Letters to the editor Feb. 6
Supreme Court pick
Have you heard? Justice Breyer is retiring. Joe Biden made a campaign promise, “If I have the opportunity to appoint a nominee to the Supreme Court, it will be a black woman.”
Can we say discrimination? How about affirmative action? Or the prejudice of low expectations?
We are going backward, not forward. We are judging someone on the immutable and superficial characteristics of skin pigmentation and gender. Somebody go check Martin’s tomb to see if he’s rolling over in his grave.
Let’s do simple math. (All population numbers used reflect 2020 populations.)
Population of the United States — 329.5 million.
Population of Black or African American — 41.1 million (12.55% of the total population).
Population of Asian or Asian Americans — 24 million (7.2% of the total population).
Population of Hispanic/Latino — 62.1 million
(18.8% of the total population).
Number of justices on the Supreme Court — 9.
Percentile based on 100% that each justice represents — 11.1%
Not to become too obvious, Justice Thomas (who was Black the last time I looked) represents 11.1% of the Supreme Court. Since the Black population of the United States is 12.55%, that leaves only 1.45% toward a second Black Justice on the Supreme Court.
Would it not be more equitable (nice word until it gets in the way of your politics), to appoint an Asian? Or even a second Hispanic/Latino to the Court.
C’mon, man. Get up with the population of the nation of which you are the president. You are acting like it is 1865. But if that is true…where’s the Native American?
— Charles Garner, Kalispell
Unqualified library director
What is the ImagineIf Libraries board of trustees ultimate agenda for hiring an unqualified library director?
Is this a reckless effort aimed to collapse our county’s public library system? Why are trustees Roedel, Ingram and Adams disregarding the legal concerns expressed by trustee Leistiko? Leistiko has a background as an attorney and law school dean, and suggests that proceeding with the hire of Ashley Cummins as library director is a breach of the board’s fiduciary duties.
A Jan. 28 Daily Inter Lake story indicates that Ms. Cummins’ annual salary plus relocation allowance will cost up to $88,000 this year. Hiring this unqualified candidate will also cost at least $30,000 due to the likely loss of state accreditation and its associated funding.
The article also states that the Library Foundation is offering the library an annual gift on an as-needed basis that is $21,400 smaller than what the foundation budgeted due to “leadership issues”.
Hiring Ms. Cummins as the library director will cost the library as much as $139,400 in 2022. As you negotiated her employment contract, did you divulge that the act of hiring her will cost the library a reduction of $51,4000 in funding?
I hope that the board of trustees presented an honest description of the organization that she will be expected to manage, as well as the board’s culpability in the library’s current status.
The article states that Cummins is completing her bachelor’s degree and plans to complete a master’s degree. Anyone reading this letter can agree that reality is often divergent from plans. I wish Cummins success with her educational plans, but state that those future plans do not fill the current needs of ImagineIF Libraries.
Attaching the success of our county library system to this candidate’s future plans is irresponsible.
— Sylvia Smith, Kalispell
Property values
Regarding the proposed Mountain Gateway 318-unit development in Whitefish, I would like to point out that people work hard all their lives and with their sacrifice of hard work they are able to buy a nice house in a nice neighborhood.
Arim Mountain Gateway LLC proposes to build low-cost housing which will depreciate the value of neighborhoods that people have worked so hard for to live in. This is like the federal government subsidizing equity and diversity.
When it comes to affordable housing, what ever happened to the word “commute?”
— Carol Nelson, Bigfork