Letters to the editor Feb. 27

Board leadership

Thanks for the Inter Lake editorial suggestion that “Board training should be a prerequisite.” That was routine when I served on the Flathead County Library Board from 1997 to 2007. I served with two outstanding directors, Dorothy Laird and Kim Crowley.

After a year of conflict and indecision on the library board, the commissioners reorganized the membership of the board and asked Jane Lopp to be a trustee. She served from 2008 – 2017 when she tragically lost her life in an accident.

The Montana State Library periodically presented “Public Library Trustee Clinics” with topics like “Making the Hard Decisions.” Trustees were encouraged to become certified board members. In March of 2013, the Flathead County Library Trustees were recipients of the Montana Library Association Trustee of the Year award. The three newer trustees need to receive that training.

There seem to be two issues facing this board, censorship and fiscal responsibility.

There already is a process to evaluate books and materials that anyone in the community challenges. That happened in my tenure on the board and also Jane’s. The challenges were resolved by following the process. Don’t forget the Bible was censured for centuries by chaining it to the pulpit where only the priest could read and interpret it. It was Martin Luther who translated it into the vernacular so all could read it.

The library is a $1,761,584 business. That requires a director, who is well trained, minimum of master’s in Library Science, and broad experience.

By reducing the posted salary for the next director, the board made sure no MLS candidates would apply. No business owner would hire an employee who did not have the best tools, education, training, and experience to run a million-dollar metal lathe. But that is what the library trustees have done.

The new director Ashley Cummins has not completed her BA and only hopes to someday complete her MLS. She does not have the tools nor the experience. I do not blame Ms. Cummins. It is the responsibility of the commissioners who supervise the trustees and approve the budget for the ImagineIF library system with its staff of 28.

Ms. Cummins is flying to Kalispell as a passenger not knowing she will have to walk up to the cockpit and be the pilot. Heaven help the other passengers.

— Robert Lopp, Sr., Kalispell

Freedom of speech

We have long been liberal democrats, and we applaud state Sen. Manzella and U.S. Sen. Daines for speaking out against vaccine mandates and for freedom of speech.

The highly effective mandate and vaccine marketing campaign promulgated in main stream media seems to benefit not the health or welfare of the general public, but pharmaceutical companies. The “free press” isn’t so free anymore, eroding trust in the news specifically, and government in general.

In this freedom of speech country of ours, we have had an expectation of diversity of opinion in media. Instead, today, out of fear of reprisal, those who would speak up on an issue opt to remain silent. And those who do, find their words censored. Many of our friends, liberal to conservative, including health professionals, tell us they’re in this exact situation. And in Canada, protesting truckers are threatened with frozen bank accounts.

We challenge the media to have enough respect for their readership to offer unbiased reporting on more than one side of an issue which information readers can then use to come to their own decision.

— Judy Preston and Anais Starr, Ronan

Bathroom etiquette

From the simplest bathroom to the fanciest, these two suggestions are applicable:

NUMBER ONE: Leave things where you found them.

NUMBER TWO: Don’t flush heavy papers.

— Gene Johnson, Polson