Healing the wounds of Ruby Ridge

Sometimes, the passage of time can heal even the worst of wounds.

Sara Weaver-Balter can attest to that.

Some 18 years after federal agents shot and killed her mother and brother on Idaho’s Ruby Ridge, Weaver-Balter has forgiven the government gunmen.

Weaver-Balter, a Marion resident since 1996, has decided to publicly announce her forgiveness to help heal the long-simmering wounds of Ruby Ridge.

She admits that she was a prisoner of depression for a decade following the shootings, standoff and later national furor over the use of force by the federal government.

Now she is making news of her own, with her very public gesture, and she feels a weight has been lifted off her shoulders.

Weaver-Balter said one reason she is speaking out is to “reach my generation that’s going into the FBI, ATF and Marshal’s Service with this story so the mistakes are never repeated.”

One would hope that her dual messages of forgiveness and caution are heard.

BEING A RESCUE WORKER is rewarding in many ways, even for volunteers like Erika Larsen, a 38-year-old EMT with the Olney Fire Department.

There are many hours of training and preparation, lots of stress and strain, but it all pays off in a big way when you can assist on a rescue or actually save a life.

That opportunity arrived last week for Larsen when she responded to a call for assistance at Dog Lake. She found two elderly boaters clinging to life jackets and a boat that had overturned.

After jumping in the water and swimming to the boat, she discovered that one of the victims was her own father-in-law. He and an 82-year-old woman with him were both brought back to shore safely.

It was the first time Larsen had participated in a life-saving operation. Her clear-headedness and competence are a credit to the training she received, and she deserves the thanks of the community as part of her “reward” for a job well done.

GOOD DEEDS often go unnoticed, but that shouldn’t be the case when it comes to the Flathead Land Trust and its 25 years of conservation work on private lands in the Flathead Valley.

The non-profit organization is responsible for more than 50 projects over that period that have mostly aimed to maintain traditional agricultural uses and open spaces through conservation easements or outright purchases. The group has also been a partner in projects that have provided public access in places such as the Blasdell federal waterfowl production area and an expansion of Lone Pine State Park.

At a recent 25th anniversary celebration, the Flathead Land Trust, its partners and the landowners it has worked with, took a well-deserved bow for enhancing conservation protections on more than 12,000 acres.