Letters to the editor Sept. 9

Call out racism

In response to the Sept. 3 letter “Shocked by display of racism,” there is no excuse for what you experienced while in Kalispell. Racism in all its ugly forms is totally unacceptable, especially today.  

From your letter, it does sound like this jerk was purposefully hiding his behavior – glaring, whispering and appearing threatening. He knew what he was doing was wrong, and would be perceived as wrong by others, so he tried to hide it from everyone but you.  

I hope that the people in the store who you think may have seen what happened, didn’t understand it.  However, if they did and supported it, then please know that is not who we are. We have each other’s backs so I believe would have surely said something.  If we don’t speak up in the face of racism, our silence condones it. And what is condoned, spreads.

Having said that, Kalispell, like other towns across the country, does have its share of people who are racist. We all need to call them out when we see it, so they can scurry back into the dark ages where they and this sort of behavior belongs. 

I hope you will come back and reschedule the dream vacation you had planned. Just as we need to call racism out, we need to not let it take anything away from us. Don’t let him/racism win. We live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. People here are proud of this place we call home.

As the commercial said, come back and “we’ll leave the light on for ya!”

— Cheryle Zwang, Kalispell

On call 24/7

To the crew and the families of the crew from Flathead Electric Cooperative that spent most of Labor day repairing a major outage in Foys Canyon. I would like to say thank you. From someone who knows the meaning of “on call 24-7” your service is greatly appreciated.

 — Tom Shaughnessy, Foys Canyon

Profit

There is a new god being worshiped across the land. He is known by many names but he is primarily called “profit.”  

He is insatiable and impatient demanding that income generated in his name be short-term and without limit. He is also selfish, demanding that the generation of maximum profit take priority over everything else including integrity, truth, fairness, health of our citizens and the planet, compliance with the law and – even – the preservation of our democratic republic.  

To satisfy profit his worshipers have to maximize income and shift costs to others while ignoring their consciences and feelings of guilt. Their reward is wealth beyond belief achieved at the expense of the majority of us and, sadly, our children’s future.

— Charles Davis, Columbia Falls

Warming Center

So here we go again as regards the Warming Center. They have lawyered up and are threatening the city of Kalispell if they don’t rule favorably on their conditional use permit. 

I sincerely entreat the council not to allow themselves to be bullied by these people. Predictable liberal tactics. The business owners and residents around the Center have the right to conduct business and live unmolested by people loitering around that facility. 

Where we can all commiserate with someone who finds themselves, through no fault of their own, needing temporary assistance, many can be found, of a winter’s evening waiting in line outside the center in their big puffy coats with faces illuminated from the glow of their iPhone screens as they scroll away. How is it  that they can afford a phone and phone service? 

In a recent conversation with an acquaintance who had ridden on Kalispell public transportation they reported several homeless people who were riding around for free, conversing on their phones with others and bragging about how much money they had made panhandling here and there around Kalispell. This is infuriating. 

This town has many job openings available. If a person has time to loiter around in our parks or ride the Mountain Climber all day scouting freeloading opportunities then you can darn well get a couple of jobs to improve your situation.  

I reiterate that there are some amongst us who have genuine need for temporary assistance, but there are those who also choose to be homeless as a lifestyle. 

We need more mental health, and veterans resources that goes without saying, but neighbors and businesses around the Warming Center should never have to suffer loss or harassment due to Center clientele. California rolls out the welcome mat; perhaps a better climate and option.

— Jill Williams, Kalispell