Letters to the editor Oct. 8

Daines should vote against filling Supreme Court seat

Honorable Senator Daines:

The American Indian Caucus of the Montana State Legislature would like to express our deep concern over your recent commitment to fill the U.S. Supreme Court seat that has been recently vacated upon the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

We strongly oppose the filling of this vacant seat prior to the next U.S. presidential inauguration.

Notably, the U.S. Supreme Court plays a critical role in the unique government-to-government relationships that exist between the United States and Native American tribal governments. The U.S. Supreme Court fashions legal doctrines and renders legal decisions, which have played a major role in shaping and formulating the complex landscape of Indian Law.

Such decisions are imperative to ensuring that Native Americans have equal opportunity to life and prosperity.

For example, decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court have impacted Native American civil rights, including the critical right to vote and have a voice in our democracy. Court decisions have also interpreted hunting and fishing rights, property rights, water rights, taxation, criminal and civil jurisdiction, and tribal sovereignty.

We cannot afford to entertain the prospect of a rushed decision on the highest court, especially when there is so much at stake for Indian people.

You have already gone on record during the last administration against filling a Supreme Court vacancy until a new President is elected. Your words were to not confirm a new Supreme Court Justice “until the American people elect a new president and have their voices heard.”

We are asking you to stand by your word and vote ‘no’ on filling this Supreme Court vacancy until our President is inaugurated. Our children’s futures are in your hands.

We implore you to take the time to make an informed decision and truly consider the massive implications that your decision will have on Montana Natives and for all of Montana.

—Sen. Susan A. Webber, SD8; Sen. Frank Smith, SD16; Rep. Bridget Smith, HD 31; Rep. Shane A. Morigeau, HD95; Rep. Jade Bahr, HD50; Rep. Rae Peppers, HD 41; Rep. Sharon Stewart-Peregoy, HD42; Rep. Barbara Bessette, HD24,; Rep. Tyson Running Wolf, HD16; Rep. Marvin Weatherwax, HD15; Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, HD32

Republicans must act on Supreme Court

Mr. Terry Trieweiler (Sept. 24), I agree with you that the Democrats should allow the process to proceed for the Supreme Court nominee. And let’s hope they treat her with more respect than they did Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.

But there is more to this issue than just partisan politics and what Republican senators said back in 2016 and what they are doing now, which is their legal right under the Constitution.

Our nation is being shaken to its core and the intensity and speed of this shaking is threatening our ability to function as a nation. Republicans, for the most part, understand this. Now is the time to appoint a new justice who will hold to the Constitution as it was intended. Unfortunately, when Congress fails to do its job, the judicial branch may take up legislating and that is why we need strict constitutionalists on the court.

We have seen since the 1960s the liberal left seeking to change and undermine the basic laws of our moral landscape with help from the courts. It is expedient that the Supreme Court be returned to a functioning judicial branch, not a legislative branch.

Enough of this “living document” nonsense. Enough of making every human inclination a “right” in the name of Civil Rights. Enough of bowing to the abortion industry and killing our children in the womb when we deem it to be necessary.

And now we are held captive by “peaceful protestors” while anarchy breaks out in our major cities. This is chaos and insanity.

The laws and Constitution of our land were drawn up for a good and free society. When we seek to minimize them according to our own demands, society crumbles. Conservatives understand this. To be conservative protects. To be progressive in the way that far left liberals are demanding, harms. Case in point: At one time the liberal left wanted abortion to be “safe, legal, and rare.” What happened to that? It is now the law in several states to allow a baby to be killed at birth if the mother so wishes. This is progressivism at its worst.

To understand and protect the sanctity and dignity of every human life is the most basic understanding of life and the values that follow.

Make no mistake about it, the Democratic platform includes abortion on demand and their nominee for Supreme Court Justice would advance that agenda. That is why Republicans must act. May God have mercy.

—Susan Sullivan, Kalispell

Simple choice; give Trump a 2nd term

While citizens in this pivotal election year slog through a quagmire of misinformation, slanted media, choices between garrulous candidates who fall short of stellar character, re-opened wounds of racial injustice ... a horizon filled with uncertainties here and abroad ... all that seems left to clutch before foundering is what we see vs. what we hear.

Mr. Trump has delivered on promises made. Mr. Biden has decades of promises made, yet never kept. And at this point in his life, incoherent promises.

The Covid-19 crisis is the only life jacket floating within reach for the Democratic party. A pandemic blamed upon Trump, yet, initially scoffed at its onset. Quite a platform.

That, among sundry pieces of flotsam highlighted by selective abortion, expanded rights to aberrant lifestyles, and a free existence paid by a sinking sector of society who still see the value and integrity of a day’s work.

Keeping folks, especially the youth, unemployed and wandering about with matches and clubs doesn’t seem like a swim toward dry land. Promoting negativity toward law enforcement doesn’t make the swamp safer. It litters the surface with vipers and the bottom with jagged window glass.

The choice may be painful, but it is simple. Give the President a second term based on promises kept, or hand the cement shoes to Joe and his salivating socialists lying in the murk below.

— Gary Vinson, Kalispell

Wildfires on federal land

The President has severely chastised California for being responsible for their forest fires. However, more than 90 percent of the forest land in California is on federal land and is a federal responsibility.

The President’s view of forest fires is not surprising. He is often miss informed or uninformed. He lives in an imaginary world of his own creation where all things reveal his limited knowledge and his desire to put himself in a good light.

It is a position from which he can confidently bad-mouth those who live in a more real world, and he loves and wants to keep power.

—Robert O’Neil, Kalispell

Time to heal

It’s as important to recognize the failures of our country as it is to recognize the achievements. The founding fathers participated in the slave trade which involved kidnapping human beings from Africa, bringing them to this country in chains, selling them as a commodity to do the work of the wealthy landowners.

And we still can’t recognize the crippling affect of this history on a large population of our country. The need is obviously there and the time is right to begin the overdue healing.

It’s not an issue to take sides on. It’s a human issue and we can all agree we have that in common-we are human.

Forgiveness can happen and healing can begin if we recognize the failures of the past and how those failures affect the present. Why can’t we recognize those failures and begin the healing and change that’s needed.

—Mark Ottey, Kalispell

Affordable health care

While in the midst of a global public health crisis, it has become clear to me that access to affordable health care is more important than ever.

The Affordable Care Act allows young adults to remain on their parent’s insurance plans until they are 26. Before the ACA, I would have had to find health insurance at age 18, right out of high school. The ACA allowed me to go to college without having to worry about finding health insurance; I get to stay on my parents’ plan.

In Montana, roughly 7,000 young adults have coverage because the ACA allows us to stay on our parents’ plans until we have the chance to find a job that allows us to have our own insurance. Without the ACA, I do not know what I would have done as an 18-year-old college student that had to pay for health insurance. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to remain covered under my parents’ plan.

All young people deserve this opportunity, especially now that COVID-19 threatens public health nationwide. Without the ACA, thousands of college-aged Montanans would run the risk of contracting COVID-19 without insurance. Current attacks on the ACA, including the lawsuit in the Supreme Court, are unacceptable. Affordable health care is critical to the health of Montana’s young people.

—Hope Smelser, Power