Letters to the editor Oct. 5

Virus is no hoax

A physician informed me Sept. 27 that currently 300 new cases of coronavirus are confirmed in Montana each day. He added, “get ready to double that.” Furthermore he said there are 19 people in the KRMC covid unit, and rising every day.

On the very same day the Flathead Republicans held a “Lincoln, Reagan, Trump dinner” at the Fairgrounds Expo Building. Organizers of the sold-out event stated that there were 300 dinner settings for the gala. That amounts to 300 chances for one covid positive person to take a seat at the event.

A Republican friend of mine who attended the event informed me that she saw very few, if any, attendees wearing face masks or practicing social distancing.

Imagine, if you will, the keynote speaker, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines moving through the crowd of 300, shaking hands, and striving to make the physical and personal connection that every political candidate endeavors to achieve. Consider congressman Greg Gianforte leaning in close to hear from a supporter who perhaps encouraged Greg to fight hard for good conservative Republican Christian values and further to push back against the perceived hoaxes that are being perpetrated by the left.

What if that supporter was covid positive? What if Greg Gianforte was Covid positive?

The virus would not care because Covid-19 is supremely suited for multiplying in any and every host it encounters.

From the perspective of the virus, Daines and Gianforte now become your best friends. You, the virus, get to hitchhike along for the ride. Each handshake, each exhalation of breath, another chance to “bridge” the gap between host and recipient. Another chance to “go viral.”

On the same day I received a text from a friend. She had received notice that a child at the school her 5-year-old son attends tested positive. Additionally, the mother of a second child at that school either felt strongly she had contracted the virus or actually had become a confirmed positive case as well. Each child goes home to a parent and each parent now has a heightened chance of contracting covid and spreading it to his or her work place. And so it goes.

Get ready Flathead Valley residents. The covid virus is coming to a theater near you. And it ain’t a hoax.

—Joseph Biby, Kalispell

Reaction to Covid overblown

The statistics relative to Covid for Montana show great news: Unless you are older and have preexisting conditions, most people just aren’t dying from this disease. So why aren’t our papers spreading this good news to all of us? Instead, without presenting us this evidence, they are castigating those of us who know these facts and think they prove wearing masks and impeding our economy and schools are overdone.

In the end I blame Governor Bullock, who has remained almost invisible in our state concentrating on his campaign instead of announcing this great news publicly.

The statistics are startling. For instance, (as of Sept. 4) not one person under 30, and out of 4,411 cases, only one person under age 40 had died. And certainly no children. That’s terrific. In fact, for all those under 60, out of a total of 6,553 cases, only 13 people had died. Even for those aged 70 to 79 only 6.7% had died, which means the survival rate is over 93% even including preexisting conditions

It also appears that for most of those who expired did so with Covid not directly from Covid. Ultimately, if we took away all these factors, there have only been a handful of people who have actually died from Covid alone, which can’t justify the orders given by our governor.

Since these statistics dramatically point out that Covid produces, for the vast majority of people, symptoms of flu in varying degrees, Governor Bullock should be leading us back toward a normal lifestyle instead of hiding in the Capitol building. .

In addition, our papers should not be just screaming out headlines noting the increase in new cases without similar headlines indicating how few people are actually dying of this disease. People become ill all the time but the salient point is not how many people get sick, it’s how many actually die.

But it is wrong to castigate those of us who refuse to wear masks to protest the lack of reporting on the great news these statistics show and to actively point out we should be returning to a normal lifestyle free from the abnormal fear of this disease. I suggest that when these vital statistics are made available most people will agree our societal reaction to Covid is overblown and it is well past time to move on.

—Mark Agather, Kalispell

Bullock’s sensible stance on guns

I just can’t let Jeff Larsen’s recent letter about Governor Steve Bullock go unanswered. In his letter, Jeff criticized Bullock for “supporting laws that keep guns away from the mentally ill or those convicted of domestic abuse,” and for stating that “no real hunter needs a 30-round clip” and that Bullock “also supports universal background checks.” Finally, Jeff complains that Bullock would like to outlaw high-capacity magazines and assault weapons.

Well duh. All those Bullock stances, if true, seem kinda sensible. For obvious reasons, the mentally ill (and those convicted of domestic abuse) certainly should not be allowed to own weapons, and what kind of hunter needs 30 rounds to bring down one animal anyway? And if we need to pass a driving test to drive a car, then why shouldn’t we have to pass a check to own a weapon? And, lastly, what possible justification can there be for high-capacity magazines and assault weapons, which are designed for one purpose only — to maim or kill large numbers of people.

I’ve lived in the Flathead for over 40 years, and on this matter I’m with Bullock and against Senator Steve Daines and his A+ rating from the NRA, which itself is tangled up in tales of rampant corruption, along with severe legal and financial problems.

—Colin Sellwood, Whitefish

Political sway

We all like to think that our court judges, be they city courts or supreme courts, are picked from the best of the best, individuals of high integrity and honesty. And, we also like to think they are non-political in their decisions. However, most of us citizens have also come to understand that many or most judges let politics sway their judicial actions and decisions. That is why most judges in the upper courts of the United States are considered “left (Democrat) leaning” or “right (Republican) leaning.” And, despite what the judges proclaim, the public will eventually come to understand their political leanings after observing years of their rulings on the bench.

Case in point, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. He was appointed by a Republican President, George Bush, and was considered to be a “right leaning” candidate. It was not until he wrote the convoluted opinion on the Obama Affordable Care Act that he became known as not a reliable conservative (Republican) judge.

Another case in point is Terry Trieweiler, a retired Montana Supreme Court Justice. Mr. Trieweiler recently wrote a letter to the editor Sept. 24 regarding the U.S. Supreme Court nominations by President Trump. In this letter Mr. Trieweiler refers to swing voters as “low-information voters,” somewhat of a demeaning term. Granted, some voters may not be interested in gathering information about current political news, but a lot of swing voters are hard-working people who have little time to read papers or watch TV or are just plain undecided. At another place in his letter he refers to a candidate’s “political agenda” without stating what that agenda might be. Another place in his letter he alludes that the 200,000 dead victims of Covid-19 are President Trump’s fault, a common Democrat unfounded talking point.

It is obvious that Mr. Trieweiler is a very left-leaning Democrat. There is nothing wrong with that, everyone has a right to their opinion. But he has also shown that he is not above repeating Democratic propaganda and slurring someone’s character. One has to wonder if this animosity toward Republicans had spread into some of his legal opinions on the bench.

Mr. Trieweiler’s letter only serves to reinforce the low public opinion of lawyers.

—Duane Egan, Columbia Falls