t have to face the voters again until 2011 (assuming he even decides to run at that point), Port of Bremerton Commissioner Bill Mahan last week went to bat once more for his pet project, the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) business incubator he envisions being built in the South Kitsap Industrial Area.
Speaking at a luncheon event on Wednesday with the Kitsap County commissioners, Mahan lamented the lack of progress on SEED and blamed the gridlock on leaders who lack his vision.
A squirrel sent us back to the Stone Age on Monday morning. Yes, in this sophisticated society in which we are traveling to explore other planets, map the human genome and teach our children how to use computers before they can use the potty, a squirrel can still rock our world.
Years ago, I forget how many, but at least 20, someone gave me a picture they took of me and I was surprised to notice a brown spot about the size of a quarter on my cheek.
It’s not that I hadn’t ever noticed it before but if it was becoming significant enough to catch the eye in a photograph, I figured I should look into it. I delved into the American Medical Association’s Family Medical Guide, where I learned I was sporting what’s called a pre-cancerous skin spot caused by over exposure to the sun many years ago.
Last week, Don and I stopped at the Colonel’s in Poulsbo for a quick bite. It reminded me of an article by James and Dick Thorpe in their book “Ancient Inventions,” published in 1994.
One chapter tells that the bucket-of-chicken-type restaurants are not really as new as we may think. Ma Yu Ching opened a “Bucket Chicken House” in China, in the city of Kaifeng. A very good business in 1153 AD.
