Letters to the editor
What an evening
Fifty excited and hungry Big Arm enthusiasts showed up on Saturday, March 24 to a corned beef and cabbage fundraising dinner at the historic Big Arm school and some rousing entertainment by the Montana Shamrockers. We thank the five Montana Shamrockers for their splendid performance to everyone’s delight.
All were amazed at the progress on the annex to the historic school, now with the trusses in place, which will house our kitchen and bathrooms. For more information on our project or if you would like to help contact Alison Meslin at 849-6628.
Dennis Wolfe
Big Arm
Effects of violence
The very recent killing of Afghan women and children by an American soldier calls to question the dire consequences of war and killing upon the minds of our young men and women in the military.
In the words of Chris Hedges, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and for two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times on the Sgt. Robert Bales rampage: “This is not an anomaly! To decry the butchery in this case and to defend the wars of occupation we wage is to know nothing of combat.”
That statement speaks directly to how easily we fall into the acceptance of killing in combat yet decry other forms of killing. We try to train our young Americans’ minds to justify the killing in combat yet turn off that ‘kill attitude’ in other matters. I wonder about this. I wonder about PTSD and what it is really telling us about a much larger concern we should have as a nation. I wonder about the deep effects violence has had on all of us as it is played out on TV, in movies, in print, in foreign policy choices, and in so many parts of our lives. We don’t have to look very far to see the effects it has had and is still having.
We often hear comments such as: “Well, that’s just the way life is. It will not change. This sort of talk is just another one of those tree-hugger-types and save the owls folks who try to push ‘love and peace’ everywhere. Get real!”
I guess we must leave it up to each of us to determine, for ourselves, what is real, what is possible, what real change is all about, and where ‘love and peace’ just might fit into our world order. There are movements cropping up around the world which speak to this very thing.
We are a nation populated with people of strong resolve for what we think is right. We are a nation populated with people believing in the original intent in our Constitution. We are a nation of reasonable, hard working, dedicated and patriotic people. We are also a nation of people, right now, who have grown up with the effects of ‘violence being normal and expected’ as a way of life.
It seem to me that ‘this need not be.’
Bob McClellan
Polson
Normalcy bias
A few comments are in order about the “Normalcy Bias” which was denigrated by a recent LTE writer. The NB is simply a brain mechanism which allows a person to not panic at every perceived possibility of a threat. It allows people to fly on airplanes - even though there always is the possibility of crashing and dying. It allows people to drive cars - even though you could get killed in a car wreck. It allows people to get married - in spite of all the risks.
Yes, there can be disasters. After the Katrina flood the NB was described as one reason why some people stayed in a danger zone. The same description comes after many disasters (extreme fires, tornadoes, etc). What is omitted by those who promote NB for their own agenda is that the great percentage of the time you do not die in a plane crash or a flood or a fire.
Think for a moment about possible opposites to the Normalcy Bias. This could be a person who sees threat everywhere - anxiety and obsessive compulsiveness is a way of life. More likely is a person who panics only on specific issues. Some people are deathly afraid of snakes but can handle spiders with ease. Humans can find an extreme reaction to almost anything which becomes that person’s “thing” - and this includes issues such as religion or politics.
In the case at hand (Agenda 21) the idea of world domination has been adopted as a fear and NB is being used against those who question or resist the tendency to accept that fear. However, just as with snakes and spiders, it appears that people who fear world domination have their own form of Normalcy Bias in the area of Global Warming - and they consider the Earth’s temperature changes as “just normal activity”.
To each his own, it appears. It reminds of a biblical phrase (Mathew 7:5) which states: “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote of thy brother’s eye.”
The LTE writer insultingly compared those citizens who do not agree with him as baby birds being fed and simply taking in what is given to them. He refers to his fellow citizens as merely lazily taking in what the media hands out. He insinuates that he knows “the truth” and other people are merely intellectual pipsqueaks who are slaves to the whims of a malicious media. A reminder is in order here that the people who greatly fear Agenda 21 are also subject to spoon feeding - as evidenced by Janna Taylor’s declaration that the Republican National Committee is feeding those ideas to its own baby birds. Glenn Beck pushed the Normalcy Bias to promote his own sets of fears and biases and to denigrate those who “did not see the light” (as he did).
Perhaps there are lessons here. Decision-making is enhanced when people understand more about statistical probabilities. Perhaps understanding “Risk Assessment” would help people avoid the dangers of thinking only in the extremes. Yes, a meteor could land on your head - but do you live your daily life fearing that it will today? Decisions are better made when you deal with the actual risk (not just a fantasy of a risk). I will close now and take a walk out among the billions of bits of debris which are flying about through space.
Gene Johnson
Polson
Human beings
I have just returned from a program provided by a host of musical groups and the Knights of Columbus in support of Helping Hands. It was a beautiful and inspirational happening.
Last Thursday, the residents of St. Joseph’s Assisted Living Center were delighted to share over an hour’s time with about 50 girls from the Polson Middle School. They were accompanied by women who belong to P.E.O. They all came to share their lives with us and we with them while enjoying tea and cookies. It was a beautiful and enlightening afternoon.
The next day, at a memorial service for a resident who had just passed away, I listened to a young woman speak lovingly about her grandmother who had raised her after her own mother had died. It was a beautiful, heartwarming time for everyone who attended the service.
On Saturday, a friend came to visit. She said, “ I would like to show you a picture of my new 5-week-old grandchild. What we saw was not a baby in her mother’s arms, but a beautifully-formed, 5-week-old baby growing in its mother’s womb. It will live and grow there until it is time for it to leave her womb and be born into this world. It was an awesome and beautiful picture to see.
All of this happening in just four days time overwhelmed me. I was prompted to thank God for all of his human beings – the unborn, the young, the old, those who give so unselfishly of their time and talent to help make other persons’ lives more meaningful.
It reaffirms my conviction that “all life is sacred” from the “moment of conception to its natural end.”
Today, our nation is being challenged to contemplate the true meaning of that belief and to determine what role our government has in caring for and protecting those lives. Let us hope and pray that we will do God’s will.
Rita Senkler
Polson
A sideshow
As a parent of a young adult that attended the Arlee school system for 11 years, I find it very hurtful that a school board trustee would call verbal assault, intimidation and bullying from his coach, ex-school board trustee and teachers a “sideshow.” I hope that this will help show what kind of attitude and lack of communication effects this system that we must entrust and expose our young people to. I ask you to add to your policies that parents, grandparents or guardians must meet with a coach or coaches 48 hours before an incident.
I do not know where this trustee received his information to make such a remark, so I ask this trustee to produce your evidence as a sideshow. After all, our young are our most important issue and all issues should be handled with concern involved.
As for the Valley Journal and the Lake County Leader, I ask this: Who was assaulted?
Francis Pierre
Arlee
Editor’s note: The sideshow comment pertains to an article printed in the Wednesday, March 21 Valley Journal. The Leader article on the meeting was printed Thursday, March 22, and did not reference that specific quote.