What about Rocky?
To the editor,
Rockford Plawman died Nov. 25, 2007. He was 16 years old. He went to a party, a “pharming” party. You bring all the pills you can find, throw them in a bowl with all the others, take a handful and wash them down with beer. A dangerous game of Russian roulette. Rocky lost. Left alone by the adult in the home and left by his friends. None of his friends want to testify against the adult, and the adult conveniently disappeared until the police tracked him down.
Don’t we have enough proof to prosecute? I pleaded, yes, we have enough evidence to prosecute the adult who provided the liquor and drugs, and also opened his home to the dozens of youth — but — no law on the books in Montana allow the sheriff to arrest him. Also, alcohol is not listed as a drug in Montana Law. I couldn’t believe my ears! No adult would be held accountable for our grandson’s death. Travis Bruyer, the detective, has done his work, gathered the evidence and sent it to the District Attorney, but that’s where it stops.
It is time for social change! We need to continue to support Detective Travis Bruyer and the alcohol enforcement team. We need more grant money, more officers and more volunteers. Many of the businesses in this valley are generous donators to this cause. Thank you! Most of all we need to support and pass a “Social Host law” that will hold adults responsible for their actions. We all need to step up to the plate and vote for officials, local and statewide, that will say to the nation, “If you provide liquor and drugs to our youth, we will prosecute you!”
Put the laws on the books in Montana!
Jim and Cary Plawman
Whitefish
Dangers of risky lifestyle
To the editor,
She could be your daughter, or mine. Every time I see her picture, I am drawn by her youth, her innocence, her natural beauty. Her contemplative expression appears to reflect a decision she, and perhaps her parents, are about to make. From most every angle, society is nudging, yes, persuading her that sex before marriage is okay, even expected. But, relief! Here is a vaccine that protects her from HPV. No one would know, it’s convenient and even free. In her youthful inexperience, she may not have the wisdom to question such a decision, but her mother and father who deeply treasure her must question, discern, and get to the bottom of an offer that in reality will not protect her health, and is not free. Her concern about HPV may be eased, but what about HIV and the many other STD’s so prevalent among teens? The vaccination has no monetary cost, but what about the cost to her soul, her self-esteem, her spirit — the place within her designed for meeting with the One who created her — after she acts on the silent but unmistakable message her parents, those who love her most, have sent: implicit, yet undeniable consent to enter into sex before marriage. What about the cost to her future husband, their wedding day, her memories? Would I any more usher my daughter, even implicitly, into such a dangerous lifestyle than I would usher her into a den of lions? I would not! I could not!
Having made the only choice that is good, healthy and risk-free, angry voices can be expected to arise from within and without demanding, “Get real!” With zeal and confidence greater than their anger, let’s do get so real that we see through the superficiality of the offer, straight to the strong, yet unspoken message of consent to a desperately risky lifestyle.
I invite you to join me in setting aside quality time with our daughters to share as passionately as we can the innate, implacable love of a parent that demands so relentless a decision.
Shirley Daniels
West Glacier
Baucus, Tester criticized about guns in GNP
To Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester,
Well, you guys certainly created a lot of controversy with your support for carrying guns in Glacier National Park. Wow!
Family-oriented people swear they will never hike in GNP again knowing lunatics with guns are sharing the hiking trails with them. They are bitter, stunned, angry. I can’t tell you how many I have heard commenting angrily on the topic. It is a topic of conversation everywhere one goes.
Others have said they will start packing guns to protect themselves and their loved ones accompanying them in GNP on hikes. How scary is that?!
Still others allege that gun-toting hikers in GNP will really want an opportunity to legally shoot a bear, claiming they were being attacked and it was self-defense. That sure beats de-listing them in order to eliminate them.
You guys are on the proverbial hot seat now! Did you have any idea you would cause so much controversy? What were you thinking? The right to bear arms doesn’t include family hikes in GNP. It is an animal sanctuary, not some hunting grounds. What is to happen to the 10,000,000 annual visitors to Montana, with 2,000,000 of them entering the Park? Can the economy in Montana afford the loss of all those tourists? The Park Rangers are worried about maintaining the peace, human mortality, bear mortality, etc. Only a couple of them are allowed to carry guns with the authority to make arrests. If you revert back to the old west gunslinger era, what Park Ranger will want to stay on the job?
What gives with you two? Max, is this your strategy to get re-elected? I think you miscalculated. It will cost you votes! There are more family hikers and wildlife ecologists than hunters.
Bill Baum
Badrock Canyon
Flathead Electric board candidate outlines views
To fellow Flathead Electric Co-op members,
Here are a few of the reasons why am I running for the FEC District 6 Board member position.
The service I receive from Flathead Electric is extremely important to my business as well as our household. In addition, a sound Co-Op is important to the economy in our valley. Energy needs will continue to outpace supply until we embrace economically feasible alternatives.
I believe my 32 years as owner of Farm-To-Market Pork has given me some experience in practicing innovative ideas to stay competitive and in business. We must be willing to look at energy options that will be beneficial in the long run. We have many forces that threaten our lifestyle in this community, but as rich as we are in natural resources, energy shortage doesn’t need to be one of them. It appears we have a very progressive board and dedicated employees. I believe I would enjoy working with this group of professionals and would find it very stimulating as well. I enjoy working and giving back to a community that has been very supportive to our family and business.
About two years ago the FEC Board invited about 12 members to serve on the Rates Review Committee. The board had decided to lower rates and our job was to recommend to the board the most equitable way to do this. We studied the three different classifications: small, medium and large users. This was a valuable experience for me in understanding the rate structure, etc. I feel as a committee we came up with a recommendation that was beneficial to everyone and this was the plan that was implemented to give all users their recent rate reductions.
This experience, along with a variety of board experience, will help qualify me for this position. Thank you for your support.
Duane G. Braaten
Kalispell
The Great Debates
To the editor,
There is no substance in the Democratic debates. Both candidates are repeating issues that we have heard each election. Each are full of rhetoric with no solutions to immigration, inflation, educational issues, etc. Why do we not require each presidential candidate to publish their voting record? The voters could then dissect each objectively and see who they really are and what they really believe or learn who they have sold out to.
I hope each voter takes time to find out the voting records of our candidates. The cards would be on the table. It would be more difficult for them to lie regarding their political histories. There are several sensitive issues that each are avoiding which directly affect how our Bill of Rights is interpreted. By the way, how do we find their voting records?
Don Baker
Laurel
Braaten endorsed for Flathead Electric board
To the editor,
Flathead Electric’s annual meeting on March 15 will be my last official meeting as a trustee. I will have served 36 years and it certainly would not have been possible without the support of the membership and my family. Thank you. The decision to step down was not because of any conflict, but rather because it was just time to slow down.
Since the difficult years, in 2000-03, the board has been very dedicated to improving its position on power costs and financial activity. With the hiring of Ken Sugden as our manager, the board and management are working as a team again. We have regained equity levels to 20 percent; we have returned capital credits (excess margins) to pre-acquisition members. In fact, all capital credits to those members will be paid through 1998. We continue to rebuild our reserves; we have kept pace with line extension work; and we reduced or margins in 2007 by giving all members a rebate. And we did it without raising rates!
You, as owners of Flathead Electric, should be proud of the leadership that is working for you. The membership of this Coop, gives the trustee the power to manage the business affairs of the Co-op. It is, therefore, important that individual board members be selected that, who by record, have a high level of integrity and experience. For these reasons I endorse Duane Braaten, owner and operator of Farm to Market Pork, as my replacement in District 6.
Karl Schrade
Kalispell
In November we will know the answers
Somehow, during the past 50 years or so we seem to have forgotten a guiding principal of the founding fathers — that war is justified only as the very last resort, and then only when we face dire peril. Only then should the utter chaos, the horror and the shattered lives that is war even be considered. The two great wars had to be fought because the world faced dire peril. Americans simply could not stand by and allow tyranny, genocide and terror to run rampant across the globe.
Just five years after the second Great War, we began to lose sight of that guiding principal, and with almost no public dissent, we sent our young men to fight what was basically a civil war in the tiny county of Korea. A county that few Americans in 1950 hardly even knew existed. Three years later, 36,616 American parents buried their sons, except for the 8,175 MIAs never found. More than 92,000 were wounded. When we brought what was left of our boys home in 1953, we had no clue as to why we had sent them to this Hell hole in the first place. Even now, we do not know.
In 1959, we again did the inexplicable. Something called the “Domino Theory” was used to convince us to send our children halfway around the world to a place most American could not find on a map. In the beginning, hardly a word was raised in protest. But, by 1968, the first few “advisors” we sent to Vietnam had mushroomed to more than 500,000 troops, with the death toll of civilians and soldiers escalating daily. Nightly our television screens were filled with the nightmare of Vietnamese children fleeing their bombed hamlets, clothes ablaze with burning napalm. Only after our college campuses erupted into virtual battle grounds, with four students killed by our own National Guard at Kent State University, did we begin to pull back from the carnage. By the time we finally admitted defeat and brought the last of troops home in 1975, more than 58,000 young Americans were dead, as were more than three million Vietnamese, North and South. Hundreds of thousands horribly wounded. And for what? To this day, not one living soul can answer that question.
We swore, never again. But in 2003, we allowed old men who hid from Vietnam as young men to send our children where they would not send their own children. But this time, for the first time in world history, a call to fear by the few was met with protest and defiance by the many. From September 2002 through February 2003, in 800 cities around the world, we saw the largest peace protests ever held before a war actually started. The 2004 Guinness Book of Records listed these protests as the largest protests in human history. It was clear to the entire world from the beginning that this third world county with no air force or naval capability posed no viable threat to the U.S.
But once again fear and ignorance won out. Now, five years later to the month, we find ourselves with more than 4,000 of our young men and women dead, tens of thousands wounded, and several hundred thousand Iraqi civilians killed. Where there were no terrorists, we have created a terrorist haven. And again, no one can coherently articulate why. We can never undo what has been done, but we can begin the process of atonement. In November we will know if we still have it in us to listen to our better angles. The differences could not be more stark. We will either elect a president who is a nicer version of what we have now, or we will make history and come together, conservative, liberal and independent alike, and elect one who asks us all to be the best that we can be. Maybe once again we will be the shining Beacon of Hope in the world that is our birthright.
Jim Lockwood is a Vietnam War veteran who lives near Whitefish.