Letters to the editor Nov. 23
Response to 'Noble lies'
Jerry Elwood's venomous condemnation of Amy Coney Barret's confirmation as a supreme court judge sounds like a high school boy turned down for a date. Other than that it's total hogwash. A simple internet search on federalist papers easily demonstrates his misrepresentation of the facts.
Some examples: “The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) asserts that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.” – Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Cartwright, 5 June 1824
“To disarm the people… [I] is the most effectual way to enslave them.” – George Mason, referencing advice given to the British Parliament by Pennsylvania governor, Sir William Keith, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, June 14, 1788.
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined…. The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.” – Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778
Infringe definition is: To encroach upon in a way that violates the law or the rights of another.
To "infringe upon the right" would certainly imply that the right already exists.
If Mr. Elwood feels the need to search out "noble lies,” he needs to look no further than Roe v. Wade. Mountains of lies behind this atrocity which has taken more than 60,000,000 lives so far have been brought to light more than once and yet the carnage continues.
"Noble” — no, dastardly, criminal — without a doubt.
—Gary Goers, Kalispell
Bus safety
Please remind people to stop on both sides of the road for school buses.
You’d think people would know.
Early in the morning the school bus stopped for the kids at our stop on Highway 35 (east shore) in Polson. It had all lights flashing, stop sign out, my grandkids started to cross the highway to board — when all the sudden a little pickup headed north zoomed by between the bus and us. Thank God the bus driver hit the horn! I grabbed the kids and pulled them back just in the nick of time.
You’d think that was enough, one random law breaking driver. But no, after I walked them across the highway and got them on the bus I was starting back across the highway to my car (bus lights are still flashing – stop sign still out) another big pickup was going to pass the bus on the same, northbound lane.
The bus driver laid on the horn again and got this one to stop.
Apparently not everyone knows. A bus stopped with lights on and stop sign out means stop on both sides of the road!
There are little kids out there! Once they see that stop sign go out, they think they are safe (and they should be)! Typically, once they see that stop sign go out they run to get on the bus. This time it was only by the grace of God and a fast-thinking bus driver that these kids weren’t hit.
Please, take care! Please remember, a stopped school bus with lights flashing means stop on both sides of the road!
—Julie Weber, Polson
For the people
The president has said that our country is turning a corner. We Montanans may know something of what he meant. The course our country has been on was named by Abraham Lincoln: It is, the governing of the people “by the people and for the people.” He obviously meant all of the people.
We Montanans have gotten more than a glimpse of the new course. It can be put into Lincoln’s pattern: “by the wealthy and for the wealthy.”
We shouldn’t be surprised. Since the late 70s, the wealth of our country has been, more and more rapidly shifting from people of medium and and low income to the wealthy. Now, a very small percentage of the population has wealth equal to that of the entire rest of the population, and today, that small group of people and corporations has bought the government—federal and state.
In high school (long ago) we proudly studied the history of democracy in the U.S. The story of the robber barons was included: the bravery of the Butte miners and “I sold my soul to the company store.” Is something similar what we are finding around the corner?At bottom, this election was not between parties, it was about the status of democracy in America.
—Robert O’Neil, Kalispell
Family foibles
I would like to thank the Daily Inter Lake for including “For Better or Worse” in their comic lineup. I have read Lynn Johnson for the last 40+ years and she always manages to find humor in daily family life. I have seen my own family foibles in her strip so many times and it always makes me laugh out loud. What a nice reliable addition to a beginning of a new day.
—Dona Taylor, Rexford