Letters to the editor Dec. 13

Locals helping locals

We all realize how hard Covid-19 has hit our valley. Emotionally, many people are struggling, not only with illness, but fear of illness. There are people in the hospital alone without family. All of this is creating isolation and depression.

Many people are struggling financially. People who have always worked hard and done their part to keep themselves afloat are needing to get food and resources.

At this time of year there are hundreds of local kiddos who are looking for Christmas presents and wondering whether they will get any.

There is a local organization that is going Christmas crazy to get and distribute gifts to them.

Daily there are on average 70 folks who are provided free meals; that averages 350 meals a week. There are people who can get a free shower, do free laundry. And there are even more services provided.

This is local people serving local people, without pressure to donate, buy or subscribe. This is our local Salvation Army.

But. There is a big glitch this year. Because of Covid-19 the red kettles cannot be put out on the streets. Their biggest financial help of the year is curtailed just now when the need is the greatest. Giving is harder to do for folks who usually drop off their generosity in person. Now giving must be online or via snail mail.

Please go online to their local website kalispell.salvationarmy.org and give generously to the children’s gift drive, Angel Tree, or for a general donation to help our local folks in any way. Or, for those of us who would rather send a check, the address is P.O. Box 8357, Kalispell, MT 59904.

You will be helping local people help local people. Which is what we do in the Flathead.

FYI: I am in no way affiliated with this organization. It just bothered me to find out that the red kettles were not being put out this year.

—Geri Malberg, Kalispell

Free to be responsible

For the second time in a year, my family spent time in the pediatric wing of the Kalispell Regional Medical Center weekend for my son’s chronic neurological condition. What a difference a pandemic makes.

You could not miss the poignant moments. Sick kids talking to their grandparents through the thick glass windows, kids inside and grandparents outside. Members of the Montana National Guard scrubbing the interior. The weary faces of the doctors who said so much of this pandemic could have been avoided.

The adult wing was crammed with Covid-19 cases. As we waited admission in the emergency department, we saw one woman who had tested positive, hunched and suffering in her waiting room chair. Another man, in a wheelchair, rebuked a triage nurse who politely asked him to put on a mask.

“I don’t want to and you can’t make me!” he said, a perfect mimic of a 3-year-old.

I get it. Freedom is freedom. The masks and other measures are a pain in the neck (and the ears). I miss my friends and family, too. The economic insecurity and pain is real.

Americans are free to be irresponsible. But we are also free to be responsible – to wear masks, wash our hands, keep our distance and avoid groups of people during a once-per-century pandemic. Do it for the sick kids, for the elderly, for the health-care workers, for the cops and first responders and national guard members. Who knows, maybe for yourself.

Take it from me. The hospital is a good place to stay out of right now. Freedom is good. But responsibility sometimes is better.

—Ben Long, Kalispell

Embrace science

It is ironic that on the front page of the Dec. 9 Daily Inter Lake, the left lower article talks about legislators clashing over rules for the session, while the right lower article talks about a Billings nurse in the hospital with Covid, fighting for her life.

I have lost friends and family to this virus. Herd immunity did not work for them. Our hospitals are full and the staff is overworked and under-appreciated, putting themselves in harm’s way every day.

Let’s please embrace science on this issue.

—Dr. Karl Oehrtman, Kalispell

Great ambition

Ambition pushes you to publish that book, join that band, pursue that career. Ambition is the driving force behind every successful member of society.

What happens when admiration is readily accessible through social media? Our ambiguous pursuits begin to grow less and less ambiguous. We do not push ourselves as far as we could go. We ignore our potential.

Something happens when we post everything on social media; we are left with nothing to share in conversation, no ambition to push us forward.

I permanently deleted my social media accounts and as a result I have begun to look at life through ambiguous eyes. My life is no longer shared over a warm screen; instead it is shared through lively conversation. Our relationships were not built for social media just like we ourselves were not built for it. We were made to push ourselves as far as we can possibly go and then push ourselves even further.

Life is not easy, to move forward as a society we will undoubtedly need our ambition.

—Faith A. Wolf, Kalispell