Letters to the editor Jan. 18

Stop pretending

I’m tired of having to guess which side people are on. I’m tired of giving my money to businesses that use that money to deconstruct Thomas Jefferson’s dream of an educated democracy. I’m tired of pretending that there is a road back to a unified America. I’m tired of arguing with people who spend all day clicking to algorithms that have a stranglehold on their souls. Algorithms that feed their insatiable craving for anger, hate and division. 

It’s time for us to pick which uniform you should wear, blue or gray. Which side are you on? Let’s stop hiding, and let’s stop pretending.

The algorithms are too strong. The algorithms have driven a permanent wedge between two very different groups of people. Two groups that can see the same video, photograph, or examine the same mountain of peer-reviewed data and come away with two wildly different interpretations.

One group sees an angry paid agitator, funded and trained by George Soros, using her family’s minivan to kill federal officers. The other group sees a concerned citizen exercising her constitutional rights trying to preserve the last remnants of democracy. 

One group looks at the weather and sees a hundred-year global conspiracy among scientists, students, museums, universities and governments to fabricate fake climate data. The other group sees irrefutable proof of a global threat that can only be addressed by entities other than short-term profit-driven capitalists. 

One group sees a God given savior of all that is righteous and good. The other group sees a lifelong liar and scam artist with a Hollywood-perfected stage schtick that duped the white working class into voting for the billionaire agenda.

Let’s please stop pretending so we can more clearly see what’s going on. We can’t fix problems that we can’t even see let alone clearly identify.  

— Doug Bonham, Essex

Hit job

Like other residents in the Polson community, I found a flier in my mailbox today from the group who describe themselves as “Americans for Prosperity.” This flier can only be described as a hit job on Rep. Linda Reksten. 

Reksten was fairly elected to represent the interests of District 13. As a registered Democrat who considers herself independent in who she supports based on their positions and voting record, I find this mailing to be outrageous and full of lies. This flier criticizes Reksten’s vote for Medicaid expansion. It promotes complete falsehoods that this vote will “extend coverage to “single able-bodied adults” at the expense of the “vulnerable.” 

In my conversation with Dr. Reksten, she was clear that this vote was to prevent the closure of rural hospitals in Montana. 

Regardless of party affiliation, the time has come to support our representatives who are willing to work across the aisle for the benefit of Montanans.

— Elaine Meeks, Polson