Letters to the editor

Thank you, Polson

A very heartfelt thanks to the Polson community.

I wanted to thank the coaching staff at Polson High School, their friends and the community for hosting the Montana State Class A Speech, Debate and Drama Tournamant.

It is a great undertaking to host over 20 high school teams and the number of volunteer judges can be very daunting.

I would like to thank everyone for the hospitality shown to our team this weekend.

Jeff Lowe

Hamilton High School

Occupy conversation

Congratulations to those gutsy Occupy Polson protesters, who have sparked a lively conversation about cuts to Pell grants and the rising cost of college education.

When our son went to MSU a decade ago, we paid around $1,500 per semester for tuition and mandatory fees. The same education now would cost twice that much: $3,220 for tuition and fees – that’s $6,440 a year or $25,760 for a four-year degree, assuming a student finishes in four years (most don’t) and that college tuition stays the same (it won’t).

And Montana is still a slight bargain. Tuition, fees and room and board cost $17,000 a year, on average, at state colleges throughout the U.S., compared to $15,430 here.

No wonder students and parents are panicked. My paycheck hasn’t doubled in the past 10 years. Has yours?

We were able to help our kids with tuition. But many parents – especially in the current economy – aren’t. Pell grants, ranging from $555 to $5,550, helped nine million low-income students across the nation attend school last year. Is this a good investment? Absolutely.

Is allowing college costs to skyrocket while family incomes plummet a viable way to enhance our competitive edge or invest in the future? Absolutely not.

I paid around $26 a credit in 1979 to attend the University of Montana. I could cheerfully afford to take Sen. Carmine Mowbray’s advice (From Your Senator, Jan. 12) and work a part-time job at minimum wage to pay for my education. But as protester Peregrine Frissell noted in his guest column, “times are changing.”

Our state university system was established to make higher education affordable to all who aspired to it and to provide Montana with a well-educated citizenry. Instead, we’re settling for higher education affordable to a few, and graduates saddled with sizable debt.

I’d suggest the Occupy Polson protesters, and anyone else concerned with the burgeoning cost of education, take their concerns to UM, MSU, the State Board of Regents and our legislators, and ask why college costs have doubled in a decade, and why students and their parents have taken the brunt of that increase.

Are students getting a better education than our son did in 2001, or just digging a deeper hole for their future, and ours?

Kristi Niemeyer

Polson

Much ado about nothing

I suppose Terry Backs and I could have a back-and-forth colloquy on all the different factors that influence planning and/or development in cities from here to Zanzibar.

But, in my opinion, the bottom line is that Mr. Backs, and others, have failed to make the case that ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives), a United Nations-affiliated organization, is anything other than a noble attempt to assist local municipalities with the increasingly complex factors involved with urban planning in the 21st century.

I would think that most responsible mayors and city planners would be glad for the input from ICLEI, even if a nominal fee is required for the service. I think Missoula paid $1,200 for this year.

Trying to turn ICLEI into some sort of seditious shadow conspiracy attempting to undermine democracy is analogous to the 1960s John Birchers looking for a commie under every bed. It’s the same absurd folly that Joe McCarthy engaged in before Ed Murrow and President Eisenhower reined him in.

Also, it’s a bit of a stretched and erroneous extrapolation on Mr. Backs’ part that because I disagree with his position on this issue that I’m somehow stifling debate.

People can chase red herrings if they want, but I believe the protestations against ICLEI amount to, in the words of the old bard, “much ado about nothing.”

Virgil Hess

Polson

SNAP response

This editorial is in response to Janna Taylor’s column printed in the Lake County Leader on Jan. 19. She would like to revamp the food stamp program in Montana.

She would like to eliminate items “high in fructose corn syrup, cholesterol, sodium and fat” for people in this state who have a difficult time dealing with the ever-rising prices in the grocery stores.

I would appreciate a response from my legislator, Janna Taylor, who is currently representing the people of Montana. My questions about her idea are as follows:

1) Who would select the items available for purchase? Would store clerks turn paying customers away, or send them back to the shelves after selecting an unhealthy item in every store in Montana that is food stamp worthy? How much do you think this would cost the state of Montana?

2) How would locally-based distributors such as Frito Lay and Coca Cola feel about your idea?

3) Will low-income children still be able to enjoy mayonnaise with their high-sodium tuna fish? Will hot chocolate and marshmallows still be purchasable? Will s’mores still be cooked over campfires by these children? Will kids in this state still have syrup on their pancakes? Even ketchup in some cases lists fructose corn syrup as its second ingredient.

Most canned soups have 40 percent of our recommended daily allowance of sodium.

I am thankful that Montana school systems have recently included fruits and vegetables in their lunch programs. I look forward to the day when our school system shops locally for these school lunches.

I hope the people who represent Montana after we vote this time will take the time to ask themselves questions like these before wasting more of our time and money on legislation that is not well thought out and cannot be effectively implemented!

Tonya Marshall

Polson

Rated “R”

“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” was the beginning of a popular mystery series and the subsequent movie was showing at the Polson theater this week. Even though we had not read the series, my husband and I decided to view the movie and found it quite dark. What was even more disturbing to us though, were the three 12-year-old boys watching this “R” rated movie without any parent in attendance. What kind of parent allows 12-year-olds to watch coerced oral sex, a most disturbing rape of a girl handcuffed to a bed, torture scenes and the details of multiple murders by a serial killer as well as other sexually explicit scenes?

I talked to the theater attendant after the movie about this situation and found out that all three youngsters’ parents had come in to sign their permission and did so after being informed of the content of this movie. They even asked if their 6-year-old could come to the movie. Luckily, the attendant said “no.” I suspect these parents were using the theater for a babysitter while they were partying across the street.

The “R” rated standards are there for good reasons and the theater owners should not allow children to watch these shows unless accompanied by a parent or perhaps not at all. Why are we numbing our children to the horror of violence with these kinds of exposures?

Who can help these parents to make better decisions for their children?

Connie Brownell

Polson