More employment is needed in area

Editor,

I keep reading comments about Wal-Mart and am frankly frustrated to say the least. If you people who are against the store want to live in a "small community atmosphere," go find one of your own.

I am a born and raised Montana resident and quite frankly resent people moving in and trying to dictate what us Montana hillbillies should do.

If you have made your fortune and move here to relax and enjoy, that's fine. Most of us poor folks have to work for a living and Wal-Mart means jobs. In case your bleeding hearts haven't noticed, this is what is called an economically depressed area we live in.

This is a rural area where making a living is the primary objective. Pretty views and environmental impact come second. I like to stay warm in the winter and if that means cutting down a dead tree to accomplish that, then the tree falls.

I believe in public opinion but I don't think the bleeding hearts are speaking for anything but their own agenda. Montana needs industry and jobs. We need something to keep our children from running to the more forward thinking states to find jobs and to make money.

I tend to resent people who want to turn my state into a national park or a vacation paradise and who try their best to keep us in the dark ages. If you want to live in a backward rural setting, then go buy yourself a mountain top and leave us alone.

We had a timber industry once that supported a lot of local people. Outside forces closed that down for the most part and now those people need to either leave our beloved state or find jobs elsewhere.

How about letting Wal-Mart build their store and bring in some much needed employment? If you want to save something or feel you have to interfere in something, support the Boys and Girls Club, or sponsor a half-way house, or build a youth recreation center, or take a kid fishing or hunting, or visit a prisoner, or become a children's advocate or any number of worthwhile causes.

Chuck Ripley

Polson