Letters to the editor May 2

DUI system is not working

How long must the carnage go on? Killing a young girl in her bed while allegedly driving under the influence is just disgusting. Something must be done!

Here’s my idea: When a person is picked up for DUI, at the arraignment his or her license could be copied in red on the spot. All that is needed is a laser copier with red toner. Anyone with a red printed ID would be prohibited from buying alcohol. They would still be able to drive legally (they do anyway obviously) thus keeping their job and not disrupting family life.

The other important part of the plan would be that those selling alcohol must card everyone, every time, every transaction no matter how old the buyer looks or is known etc. An ID printed in red would be instantly recognized for no sale. The penalty for selling to such a cardholder should be very stiff, and also the same for anyone buying for a prohibited person.

The focus has always been to prevent a DUI offender from driving. The reality is that the DUI offender is going to drive anyway, but probably not with insurance and not hindered in any way from buying alcohol.

I know that some jobs depend on the money generated by the DUI industry — probation officers constantly trying to catch violators and then the extra fines. rehab workers, extra court time, etc.

On the other side of the coin is the dollar cost and the hardship on the offender’s family from which some may not ever fully recover.

The cost in innocent lives lost is simply not acceptable. The current system is not working and never has worked. Time to try something new. I’m sure the details can be easily worked out.

—Gary Goers, Kalispell

Super highway to Canada

Might we seek Mother Nature’s example in dealing with the current migrant crush at our border? Can we endure further anguish and guilt toward those globally conscious, all-caring libs, whose politically pure, humane intentions are being squelched by the dastardly immoral Trump regime?

A river is a woman who knows when she’s been violated. We build bridges over her, dump toxins in her, and we wave goodbye with content smiles to what flows downstream. Feeling justified in our gift of progress to humanity. Yet, the well-intentioned changes above wreak environmental havoc below.

So it is with border building. Except, in our case, it’s an unnatural upstream flow.

Why not whack another bird with the same stone by addressing our infrastructure woes? Tear down the existing barriers in current contested production and construct a super highway — a multi-use yellow brick road to freedom and prosperity ending at the Canadian border?

Canada has shrewdly piggybacked on our costly military budget seemingly forever. Flip the script. Run the route along the California border, emptying out at the delightfully diverse cosmopolitan city of Vancouver. There, amid turbans and temples, a rich heritage of Latin blood can intertwine and flourish.

Why, it would be like taking a colossal anti-statin horse pill to unclog the arteries and restore North American health.

—Gary Vinson, Kalispell

Climate change is normal

I keep hearing that carbon dioxide in the world atmosphere is bad and dangerous to life on this earth. We the people create too much Co2 and cause “man” made excessive climate change. Climate change is a normal condition. Co2 is a vital part of the atmosphere. Without Co2 we would not have plant life and we would die due to no oxygen to breath. Green plant life converts Co2 into oxygen which we breathe. All the things we have done to stop excessive Co2 over the few years, gets reversed by one volcano eruption. And there are volcano eruptions somewhere in the world almost every day.

Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 spewed out more greenhouse gases than the entire human race emitted in all its years on earth. It was active for more than a year, and may have caused global cooling. God’s creation is not in control of the people that He created; God is and we will never change that. So you can do and say all you want and all it will do is rile up your faithful followers.

Remember back in the early 1990s we were told we the people of the world were responsible for global warming then the temperature dropped in the mid- and late-1990s. So many professors, scientists and geologists came to a consensus to call it man-caused climate change. Remember a consensus is not a fact, it’s a general agreement by a group of people who think they know certain information.

—Dexter Hamilton, Kalispell

Broadband infrastructure and economic growth

I am writing in support of SB 239, legislation that will spur critical investment in broadband across Montana.

I currently live about 15 miles outside of Helena and find myself with no options for wireline broadband services. The wireline speeds simply aren’t fast enough to be called broadband and they certainly are not fast enough to allow me to stream videos and more importantly connect into my company’s network and work from home.

SB 239 will help companies defray the very expensive costs of deploying fiber optic cable – the infrastructure our State desperately needs to deploy more broadband to our rural areas. It does so by giving them a temporary property tax break when they install fiber.

Studies show that for every dollar invested in broadband infrastructure, $4 in revenue growth and economic activity comes back. I hope Governor Bullock will sign SB 239 into law.

—Jonathan Hager, Helena