Letters to the editor June 3

Your word, Mr. President

Carnage. At the Republican National Convention in July, 2016, Donald Trump promised, “The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20, 2017, safety will be restored.”

In August, 2016, candidate Donald Trump vowed, “I’ll be able to make sure that when you walk down the street in your inner city, or wherever you are, you’re not going to be shot...Your child isn’t going to be shot.”

In President Trump’s inaugural address, he declared, “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”

It is fair to say that all presidential candidates make some unsustainable promises. What is most troubling about this promise by President Trump is that, since he took office, he has not addressed the rising toll of violence in our schools, our places of worship, our streets and our workplaces. President Trump has cast aside any suggestions of universal background checks on gun sales, bans on certain types of military-style weapons, or other possible remedies to the escalation of the slaughter of innocents.

School shootings not only continue, but the number of them has increased alarmingly. In 2018, there were a record number of 97 incidents of shootings at our nation’s schools, with 56 deaths from those shootings. The next closest number of school shooting incidents was 59 in 2006.

There is another tragic result of the ongoing carnage in our schools. Our school children are afraid. Those who survive a shooting, in their school, and even those who merely train for the potential of one, are changed, no longer innocent, no longer feeling the safety that should be a part of childhood. No wonder. We are dong nothing whatsoever to keep them safe.

— Jeanne Welty Southwood, Bigfork

Human ingenuity

This climate advocate is getting a taste of the expense that gas is for many country folks who drive trucks and love their trucks. We love our new-to-us 1995 Suburban. My commute is a half-hour one way. The only way we adapt to climate change is just barely escaping the unlivable effects. There’s not going to be the political will otherwise, it seems to me. All I hope to be as a climate advocate is responsible. You might say I’m a fatalist.

But I would go back to what my pastor at Community Methodist in Bigfork said: The worse things get the better people get. I believe in not just human ingenuity, but above that I believe in human nature, human character to come through when “darkness” is spreading. I believe it happens at the last possible moment. And sadly, much human death and destruction and more likely still and already happening — the loss of innumerable species — before we adapt. But someday we will have done it and these ideas and the struggle and story of how we overcame climate change will be antiquated. History long past. Hysteria just loses us friends. Don’t let your advocacy harm relationships. That’s a lose lose.

The solution to climate change is before us, and it’s a bill currently in the U.S. House with more than 30 endorsers. It’s called the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. Ask Sen. Jon Tester, Rep. Greg Gianforte and Sen. Steve Daines to endorse.

—Matthew Lamberts, Bigfork

Keeping our kids safe

On behalf of the entire board of Girls on the Run Flathead Valley, we would like to thank Flathead Electric and their Round up for Safety program. It is through this wonderful program where members round up on their monthly electric bills that FEC has the opportunity to give back to the community in a way that helps make our community a safer place.

We applied for and received a grant to help fund our own CPR training program to make sure all of our volunteer coaches are CPR and first aid trained. We have also used the grant money to help cover costs for background checks on adults who work closely with the girls. Thanks to the generosity of both FEC and those community members who participate in Round Up for Safety, we are confident the girls in our program are SAFE! It has been said that “It takes a village to raise a child” and an entire community of people must work together for children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment. Thank you!

—Mona Cuthbert, Kalispell