Letters to the editor
March 19
PHS scholarships available
Anticipating our 50th high school class reunion on July 31 through Aug. 2 is an exciting prospect. Our class is equally thrilled to continue to provide scholarships to deserving Polson High School graduating seniors.
Past recipients of the PHS Class of ‘59 scholarships include: 2005 - Maria Foot: Maria will graduate from Carroll College in 2010 with a degree in elementary education. 2006 - Allysha Storro: In 2010, Allysha will earn a degree from Gonzaga in business. 2007 - Ted Morgieu: Ted is currently a student at Carroll College majoring in nursing. 2008 - Mattea York: Majoring in journalism, Mattea is attending the University of Idaho.
The class of ‘59 applauds the collegiate success of each of these scholarship recipients! Dave Swayne and Jane Laraby-Swyane are the local scholarship representatives for the PHS Class of 1959. The scholarship is supported by the class members who reside in many states. PHS seniors interested in applying for the scholarship, contact Emily Peck, guidance counselor at Polson High School.
Juli Parker (Karlsgodt), Sparks, Nev.
Why did you free him?
Was it because you didn’t see her cry? You would have if you had been there but you weren’t. You would have if you were able to listen to the 911 call.
If you were able to hear and know all that we knew you wouldn’t have freed him. Do you realize what you’ve done? You’ve freed someone who will do this again. People don’t change. Some day you will read an article and know the name. Will it say he couldn’t stop himself this time and killed her or killed them both in a high-speed accident? Will the article say he loved her so much he couldn’t live without her so he took her with him on the lonely back road. She wasn’t brave enough to jump so she died with him or he lost control and choked her until she breathed no more.
Is this what it’s going to take to lock him up and get him off the streets? His next victim will have to die before you realize what kind of person he is.
Did you know that she had to stand before him twice? What a brave thing for her to do, knowing that it would be up to you to help her put him away. She trusted you to help her but you failed. Not only did you fail her, you put a dangerous person back on he streets.
Would your decision have been different if you had known everything? Yes, I’m sure it would have been. So who is to blame for his freedom? A question I can’t answer. Can you?
Who knows what really happened? He knows, she knows and their mothers know. They both told their mothers, so yes, we know. So even though we knew, I couldn’t tell you and she wouldn’t. She didn’t want to lose her son to prison so she stood by him? If the roles were reversed would I have stood by him, I don’t know, maybe. I do know if my son was freed even though he had been the one in the wrong, I wouldn’t have gloated in front of her family. At least I’d hope that I was the type of person who wouldn’t have done that. Knowing what I did.
I believe in the saying “What comes around goes around.” So it might not be this time but some day he will get his and when he does I hope he won’t ever be free again.
So all you who have daughters, hide them. Lock them in their rooms, guard them from this person or she will experience what my daughter did. Keep them safe from him. Don’t be fooled by him like we were. My daughter isn’t the only one who experienced this person’s kind of LOVE.
Karen “Bim” Whitworth, Charlo
Support universal health care
The buzz around our community is the concern for our nation’s health care. Many of us in Lake County have been publicly meeting at the grassroots level (as advertised in our papers), on the last Saturday of the month at Polson Library and getting educated with the “single payer-system,” which promotes quality health care through a publicly financed, privately delivered health care system. Because of our efforts both locally, Montanans for Single Payer, Universal Health Care, Polson and nationally, including people from the Physicians for a National Health Program, The Conyers Bill, house resolution 676, is being represented on the table of choices at our U.S. president’s summit to discuss health care reform. In 2003, Barack Obama said a single-payer system was best, but feared it wasn’t politically feasible. But, is it?
Folks, polls show that the American people want “universal health” care, and 57 percent of physicians want it. This is not a party issue nor a political issue. It is a human being, American issue. Do we have the right to equal and affordable health care? Call your Representatives and Senators today: Baucus 1-800-332-6106, Tester 1-866-554-4403, White House 202-456-1111. Get informed! Let’s start to un-do the current system that does not work for the good of every American. It’s a start. . .
Lynn Peters, Polson
“Economy” isn’t what it once was
“Economy” seems to be the word of the day.
Directly translated it means “house law” or “house rule.” Or simply, “the rules of a household.” The definition from Webster’s first dictionary: 1) primarily, the management, regulation and government of a family or the concerns of a household. There is not one “economy” in our nation, there are millions; each one interacting with others virtually on a daily basis. Within that context, in his classic work “The Wealth of Nations,” Adam Smith stated: “It is the highest impertinence and presumption, therefore, in kings and ministers, to pretend to watch over the economy of private people.”
Before statist collectivism (both the “liberal” and “conservative” versions) became the fad and the Constitution was trashed, Americans understood, cherished and embraced freedom and free market principles. “Economic stimulus” would have been defined as working hard and being productive as individuals within the framework of individual households. Unconstitutional federal deficit spending and the “generational theft” that it entails would have been recognized for what it is: foolish, illogical, insane and, above all, immoral.
It is way past time to get government out of our “economy” and back within its Constitutional boundaries. Freedom requires risk; and freedom with risk is better than slavery with security, and a false security at that.
“Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are most thriving when left to individual enterprise.” -Thomas Jefferson
Rick Jore, Ronan
True change needs involvement
America is in a crisis. We have two choices, and only two: Either we citizens correct our ways of doing business by the purely democratic system with as little government control as possible OR we accept governmental control and ownership of vast sectors of our economy. These are the two choices. And that’s it, folks. Which do we want? Which do we need?
Republicans, traditionally, have wanted the least amount of government control and involvement in our lives as possible; a noble aim. The Democrats have been much more inclined to have government enter into our businesses, our social programs, and our lives; an effective aim for getting things done reasonably quickly and fairly for the most number of people.
So, where are we today? Well, we have seen where the private ownership system, and the purely democratic way of operating has put us. It has put us in a deep, deep hole. Why? Because people in private ownership leadership positions have been motivated by greed, fear and selfish gains. That’s why.
So, what is best? What do we need and want? Is the answer a shift to more government ownership and involvement in our lives? Well, I guess each of us will have to answer that one for ourselves.
What is very clear to many of us is this: If we do not, individually and collectively, change our ways of thinking, acting and being in this world and in relationship with each other, then we need to live under the influence of a large governmental body which is forming laws, policies and programs designed for the perpetuation of our social, economic and political system.
Locally, right here in the Flathead Valley, there are many of us working toward a community environment built upon a foundation of honest communication, cooperation, listening, sharing, effective problem solving, integrity, inclusion and wise leadership.
Keep tuned for more information on what is being done in this regard. You just may want to be involved.
Bob McClellan, Polson
Repatriating NBR is right
A recent letters objecting to “repatriating” the National Bison Range to the CSKT requires some historical perspective. Originally, the federal government as the newest member in the assemblage of world nations, felt it could not simply seize land of original indigenous people without some cloak of legality and humanity.
The reservation system became the policy of removing Indians from the inevitable path of westward expansion. In exchange for vast acreages, the federal government treated with tribes as original, sovereign, already self-governing inhabitants and created islands of tribally-controlled reserves. It was land not “given” but reserved from land they already occupied.
In the Northwest, 53 treaties relinquished 174 million acres of Indian land, enough to pay for perceived “special privileges” of tribes many times over. But due to the loss of a needed land base for survival, most tribes were forced into unwanted government dependency, a dependency the government, to this day, fully acknowledges but rarely fulfilled.
Despite the circumstances of their origin, Indian treaties are legally binding agreements between real parties. The Hell Gate Treaty specifically stated the reserved land was for the “exclusive use and benefit” of the CSKT. But that was not to be.
Joseph Dixon, a real estate speculator and congressman, introduced a bill to Congress, based upon a purposeful misinterpretation of the Treaty (Article VI), designed to carry out allotment of reservation land.
The Flathead Act of 1904 eventually patented 404,000 acres to white settlers, set aside 60,800 acres to the state for school purposes and reserved 18,500 acres for a National Bison Range. Yet another taking of Indian land had been successfully concluded, all 485,00 acres of it.
The author of the original letter implied repatriation would result in “hundreds of warring confederated tribes” and asked “would we rename our country the Divided and Confederate States of America?” I hardly think so.
Hopefully, with a more insightful view of history, repatriating the NBER should not seem an unreasonable goal. Indeed, social justice would be well served if those who intend to remain on the reservation would honor the Treaty and support the Tribes.
William Bennington, Polson
Thoughts on hot topics
I have a few thoughts to express and instead of writing individual letters, I’ll combine them into to one letter and respond to the negative responses later.
No. 1: President Obama ran on a campaign of change, but in my opinion since taking office he’s tried to appoint dubious characters. So instead of change it’s politics as usual. Protect the rich campaign contributors at the expense of the taxpayers, so I guess the only change in the White House is one of color, not of substance.
No. 2: The so called stimulus bill, what a crock. The president and government gave our hard earned dollars to a bunch of big businesses already made rich by raping the masses with bad business practices, then expect the tax payers to bail them out on the pretense that it will help us. Here’s an idea: Why didn’t the government parasites take the stimulus amount divided by the 2007 legal American taxpayers and give us our money back. We would have paid our mortgages, bought cars and spent it in our local businesses. Economy stimulated.
No. 3: Also, in my opinion, the horse slaughter plant can’t be built fast enough, and the Flathead Indian Reservation Tribal Council and the Lake County commissioners should jump on it. As we keep hearing about how high the unemployment on reservations are. As to the people who can’t seem to understand that in other places in the world horses, dogs and cats are just another source of food. Who are we to tell them that they are wrong?
If you are so against the plant why don’t you print your complete address in the paper with an offer to take all horses brought to you. One suggestion would be to install a turn around unloading ramp for semis. When you are completely broke by the feeding, vet and farrier bills, or by the bill for the excavator to bury them (how many can you bury on your piece of property?) we should have the slaughter plant up and running so you have a place to take them.
No. 4: As to the wolves decimating our wildlife and threatening our livestock, our businesses, our very way of life and your next steak (or hamburger) depends on us. The federal, state and tribal government best start reducing the number of wolves or the people will have to implement the three Ss, of shoot, shovel and shutup.
In closing, always remember the people should not fear their government, but the government should always fear the people. This is why the Second Amendment is so vital. We may never use our guns to defend against a foreign attack, but may have to use them against our own government to ward off an elitist socialist dictatorship.
Wade Shepard, Charlo