Letters to the editor
Share the spirit
The Share the Spirit Holiday Assistance Program started in 1998 as a Lake County only program to help children in struggling families with toys, clothes and gifts at Christmas. Since we started, we are fortunate enough to have partnered with the Marine Toys for Tots program which helps us manage the daunting task of providing for these children. In 2009 we served over 1,200 children 12 and under, in Lake County, and we can use your help again this year! Our trees covered with tags filled with children’s Christmas requests will go up all over the county around Thanksgiving so if you see one, please take a tag for someone less fortunate and help make their holiday brighter by buying one or more of the requests listed on the tag.
Share the Spirit Tree locations in Polson are located at: Glacier Bank, Eagle Bank, Lake County Leader office, Lake County Courthouse, St. Joseph Medical Center and Wal-Mart. In Ronan our trees are located at Community Bank, Flower Mill, The Gift Gallery, Hanson and Granley True Value Hardware, Harvest Foods, S & K Electronics, St. Luke Hospital and Valley Journal office. St. Ignatius has Share the Spirit trees in Rod’s Harvest Foods and Lake County Bank.
Share the Spirit is a 501(c) 3 non-profit group registered with the Internal Revenue Service. Donations can be mailed to Share the Spirit at P.O. Box 1341, Polson, MT 59860. Thank you and God Bless!
Toni Young
Polson
Thanksgiving
To all those who made the Polson Community Thanksgiving Dinner a success:
Judging from the many people that made the effort to come back to the kitchen and personally thank the cooks and the many positive comments that were overheard, it appears the Polson Community Thanksgiving Dinner, held at the Polson Senior Center on Thanksgiving Day, was a great success. The warm atmosphere of the building itself, plus the music, the smell of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and the happy voices and laughter of the people attending, all helped to create a welcoming environment. Homemade pies, rolls and salads contributed by Polson area churches covered the tables.
Pastor Kyle Whaley of Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church was the master of ceremonies and led us in a Thanksgiving prayer. Trish Tavenner played the piano; Ed and Sue Wing, Jeff Devlin, and Karyl Lozar sang folk songs and spirituals; John and Marge Davis sang and played the flute and guitar, and the Old Time Fiddlers finished off the afternoon’s entertainment.
The cooks and kitchen crew made up of: Dean Durand, Kaye Stam, Klaus Gilchrist, Terry Janaway and sons, Dave Marshall, Francis Davidson, John Blea, and two others who wish to remain anonymous, worked overtime to provide the wonderful meal.
Boy Scout Troop No. 1947, the youth groups from: Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints; Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church all donned aprons to clean off the tables and serve beverages.
It is important to recognize that without the help of Genevieve and Frank Clement, Donna Rolfson, Tracy Plaiss, Bill Schrieber and the 55 or so other community volunteers, this dinner could not have happened.
Last and certainly not least, we want to recognize our donors who helped fund the meal: the Salvation Army; Super One Foods; VFW Post 2986; Lake SPUDS; the LDS Church; Polson Loaves and Fishes; Mystic Chapter No. 53; Masonic Lodge and several individual contributors.
A big thank you to all of you for your generosity, time and energy.
Linda Greenwood
Polson
Senator’s retirement
I was disappointed but understanding of Senator Brueggeman’s decision to resign from the senate. I have known four generations of John’s family. I grew up and went to school with many of them. John was a friend and fellow graduate from PHS with my son.
Moderate Republicans are increasingly hard to find on the local, state or national stage. I am a lifelong Democrat, but after Senator Scoonover’s retirement I began voting in the primaries for Republicans that I knew and respected; Turnage, Mercer, Siefert, John and a few others.
I’m hoping that he will have the opportunity, sooner rather then later, to return to elective office. I for one would break my rule and vote for him in both the primary and general elections if he were to run for governor.
I work at Salish Kootenai College, and we always appreciated his support for our non-beneficiary students. We can only hope that his replacement will continue to support SKC as he has always done for all his constituents. His important contributions will be missed by all during the coming legislative session, no matter their political designation.
I wish him well in all his present and future endeavors, as I’m sure we all do.
Roger McClure
Polson
People of Montana
We recently got a letter from the Lake County Treasury requesting us to say if we still protest our raise in property value. What does it take to get them to pay attention?
We had a government paid IRS employee come by and take a photo from across the street. Our home tax value then raised $59,000. I protested to Polson twice and the IRS in Helena. They finally sent an appraiser to our home. He reduced the value $9,000. So guess what? Our taxes went down $18 for the year. Figure that!
No, it’s not okay! How many IRS employees do you need to help rip off hardworking people of their life savings? Well, at least the government has helped the unemployment by hiring more. Gov. Brian Schweitzer, in quotes, “Montana Department of Revenue Director in Helena (Dan Bucks) is a pit bull when it comes to collecting taxes.” Well, I can’t say they should outlaw pit bulls, but they sure as heck should keep a leash on them.
No jobs, lumber mills almost all shut down, food, rent and fuel all very high…
Our Ronan City water bill raised. August usage was 6,850 gallons and the bill was $47.74. Our October bill was $59.28 for 2,050 gallons. I guess no more gardens or lawns for city water users. They said they could not give a discount to old or poor people as that would be discrimination.
Well Ronan Telephone, Mission Valley Power and Mission Mart manage a discount to old and poor people. That kind of discrimination we can stand.
As for our city, we now have the “New Palin Bridge” donated by the Olson family. It is the bridge to nowhere. The 50 or 60 loads of gravel, sand and dirt delivered by Treasure State could not be cheap. Our city crew could have spent a while filling city road pot holes, not working on another walking path to nowhere and more park. Take care of the beautiful creek we once had. It once was filled with trout and ducks. It now is a slough, filled with weeds and garbage.
The government grants are wasted to fix up old schools and museums. Give these grants to the Boys and Girls Club, the food bank or build a place for the cold and hungry children. It is time we live for today and stop trying to glorify the past.
We need to wake up and then stand up!
Wilma Bick
Ronan
Peace on Earth?
Once again the thing which most of all will strike the minds of thoughtful people again this Christmas is the ironic contrast between those appealing chimes of “Peace on earth, good will to men”, and the present state of the world, with its seething rivalries, ill-will, international suspicions, crooked diplomacies, tactics of terrorists and other disturbing and debilitating fears. The supreme irony is that although the cure for all the world’s ills lies wrapped up in the tiny baby in the cattle manger in Bethlehem, the nations will not have it, people spurn the very idea that “…God loved the world so much that He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”(John 3:16, NLT)
Doubtless, when the angels trooped down into the night skies around Bethlehem, they did not pay significant attention to the order of the clauses in their rapturous chorus of praises; yet we cannot miss the fact that “Glory to God in the highest” comes before “Peace on earth, good will toward men.” The very sinful nature of the human heart, prevents “peace of earth” until there is first of all, “Glory to God”. Our personal lives, our communities, our world will be best served when the promise of John 3:16 has our full, undivided attention and grateful response. The Apostle Paul said it best in his letter to Timothy, “This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’” (1 Timothy 1:15a, NLT); that’s us! All of us need saving. When we all respond humbly and appropriately to Jesus, there will be peace on earth.
Harvey A. Town
Polson