Letters to the editor Dec. 2

Keep abortion legal

Being strongly pro-choice, I feel I have to answer the recent letters to the editor. My life has been touched by both legal and illegal abortions.

I am old enough to know what it was like before Roe vs Wade. Old enough to have driven a desperate friend to a deserted farmhouse in the country to have a “tabletop” abortion. The fear for her was palpable. I am old enough to have worked at a city hospital where the operating room schedule showed the wealthy and connected having D&Cs. There are very few 16-year-olds that require D&Cs. Everyone knew the truth. If you had money, or the family connected, there was a safe, clean procedure in a hospital for you. Wink, wink, nod, nod. If you were poor, underage, desperate, you ended up in our emergency room, hemorraging from a botched abortion.

My grandparents had four children, two under the age of 2, when she became pregnant with her fifth child. They were immigrants living in a cold water flat during the Great Depression. They decided they could not feed another child. Abortion was illegal, but like most immigrant communities there was a “helper”. Grandma died, grandpop became an alcoholic and my 11-year-old mother was left to raise the other children. She could not continue school, even though she was brilliant. She grew into an angry bitter woman. Had abortion been legal, her life, and mine, would have been different.

Both writers seemed to be very religious people. This is their belief system and it works for them, but in this country they cannot force these beliefs on others. What I think is right works for me.

Actually there is a solution. If you believe so strongly against abortion there should be made available a national data bank. There you would sign up to take the next available child, regardless of race, health, sex or ethnicity. You would raise that child as your own, vote yes for every school bond, or any law pertaining to the welfare of children.

Until this is a reality abortion should remain legal and available and safe.

— Roseanne (Rocky) Feckete, Bigfork

No hiding place left

There’s no hiding place left for Senator Tester. The upcoming vote on the Build Back Better bill leaves no room for equivocation for our self-proclaimed “moderate” senator. Support and/or a vote for this bill, or any part of it will confirm his solid allegiance to the socialist/communistic wing of the Democratic party.

Senator Tester likes to portray himself as a moderate trying to work to the middle of the road. According to information I have found, on substantive bills, Tester supports Biden and the left wing 97% of the time. That’s moderation?

In the infrastructure bill just passed, Tester gushes about all the money for Montana. Well, there sure as heck should be out of the $400 billion the bill dedicates to true infrastructure. But Tester doesn’t illuminate the absurd projects, payoffs and political graft contained in the other $800 billion of that budget-busting debacle.

Now comes the 2,400 page, $1.8 trillion far-left social spending monstrosity which is a garbage can full of the far-left’s dreams and aspirations. Here’s just some of the things you’ll find when you take the lid off: Welfare payments for illegal aliens; amnesty provisions without any true immigration reform; funding for early school and childcare where the feds can start indoctrination of our kids at even younger ages; paid parental leave; huge subsidies (payoffs) to their pet green industries; more and more taxes; billions more for IRS agents to search our checking accounts destroying our supposedly protected privacy rights. And that’s just a few I have room to list.

On top of that, the bill gives the rich a large tax break in the form of greater SALT deductions. It exacerbates our ballooning national debt as well as the run-away inflation we are seeing. Further, it ensures our gas prices and energy costs will keep soaring while making certain this administration will continue the destruction of our natural gas, oil and coal resources so vital to our country and Montana’s economy. But one of the worst provisions is allowing the federal government to pay for abortions once again.

No, Senator Tester, a vote for this bill or even any downsized version of it will confirm your allegiance to the far-left agenda. If you are truly a moderate, you will be out front in a call for this bill to be taken to the dump where it belongs while advocating for some sort of new reasonable bill.

But I predict Tester will vote for it confirming he is out of touch with Montana. As I said, there’s no hiding place inside this vote.

— Mark Agather, Kalispell

Why support Daines?

Would/could someone please explain why many Montanans still continue to support Steve Daines? Steve voted NO on an infrastructure bill supplying billions of dollars into the Montana economy with good paying jobs, employee benefits, and added income to the state; and all of this without Montanan’s footing the bill. It is very hard to understand how someone cannot see this as a win-win for our state.

Steve also voted NO on expanding Medicare and Medicaid benefits for Montana citizens. Almost all people in Montana would benefit from improved health coverage and benefits. If we expand, and make it easier, for residents of Montana to access health care when they are younger, there will be less expense for health care as they age.

Steve voted NO on helping parents afford child care enabling them to work full-time. Steve seems to vote NO on anything helping the working families of Montana. He acts like Sen. Joe Manchin from West Virginia, one of the poorest states in the country, one of the lowest educated states, one of the highest work-related deaths from coal mining and he voted against the infrastructure bill. Joe does not represent the needs of the people in West Virginia and Steve Daines does not represent the needs of the people of Montana.

Someone needs to ask Steve why he’s against Montana obtaining good-paying jobs building back the infrastructure of Montana (roads, bridges, broadband, water systems, etc.). This infrastructure bill is a once in a lifetime chance to repair and expand the basic structures that allow our economy to thrive, and lay a firm, stable foundation for future generations. These are just a few of the examples of Daines voting no on helping improve the lives of the average Montana citizen.

The only thing Steve Daines cares about is Steve Daines.

In the next year, when you, a family member or someone you know gets a job making a living wage with benefits, make sure you thank Sen. Jon Tester for all his hard work and dedication to the people of Montana. Without Jon we could be the next West Virginia.

— Randy Miller, Kalispell