In what can best be described as a tempest in a teapot, certain groups within Lewis County are seemingly going out of their way to attack the chair of the Lewis County Seniors board. The issue that has these so called “concerned citizens” all agog with fury is the decision of the board against having a prayer open their meetings.
In particular, these defenders of the evangelical right to inject their religion into the group, as they fight to do in every venue across these United States, seem to have decided that the chair of the board has attacked them, each and every one, personally. As if the specter of the Westboro Baptist Church attacking funerals of service members who died while serving the nation isn’t enough, now they have decided that the senior citizens board, a largely privately funded entity, should face their wrath.
As I did not attend the meeting at which this atrocity occurred, I cannot testify first hand as to how the events unfolded. To this mostly disinterested observer, it sure looks like the prayer posse went into this meeting with an agenda, which was not to hear about how the delivery of meals to shut in seniors was progressing, nor to be informed as to the status of the funding for the group.
In my seven decades of living, I have noticed that this kind of confrontation is almost always an orchestrated event, usually arranged to discredit some group or individual.
In that the chair of the group was named specifically, it seems that my suspicions are correct. It is not hard to ascertain why they would do so. Brock, the chair of the board, has a long history of civic involvement in Lewis County in a variety of positions. Unforgivably for the movers and shakers of Lewis County, Ms. Brock is a Democrat. This makes her a target for their anger and dirty tricks, which Ms. Brock has endured for years.
However, in his recent opinion piece, Chad Taylor, who for those who may not know is the owner and publisher of the The Chronicle and other media outlets in Washington, has endorsed in a backhand way one of the Democratic Party’s main objectives, that of inclusion.
Mr. Taylor, to be sure, was taking the opportunity to pile onto Ms. Brock, but his conclusion about the Lewis County Seniors Board not being inclusive enough is good advice.
Mr. Taylor should take his own advice.
So, it’s happy days in Lewis County, now that The Chronicle has endorsed one of the main political platform planks of the progressive left.
Alan Mahood
Chehalis
