Letters to the editor May 2

Logo dispute

I read the article “Interior Department balks at ballclub’s logo.” My goodness. This is a blatant example of our government wasting taxpayer’s dollars. 

I have spent my entire life in the Flathead Valley and I am not the least bit confused between the logo for the baseball team and the logo that represents Glacier National Park. The U.S. Department of Interior had better be careful that they don’t get sued for “infringement” because I’m pretty sure that Native Americans created the original arrowheads. I have also seen buffalo, mountains, and trees on other logos. 

So much for “baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.” Well, at least I can still buy a ticket and get into a baseball game, not so easy if I want to go to Glacier Park.

— Marilyn Driscoll, Kalispell

Republican leadership

I recently received a letter promoting Matt Regier for state Senate. In it, he discusses his opponents, using polarizing terms like riot, chaos, threaten, intolerance, tear apart, lose reality, and hate (used four times, including “hate of a radical left”). 

For himself, he chose terms like honor, liberty, freedom,,rational, cherish, optimist and “Montana way of life.” Throughout the mailer, Regier proudly displays his intolerance toward anyone not in lockstep with his narrow platform and personal belief system.

We all need to remember: We’ve been living under the influence of a Republican supermajority which spent the last legislative session laser focused on sex, gender and the removal of freedoms from marginalized people in Montana. 

They could’ve focused on so many other issues instead. How about our newest property valuations, which have led to abnormally large tax increases? Or allowing the Public Service Commission to increase residential energy costs in order to cut costs for commercial consumers? Or fixing our horribly broken health care system, which reportedly worsens daily? Or taking steps to support our public education system, awash with so many teacher vacancies and an AWOL superintendent who has led Montana to the shameful distinction of being last in the nation for beginning teacher pay?

If ignorance is bliss, our Legislature has been living the dream. Meanwhile, taxpayers are burdened with costs of numerous lawsuits involving an attorney general who clearly doesn’t understand, like, or agree with our state’s constitution. 

Regier’s last two Legislatures have passed unconstitutional legislation, knowing it would be challenged in court. In response to these challenges, they’ve given the attorney general even more money and a stable of lawyers, while whining continuously about judicial overreach and denying their own overreach. 

These actions should not be acceptable to Montana taxpayers, nor should we accept a candidate who fosters such hostility and willful misconduct.

— Joan Gates, Kalispell

Roof levy

It’s easy to understand why people want to find a reason to vote no on the upcoming school levies in Columbia Falls. Everyone’s taxes are up, and everything is more expensive. So it can be tempting to believe it when we see people blame the rusted high school roof and the need for operations levies on “wasteful spending.” 

But as any home or car-owner knows, you can be 100% up-to-date on preventive maintenance, and sometimes stuff still breaks. Or you uncover one problem while trying to fix another. That’s what happened at the high school. As a result, we’re literally being asked whether or not we want to keep a roof over our kids’ heads. 

Unfortunately, voting “no” won’t “send a message” to the school board — it’ll send a message to the kids who fill the community pages of the paper with stories of athletic, musical and academic achievements each week. 

As a school trustee, asking the taxpayers for more money is your absolute least-favorite thing. It’s not fun. You feel guilty even asking. Everyone is mad at you. But sometimes it’s unavoidable. 

So now it’s up to us to decide. On a $300,000 home, the high school building reserve (roof) levy would cost about $7 a month for two years. Columbia Falls is a town with a lot of civic pride. Where people will come out and cheer on the Wildcats, listen to a concert, or even attend graduation whether or not they have kids involved — we bleed blue. It’s always hard to decide to take money out of your own pocket. But showing our kids — and our community — that we’re willing to support them through this crisis is worth it. Vote yes on the building reserve levy.

— Alice Biel, Columbia Falls