Letters to the editor

Concert success

I just wanted to give a big “thank you” to the organizers of this weekend’s Praise On the Bay concert. It was an absolute blast. Such an awesome lineup of performers both local and famous.

Everything was so well put together from the ticket sales to the vendors to the location to the performances themselves. Got to see Jars of Clay, Kutless, Jeremy Camp and a whole slew of other local performers that were all excellent!

It was such a pleasure to be able to bring the whole family with kids and feel safe, let them enjoy themselves and have young and old shaking their booties to the joy of the Lord. You guys did an awesome job and thanks again for the wonderful concert.

Kimimi Ashley

St. Ignatius

Ways to help

The Ronan Bread Basket is currently serving up to 180-200 families per month. This number is up considerably from just a few short years ago when we served about 120 families per month. Just last month, 36 new families came to our doors.

Many of our families find that even with working at minimum wage or on a part-time basis, they still have difficulty stretching the money far enough to feed their families for a whole month. Your support given toward the end of last year has enabled the BB to keep our families fed through the winter, but we still desperately need your help to get through the rest of the year! We are extremely grateful to the Catholic DOP, which has donated $1,000 this year through their “Aid to the Needy” grant program.

Our appreciation extends not only to the anticipation of the “Starving Artists” who donated food and money from their springtime benefit, the proceeds from the “Poker Run” starting at the Pheasant Bar, our loyal “Rural Postal Carriers of Charlo and Ronan” who gathered food this spring, the resident council at St. Luke’s Extended Care, the CSKT who includes the Citgo Energy grant out of Venezuela to pay our power, SKC employees who helped clean and paint our building, plus the faithful individuals who financially help us, but also to our wonderful volunteers who put in countless hours making sure our doors are open.

Here, again, we are in need of more help in handling the increased numbers of families coming in.

Ways you can help: Volunteer your time - contact Barbara Jolley at 676-3699; gather canned or dry food; give a tax-deductible donation - our address is P.O. Box 346, Ronan, MT 59864.

We have designated June and July as our fundraising months. Would you consider giving the Bread Basket a financial contribution at this time? Please find a way to share with your neighbors. There is no time like the present. It will make your day better, not to mention theirs.

Bread Basket Board

Ronan

Fourth of July thank you

The following are Arlee Fourth of July parade additions to the results: Overall Float prize went to the O’Neil, Marks and Smith families for their rendition of the 2012 Olympics; Novelty / Humorous (group) - 1st - O’Neil, Marks and Smith families for their representation of the 2012 Olympics; Novelty / Humorous (group) - 2nd - Jana and Duncan Crawford family U.S.A. Bike Team; Novelty / Humorous (group) - 3rd - Adrian Mahseelah family for their Halloween in July float.

A special thank you to Paul Grier, Earl Knoll and Tom Slicker for flagging as Highway 93 detour liaisons, to Bob Schall for volunteering his truck/trailer to haul detour signage and Jordan & Jesse Pfau for detour set up/dismantle.

For traffic control, thank you to Highway Patrolmen Randy Owen, Lake County Sheriff’s Department Deputies and the CSKT Police.

Thank you to Highway Technologies of Missoula for significantly discounted detour signage.

Tim Morin

Arlee

Homosexuality response

My thanks to Mr. Bennington for his response (July 12) to the letter from Bernie Lovell (July 5) regarding Biblical condemnation of homosexuality. I, too, am appalled by the gross insensitivity and cruel attitudes promoted by the July 5 letter.

Perhaps those people who are so spiteful of other humans who are different than themselves would better understand if they, themselves, were subjected to such vicious discrimination. Imagine this thought-experiment. You are born with a natural propensity to be left-handed (or right-handed). For some reason, however, the dominant social mores consider this to be wrong - even the work of the devil. You are ridiculed. You are shunned. You are laughed at - perhaps even beaten. Still, your brain naturally operates as it does and you are harming no one. You are the target of bullying because you write with the wrong hand.

There are many more possibilities. Some people are ridiculed because they are genetically short (or tall) – or because they have certain hair color, or voice sound, or skin pigmentation, or physical body characteristics.

The word “tolerance” seems to have been lost to many people. “Intolerance” implies a very limited perspective – a view that says, “I am right and you are wrong.” Intolerance keeps a person confined within a subset of thinking that does not allow that person to broaden his/her knowledge. Intolerance keeps a person from truly learning about the accurate reality of other people, of the actual social situation, of the true universe.

“Tolerance” gives a person permission to go beyond the limitations of self-censoring perception and expectations and behaviors. Indeed, as a person expands beyond limited thought, the rewards of new knowledge become an incentive to learn even more about the wonderful diverse world which surrounds us all. The potential of the human mind is allowed to flourish.

Mr. Lovell, the world is full of wonderful people who are different than you. There are ideas and new theories and new evidence about biology, the brain, and the nature of human-kind. There is an immense groundswell in science about the nature of physics and the cosmos.

There is so much to open yourself to and to discover. But intolerance will inhibit all of this. You are wasting a golden opportunity.

Gene Johnson

Polson

Special year

Two hundred thirty-six years ago, 13 British colonies declared independence and became a free country. Considering this anniversary, my math-wiz granddaughter Grace said, “Two times three equals six. This must be a special year.”

I agree. This is a special year—not because of a quirkiness of numbers, though. Just as the time preceding the Declaration of Independence was characterized by intense conflict, so our present time is full of disunity and tumult. Something of great importance brings opposing forces to the surface. Some feel that 1776 was characterized by a spirit of compromise among the founding fathers. William Hogeland’s book Declaration: The Nine Tumultous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1 – July 4, 1776, presents a different picture.

Fast forward 236 years to the present. I think everyone who lives in the U.S. understands that the election of 2008 ushered in a startlingly new approach to our republic. We have a president who believes that wealth needs to be “spread around.” No longer is this a country where we think of ourselves as people endowed by our creator with certain rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Rather, we are a people whose government can determine who pays for life’s necessities and who receives them for free. Laws are no longer for the protection of all people, but instead a vehicle for government control of all people. Obamacare is the perfect example of this new approach.

The election of 2012 will determine whether we continue down the new road or not. The alternative represented by Republican candidates at all levels offers the opportunity to reaffirm the grand promise of 1776. I care deeply about the future for my children and grandchildren. Indeed, I care about the future for all Americans.

For me, the choice is clear.

Carol Cummings

Polson