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Letters to the editor Feb. 2

| February 2, 2023 12:00 AM

Supports Glacier athletics

All four of our sons have attended Glacier High School for their entire high school careers. The oldest three have graduated, and the youngest is currently a freshman. Two of the older boys competed in wrestling and football all four years and the freshman played football and currently wrestles.

We are proud of our sons for their contributions to Glacier High School athletics, and more importantly, we are thankful to the Glacier High School athletic department for helping our boys to become the men they are today.

Since 2007, we have gotten to know and trust athletic director Mark Dennehy and head wrestling coach Ross Dankers. Through these years, we have found them to be approachable, responsive and professional with regards to any concern we have had.

Furthermore, we trust our son whole heartedly into their care and mentorship.

— Brant and Tonya Horn, Kalispell

Collective priorities

What school scandals, homelessness and a preliminary water rights decree have in common.

With this legislative session, many difficult conversations are being had, making this is a perfect time for us Flathead Valley residents to focus on our collective priorities. But with tensions in the county ever increasing, it begs the question, what are our priorities?

It is helpful to first remember what our priorities should be, and then take note of the areas where they are being neglected. This writer would venture to say that our priorities are, and should forever be, the most vulnerable of the population, our children.

However, when word of alleged abuse of students in the care of school officials begins to circulate, and many citizens say “This is not a new issue,” we have failed our children. When the places of business that we frequent daily with our family are now fraught with criminal activity fueled by drug and alcohol abuse, because “love lives here,” we are failing our children.

When we are neglecting important issues by sweeping aside a decree that blatantly usurps our constitutional right to have a say in something as vital as the water on our properties, with no provision of future security for our posterity; take note, we will fail our children yet again.

Wake up, Flathead County. The issue is not scandals, homelessness or unconstitutional collusion between the federal and tribal government. Those problems are merely the product of our failure to focus on our real priorities. Our ignorance, tolerance, and inaction will ruin our county and take our most vulnerable along with it. It has already begun.

Our legislators cannot fix all of our problems, nor will they secure our children’s futures. We are the voice for the weak. When will we say that enough is enough?

— Taalyr Claridge, Kalispell

Short-sighted advice

Jesus knew the word of God well when he told His disciples, “the poor you will always have with you” — Matthew 26:12.

God had previously informed the Israelites that there would always be poor people in their land and gave a subsequent command to be openhanded towards their neighbors who were poor and needy (Deut. 15:11). Thousands of years later and God is still right!

The poorest and neediest in our land are the homeless. The Flathead County commissioners’ recent advice given on how to treat the homeless population was a grievous and crass letter to read, in which the central warning given to residents was that “if we continue to enable the homeless population, then those numbers will increase.”

We will always have a homeless population. An increase in population will naturally bring about an increase in homelessness as well as an increase in crime, which we’ve also seen. Additional infrastructure is needed to address both.

Homelessness and crime may have some overlap, yet they are different problems requiring different responses and homelessness should not be stigmatized as criminal. We have a police force to enforce law and we have a local community to help our homeless neighbors with open hands.

It is a benefit to our local community to have organized agencies such as homeless shelters and services to more easily provide an “open hand” to the homeless in an efficient way. What deplorable and short-sighted advice these leaders have given to Flathead County residents to suggest “rejecting all things that empower the homeless lifestyle.”

I disagree that homeless facilities exacerbate the problem of homelessness. There will always be homelessness. Shelters and organized help for the homeless are a vital part of our growing community to embrace with gratitude and support, not rejection.

— Angela Nye, Kalispell