Letters to the editor July 5

Water, water, everywhere

How sadly ironic that the very summer Flathead Lake has flooded for the first time since 1964, and most of our rivers are still flooding due to excess water, the headlines of the Daily Inter Lake on June 27 stated “Summer water shortage threatens Kalispell.”

Kalispell is not dealing with a lack of water, but a serious lack of proper management by our city planning board and our City Council. I am well aware of the phrase “growing pains” however the “if you build it, they will come” mentality should include proper infrastructure, certainly adequate water for the existing citizens, before approving growth that by their own estimates, has and is exceeding their plans for new water sources.

So, Kalispell officials, I am asking you to please lay down your well-oiled “approved” stamp for thousands of new apartments, houses and businesses, and dust off your old calculator, because the numbers are not adding up. You must take care of what you have, before you can responsibly add more.

— Marilyn Driscoll, Kalispell

Faceless bureaucrats

I really appreciate the opinion of Eric Knutson which he expressed in his letter to the editor (June 23) about the need for Montana to approve an Article V Convention of States (COS) to promulgate sorely needed Amendments to our U.S. Constitution. In addition, his comments about the John Birch Society’s irrational fear of such a Convention is right on.

I also think it is evident the time has come for consideration of term limits for our U.S. representatives and senators but only if we set “term limits” on the agencies and bureaucracies of the federal government as well.

The hundreds (maybe thousands) of federal government agencies, through their use of laws, fiats, dictates and rules, have taken away from us our fundamental right of “by the people” because we can’t vote for or against any of these nameless, faceless bureaucrats who determine so much of our lives today.

I suggest any COS should pass a constitutional amendment which states that any agency created by the federal government automatically sunsets and goes out of existence in 10 years unless specifically reauthorized by Congress in a separate bill which relates only to that one specific subject. Given that, it would allow us, the people, to evaluate which agencies our congressional representatives support and, if we disagree, be able to show our displeasure through our votes.

Further, we the people need to set limits on our “civil servants” specifying they may be replaced at any time at the will of Congress and/or our executive branch. It would also be appropriate to limit their retirement programs to normal IRA or 401Ks (like most private citizens) instead of the much too generous federal pension funds they are now graced with.

Most people here would agree that our federal government is out of control and it is high time for the individual states, which created the federal government, to exercise their inherent rights of regulating it.

Clipping the wings of federal bureaucracies by passing a 10-year “sunset” provision would go a long way in allowing the individual States of our country to reestablish their rightful control of our own destinies and the Constitutional right of “by the people.” It’s time.

— Mark Agather, Kalispell

Ryan Zinke doesn’t represent Montana women

Montana has long been associated with big skies, open spaces, freedoms, and liberties. Ryan Zinke, however, has a different vision for Montana — a dangerous one that denies half a million Montana women the liberty and autonomy to control their own bodies.

While Zinke believes females are inferior to our male counterparts, we know our Montana women to be a sign of strength and independence. We climb mountains, row rapids, raise herds and bail hay. We deserve to be treated equally to the men we work alongside, and that includes the freedom to make decisions on our own reproductive health.

The first woman elected to Congress was a strong, Montana woman herself, that relentlessly stood up for women’s rights, and is to thank for our protections in the first place.

Zinke’s shameful voting record is an assault on women’s rights, health care and reproductive freedom. He’s repeatedly voted against abortion services, in favor of defunding family planning organizations that provide preventative care and cancer screenings, and has been endorsed by anti-choice groups. A woman’s medical decisions are her own to make, not a politician’s.

Montana is already facing an endemic of abuse and violence against Indigenous women. Stripping the reproductive freedoms of Indigenous women and blocking access to safe and legal abortions will only perpetuate domestic violence against both mothers and children, derailing educational and career-focused pursuits and placing a greater financial burden on the shoulders of struggling mothers.

Montana is the only refuge left for reproductive freedom in the Rocky Mountain West, and it’s up to us to vote in leaders that will protect the rights of all Montanans.

California-Zinke doesn’t represent Montanans, and certainly not Montana women. The only choice for women’s rights and our freedoms this election is Monica Tranel.

— Quincey Purcell, Ennis