Letters to the editor

Tired of attack ads

Thank you Senator Carmine Mowbray for running a positive, issues-based campaign. I am becoming weary of the untrue attack ads I receive in the mail, attack ads that do nothing to help me further my understanding of what needs to be done to improve Montana’s economy.

Montana is at an important time in our history, we need issues identified and solutions debated. We have promised our state employees benefits and pensions that we can’t afford. Our baby boomers are retiring, and by 2025, one third of our population will be over 65, many will have need for state help.

Our school systems need continual upgrading and the way our children are taught needs to change to keep up with today’s competitive world. These and many other issues are real and need to be debated and solutions found.

And there are solutions, but we aren’t going to be able to talk about those solutions if the untrue attack ads keep coming. We need politicians that are willing to take a serious, businesslike approach to running Montana’s economy. This requires backbone and focus on the issues.

Thanks again Senator Mowbray for sticking to the issues and looking for the solutions that will allow Montana to prosper long into the future.

Jim Simpson

Polson

We need Taylor

With the primary election facing each of us, my choice for state Senate District 6 is Janna Taylor. I follow the politics of our area and of our country and I can tell you that I am worried. The liberal agenda of more social programs, more taxes and high debt will change things. And not for the better.

Janna will work diligently to keep Montana debt free. She has plans to lower taxes and streamline our state government. She voted to keep the insurance part of Obamacare out of Montana.

I usually agree with Janna, but even if I do not, she has always listened attentively and taken our concerns seriously. She is willing to see all sides of a problem. In addition, she is honest and caring.

We need Janna Taylor to represent us in the Senate.

Marty Zinda

Rollins

Benevolence and brotherhood

As I write, President Obama has met with foreign heads of state at Camp David and is now in Chicago attending the NATO summit. Pressing issues on both military and economic situations are front and center in these meetings, pressing issues so often caused by minds filled with hate, fear, anger and greed.

Many letters to the editor I read quote the Bible, using Biblical references to support opinions. It surely seems proper and sensible to use one’s ‘spiritual tool’ to support beliefs. I, too, have a ‘spiritual tool’ which I have been using much of my adult life to build my belief system. It is “A Course in Miracles.” The revelator of this course is, interestingly the same beloved Jesus of Biblical fame.

In chapter 13 of the text, Jesus makes this interesting and provocative comment: “In honesty, is it not harder for you to say ‘I love’ than ‘I hate?’” You associate love with weakness and hatred with strength, and your own real power seems to you as your real weakness.”

Just look at where we are today with our Camp David meetings and NATO summit focusing upon the world’s military and economic problems of our own making. The next logical question is: “How can we ever get out of this mess?”

Bottom line as I see it is this: Unless our spiritual/religious tools help shift our mindsets from hate to love, we will never get out of this mess. Everything comes back to the mind. Everything we feel, think, speak and do comes from our mindset. The Camp David folks and the NATO folks can talk till they are ‘blue in the face,’ but unless minds change to the feeling of benevolence and brotherhood that people should have for each other, nothing in the external will really change.

Bob McClellan

Polson

Taylor for SD6

I’m asking everyone to support Janna Taylor for state Senate District 6. I’ve known Janna for many years and nobody works harder for all of us. She has a deep understanding of the issues facing our valley, including water rights and property rights.

Janna will protect services for our seniors and vets. And work for good paying jobs for young people like myself. She knows how to create jobs and still signs both sides of a paycheck.

Taylor is not a fence rider. You will know where Taylor stands — like her warnings against Agenda 21 and radical sex education in our schools without parental approval before the classes.

By the way, Janna supports our Second Amendment rights. She not only is a gun owner, but she is a real hunter.

Please join with me and vote for proven leadership and someone who has served on the budget and the tax committees in our legislature. Vote Taylor for Senate District 6.

Alison Vergeront

Polson

Thank you, Sen. Mowbray

On a recent trip to the Columbia Falls Veteran’s Home, Senator Mowbray took the time to go along with our group of veterans to see how the veterans at the home were being taken care of.

We want to thank her for taking the time to do this, and for listening to them and us about the proposal of privatizing this facility. Thank you, Senator Mowbray. This group and the veterans we talked with are totally opposed to this proposal.

Don Lelloy, Roger Rasmussen, Steve Rongyocsik, Gerald Roat and Bert Todd

Lake County veterans

Vote Janna

These are tough times and we need a tough senator in Helena to stand up to the tax and spend crowd who believe that government is the answer to all our problems.

That’s why I’m writing to ask that folks elect Janna Taylor in Senate District 6.

As our representative in the legislature for the past eight years, Janna has proven to be a true conservative. We won’t have to guess how she might vote. Let’s go with what we know in these tough times. Vote Janna Taylor for Senate District 6.

Wayne Buchanan

Polson

Great show!

There are two people in Lake County who give so much of themselves to bring wholesome family entertainment to the public. Such a couple is Neal and Karen Lewing.

We saw the “Music Man” at John Dowdall Theatre and had an enjoyable time. So many young people were given an opportunity that will benefit them the rest of their lives and raise their self-esteem. Thank you to the whole cast!

Bill and Joan McDermott

Polson

The psychology of trash

Twenty years ago, my wife Jan and I signed up with the Montana Adopt a Highway program. Ever since, it has been a twice yearly ritual for us in May and October to pick up the trash between mile markers 8 and 10 along Highway 35.

We thought this would be a good way to contribute to the community at large and that it would also serve as a fine example for our sons, Tyler and Spencer, who were 9 and 6 then. Both boys considered this a grand adventure at the time.

They were certain that marvelous discoveries awaited them in the “ditch,” like maybe a dead body or better still a suitcase full of cash that had been jettisoned from some vehicle that was fleeing from a bank robbery. Of course, neither happened and after a while, the tramp to clean the highway became most drudgery.

I keep no official tally, but it does strike me that the vast majority of trash we pick up each year is either cigarette packs or alcoholic beverage containers. Hmm. Let’s see. The same folks who jeopardize their health by smoking or by drinking and driving are the same ones who disregard the environment?

It is understood why drivers drinking alcohol will “toss” their empty containers. It is against the law to have an open alcoholic beverage container inside a vehicle. I guess these folks justify their littering so as not to have an empty beer can under the seat when they get pulled over.

We are always surprised at the trash we pick up directly around people’s mailboxes. Come on highway dwellers, not cleaning your own immediate property is almost as bad a reflection on you as it is on the person who tossed the trash in the first place.

I once had a patient who saw us cleaning the highway ask me what crime I had committed to be sentenced to “community service.” I quickly assured her that was not the situation. She did have a good idea though, and perhaps our judges should consider this.

Generally, I believe the highways and byways of America are pretty clean. And that is something to to proud of. Jan and I just returned from a medical tour of India. There, years of trash and garbage line every roadway. There are 1.2 billion people in the country, but seemingly, no one is interested in picking up the trash.

I would like to say thanks to all of the organizations, families and individuals who have adopted their stretch of highway, as well as those in rural areas like Finley Point, who do their part to keep Montana beautiful.

Steve Irwin, M.D.

Polson