Letters to the editor

Protecting children

Montana Child and Family Services will be moving caseworkers in Lake County (Polson office) to Missoula and Kalispell by May 1. Caseworkers are those who directly serve children and families by investigating allegations of child abuse, working with families and law enforcement to protect children, placing children in foster care when necessary and working with families, service providers and foster children to meet these children’s needs. In the case of Lake County, state caseworkers also work with the Tribes’ social services office. Caseworkers serving our local community will no longer be working from an office within our community.

We live in a high-risk community where these services are important for the safety and well-being of our children, and thus all of us. I believe there is much value in having a local office where caseworkers are based. As a foster parent, I’ve experienced first-hand the value of having an office where birth family, foster parents and others involved in the lives of at-risk children can stop in and talk with someone directly about needs, questions and concerns.

A March 7 Missoulian article cited, “a need for more personnel in the two larger counties” but I am wondering what this means for Lake County and how the needs of our community will best be met. I believe that all residents of Lake County need to be aware of this decision and have the opportunity to voice their concerns to state administrators and representatives.

Janene Lichtenberg

Ronan

Circle of Trust

There is a very good and important new group gathering happening in Pablo that the larger community should know about. It is all about mental, physical, psychological and spiritual healing. It is named “Circle of Trust....Veterans Helping Veterans,” and is facilitated by Dean Furukawa of the CSKT Tribal Social Services Department.

I have attended the first two meetings thus far, and the interactions, the sharings and the opportunities for each of us to understand ourselves better and deal effectively with issues in our lives is most profound. And it is not just for veterans, either. Anyone can benefit from this.

The environment is safe, totally confidential and very welcoming. Beyond this, there is nothing I wish to say in this short letter, except to strongly urge anyone who has an inkling that this could be for them or someone they know to contact Dean at 675-2700, extension 1333.

These Wednesday evening 6-7:30 p.m. gatherings are held at the Pablo Repite House on Old Hwy 93. Check it out. You will never regret that phone call.

Bob McClellan

Polson

Republican women

Regarding the so-called “Republican War on Women” that we’ve been hearing so much about — here is an excerpt from a recent press release from the National Federation of Republican Women: “Democrats are running around squawking about a ‘Republican War on Women,’” NFRW President Rae Lynne Chornenky said. “They are ignoring the indisputable fact that the NFRW has more than 75,000 female members whose leadership, influence, skill and passion for conservative principles form the backbone of our party, and have for more than 70 years.

This liberal campaign scheme is clearly a sign of desperation and is simply not rooted in fact.” I am among the 75,000 members as are many wonderful women I know in both Flathead and Lake counties.

What befuddles me is how a legitimate and important discussion about First Amendment rights morphed into an inflammatory discussion about contraception. All I can think is that the current administration has concluded that women are basically stupid and wouldn’t notice. Sadly, many women seem to have been fooled. I and my Republican friends are not.

I encourage everyone who votes to consider which party is dedicated to reducing this country’s debt, ending unhealthy deficit spending, trying again to secure healthcare reform and restoring the freedom that America was once famous for.

Carol Cummings

Polson

Humankind

What is the purpose of humankind on Earth? James Pettit has written here that it is “to serve God or be destroyed.” Readers might be wise to consider other hypotheses than only that one. Just as a non-believer cannot “prove” that Pettit’s vengeful god does not exist, neither can Pettit “prove” that Thor or Odin do not exist. Stalemate.

Since “proof” seems not to be available, what else might be done to better understand? Here are at least three possibilities: (1) Look for evidence, but be careful because emotional exuberance is not the same as truth; (2) Examine statistical probabilities to give some definition to the likelihood of something being true; (3) Consider alternative explanations and hypotheses.

Option No. 3 is a worthy direction to explore. It seems that humans have an amazing ability to categorize information. From an early beginning of the ability to have single words came the expansion into combining words/concepts, seeing relationships, causes and effects (some accurate but others quite wrong), making predictions, etc.

Along this journey of language expansion (associated with the development of the cerebral cortex in the human brain) there seem to have been quantum leaps both in the development of the brain itself and also in the kinds of knowledge which developed and built upon itself. Just realizing that the Earth was not flat was one such leap. Suddenly what is available to humankind (both in actual substance and in new thinking) jumps to another level.

Today scientists are discovering relationships and possibilities which are exponentially building concrete basic understandings and also pushing the boundaries of new knowledge yet to come. Physicists now have many potent hypotheses to describe the origin of universes and life itself.

The use of knowledge has always been uneven. It took 200 years for the church to give credit to Galileo. So, today, Mr. Pettit still promotes a vengeful god as his explanation for the purpose of humankind.

Another hypothesis is that there is no predestined purpose for humankind. Rather, humans build purpose and meaning as we go.

Gene Johnson

Polson

Impact fees

Last fall, a homeowner in the Ridgewater subdivision, after paying $5,756 in impact fees for his new home, discovered that the city attorney had not paid fees on his own new home in the Hideaway Subdivision.

In response to questions raised, the city retained Bob Long, a private attorney, to explain that Ordinance 624 imposing impact fees on all new development contained an error that supported the conclusion that the city attorney’s home was exempt.

But now, four months after receiving Bob Long’s letter and paying his $500 fee out of city funds, the city has determined that three other homeowners may be exempt from paying the fees.

Although these three homeowners may be eligible to receive a refund, they will be forced to apply under section 6.12(a)(1) of the ordinance to the Impact Fee Review Board. Unless the city waives the $100 fee for this review, they will also have to pay that just to be considered for a refund. The board’s recommendation would then be forwarded to the council.

However, the city manager has determined that even if the impact fees are ultimately refunded, the administrative service charge ($274 in the original homeowner’s case) “will not be refunded.” Apparently, that administrative service charge was levied to pay for the collection and processing of the fees they were exempt from.

The Green Bean Espresso kiosk, located in the same phase of Ridgewater as two of those on the list, paid impact fees totaling $492 on April 26, 2010 but they are not, apparently, being considered for a refund. The Walmart fees of $276,739, paid on June 20, 2011 are conspicuously not on the list, although they appear to meet the same “exemption criteria.”

At the council meeting on March 19, the manager concluded that a consensus of the council was to retroactively eliminate the “exemption” from as many as 44 additional lots not yet built upon that meet the existing exemption criteria by redrafting the ordinance. Sometimes to those of us not endowed with an understanding of the context of all this, things just seem wrong.

Bob Fulton

Polson

Pure Bias

The “Earth Charter” and “Agenda 21” have a great deal to do with “bias,” however; nothing normal can be found within the pages of these documents of history.

Our 41st president, George H. W. Bush, put his John Hancock on the dotted line in 1992 at the Rio “Earth Summit,” and in so doing “committed” the United States, including every municipality within its jurisdiction, to comply with the doctrines of the “Earth Charter.” Progress reports, which provide a detailed outline of the achievements made toward the goals of Agenda 21, have been completed every five years since that fateful meeting at Rio in 1992.

Suggesting that compliance with Agenda 21 doctrines, due to changes enacted locally in our municipal laws and ordinances, has not occurred and is not occurring is at best to be ignorant of the facts of history and at worst to be downright deceitful. When you have organizations like the Orton Family Foundation paving the way here in Polson for the adoption of laws and ordinances which comply with Agenda 21 to programs like “Pathways for Play” in Ronan designed to bring the children of our society into the belief systems of Agenda 21 it becomes very difficult to turn a blind eye to the programs invasiveness.

There are those among us who have adopted these “Earth Charter” and “Agenda 21” doctrines and values to be their very own and so it is that these same people have lost any ability to operate without a bias toward them. They see these changes in our laws and ordinances as simply progress toward what to them is an obvious and logical end. Their inability to see the things which others find impossible to ignore is not, however, entirely their own fault.

“Psyop to Mindwar” is a short paper written by Col. Paul Vallely and Lt. Col. Michael Aquino in 1980 and it will give the reader a good understanding of how a society is conditioned through propaganda to accept as normal certain things that it would not normally find acceptable. This is also the way in which terrorism works on a population by conditioning them through fear to accept certain principles that would otherwise be unacceptable.

If your “normalcy bias” tells you to accept whatever doctrines happen down the pike, like “Agenda 21” for instance, without so much as a whimper then you too may have been infected by the “Mindwar.” Don’t despair; it is not too late for you to awaken from this state of indoctrination through propaganda, awake from this psychological mindwar. Free your mind from the shackles of collectivism and start thinking independently.

John Swenson

Ronan

Family newspaper

I’ve never written to any newspaper in my life (I’m retired), but portions of the article that ran in the April 5, 2012 issue regarding Sean Calahan were so cruel, I just had to say something.

The section on page A7 (continued from page 1) that quotes his journal writings is very upsetting; the essence of it could have been written instead of including his personal thoughts and wishes. In your website you say, in part, that you won’t print anything that won’t “fit a family newspaper.” I sure wouldn’t want my grandchildren to read Sean’s journal and I strongly object to you printing it in your “family newspaper.”

In addition, I was surprised that a sports editor (Brandon Hansen) wrote the piece. Why? The story had nothing to do with sports.

Char Young

Polson