Letters to the editor Aug. 15

Cease fire deal

As pressure mounts on Israel to agree to a cease fire, Hamas and the Palestinians have shown their true beliefs by appointing the terrorist mastermind, Yahya Sinwar - architect of the Oct. 7 massacre, as their new leader.

The man who designed and led the massacre of 1,200 innocent mostly civilians is now pushing for a cease fire so he can maintain the remaining terrorists under his command before Israel can finish the job of eliminating this threat to their very existence.  

For those who fail to appreciate the enormity of his act of terrorism, had the same percentage of the U.S. population been killed on 9/11, nearly 40,000 people would have perished (equivalent to a third of the population of Flathead County) instead of the 2,977 who died in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.  

Meanwhile, the mainly young protesters on our streets and college campuses continue to shout, “From the river to the sea,” encouraging the extermination of a legitimate country and the majority Jewish population who built a thriving democracy out of a desert.  

If the Muslim countries are committed to providing the Palestinian people (a majority of whom in poll after poll support the Hamas leadership and deny any misdeeds by them on Oct. 7) their own land, they should accept them into their own countries. Egypt could easily give the Palestinians a portion of the Sinai similar to the land mass of Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinians could settle there and build their own country out of desert as the Jews did.  

But the truth is no Muslim country will accept a population of terrorists. Perhaps they will accept the 9 fired UN employees who participated in the Oct. 7 attack.

— David Myerowitz, Columbia Falls

Water safety

We have had nine drownings in Montana this summer season. We are recreation and destination state, which most likely attributes to this unfortunate situation.

I think a lot of it is due to the obvious: not wearing a personal floatation devices, but also water temperature, which is very cold even though it’s summer. Hypothermia can come on quickly in cold water. It renders partial or total paralysis of arms and legs (necessary for keeping one’s head above water) while body heat is rushed to the core for survival.

Once you’re in over your head from swimming away from shallow water, falling or jumping from a boat or dock, you could be in a dangerous situation. Your PFD is useless if you’re not wearing it.

Hiking trails along a stream or waterfall can be dangerously slippery, as well. 

Please share this info with family, friends and/or anyone who will listen to you. This is my invitation to the various agencies, nonprofits and businesses to start an ambitious educational campaign to promote not only water safety, but hiking near water safety.

— Linda Putnam, Bigfork

Counterpoint

In Mr. Hughmanick’s attack (Flawed character, Aug. 4) on former President Donald Trump and his tainted view of past history, he fails to mention 13 brave soldiers and hundreds of other people helping our troops who were killed in the embarrassing departure from Afghanistan.

– Larry Ashcraft, Polson

GOP hypocrisy

For years, Republicans have claimed to be the party of Christians while behaving the opposite of Christ. This year, they’ve outdone that hypocrisy by claiming to be the law and order party while picking Donald Trump, a convicted felon and adjudicated sexual assaulter and fraudster, as their presidential candidate. 

Here in Montana, virtually every Republican politician and party leader appearing on newspaper opinion pages writes about the dangers of criminals crossing our southern border. So what do they do? They bring a felon convicted on 34 counts (so far) over Montana’s southern border to speak at a rally for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy! 

Not only are Republicans demonstrating a classic “do as I say, not as I do” mentality, but their behavior is incredibly weird.

— Marty Essen, Victor