Letters to the editor March 13

Make a comprehensive plan

During a pandemic a decision needs to be made as to which of these five, interrelated goals should have the highest priority: reduce disease, reduce deaths, ensure that essential services continue, limit the economic impact, or ensure “equitable” distribution of scarce resources. These are not either/or choices, they all need to be solved simultaneously, with solutions adapted or added as unconsidered consequences appear or conditions change.

The pandemic response to date has focused on “rights” and “personal responsibility”, but little has been said about the “duty” of citizens, elected officials, businesses and organizations to protect the health and well-being of others in society. Unfortunately, political sectarianism has turned pandemic response into a false choice of loss of freedoms OR unnecessary infections, morbidity and deaths from SARS-CoV-2. Some sectarians took no actions to reduce infections, some actively prevented efforts to reduce them.

I’d submit it is time for all elected officials to become informed and lead a public, mechanistic discussion of policy preferences for addressing all the issues associated with Covid-19, so everyone can develop an appreciation for the complexities of the issue. Then come up with Covid-19 solutions for all of Montana, not just selected groups.

When I saw Rep. Amy Regier’s Jan. 14 letter to the editor listing the state legislators residing in Flathead County, I was surprised that I could only recall two individuals (her and Sen. Bob Brown) that had publicly suggested solutions reducing deaths or disease. It is time for those who have been silent, or focused on a single aspect, to speak up, make a comprehensive plan, and change bylaws, and pass real legislation (not HB 121/122), as the pandemic will be still be with us this year and we need a better response to this, and the next pandemic.

—Bob Bridenbaugh, Columbia Falls

Resist the socialist agenda

Samual Adams once said, “If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace.

We ask not your counsel or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands that feed you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”

It is now time for freedom-loving people, capable of rational and logical thinking, conservatives that is, to re-unite and reclaim our great nation. The enemy is at the gates and has gained access to the “city on the hill” that Ronald Reagan spoke of, via Trojan horses.

Knowledge of, and the spreading of, truth is the peaceful way to resist the socialist agenda. So, I invite all people who want to know the truth to come to the weekly Pachyderm Club meeting every Friday at noon in the ballroom at the Red Lion in downtown Kalispell. Join us for lunch each week as we host exciting speakers and learn about pending legislation and other issues affecting our area, Montana, and our great country. If you want to be part of the solution, please come. If not, depart from us and lick the hand that feeds you.

—Mike McNamara, Kalispell

Voter supression

House Bill 176 would end same day voter registration, which is a blatant voter suppression tactic. Republicans are attacking the right to vote by making it more difficult for voters that already struggle to access voter registration due to distance, lack of transportation, or lack of information.

Montana has had same day voter registration since 2005. And evidence continues to show that our election system is secure.

In November 2014 an overwhelming 57% of Montana voters defeated the Legislative Referendum #326, which attempted to end same-day voter registration. Montana voters have clearly spoken.

So why now do the Republicans want to overturn this Referendum that a majority of all Montanans voted for? If the legislature and Gov. Gianforte truly represented the people of Montana, they would respect the wishes of the Montana majority and keep same-day registration in place.

We all should be encouraging people to vote rather than attack their voting rights.

—Kathleen Farmer, Polson

Attack on public radio

I have no idea what Rep. Skees, R-Kalispell, has as a hidden agenda for the removal of state tax dollars going to fund public radio in Montana. Next, will he attack our public television?

We need public radio (and public television) to connect us to the real world out there for trusted news and programs galore on cultural, community and political issues. The public radio stations need our public support as well as the funds they receive from the university and from endowments. The membership of MTPR for example, gives generously and although it never is enough (all those university budget cuts to the station and programs other than sports), the donations are there. Yes siree, we get totally disgusted by the plethora of fund drive announcements, but we know they are necessary.

I cannot think of a day that has gone by for 20 some years that my life has been not been enhanced by something I heard on MTPR, which is my local radio station. Before MTPR, I listened to public radio in another state which kept me well informed and I was glad to have donated to that station, too. Cutting funding to public radio cuts a lifeline to the real world out there, not the world of alternative facts, and well, you can see where this is going.

Sorry Mr. Skees, I feel that possibly your agenda for the private stations of your choice, that are not publicly funded right now but may be in the future if you have your way, do not reflect the true nature of public radio. The public pays for it through donations and partially through an allotment of state budgeting and we enjoy it. Can’t you find something else to monkey with other than our aural enjoyment?

Then again, “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session”----Gideon J. Tucker, et al.

—Skeeter Johnston, Whitefish

Stop the fear

Does anyone ever remember a time when the climate wasn’t changing? Come on, man. Stop the fear. Don’t let them control you by fear.

—Brad Meyer, Lakeside