Letters to the editor April 1

Round Butte club thanks

The Round Butte Woman's Club wants to extend their many thanks to those who attended and supported our spring brunch this past Sunday, March 21. Because of their participation, the brunch was a success.

I personally would like to thank the ladies who prepared and served the meal. It is a great time for friends and neighbors to come together and visit. A special thanks to those merchants and community members for the donations to our silent auction. The sponsors and results of the silent auction are as follows: Full Family Dental Exam, donated by Dr. Tim Bagnell, DDS went to Ronna Walchuk; hand crocheted doilies donated by Kathy Emerson went to Rosa Tougas and Jeanne Emerson; floor care products donated by True Value went to Laurence Walchuk; wine and cheese basket went to Jan McAvoy; 20 lbs. real beef hamburger donated by Herreid Ranch went to Margaret Burke; wolf statue donated by Westland Seed went to Barb Rinke; tool set donated by Western Building Center and trivets donated by Mountain View Coop went to Andrew Jackson; and $100 vet certificate from Beth Blevins went to Charlie Cote.

Again, thanks for the great community support!

Geri Herreid, president, Round Butte Woman's Club

Channel anger in a positive way

I have just heard reports that members of Congress who voted for the health care reform bill are being targeted in violent ways. Such behavior is terribly wrong. House Minority Leader John Boehner has urged people to take their anger at the new law and "channel it into positive change."

Others are comparing this anger with the anger we saw regarding the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. This incorrect comparison points out precisely the problem about this mess. People opposed to the new health care law are not, for the most part, motivated by mindless bigotry. They are genuinely concerned citizens who fear they are seeing the demise of our grand country, founded solidly on the integrity of each individual.

Quick story: I know a family in the over $300,000 income bracket. The dad works indefatigably, actually world-known in his field. The mom works equally hard, doing volunteer work at three different schools and in many community activities. Their money is used mostly to give advantages to their four children. One child, for instance, was accepted into an expensive summer camp at Duke University. Will they have to cut back on providing these advantages for their kids to pay the salaries of new bureaucrats in the Health Choices Administration? Is that fair? Not in my opinion.

Carol Cummings, Polson

Ongoing, upcoming issues need truth

What can we learn from the congressional health care debates? One easy observation is to note how gullible our citizenry is. Individuals are quickly inflamed by over-simplistic rhetoric, single-issue themes, incomplete information, faulty logic, emotionally-charged phrases, and distortions of many kinds.

Politicians (and other stakeholders such as lobbyists and ad agencies) are adept at withholding complete and accurate information and inserting deception. Partisanship runs rampant as each party scrambles to demonize the other. It is messy - and discouraging. And it is going to get worse. There are many divisive issues coming in our future. Remove the shortest person in the room and there automatically is a new shortest person - it never ends.

In the old days, a person's privacy was disturbed when someone listened in on your phone line or opened your mail. Today your personal information can be intercepted worldwide with a stroke on an anonymous keyboard. Instead of a robber just taking your wallet, now your entire finances can disappear. Cameras everywhere (on city corners, in Las Vegas casinos, or by a stranger on the street) remove your privacy. Formerly a local well contamination was a concern - now we have looming international crises of the lack of safe drinking water. Street litter then - now cluttered oceans killing sea life and threatening human survival. Our future will be full of partisan debates and great misuse of information and political processes. How will our citizenry separate the wheat from the chaff?

In the history of mankind, the forces of violence, power, fear and dominance have been primary in determining the directions of cultures and individuals. As in the past and still today, the rich generally get richer and the poor get poorer. However, in today's world there is slow movement toward something different: The empowerment of the disenfranchised. There is gradual progress toward civil rights for all - not just the wealthy or privileged.

But there will continue to be barrages of special interest misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric over conflicting goals. Preserve privacy vs. catch the crook? Feed the hungry vs. make them earn it? Carry guns or maybe lethal tasers? Religion in politics vs. secularism? Elect an atheist to office? These are just a few of the looming issues.

The mass of instantaneous information available and the potential for misdirection will be overwhelming. Our society would do well to learn better how to spot the false advertiser, the total liar, the misuse of statistics and to detect felonious arguments. If our generation is not able to do this, perhaps our children can. They must be better prepared with skills of critical thinking. They must be better able to fine-tune their decision-making skills because they will be faced with increasing needs to bargain over differing ethical goals.

Sometimes we learn from good examples, and sometimes from bad ones. After observing our current congressional antics, what would you teach your children about how to "do it better next time"? Let's make critical thinking a priority in their education. I'm optimistic.

Gene Johnson, Polson

Health care hurts right to life

Sen. Max Baucus, the great humanitarian, you have just helped pass legislation that will indirectly pay for the destruction of the very lives you claim to want to benefit.

"All men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights; among those rights are life." When do you think life begins, at conception? At birth? What must we do to defend the right to life?

Rita Senkler, Charlo

Consider health care savings

Healthcare facts: The new law: requires health insurance; insurance tax credits for incomes 1-4 times poverty rate; prohibits cancellation or exclusion; existing plans are grandfathered in unchanged; limits premium rates; prohibits federal funds for abortion or illegal aliens; increases medicare benefits; only actual savings are pulled from Medicare; employers with more than 200 employees must offer plans; creates insurance exchanges and co-ops to give individuals and small-business clout in marketplace; limits total insurance-company "take" to 15-20 percent, close to Medicare (insurance currently takes two times that); Caps insurance write-off for executive pay at $500,000; 40 percent excise tax on employers for Cadillac plan premiums over $10,200/individual, $27,500/family annually; taxes passive-investment earnings for incomes over $250,000; changes 1040 deduction from 7.5 percent to 10 percent; changes health care practices, lowering costs by reducing duplications, errors, fraud, and liability costs, changing systemic tendencies toward over-spending focus instead of outcome, preventative care, etc.

My opinion is the projection of $118 billion in 10 years deficit-reduction does not take into account massive savings from 32 million people in the system getting treatment the cheaper way, through preventative care and earlier intervention, instead of the vastly expensive way it is, with worse outcomes costing several times more initially and long term.

We already pay for them, either way! We will pay far less for them this way, and most of them will have to pay part or all of their premiums, instead of nothing like now.

Steve Alverson, Ronan

Quiz Bowl thanks

I want to thank 21st Century (Cindy Hill) for supplying snacks and purchasing new Quiz Bowl books for the students to practice from after school. I would like to congratulate the two assistant coaches that helped me run all the practices. Junior Spencer Shafter and Sophomore Kolten Andrews, who were on the team when they were in middle school, mentored this year's team into the champions that they are. They worked with me from November 2009 until April and are receiving credit for their hard work as an Individual Service Project through the National Honor Society.

I want to thank the parents of all the students who allowed their children to attend practice until 5 p.m., and then pick them up from school.

The administration at Charlo is so academically driven, their support was fantastic.

Finally, I want to thank Lake County Superintendant Gale Decker, who was the reader for the competitions, all the coaches, kitchen staff, bus drivers, local newspapers for covering the events, and the volunteers who made the Lake County Academic Bowl Competition the success it is!

Keith Grebetz, Charlo Quiz Bowl coach