Letters to the editor Nov. 13

Library board strikes again

Library Board Chair Doug Adams is either being disingenuous or outright ignorant when he asserts there are not tensions between trustees and library leadership and staff. The ImagineIf board has now chased away another library leader, Sean Anderson, and is in the process of chasing away director Cummins. Staff up and down the chain are frustrated and scared of the next set of actions the board may take. Out of professionalism they do not criticize the board in public, and out of fear for their jobs they constrain their critiques of board actions. To say morale is dangerously low is an understatement.

I would suggest that the exodus of professionals from the library is a reflection of the failure of board leadership and not regular change of administration as Adams implied. In the private sector, the quality of a workplace is often measured by the rate of staff turnover. This metric would indicate failure of the board of trustees to do their job and inspire confidence in the staff and the community.

Anderson worked hard to contain his personal feelings for the trustees whose actions persistently degraded the quality of our libraries. Instead he professionally answered questions, offered context and insight, and spoke as a professional explaining why things are the way they are to trustees who lacked the background knowledge of library administration. That was his job and he did it well. If trustees felt lectured to, it was because quite often they needed the lecture, professing themselves that there was a great deal they didn’t know or appreciate. But he delivered his service professionally, in spite of the audience receiving it.

For this service he was asked not to attend further meetings of the board. Now he is leaving us, and cannot be faulted for doing so. We were lucky to have his service as long as we did.

— Jared Sibbitt, Bigfork

Sports boosters

Grade school, middle school and high school sports were once about teaching team work, sportsmanship, discipline and even sometimes fun. Not anymore.

Sports today is about parents and coaches building resumes and getting their own kids into the limelight. It’s very sad to see so many kids working hard and staying committed, to be merely auxiliary players that come game time “ride the bench.”

All the while the coaches’ kids, their kids’ circle of friends and parents that donate large sums of money play, play, play and play some more.

It comes down to one word, and that word is not merit but nepotism. Sports at school are about who you know, not how good you are or how hard one works, unless your kid is a star that can be used.

But, don’t worry if you have a child that isn’t playing and you want to change that you don’t have to know anybody — though that is the surest avenue to play time — you can just buy your kid a spot with a large donation to the “boosters.” How appropriately named are “boosters” — people who boost, push, elevate their kids to the front.

So it is today that sports have become private little clubs that hijack the local township logo and ride their own egos into mediocrity. At least there’s a lesson in this: sports have become a mirror of the world today in that it’s not about how hard one works, integrity or passion. It’s about who you know and how much money you have to spread around.

I don’t like what the godless culture has become and I’m sorry my property taxes go to schools that fail.

— Peter Morningwood, Bigfork

Climate hypocrites

On November, 2021, 118 private jets carried a covey of the world’s elite to the COP26 Climate Summit in Scotland. Those aircraft emitted 1,000 tons of CO2 so that the mega-rich could scare the world with the myth of Climate Change.

Climate fear promoters Jeff Bezos and Oprah Winfrey (to name a few), own Gulfstream G650 private jets which burn about 452 gallons of jet fuel per hour of flight. Bill Gates owns two. Compare that to the 3 gal/hour of a typical automobile. It takes 6,577 gallons to fill a G650’s fuel tanks.

In 2013 then President Obama tweeted “Sea levels are rising due to climate change, potentially threatening U.S. cities.” But then he bought an $11 million house on Martha’s Vineyard, an island south of Cape Cod. The house is situated just several feet above sea level. Well so much for his “Chicken Little” hysteria about rising sea levels.

Leonardo DiCapprio is a celebrity UN climate change ambassador who has called the issue “the most urgent threat facing our entire species.” He is one of the elite climate warriors who would like nothing better than to see you and me abandon all forms of fossil fuel-powered private transportation.

But wait … he and his Hollywood bourgeoisie friends own superyachts. His Vava II is powered by four diesel engines which produce as much carbon by sailing just 7 miles as an average car produces in a year. The fuel tanks hold 138,161 gallons (533,000 litre) of fuel!

I’m disgusted with the super-wealthy celebrity opportunists who have set up a virtual caste system in our world where their austere rules don’t apply to themselves.

As much as I hate additional taxation, I challenge Congress to pass a 50+50 luxury climate tax, a $50 surtax per gallon on jet fuel, gas or diesel fuel purchases that exceed 50 gallons at any one time. This luxury tax would apply only to jets and ships owned by private individuals, governments or businesses for personal (not commercial, military or public) uses.

Because of the limits involved this fee would not be of concern to most private boat or propeller aircraft owners. The collected surcharge fees should be applied to the national debt only and not benefit special interest sharks.

When the spoiled, selfish hypocrites whine about how unfair this is, it will only expose their false concern for the environment and the lives of average people.

— John Merlette, Bigfork

Open intoxication and littering

It is becoming very obvious that our homeless population is increasing, and the frustrating part of this is the open intoxication and littering of our beautiful community. Depot Park and the medians in the shopping plazas north of town are particularly troublesome.

Is it too much to ask to take my family for lunch and not be accosted by someone with an open container in hand? Or to take my kids for a bike ride on the trails without the constant trash with empty beer cans of an abandoned make shift campsite?

We have seen the failure of the tolerant and accepting policies of the major West Coast cities with the rising crime and public nuisance/eyesore of open drinking and drug use. I hope our city leaders take notice of this and can come up with a plan to reduce it.

Coddling and acceptance just seems to exacerbate the problem.

— Josh Newsted, Kalispell