Letters to the editor June 5

Medicaid cuts

Medicaid gives health insurance to many people in Montana, including two out of every five kids. There’s a new plan in the government (often called “One Big, Beautiful Bill”) that might cut health care for over 10 million people who get help from Medicaid.

This could be a big problem for many hospitals and clinics in smaller towns in Montana. If they lose money from Medicaid, they might have to close down. In Montana, lots of people depend on these local hospitals and clinics. So, if Medicaid is cut, it won’t just hurt the people who get Medicaid; it could make it harder for everyone in Montana to get health care.

The organization I work for, Land to Hand, helps people get healthy food and learn about it. We help connect people to local farmers and ranchers through things like farmers’ markets and programs in schools. We worry that if Medicaid is cut, it will hurt local farmers and ranchers. These farmers and ranchers need the local hospitals and clinics. They might also have family members in care homes, and it’s already hard for them to get health care because they work for themselves. If they can’t get good health care, it could affect the food that we all eat.

The new plan would mostly hurt people in Montana who don’t make a lot of money, like older adults, kids, new moms, and even military veterans. Taking away this important health care would hurt thousands of regular Montanans who are already working hard to get by.

— Whitney Pratt, Whitefish

The ungratefuls

I most heartily concur with Dona Taylor’s letter to the editor on June 1. I thank her for her submission and for pointing out that a George Floyd story appeared on the Daily Inter Lake’s front page beside that of a fallen Vietnam veteran who was rightfully having a bridge named in his honor. 

It is pathetic and sad at the same time, that on Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor those in our military who have given their last full measure of devotion to this country, a true military hero should have to share any spotlight whatsoever with a drug addicted criminal. 

As a Gold Star daughter, this is repugnant to me. However, we have within our country radicals who would rather exhault the criminals, dismiss the victims and have no gratitude whatsoever for those patriots who gave their precious lives for this nation. These ungratefuls, through their caustic rhetoric, which many died to give them the right to exercise, lack allegiance to our country, it’s founding principles and our flag. 

If this nation is so unbearable for them then by all means feel free to find another country that more closely aligns with your radical, Marxist views and see how that works for you.

— Jill Williams, Kalispell

Antisemitism on the rise

I have now gone from upset to outrage over the liberal tolerance of overt antisemitism on our streets and college campuses veiled in the name of free speech.  

An Egyptian Muslim illegal immigrant is accused of throwing Molotov cocktails and using a homemade flamethrower to seriously burn eight peaceful Jews marching in remembrance of the remaining Hamas hostages.  One of those burned was an 88 year old female holocaust survivor!

Providing a stark reminder of how Jews were stripped naked and gassed to death in concentration camps in Nazi Germany before their bodies were incinerated in crematoriums, American Hamas supporters and silent college administrators have tolerated chants for the extermination of the state of Israel for months, while liberal politicians and media have supported their “right” of free speech under the first amendment.  

CNN had the audacity to criticize the FBI for immediately calling the action a hate crime and terrorist act, instead supporting the local police in Boulder Colorado, a liberal college town, who announced it was too early to determine the lunatic’s motivation.  

Meanwhile, liberal campuses like Harvard, which stifle conservative viewpoints and speech by hiring an overwhelming majority of liberal administrators and professors, are hailed by the drive-by media for fighting the Trump administration for withholding federal support until they stop these “mostly peaceful” campus demonstrators shouting “From the river to the sea and Intifada now” and threatening Jewish students from attending classes.

Liberal campuses have set the tone for lunatics like the accused attacker in Colorado to feel justified performing violent acts against Jews as a “freedom fighter” for Palestinians.  

Only when Hamas is exterminated will Israel be rid of one terrorist threat; many will still exist, especially Iran.  Will we need another 6 million dead Jews to end this?

— David Myerowitz, Columbia Falls