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Why Trump? No Clinton in White House
Being one of the ignorant voters who voted for President Trump, maybe I can help Jim Lockwood out. He wondered why anyone could you vote for a man like President Trump.
The No. 1 motivation was to keep the most corrupt politician in Washington from becoming president, that being Hillary Clinton. The next reason was to elect a conservative who will not carry on Obama’s failed policies, as would Clinton.
We have had enough of your far-left policies and the thought police trying to run our lives. We love America and are not ashamed of it. We feel no white guilt and want our borders protected.
I could come up with enough reasons why we voted for President Trump to fill this newspaper, but I think you get the picture. And yes, I would invite President Trump into my home! —Richard Hembd, Columbia Falls
Allow raw milk
I support HB 325 for direct raw milk sales in Montana.
Raw milk is known to be safe and healthy. Our family drinks cow and goat milk going on eight years now. Sometimes friends want to buy some and we have to say no.
The freedom to make our own choices in this matter should be of the highest concern to our legislators. I know there are some big money lobbyists trying to influence this issue. Please represent us as citizens of this great state. —Kent Bois, Kalispell
Bullock veto of foreign-law bill was predictable
It is no surprise that Gov. Bullock would keep the pathway open for sharia law in Montana. Montana tribal governments have been actively engaged, even contractually, with countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia for several years now. The Montana governor would do nothing to disturb Middle Eastern collaborations with the Assiniboine-Sioux Tribes, the Crow and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes thus far.
A Wikileaks memorandum verified relationships with these Montana and other tribes on Nov. 11, 2011, even before Congress passed the Hearth Act of 2012 facilitating governmental relationships between American Indian tribes and Middle Eastern countries. http://www.tc-america.org/media/tca-in-the-news/2010/native-american-tribes-seek-trade-ties-with-turkey-611.htm
The CSKT tribe alone, has been conducting leadership and student exchanges with Turkey for many years, and has had contractual relationships with Turkey and Saudi Arabia, at least since 2009. http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/native-american-tribes-seek-trade-ties-turkey
Currently Montana tribes receive extensive annual funding from the federal government, state government, gaming, and Middle Eastern countries. Host counties are teetering into bankruptcy from the aggressive expansions and well-funded assertions of Montana tribes. Tribal annual operating budgets at least treble the annual operating budgets of host counties, and provide decreasing support for school districts annually.
Rather than protect the county subdivisions of the state of Montana, and Montana citizens, Gov. Bullock’s allegiance, as well as those of far too many other Montana elected officials, has shifted far away from the 10th Amendment and state sovereignty to empower expanding tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction as superior to the state. Oaths of allegiance and office of our state elected officials are apparently either for sale or irrelevant.
Tribal governments may now long-term lease their private Indian “trust” lands to Middle Eastern countries, with no prior Bureau of Indian Affairs approval or continuous oversight. This well-kept secret of the Hearth Act of 2012 will open up potential sharia enclaves within federal Indian reservations wherever desired in Montana and across the country. Gov. Bullock will protect sharia law so as not to disturb relations between Montana tribes and Middle Eastern countries. This should be a concern to all Montanans, most particularly to tribal members themselves. —Elaine Willman, Ronan
Don’t judge a voter by their political leanings
Prejudice is believing you know the character and moral value of a stranger because of that person’s association with a group. Bigotry is feeling hostility toward that person based on your prejudice. On Feb. 12, a local man submitted an opinion piece saying that liberals need to get over the results of some recent election, without being specific. In expressing his views he came out of the closet and revealed that he is a bigot.
He says he feels better now. I suppose he does. Eight years is a long time to suppress so much dark anger. Sadly, he undermines his new honesty with classic bigot denial: “… the liberals I know and call friends have been respectful and decent … [but they’re not] like the ones I see on TV.” I’ve heard this kind of rhetoric before. I was raised in Texas by and among white racists. I often heard them say, “Now don’t get me wrong. Not all colored people are bad. I know a few families who are fine folk. But they’re not like those uppity darkies on TV.”
I’m not accusing this man of being a racist. I don’t know him so I can’t judge that. But I will say unequivocally that his way of thinking is exactly the same. He colors strangers with the pigments of his mind and seethes at what he perceives as blue or rainbow people on TV.
For my part, I’m not exactly filled with joy when I see a group of red-capped strangers. But I don’t smear them all with the same tar. I recognize their humanity and try to understand how they came to have their values. I hope this man learns to do something similar. In any case, I hold no prejudice toward him. —Michael Merchant, Kalispell
Pipeline protesters left behind mess
All you pipeline protesters who gathered and rallied in Kalispell (and around the nation) need to rally again so you can be issued a citation for littering.
After paying your fine you can march back to Dakota and clean up the disgusting mess that was left behind there. You need to walk to avoid consuming any petroleum products that may have been in a pipeline at some point.
Your right of speech and assembly is allowed in our great country, but leaving a mess like you did for all taxpayers to clean up is not acceptable. —Miles Erickson, Whitefish