Letters to the editor Aug. 14

Proud of Matt

A lot of people talk about protecting our Montana way of life but Rep. Matt Rosendale is actually doing it.

The far left has spent us into oblivion, trying to take our guns, allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to enter the country each month and wants young men to compete with our daughters in sports and take showers with them.

Matt finds this unacceptable and won’t be intimidated by the mob who say otherwise.

We are very proud of the accomplishments by Matt.

—Karen Marshall, Bozeman

Self-centered world

In light of the Delta variant ferocity, I do not understand the logic of those who refuse to get the vaccine. I recognize the rights of individuals to play Russian roulette with their own lives but carrying it to the extreme by exposing others, who can not get vaccinated for any number of reasons, to illness and death escapes me.

I would also wish that if and when anti-vaxers get sick, they stay home and let nature take its course. Our medical facilities are understaffed and overworked; why should the medicos be exposed to further risk trying to save self-righteous resister people when they catch the virus, tuck tail and run to the hospitals.

If you refuse to be vaccinated and get ill and even die, you made your bed and you need to lie in it. If it turns out to be your death bed, I take no joy. On the other side of the coin, I find no sympathy either. You exercised your rights and society will be fine without you.

My hope is in your self-centered world you don’t end up killing others and at some point you take advantage of the opportunity to become enlightened.

— C Kjell Petersen, Kalispell

God-given right

Second Amendment rights - regardless of your stance upon them and their importance to you as a Montanan and American - are truly rights perceived to allow one to use violence. Regardless of if in self-defense or not, to use a firearm against another human is “violence”.

And I see at times people saying that the Second Amendment is a “God-given right”. But if one looks at the world’s major religions - at their core teachings - violence is far as stated as any kind of right.

Of the seven major religions in the world, none of the basic doctrines recommend or call for aggression or violence initiated by a human against another.

Islam and Sikhism hint to use, perhaps at times for self-defense; Hinduism, Buddhism and the Chinese traditional teachings are all quite anti-violence, with Hinduism teaching that violence will gain you karma for this life or the next. In the early Christian church, Christians refused to fight in wars, and many were executed because they wouldn’t. In Matthew there is a caution from Jesus about “taking up the sword”.  And since 1937 the official doctrine is “Judaism rejects violence and relies upon moral education, love and sympathy.”

All those who claim to follow these faiths are far from strict followers in many issues - and anti-violence has always been a failing of many who say they are people of faith. So when an AR-15 shows up at any kind of First Amendment legal protest, the carrier should not declare any religious righteousness.

—Erwin Curry, Missoula