Great show

We come to Bigfork several times each year to visit our daughter and grandchildren, and we often enjoy a play or two while here. This past weekend was no exception, for we had a rollicking good time seeing the Bigfork High School players do their durndest with "Wagon Wheels a-Rollin'," a pure slapstick Western comedy which culminates in a shootout in the I'm-Okay-You're-Okay Corral. Congratulations to all involved in this production. One scene will forever stand high in my theater memories — right up there with treasured bits from plays seen on stages in cities the likes of Toronto, New York, London and San Francisco: We in the audience of local community folks, of parents, relatives and friends of the players, had comfortably bought into our willing suspension of disbelief. The wagon train maiden had been kidnapped by four black-hatted bandits, and these dastardly guys were out in the lonesome valley discussing what to do with her. The sweet maiden faced the audience and was speaking at length in a woe-is-me-what-will-I-ever-do-now? aside, when the littlest bandit turned to his cohorts and jolted us all by asking them, bewildered, "Who is she talkin' to?!" The convoluted message in that Pirandelloesque line is what makes the theater the magic brain teaser that it is. Reality, anyone?

Julie Hoskins

Jacksonville, Oregon

Plastic woes

When I was a little girl I remember my grandmother taking her shopping bag to the grocery store. She didn't want a houseful of paper bags and felt even then that the best recycling one could do was to take their own bag to the store. Since then, I, like so many other Americans have become overrun by grocery bags everywhere in drawers with the intention to recycle but in the end get thrown out. I think my grandmother had the right idea all along.

The truth is, plastic bags our choking our planet and killing our wildlife. The simple reason for this is that they don't biodegrade, but photodegrade, which simply means the plastic breaks down into small toxic bits which contaminate the ground and waterways. These toxic bits are consummed by our animals, and our land where we grow food. In addition, it is a by-product of the oil industry requiring vast amounts of oil to produce billions of plastic bags.

Some cities across the country including San Francisco, Boston, Phoenix, and Berkeley among others have banned plastic bags in the city because of the pollution. In small towns across the country grocery stores are offering reusable bags at .99 cents each for people to become involved in real recycling.

Other research has come up that paper bags aren't all that environmentally friendly either. Creating recycled paper, it turns out, is a much more energy-intensive process than creating plastic bags. That's why grocery stores prefer you take the plastic. Plastic is also much easier to ship, as it takes up way less space in packing, and they weigh far less per item of shopping you take home with you. The best thing is not to use either one. Because even though plastic is cheaper to produce the threat to animals and the planet as it photodegrades is a far worse alternative. Also unrecycled paper bags kill too many trees!

Since many of us are used to carrying out plastic bags, remembering to take a canvas or recyclable canvas bag to the grocery store can be challenging. But it's easy if you remember to take your groceries out of your recyclable bags and put the bag right back into your car. Turn it into a routine as you would putting up the groceries in the same place.

You just have to THINK in a different way.

So the next time you are in the grocery store and they ask you "paper or plastic" say NEITHER, hand them your canvas, recycleable bag and say, "I'm here to save the planet, and save the world."

Cristina Friar

Fuel crunch

With the price of fuel creeping higher and higher, there are some serious ramifications that keep showing up in my mind. Among the many areas of our lives that are affected by this is the viability of our school system.

As a school bus driver for the Bigfork School District, I started to make some rough calculations, and the result alarmed me. If the cost of fuel climbs from the budgeted $3/gal. to a predicted $5/gal., it would increase the cost to provide transportation for the children of the Bigfork Schools 67%. This represents just one area of the school budget.

I guess the questions that occur to me are: At what price point does providing bus transportation for our school kids become unaffordable? How will that affect our present school system? What if fuel is rationed? What if the buses are eliminated? Will some kids have to drop out? Will families begin home-schooling? Will neighborhoods band together to provide schooling on a smaller scale (the old one-room school model)?

Obviously, this is only one aspect of the fuel problem for us to ponder.

The local Essential Stuff Project (ESP) is hosting an evening event at Clementine's in Bigfork, May 28th, at 7:00 p.m.The purpose of the gathering is to stimulate local involvement, and to share perceptions of the changes that the rising cost of fuel, energy and food will bring to our lives. For more information about the gathering, contact Edd Blackler, [blackler@acrossmontana.net], 837-5196, Catherine Haug, [cmhaug4@earthlink.net], 837-4577 orEdmund Fitzgerald [edmund@montanasky.net], 837-5548

Edd Blackler

Bigfork

Funding facts

Lately some GOP candidates have been making sweeping statements that exaggerate and misrepresent state spending

by the 2007 general and special sessions of the state legislature. Facts are stubborn things.

For more than a decade leading up to 2004, GOP governors and unfettered GOP legislative majorities neglected K-12 school funding and mental health services, looked the other way as college tuition skyrocketed, ignored opportunities to leverage federal money to fund health care, allowed our teacher retirement system to become insolvent, and our corrections system to decline with no direction or clear management policies.

The 2005 and 2007 legislatures had no choice but to make significant investments in Montana's future to undo the neglect of the previous GOP administrations. In 2005 Governor Schweitzer and the Democratically controlled legislature began the process of overcoming the deficiency of state funding for K-12 education. In 2007 with increased resources at their disposal, the legislature took on these neglected needs. General fund spending did increase 24.9 percent (not the 28.4 some GOP candidates are claiming). Where will the increases go? They are going to make up for the 12 years of neglect prior to 2004.

Federal funds as a percentage of the total state budget declined from 45.5 percent to 42.9 percent. If the Feds continue to reduce their commitment to human services and health care, any money the legislature decides to provide to offset the reduction will come from the general fund. The 2009 legislature will be confronted with more of these types of decisions.

It is easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize the current party in power. It is quite another challenge to honestly confront the difficult decisions facing us, and learn to work together to find the solutions that will do the most good for the most Montanans. Montana is on the move, and much of the progress is a direct result of the last two legislative sessions and the hard work of local legislators like Mike Jopek, Dan Weinberg and Doug Cordier.

They deserve our thanks.

I will represent you fairly and honestly as your Senator from the Whitefish and Columbia Falls region in Senate District #2, with a balanced budget as a priority. I appreciate your support

Gil Jordan

Coram, Montana

Candidate for Senate District 2