Letters to the editor Oct. 15
Library should serve whole community
Recent communication between myself and the ImagineIF library board of trustees failed to answer my question about when the motion was made, and a vote taken to remove Banned Books Week from library programming.
There were at least three different stories about how this decision was made, and after reading the excellent Inter Lake article on Oct. 11, I see that my assumption was correct: there was no motion and no vote taken in a public meeting.
Additionally, trustee Jane Wheeler’s comments at September’s library board meeting regarding trustees breaching their duty when they try to control library programming and micromanage the director’s job was spot on. All the public wants is a true public library, not one that is micromanaged by trustees with a very clear political agenda.
Having displays for Black History Month, Pride month, and Banned Books Week is not indoctrination. It is a reflection of the community in which we live.
Everyone has the right to hold their own political ideology. I will always support all our rights to the free expression of opinions. What library trustees cannot do, however, is use their government appointed positions in the role of public trust for a public institution to try and manipulate public spaces in our community. That is, at the very least, unethical, and perhaps illegal.
This community will continue to speak out, publicly and often, until the day comes again when our library is free to serve our whole community, our librarians are respected and trusted to do their professional jobs, and unfettered public discourse is allowed once again within the walls of our library.
— Valeri McGarvey, Kalispell
War in Israel
I read with alarm the letter from Ed Dramer, a self-declared Jew, who suggested that other countries should let the Israelis and Palestinians kill each other, and that Gaza is surrounded by Jewish settlements of haters.
I must be missing something for I am also a Jew and saw none of the hate he describes after spending a month in Israel, Egypt and Jordan last year. I was impressed with the friendliness of the Egyptians I met, the pro-American sentiment of the Jordanians (our guide thanked me for our military base on their border protecting them not from Israel, but from Iran), and the calm including between the Arabs and Jews in Israel.
Perhaps Mr. Dramer finds some moral equivalence between protecting a border (Israel) and barbaric terrorists killing over 1,200 innocents in cold blood.
An Israeli general invited 50 journalists, including CNN, into one kibbutz killing field to witness the horror including babies decapitated before parents. He echoed Eisenhower inviting journalists to witness firsthand the horrors of Nazi concentration camps fearing the world would not otherwise comprehend or accept reports of the moral depravity of the Nazi regime.
So, Mr. Dramer, when you ask, “... the world to stand back and let it all be. Let all those who hate kill one another,” you are implying some moral equivalency between 9 million people trying to live peacefully on a sliver of land they first occupied over 3,000 years ago and terrorists who slaughter babies in an attempt at genocide of a religious group. I find your remarks troubling and reprehensible.
Gaza civilians used as shields will no doubt perish in coming weeks. Nonetheless, I support the Israelis ... never again.
— David Myerowitz, Columbia Falls