Letters to the editor July 10
Eighth of July
To those people who are still igniting bombs off on the 8th of July: Enough already!
Your one firework puts my dog, and I’m sure many others, in a fit of panic the rest of the night. She will be cowardly hiding in the bathroom with fan on, and thunder jacket draped over her.
You take away the celebration of the Fourth by lighting bombs off through July 8. Enough already!
— Janet Reynolds, Kalispell
True patriotism
Tim parked his bike next to me at the Fourth of July parade, sharing the shade.
“Great spot,” I remarked.
He nodded.
An hour later, after the runners, Paul Revere, George Washington, the floats, fire trucks and horses, I walked up to him.
“Sir,” I began, “I want to thank you. You made my day.”
This man showed me what true patriotism looks like. He had waved and clapped for each parade entry passing by. Every. Single. One.
“It’s about pride,” he said, smiling. “Pride in Polson. Pride in community. Pride in the kids. And post-Covid, it’s fabulous to all be back together.”
And so it is. Every single one of us, red, white, blue, and every other color in the American palette, is capable of coming together. Healing the divide. Making America whole again.
— Nancy Teggeman, Polson
Winning argument
Mr. Kaltschmidt,
From the outset, I want you to know that I have nothing per se against the Republican Party. You can (and should be) justifiably proud that one of its members was arguably America’s finest chief executive to date — Abraham Lincoln — a position I wouldn’t try to refute, nor would I want to. And I understand your wish to see the GOP (which already maintains control of eight out of nine statewide offices) run the table; after all, contest winners aren’t generally known for bemoaning their victories.
That said, I was moved to respond to your opinion letter (Daily Inter Lake, June 29), in which you vowed to “do everything [you] can to expose Tester of his woke, socialist agenda, hypocrisy and corruption.”
The reason we must “retire Jon Tester from the U.S. Senate for good”? We are, you assert, faced with “a clear choice in 2024: freedom or socialism.”
I am open to listening to arguments espousing positions that don’t fully align with mine; indeed, my views continue to evolve, provided a persuasive argument is made that such evolution is both warranted and ethical. What, then, are the necessary elements of a persuasive argument? In my mind, foremost among the criteria that it must evidence is the citation of verifiable facts.
I was, accordingly, disappointed when — after having had four columns in which to make a compelling argument to advance your position — I was unable to discern even one example of evidentiary support for it. Contributing further to the weakness of your position (that voters should defeat Jon Tester’s bid to win reelection) was your use of the undefined term “woke” — which, I suspect, is akin to “obscenity,” since (as Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously remarked, with regard to that term, in Jacobellis v Ohio, 384 U.S. 184 (1964), “I know it when I see it.”) its definition is, likewise (as far as I can tell), both subjective and vague.
In the hope of strengthening your argument favoring an all GOP Montana, I suggest you cite examples of Tester’s shortcomings, rather than painting next year’s election, without support, as a Manichaean no-brainer.
I have found a useful resource for anyone wishing to either analyze or craft a winning argument: Browne, M. Neil. “Asking The Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking.”
I will receive no benefit, financial or otherwise, if you elect to purchase a copy. Should you do so, however, the degree to which your arguments may prove winning will likely, with practice, improve dramatically.
— M. Bruce Bartlett, Kalispell