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Letters to the editor Jan. 30

| January 30, 2025 12:00 AM

Opioid settlement

I cannot wait to hear how our fearless Flathead County Commissioners twist themselves into pretzels trying to explain why it has no use for opioid settlement money soon to be made available. 

The infamous Sackler family (former owners of Purdue Pharma) has reached an agreement to pay billions, which includes millions to the state of Montana. Like the affordable housing money our fearsome threesome rejected, the money will be invaluable to aiding our addiction crisis. A crisis that  leads to what, commissioners? Homelessness. Yes, that issue the three of you have made world headlines failing miserably addressing it here. 

No, homelessness is not a character issue. A “choice” issue. Or an issue that just disappears because you choose to ignore it. 

When the Sackler money is offered to the county to aid our crisis, don’t be lazy this time and decline it because you think it smells of socialism. Use it to do your job: Craft a well-thought out plan to help the addict who is probably among our homeless.

— Mark Suppelsa, Bigfork

Gulf of America

Some people have criticized President Donald Trump‘s idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. As it turns out, the Spanish named the gulf, it seems. 

The Gulf of America makes much more sense, as it is contained by South America, Central America and North America. Even though many people called our country “America“ we are really the United States of America. Think about it.

— Ward DeWitt, Bigfork

Birthright citizenship

President Trump is 100% correct to stop citizenship by birth in the U.S. Wealthy Russians and other nationalities are sending their pregnant wives to the U.S., most often to Florida. Their babies, born in the U.S., are immediately dual citizens

There is a name for this practice: Birth tourism. This blatant abuse of our immigration law must be stopped.

— Elsa Putzier, Bigfork

First line of defense

Mr. Agather writes Jan. 23, “I hate to see stupidity rewarded.” As for me, I hate to see false and misleading claims rewarded.

Hurricane-force winds and extraordinarily dry conditions were the prime contributors to the current Southern California fire disasters, not stupidity or conspiracy theories.

Where the writer claims California was unprepared and inept, wildfire experts assert that no city on the planet would have been prepared for the unprecedented conflagration that descended on Los Angeles County.

While Mr. Agather suggests firefighters ran out of water due to destroyed reservoirs, local engineers insist the hydrant pumps were overwhelmed trying to douse thousands of engulfed homes simultaneously day after day, and ultimately slowed to a trickle. And by the way, those dams and shad the author seems to be implicating never supplied water to the Los Angeles area as they were 500 miles to the north.

Where the author contends “roads cut into brush areas should be the first line of defense,” urban wildfire research has found “defensible space” to be the first and most successful defense against wildfire. Examples include ember-resistant roofing and exterior walls, along with removing dry vegetation and combustibles within 30 feet of a home or building.  Los Angeles County had such smart ordinances in place.

But, if Montanans are to learn from the California tragedy, then we must address the real problems that caused it, not the conspiracy theories. Extreme droughts, heatwaves and violent storms are real. Not just in California, but also in Montana, the U.S. and the entire world. Civil discussion of ways to minimize those environmental dangers — if not reverse them — should be our first line of defense.

— Greg Mueth, Kalispell