Bandon Mayor and Myrtle Point Herald editor Mary Schamehorn does not suffer criticism well. A recent letter to The World accusing her of making uninformed decisions about assault weapons raised her hackles and unleashed an email exchange between herself and the author, Mitch Lewis. In a knee jerk reaction from Schamehorn in her “As I see it” column, the mayor may have gone too far in playing “tit for tat”. First, Lewis’ letter precisely as it appeared in The World.

Once again, while being subjected to Mary Schamehorn’s diatribe about a subject she knows nothing about, I’m confused. Ms. Shamehorn is all in favor of a ban on assault weapons. In fact, she brags about just having signed a petition saying so. She states, ‘I don’t know why anybody would want to own one in the first place.”

Now, I ask you this. How can you be in favor of banning something you admit you don’t know anything about? Shouldn’t one do at least a little investigation before taking any pro or con stance? This may explain the actions of the Bandon City Council. Uninformed decision making. Really?

Mitch Lewis

Bandon

The mayor obtained Lewis’ personal email from somewhere and provoked this heated exchange

SCHAMEHORN: Looks like I’m not the only forward thinking person that understands how dangerous assault weapons are. I plan to send the Governor,as well as other state officials, your diatribe against me. Bandon Mayor Mary Schamehorn

LEWIS: Keep in mind, that my choice to own legal weapons is my right. It is NOT your right to dictate to me, or anyone, what I choose to do legally. And there is nothing in the Bill of Rights that allows you to decide how I choose to defend myself, or how I go about it.

When you send it along to the Governor, for his sake, have someone around to help the idiot sound out the words.

BTW, I’ll send this along to some intersted parties myself. Interesting how someone can sign a personal opinion E-mail with their official title. Is this the official stance of the Bandon City Council?

SCHAMEHORN: I believe it was you who attacked the Bandon city council in your letter or was I just confused.

LEWIS: It’s called an opinion. An opinion is not considered an attack by any sane person. People are entitled to opinions.

SCHAMEHORN: It’s funny. I don’t remember ever seeing you at a meeting or receiving any calls about concerns that you have. I have asked Matt to look into your concerns.

LEWIS: It’s not required, by anything I’m aware of, to attend a meeting or place calls anyone in order to have and express an opinion. I might also add, your statement I commented on was made after the last Council meeting. There would have been no opportunity to discuss this in a meeting since it has never been on a public agenda.

The exchange continues but it is what Schamehorn says on her blog that tips the cart. Though Lewis makes no reference to his employer, job title and their exchange is via his personal email account, Schamehorn goes out of her way to “out” him as the local watermaster on her blog.
“District watermaster Mitch Lewis, who lives in Bandon but works out of Coquille in a state job, sent a letter to The World…”
“These words certainly speak volumes about district watermaster Mitch Lewis…”

Lewis is furious and plans to speak with a lawyer and asked the mayor to explain herself in an email. “The difference is this. I made no mention or use of my employer or title. Your column is written as the Mayor. Your E-mails to me carry your title. My opinions, as a private citizen, are mine by law. You made mention of my title, not I. How does that work?”

Schamehorn dodged the question with the following grammatically imperfect sentences. “Sorry. I have been writing m column for many many years; long before I even thought about being mayor. I started it more than 20 years ago, under the name As I See It, when I worked at Western World. It definitely reflect the view of the council. Mary”.

(This last bit I find particularly amusing because Schamehorn is known to take it upon her self to red line errors in competing publications and send these corrections to the editors.)

Perhaps, as a public figure she might learn to rise above “tit for tat” in order to set a good example. Unfortunately, Schamehorn’s insecurities got in the way of her better judgment. By way of explanation, in an email reply to my question as to why she felt it important to list Lewis’ employment she offered the following:

Yes, because he mentioned the poor decisions of the City Council, which brought the city into it. My column has absolutely nothing to do with the city. He brought the city into it, and that is why I let people know who he is. Why he didn’t just reply to my column at Bandon.tv, I am not sure since it never ran in either the w. W. or the World so people had no idea to what he was referring.

[Photo Bandon City website]