Accountability goes with choice
Editor,
I was born and raised in the beautiful Mission Valley and many of my friends still live there. I read the Leader on a weekly basis and after reading Angela Nolan's iIt's Our Choice,i I decided to write.
Here in America, I think we take the privilege of making choices somewhat for granted for it is something we do every day. So I think the problem is not always having choices but rather making these choices wisely. We want the choice but not the accountability that goes with it. Those seeking abortions fall into this category and often they do not realize it until it is too late. Ladies, except in the case of rape and incest, all of the choices leading up to abortion are yours. In Nolan's article she mentions the back alley abortions before Roe vs. Wade but it does not diminish the atrocities we have had since then, namely the Partial Birth Abortions.
Before the abortions were done with coat-hangers in back alleys, but the PBAs are done under sterile conditions by a doctor with a sharp instrument to the base of the skull of an unborn baby already in the birth canal. Many doctors tell us it is seldom needed to save the life of the mother. President Bush chose the moral high ground when he signed the ban sent to him by our elected officials.
When it comes to abstinence, President Bush, then Governor of Texas, only presented it as a viable option to unwanted pregnancies. He, like many others, felt that it is the only failproof option that we have and we know it works.
Roe v. Wade, women's rights and even Planned Parenthood have failed in this area and only serve to abort bad choice … We as a nation have a moral obligation to protect the weakest of our society and to make wise decisions to preserve the value and sanctity of life.
By the way, is McClellan/Daniels The Leader's new political tag team?
Dorothy E. Carpenter
Deer Park, Wash.
Need to cover all towns' sports
Editor,
Well, we might as well start calling this paper the Polson Leader.
The Ronan cross-country teams wins the divisional championship and Polson's cross-country team gets a big headline with a team picture and then below there is a small headline about Ronan winning.
Also I noticed that there was no article about Ronan's football game. Yes, we may have lost but if you are going to call a paper the Lake County Leader, then you need to cover all towns' sports not just Polson.
Thank God for the new newspaper, the Valley Journal. Without them we wouldn't know what was going on in other places of the valley.
Rebecca Morigeau
Ronan
Don't wait to become a victim
Editor,
This year's political campaign seems to be all about saving our taxpayers money. But as a Lake County registered voter going to the polls, you will be making a decision on whether to support a mil levy to help fund our Lake County Sheriff's Department. Before you hastily check the box to vote against an approximate $10 a month (probably one-quarter of what you pay for cable or satellite TV each month), please let me share our experience.
In April of this year, we received death threats to a member of our family. We immediately notified our county sheriff's department and they were very accommodating in getting our report filed within hours of the incident.
However, it became very apparent by that evening when we were feeling very vulnerable since the perpetrator was still not detained, that there was not enough staff to even patrol our neighborhood. Upon discussing this issue with Sheriff Barron, we were informed of a lack of staff and funding to properly patrol a county with as much land mass as Lake County.
Quite honestly, before this incident we may have been inclined to vote against this mil levy. But once you become a victim and need the help of your local county sheriff's department, and they are so burdened down that they cannot give the efficient response that they would desire, it's then that you can't put a price tag on your family's safety.
Don't wait until you become a victim. Please vote yes on the mil levy for public safety within Lake County.
David andd Cindy Ottun
Polson
What about chain of command?
Editor,
I was glad to hear that the senior soldier directly involved with the alleged Abu Ghraib prison iabusei scandal has pleaded guilty. If this incident did indeed occur, as the senior noncommissioned officer present, he should have been the one to answer for the misconduct, provided he was the senior NCO present.
It seems to me, that if I remember correctly in my Army career, there would have been a platoon sergeant, first sergeant, company commander, battalion commander, etc., in this leader's chain of command. Maybe it has changed in four years.
If these ileadersi had properly supervised what their soldiers were doing, the Abu Ghraib incident would never have happened.
I personally think that if the Army wanted a scapegoat, they should have used Colonel Pappas, the commander of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, who was the installation commander. He was overall responsible for what occurred at Abu Ghraib. But of course, another thing that never changes in the military is trying to bust anyone over the rank of Colonel.
Rick Moderie
Polson
Public safety mil levy is needed
Editor,
This letter is to address a serious problem that has developed in Lake County. It is the result of our huge population increase, an increase no one could have predicted. Over the last 10 years, our area has seen the largest percentage of growth increase in the state. This increase, along with initiatives, laws enacted by the legislature, and the county's lack of infrastructure, has caused a serious problem for the Sheriff's Office.
We have had a 116 percent increase in calls for deputies, 130 percent increase in 911 calls, 80 percent increase in city-county dispatch calls, and, in addition, we are called on to assist other law enforcement agencies in the county an average of 1,314 times a year.
We no longer have a regular patrol; deputies go from call to call all shift. We have one drug officer whose position is paid by a grant that is being cut back.
Do we want that with a $9.5 million drug industry in Lake County? These are some of the reasons you are being asked to support the Public Safety Mil Levy.
The Office of Sheriff is unique to law enforcement as it is a constitutional position. I am the only law enforcement officer who answers directly to the people, not a mayor of commission. If you don't like the job I'm doing, you can vote me out. No sheriff has ever taken this authority more seriously than I do.
When I ran for Sheriff, I asked you to trust me to do the best possible job with resources at hand. I feel I've earned that trust. I'm asking you to put your trust in me again by voting Yes on the Public Safety Mil Levy. This is your levy, not mine. I work for you.
We won't stand still. The choice is to keep up or fall behind in a time of record growth.
Our children, our communities, our very way of life are at stake. Pease help us to help you. Vote Yes for the Public Safety Mil Levy.
William D. Barron
Lake County Sheriff
KSKC-TV operation is explained
Editor,
Due to the recent interest in the program iLocking Horns over the Bison Rangei produced by the University of Montana and iMontana PBS,i some clarification may be helpful for viewers in the Mission Valley. Press releases were directed at all Montana news outlets announcing the broadcast on Montana PBS.
First, it is important to understand what Montana PBS is. It is KUSM in Bozeman and KUFM in Missoula and a number of translator stations that serve areas such as Livingston with an over the air, free signal.
Montana PBS is also seen on many cable systems and satellite feeds in Montana on a fee basis. The system receives continuing support for operation from the State of Montana and the federal government, as well as by viewers and businesses in their viewing areas.
When the announcement was made last month that the program iLocking Horns over the Bison Rangei was to air on Montana PBS, KSKC-TV received a number of inquiries from the public and media outlets asking if the program would be shown here. This has created some confusion as to the relationship between Montana PBS and KSKC.
Although Montana PBS is a state and federally funded public system, they have not allowed KSKC or the other small, local public stations to broadcast their programs in the past. Because of local interest in the Bison Range program, we called the producer in Missoula and were granted permission to broadcast the program after their initial broadcast. This was a one-time event.
Montana PBS has quoted us a cost that was out of reach for the right to broadcast their locally produced programs. On a number of occasions, programs produced by KSKC-TV offered to Montana PBS were broadcast at no cost to them. We felt getting these programs out to a wider audience was of value in itself.
Apparently, Montana PBS does not feel all their programs should be seen on other public stations in Montana without financial enumeration. We have no control over this situation since KSKC and Montana PBS are separate entities with different ownership.
KSKC is owned and operated by Salish Kootenai College and licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. We began broadcasting in April of 1988. We receive funding from individuals, organizations and businesses to assist in our operation.
We do not receive state or federal funding. Our yearly budget to operate an originating transmitter and three translators 24/7 is $60,000.
Our yearly fund drive is coming up in December. Any assistance you can give is greatly appreciated.
There is a lot of background and history that has been left out of this brief synopsis that I would be happy to discuss with individuals or groups. Please contact me for more information at 275-4878 in Pablo or email: tyro@skc.edu. Thank you.
Frank Tyro
Media/Public TV Director
KSKC-TV
Pablo
Cyanide heap leach process is not good
Editor,
We've seen a lot of advertisements about I-147 and the benefits it would bring to Montana by making cyanide heap leach mining legal again.
The ads almost make us forget that when we banned cyanide heap leach mining in 1998, we did it by a popular vote. Montanans decided, freely and democratically, that we wanted mining and mining jobs in Montana o but we didn't want this one type of mining, which has never been done safely, and which utterly devastates entire landscapes.
The ban has worked very well for our economy and our environment.
We've developed more mining jobs in Montana than we had before 1998, while at the same time protecting our waters from cyanide poison.
When we voted for the ban, we had a law that prevented corporations from pouring money into advertising on citizen initiatives. As a result, we had a fair election in which citizens, not corporations, debated the issue. That good law was later struck down by the courts, so now corporations can once again use their money to dominate elections.
Almost all of the $2 million spent on those slick I-147 ads come from a single out-of-state corporation: Canyon Resources, the only mining company to have lost a mineral right directly because of our cyanide ban.
They want to go into our cherished Blackfoot River valley and gouge out a giant open-pit mine twice as big as Butte's Berkeley Pit. Then they want to use a whole lot of cyanide to extract gold.
Canyon Resources' ads claim that double liners will make the whole thing safe. But those liners have failed at every single mine where they've been tried. The double liner at the "state of the art" Beal Mountain Mine near Anaconda leaked cyanide solution and other toxics into nearby ground and surface water within the first year of operation. It's now a federal Superfund site.
This is a brazen, shameful attempt by an outside corporation to get us to sacrifice our public welfare for their private gain.
Don't sell out Montana to Canyon Resources. Vote no on I-147.
Thompson Smith
Charlo
Some choices should not be offered
Editor,
The same week I renewed my subscription (counting reasons for reading a local newspaper). I have been thoroughly disappointed by the Oct. 14 column which promotes abortion.
Choice seems like a powerful word. It implies we are in charge. Does civilized society not work best when choices are made with responsibility, intelligence and consideration for the other guy? The other guy, in this case, just might be an unborn child.
Get a description of the partial-birth abortion procedure; you may understand the opposition by many of us to having our tax dollars used for it.
Some choices should not be offered. I was born in Wyoming, where women first voted. I'm glad to claim that privilege and various privileges which do not harm others.
But can legislation really make women identical to men? Oe It is time we challenge the current tolerance of promiscuity and return to protecting and honoring womanhood and the unborn.
Thank God for the gift of life and for families.
Donna Day
Polson