Letters to the editor Dec. 24

Dear Santa

Hi! How are you? I am doing well. I was wondering if you still put lumps of coal in the stockings of those children on your naughty list?

I thought of you when I came across my bag of coal yesterday. It was at the bottom of my Christmas ornament box. No, it’s not any you gave me! It’s some I found in the coal bin of my old house in Missouri.

I’m kinda sentimental about this bag of dusty old coal. It’s a relic of the past. Coal, oil and gas furnaces were wonderful inventions for warming our homes. But, I’m hearing good things about the new money-saving heat pump HVACs which don’t add any climate pollution to our atmosphere. Does your house on Elf Road have one?

Speaking of heat-trapping pollution, are you noticing less snow up there in the North Pole? Here where I live in Montana, “undeveloped snow soaked the region” recently, to quote Matt Baldwin earlier this month. Our average temperature in Montana has risen about 3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1950. This warming will likely mean less days of snow cover for us in the future.

The good news is we already know how to stop heating up the Earth: stop polluting. Pull clean energy from the sun and wind. Store it in batteries. But also, build transmission lines so electricity can flow between Montana and the West Coast or to the Midwest when more energy is needed — like what that BIG WIRES Act in Congress says.

Would you do me a favor? When you drop down the chimneys of Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester, and Reps. Matt Rosendale and Ryan Zinke, would you give them a friendly reminder note about this?

Hey Santa, I just thought of a way to eliminate the burden of hauling all that heavy coal in your sleigh! Instead of leaving coal in stockings, instruct naughty girls and boys to go play outdoors.

Tell them to get energized and recharge their batteries by feeling the sun on their faces and wind through their beanies. This certainly will stop tempers from heating up and turn them into healthy and nice children.

Safe travels this Christmas!

— Robin Paone, Flathead Valley Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteer

Israel-Hamas war

After years of bloody fighting in Iraq and its 20-year debacle in Afghanistan, the U.S. has no right to tell Israel how it should conduct its war with Hamas or how fast it should proceed.  

Israel must be free to completely annihilate Hamas and its evil ilk.  And since Israel is standing alone in Gaza, without an international force from the civilized nations fighting alongside it, the UN should keep its hypocritical mouth shut as well.  

Israel is doing the world’s dirty-work in Gaza, Lebanon, the West bank, Syria and Yemen as it bravely stands up to the Islamic fanatics arrayed against it and the rest of humanity.  

The anti-Semites marching in the streets of western nations against Israel’s right to defend itself, chanting “from the river to the sea,” are as much the enemies of civilization as Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Houthi rebels, the Taliban and the other Islamic groups terrorizing the world. These “protesters” have all been poisoned by a false doctrine preached in western universities, broadcast in the MSM and supported by infiltrated government institutions.  

Israel’s fight is the civilized world’s fight. And all the ignorant heathen casting aspersions at God’s chosen people better pray that the IDF prevails. Because if it does not, the world will continue to be contaminated with the evil that is Hamas and there will never be peace on earth.

— Richard S. Grozik, Kalispell

Trust in We the People

Our nation is presently in political crisis. We have never had a person running for president who wanted to lead our nation with a political system other than a democracy. Donald Trump is the first person trying to accomplish this with an autocratic/dictatorial form of government. 

Here is my take on all this. Put aside everything we are hearing, seeing and arguing about among all our media, our members of Congress, and all the various confusing news reports. 

Put all this aside and believe and trust in power of “We the People,” the voting public. Our democratic system of government is still alive and will determine the outcome in our next elections. 

The majority of our people are wise enough and motivated enough to vote for maintaining our democratic form of government. Donald Trump and his base of believers will not prevail to the point of national leadership. 

This is just my personal view. I believe it needs to be seriously thought about by each of us. It needs to be thought about, talked about and acted upon in the upcoming election cycle. Merry Christmas. 

— Bob McClellan, Polson