Letters to the editor July 28
Love thy neighbor
Can I do something meaningful?
The “us v. them” culture that seems to rule our world today is not how I want to see the world. I have been trying to make sense of what I can do to make my existence meaningful in this caustic atmosphere.
Recently my pastor told the congregation that the purpose of God’s blessings is for us to bless others. This statement made me ask myself, “Does God want me to limit sharing blessings with others according to beliefs, religion, politics, race, citizenship status?”
The list continues but the answer to my question remains: “No.” Will living into this purpose of giving blessings to others be easy? My options are to live in fear of others or to live in distrust of others or to live in judgment that others who are different are evil (fill in examples from your experience).
I can only choose for myself how I will live in this society. What beliefs support my choice of actions? The guidelines have been supplied by God who is love and by Jesus who taught the greatest commandment which included love my neighbor as myself.
In reaching out to others to pass God’s blessings on, I will strive to see everyone as a child of God. Only then will I be able to reach out to share blessings. I want to see the world not as it is, but as it could be through Christ’s love, and be part of doing something to make it so.
— Deborah Sapp, Kalispell
Real Montanans
Actions speak louder than words. Votes reveal more than campaign slogans.
Senator Steve Daines campaigned as a proud “5th Generation Montanan” committed to representing the “people of Montana”. As he campaigned, Senator Tim Sheehy pledged to protect and serve “the people of Montana”. Who are these “people of Montana” they committed to serve? The most current data from census.gov and aarp.org is illuminating.
Population of Montana in 2020: 1,034,224 (11.7% living in poverty)
Estimated population on July 1, 2024: 1,137,233 (4.9% increase)
Total number of households: 452,683
Number of millionaire households: 21,000 (4.6% of the total)
People over 65 years of age: 21% of population
People under 18 years of age: 20.37% of population
Social Security recipients: 258,000 (23% of pop.) (retired, survivors, spouses, disabled, children)
People receiving Medicare: 244,000 (22% of pop.) (retired, disabled, specific medical conditions)
People receiving Medicaid: 210,000 (seniors, disabled, low-income, children)
People receiving SNAP: 81,500 recipients (est. 44% are children)
These aren’t just numbers, they represent real Montanans. Our families, our friends, our neighbors.
When they voted to pass the Big Beautiful Bill, we found out which people our current delegation to Congress is representing. Montana’s senators (and representatives) voted to benefit 4.6% of the population at the expense of children, seniors, disabled citizens, rural health care and essentially all of the 95.4% Montanans who don’t live in one of the 21,000 millionaire households.
There should no longer be any doubt about who they represent or who they serve and protect.
— Marcia Rundle, Florence