This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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“[America’s Independence Day] will be celebrated by succeeding Generations as the great anniversary Festival…It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Sh[o]ws, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations, from one end of this Continent to the other, from this Time forward, forever more.” John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776
John Adams’ prediction about our July 4 celebrations, quoted above, is pretty much on the money. True, he thought July 2 was Independence Day (that’s a long story), and he left out fried chicken and potato salad; he also stated there would be “Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.” So he was a little off. But for the most part he got July 4 right.
But what about the “Illuminations”? “Illuminations”? That’s 18th-century speak for “Fireworks.” And, as it turns out, Adams only got part of the “Illuminations” prediction right.
True, we will have many “Illuminations” this Saturday night. But we’ll also have overbearing anti-fireworks laws in action – neighbors ratting out neighbors and dozens of police squad car patrols, all to smell out and arrest the “Illuminators.” And then there’ll be the poor kids who have only sparklers and smoke bombs, because mom and dad want them to be “safe and sane.”
Give me a break! The American Revolution was fought in opposition to centralized authority, by patriots who refused to bow to an overbearing government – “Don’t Tread on Me!” “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!”
Two hundred years later, we have the Nanny State, watching our every move, protecting us from ourselves because of the fundamental progressive (not Revolutionary) belief that most of us common folks are too irrational (read “stupid”) to take care of ourselves.
Thank Heavens for the Indians! Thank Heavens that a group of Americans so betrayed by American Revolutionaries has endured into the twenty-first century, embraced capitalism, and built Fireworks (“Illuminations”) Stands! The only truly free territory in Pierce County is on the Puyallup and Muckleshoot Reservations!
“Give me Illuminations or give me Death!”
p.s. #1 Thanks to DA, whose thoughts are always “illuminating.”
p.s. #2 Note John Adams also refers above to “Guns” as part of the celebration. Keep that thought…
