Letters to the Editor
Sept. 10
Support meant so much
A heartfelt thank you to our community for the out pouring of support, prayers and donations in honor of our friend and fellow MHP Trooper Chris Hoyt. A special thank you to all the businesses, law enforcement and emergency personnel, churches and organizations that were so generous. There are so many we wish to thank, but it is impossible in the space allowed to name each of you separately. We feel blessed to live and serve in this wonderful area.
Our sincere appreciation, Local Montana Highway Patrol Detachment No. 623, troopers and our families.
Sgt. Randy Owens, Montana Highway Patrol
Glacier Bank lends a helping hand
Polson Loaves and Fish Food Pantry was the recent recipient of a most timely and gracious gift of meat from Glacier Bank, when a meat donation was most welcome as the communities need for assistance is increasing significantly. Thank you Glacier Bank.
Glacier donated a half a pig to our local pantry. The pig was purchased by Glacier Bank from local 4-H members at the county fair. What a real community gift, helping our local 4-H youth gain an appreciation of the fruits-of-their-labor and helping some of our other neighbors put protein on the table.
Our Polson community is experiencing a greater need for food assistance as the local economy continues to be struggling. The number of folks seeking assistance from the Polson Food Pantry has grown appreciably since the beginning of 2009. Any individuals, companies, or organizations with the ability to donate food or cash to assist our neighbors in need would be greatly appreciated by the clients, volunteers, and the board of Loaves and Fish.
The Polson Loaves and Fish Food Pantry is open to serve clients/those in need on Tuesdays and Fridays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The Pantry is continuously in need of reliable volunteers to assist in serving our communities need for supplemental and emergency food assistance. Anybody desiring to volunteer their time to serving others can contact Gerrie Boyle at 883-5855 or stop by the Pantry at 10 8th Ave. East during the hours of operation.
A special thanks once again to Glacier Bank for providing the Polson Community with a helping hand!
Sid Rundell, board member, Loaves and Fish Food Pantry
Truth brings peace
There is no sense in arguing the absurd. It’ll defeat you every time. There is value, however, in keeping up the “drumbeat” of truth as we know it and have learned it over the years from those of wisdom, integrity, vision and a sense of the deep spiritual nature of things.
I was reading an account the other day of the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie crime and tragedy of Dec. 21, 1988. It had its own larger sordid story involving international feuding, which really proves “what goes around comes around.” Violence, hate, anger, fear. . . All are the breeding grounds for periodic very extreme and violent acts of terror and crime, often by individuals who are energized and motivated by the larger and “normally accepted” bickering and battling between nations over a wide range of issues.
There must be a better way. And there surely is. In fact it is going on right now, under our very eyes, but does not get the media attention that the negative aspects of our society and our world enjoy.
There is a “movement” by ordinary people doing extraordinary things, which is in harmony with and responding to the natural flow of a universal divine order of life which can never be changed or altered. Only the time we choose to cooperate with it is voluntary.
You don’t have to go far to find information and programs confirming what I am saying. The internet is full of them. For example: The World Puja Network. Hay House. Radical Forgiveness with Colin Tipping. Evolutionary Consciousness with Barbara Marx Hubbard. There are many, many more.
There are numerous books and publications speaking to this great divine order of things, all encouraging us with their different emphases and practices to cooperate with this drum-beat of divine order and power.
In my view, if we are to be able to not only survive this present chaos, but rise above it with new ways of thinking and acting, it is going to take many people making the personal choice to engage in a daily spiritual practice aimed at changing our thought systems and our ways of relating to others from our God-given centers of love rather than from our ego-driven attitudes based on fear.
Bob McClellan, Polson
Health care storm gets scarier
It would seem to me that given all that is now known about the lies and innuendo surrounding the Obama Care bill that have been perpetuated by the signatories themselves, no one in their right mind would attempt to pass this bill. Yet, here we are being threatened by it wither we like it or not. Funny thing about power, the all-powerful are totally blinded by their own smoke screen and can’t see the train that’s bearing down on Washington. Pass it you may boys and girls, but you will pay dearly for your indiscretion. You’ve dropped your pants providing the American people with clear visibility of who you really are. Try as you might, you will not be able to lie or smoke screen your way out of this one.
Robert Starks, St. Ignatius
A heartfelt thanks to community
The boys and I would like to thank everyone for the love and support through this most difficult and trying time. We would especially like to thank the following people: Dave Evertz; Jim, Tami and Julia Sanderson; Tim, Julie, Austin and Justin Brester; Duane, Jen, Syd and Jarrod Plant; The Polson Ambulance Service especially Melanie, Bruce, Steph, Joel, Eric and Jess; Nona Amble and Kyle Clendendin
Everyone at Safeway, especially Erin; The Gieber family; Pete and Sunday Plant and family; Miles Bieber; Jon, Bonnie, Ejnar and Esak Peterson; Tom, Hiedi and Kiely Weber; Tiara Duford; Kelly Ware and Whip; Barbara and Mauri Morin; Cindy and Annie Venters; Will and Linda Thrasher; Rainey, Armondo, John, Kenny, Maddie, Jordyn, Justin, Jenna, Shelby, Erin, Sarah, Shayla, Chelsea and the rest of the kids that spent their time with the boys and myself; Kristi Kanta and Janet Fredrickson; the MHP especially Mike Roth, Mike Kent, Mike Tooley, Clancy King, Randy Owens; Kristi, Ester, Pam and our favorite, Jim Sanderson; the Polson Police Dept., Lake Co. Sheriff, and Polson Fire; to the man who caught me when I fell at the hospital.
We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and a kind community.
Your generosity and kindness can never be repaid. We truely appreciate you and the people you are. May the Lord bless you and keep you in the palm of his hand.
All of our love and gratitude,
Eileen, Traven, Kellen and Morgen Hoyt
New fees are wrong
The city of Polson is ripping us off. I just got my water/sewer bill to find that I’m now paying for storm drains. I’ve looked around and there is not a storm drain within a half of a mile from my House.. gee am I paying for something I didn’t get? It sure looks that way. It looks more like a revenue grab. just another way to rip us off.
I for one am really tired of this. I keep thinking of taxation without representation.
Steve Lawrence, Polson
Council needs to live by own rules
The Tribal Council needs to show the membership where in our constitution the power is given to them to give themselves or the chairman a raise. I believe their action is under Article V, Sec. 2 of the constitution where the council members are guilty of improper conduct or gross neglect of duty.
The membership has voted twice on the fourth degree requirement, yet the counicl keeps violating the fourth degree and has been enrolling people who do not meet the requirment. The enrollment office is pushing for changing the wording from “combined blood of CSKT” to “Indian blood.” Why would the council consider any of this? The last petition wanted to enroll anyone whom could prove their linear ancestral blood. This petition is the same except you need fourth degree of “Indian blood of any tribe.” I believe by the dilution of Indian less than a fourth degree controls the way council members make decisions. To insure the future of the tribe, we need to require the fourth degree of the council members.
Most tribal members do not think our council is doing a great jog. On that upsets everyone is the IHS. The IHS director recently state the IHS had 11,000 people they paid for, and also IHS had surplus money and expects more this fall. The elders have Medicaid/Medicare, the children have CHIPS or Medicaid, tribal employees have insurance, so where do these 11,000 people come from?
I have children in guardianship who are first descendents. Between Social Security, IHS and council, these minors were forces to make money out of their own IIM accounts to pay for their own orthodontics. There are many children who need orthodontics by necessity, not for cosmetic reasons. The council also allows tribal court to access these minors IIM accounts.
In the lands department, the council does not protect tribal members by seeing they get fair appraisals. Most members do not get what the land is worth in exchange for selling to the tribe. We need a 20-year audit in Tribal Leasing to see if the high bidder actually pays.
We hire attorneys “for the protection and the advancement of the rights of the CSKT and their members.” By oath, the council pledges to support and defend the U.S. Constitution. In reality, only council and tribal employees have protection. Our individual rights are nonexistent all areas.
As the chairman brought out in his defense of his raise, is what we are paying in salaries. As a government and a business, salaries should be in comparison of the going rate in both.
We need to get back to a government for the people, by the people, Children should not be held responsible for their own health care. The members should have a voice before we start schools or anything that comes out of the budget. Carol Lankford constantly worries about her seat on the counicl, yet she the only one who shows up when there’s an emergency situation or death in the family, helping tribal members get done what needs to be done.
The other nine council members should also regard their positions with the same worry by reading council minutes. It is not hard to see who is who, and rules are not metered out the same.
While some members are trying to sell trust lands to the tribe, and can’t get fair market value, or are told there’s no money and have been waiting for years, a tribal councilman has none of those problems when he sells his family land. There is only one set of rules. They should apply to all. I’d like the membership to remember this quote, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (or women) to do nothing,” Edmund Burke.
Sybil Butler, Dixon, tribal member
New voting system needed
S’hoy. This letter is to congratulate Mr. Gary Stevens on his letter .
It’s probably the most intelligent thing he’s said for a long time.
So? Let’s add some more to that, OK?
I’m against our voting system as Hot Springs is one the reservation.
We are almost isolated from the rest of the reservation, also we are located in Sanders County as opposed to Lake County.
I don’t want to vote for any other town but Hot Springs. So, why should other towns be able to vote for Hot Springs?
When Mr. (Mike) Kenmille was going up for election the first time, he assured me, Rose O’Bennick and Harriet McDougall that he would meet with us once a month to allow us some input. He came to Hot Springs once on his own and that was it.
I peronsally hold no grudges against Mr. Kenmille, or the Kootenai people. I believe like the old school when you say something, you should carry through with it.
That was the way I was told: Your word was as solid as gold.
If I have to get a petition started on towns on the reservation to get that aspect changed, then I’ll get a petition going. Anyone with a claim record could be on the council. All you need is a little common sense.
Magic McDougall, Hot Springs