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Is public safety more important in Evergreen?

Traffic on West Evergreen Drive was cited as one of the paramount concerns for the decision to scrap the Evergreen mobile-home park. Compare this decision to the city of Kalispell’s plan to allow perhaps 600 to 800 additional vehicles access onto Two Mile Drive, in two different developments, a high density apartment complex near Hawthorne and a large single family development near Two Mile and West Springcreek.

At a recent planning board meeting focusing on the high-density apartment project on Two Mile Drive, pedestrian safety was brought up. The response was that the developer would be responsible for sidewalks only along roadways immediately adjacent to the apartments. This same response was made at another presentation regarding the housing development at West Springcreek. Just because the developer cannot be responsible for safety provisions does not mean that they are unnecessary.

The infrastructure is not in place to permit this development, yet our representatives just plow ahead with little regard for the potential hazards to pedestrians and bicyclists. If this development goes forward, sections of Two Mile Drive, already narrow, will have just a couple of intermittent sidewalks, with the huge majority left with no shoulder and drainage ditches on either side.

Either put the upgrades and necessary infrastructure in place or don’t approve the project.

The primary function of government is to protect its citizens. This is your responsibility.

I regularly see walkers, joggers and youngsters on bicycles using Two Mile Drive. Don’t wait for a tragedy to do what should be done. —William Etter, Kalispell

Questions to ponder for gun-control advocates

To all those who believe “gun violence” can be fixed by “gun control” legislation. Please publish your answers to these questions:

Can you give me an example of a law that all criminals will voluntarily obey?

Murder has always been against the law. How come it still happens?

People have been killing each other long before guns existed? Why would banning guns stop people from killing each other now?

Meth and other drugs have been banned by law for a long time, why then are they so easy to get and use ?

I look forward to your answers. —Gerry Hurst, Marion

Can you ever be neutral regarding abortion?

Can one claim neutrality when it comes to the issue of abortion?

Abortion is the killing of an unborn human baby. Either one is for the killing or against the killing. The neutral position, as it is attempted, is in reality a position of condoning the killing of the unborn human baby.

Many attempted to remain “neutral” during WWII as millions were killed, but their silence, as we look back at history, made them accomplices. No matter how you want to approach this issue, life and death is what is at stake. Certainly there are gray issues in some moral positions, but this is not one of them.

We can seek common ground on many issues, but where is the common ground when it comes to abortion? However you want to look at it, after an abortion, you have one dead baby, one deeply wounded mother, many who will miss the life and opportunities with this child, and a community that attempts to stay “neutral.”

But are they really neutral? —Mark G. Cutler, pastor, Trinity Lutheran, Kalispell

What is happening to our country today is ‘evil personified’

What is more important--your party or your country? Powerful friends or the people who depend on you? Whether your candidate wins no matter how they win? Belief in law and order, or not? Are you a person of integrity, or not?

These are not metaphysical or abstract questions. They are at the core of what has happened to our beloved nation. It is evil personified. These questions could determine the very future of our country as a republic. Hyperbole? I don’t think so.

To wit: House Republicans not having the courage to constitutionally check the president for emolument clause infractions of the Constitution because he is a member of their party. House Republicans’ failure to thoroughly investigate and then hindering the Russian interference into our election. House Republicans not having the fortitude to reject the president’s attempts to obstruct the investigation of Russian intrusion in our democracy. Republicans’ spineless failure to address the accessibility of assault weapons in our country that has resulted in mass murders in our schools and communities by taking the untenable position that any attempt to restrict assault weapons is an attempt to repeal the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

Congressional Republicans have supported tax cuts for the wealthy while trying to eliminate health care for thousands of Americans. Congressional Republicans declare that they are advocates of financial responsibility; yet they passed a tax bill that increases U.S. deficit by $1 trillion every year from now on while expecting Americans to pay for this through reductions in social programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

National Republicans have denied voting rights of thousands of Americans through gerrymandering, voter suppression, attempts to impeach justices who declare their efforts as unconstitutional, and altering census format to reduce state funding and representation. And worst of all, Republicans in Congress have failed in their constitutional duty to provide a check on a wayward and unstable executive. An executive who does not listen to any of his advisers, berates anyone who has the audacity to disagree, anyone who he perceives as a threat — real or imagined — to his leadership. An executive who blames the press, the FBI, the CIA, immigrants, people of color, anyone but himself. An executive who will not say one word of criticism to a man who has cyber-attacked and continues to cyber-attack the United States, Vladimir Putin.

The House Republicans, including our own billionaire Greg Gianforte, have abdicated their constitutional duty as a check on the executive. As a result they have enabled a president to become a real threat to our democracy — the firings, the lying, the bullying, the erratic behavior, the failure to protect our elections, the massive corruption and abuse of the public trust by those around him and breaking congressional rules and norms to get what their wealthy benefactors want. Attacking the children who have been shot at in school because they have the audacity to protest.

Based on what has transpired in the past year, one has to question what motivates any political party that justifies this kind of behavior. —David R. James, Eureka

Children need to know you respect the president

In answer to “How do you teach children about Trump?”

First of all we teach them that he is our president and we treat him with respect as he is the leader of our land. Just as we taught them to respect Obama when he was president even though he depleted the military, ruined the economy, and was responsible for the decline in jobs with most of manufacturing moving out of the United States. He encouraged illegals to cross the open borders; while inciting the worst race division in recent history. The lack of respect of law enforcement led to an upturn in murder and crime.

I could go on and on about deception, lies and his dislike for America while bowing in foreign lands and giving away millions, but since he was the president he was treated with respect and we didn’t tell the children who he really was.

History will tell the story in time of all presidents, good and bad. —Joanne White, Kalispell

It’s not common sense if you are relying on lies

We rely on the media to give us good information, i.e. the truth. But that is not always what they provide. What you will not hear on the mainstream media is that the U.S. does not have the highest murder rate in the world. Our murder rate is in the middle of the pack (about five per 100,000), yet we have way more guns than any other country in the world. How can that be?

Guns are not the problem. What you will hear is that we have the highest murder rate by firearm, implying that we have the highest murder rate. Very misleading. Something else you will not hear is that many school districts in the U.S. do allow teachers or officers to carry guns in school. And those schools have not had any mass shootings, accidents, or students being shot. How can that be? Because a good guy with a gun can deter a mass shooting from ever getting started.

If you rely on what the media says for your talking points on gun control, you are being fed lies. This also applies to what they say about AR-15 rifles and the Second Amendment. Do your own research. —William Fry, Kalispell