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Priests had right to attend Trump rally

Bishop Warfel’s rebuke of four young Montana priests who dared to attend Trump’s Great Falls rally while wearing clerical attire has created much chatter in the local Catholic community.

Many of us were somewhat puzzled by their prominent location behind the podium, but certainly not scandalized as the bishop suggests. After all, respect for life at conception is a prominent part of the Republican platform and strongly touted by activist Catholics, is it not? Why shouldn’t those priests be there? Unless there is a bit of hypocrisy going on in the ranks of Democrat ecclesiastics?

Why is it OK for clerically garbed priests to appear at climate change and immigration rallies, but not at an event celebrating the appearance of a president who supports and represents that pro-life platform?

After much “fake news” on this subject, Bishop Warfel’s rebuke provoked a response from Father Kevin Christofferson, one of the accused. His inspiring letter to his superior, Monsignor O’Neil of Helena, and his own truthful summary of the event expresses appreciation for his right to exercise his religious liberty.

Though I do not agree with all that Father Kevin espouses, he certainly shows spunk! —Nancy McGunagle, Kalispell

Hate has an ugly face

I did not know what it felt like to be hated because of ideological differences until I joined a pro-life group, most of whom were women. Some had previous abortions and suffered much from that decision. Our mission was saving lives, educating women and providing resources. At that time women were commonly told in the early stages of pregnancy their baby was “just a blob of tissue.° We researched and found out that abortions often caused post-traumatic stress disorder.

We stood quietly and prayerfully on a strip of grass near the highway that was in front of the abortion facility with signs. Opponents of life threw things at us, yelled obscenities, and got directly in our faces. We did not retaliate. Strangely we were accused of being haters.

I have come to learn that abortion is the sacred cow of the liberal agenda. Fear that there may be a threat to unfettered access to abortion changes these people. Anger contorts otherwise attractive features so much they become ugly and mean looking.

For the record, I never had one person scream that I was threatening their health care, because it is not about health care. It is about abortion.

Sen. Tester will not vote to confirm this Supreme Court justice because Tester does not stand for life. Ironically it may be the very thing that costs him this election. I do not believe he cares about temporary separation of children at the border, when he does not bat an eye at a child being killed, never to see its mother. —Marsha Graham, Kalispell

President makes many false statements

At the rally in Great Falls President Trump made 98 factual statements. According to the Washington Post’s fact checkers, 76 percent of them were false, misleading, or unsupported by evidence.

That record was similar to his recent tweets that Democrats were responsible for his administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the border (they weren’t), and that “Crime in Germany is way up because of immigration” (in fact, it’s down).

Our country is beset by insecurity, and people are grasping desperately at adult security blankets: drugs, cellphones, water bottles, tattoos, obesity, long hair, beards, and presidential statements that are false or related to the facts only by their reverse. It’s also similar to the desperation of the German and Italian people in the 1930s. —Robert O’Neil, Kalispell

Yet another opportunity for thoughts and prayers ...

There is irony in the proximity of both time and place between the NRA convention in Dallas in early May and the school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas. While the NRA and President Trump were instilling fear among gun owners with the lie that their constitutional rights were at risk, a 17-year-old student was hatching a plan to murder his classmates with his father’s guns.

Once again, in heartbreaking detail, we learned of the lives of innocent youths and teachers whose lives were tragically taken. Each victim had a story, loved ones, a life full of possibilities. One survivor of the horror said that she was not surprised, indeed that she had “always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here, too.” This is unspeakable.

The suggestion to arm teachers is dangerous — our police and military forces must undergo hundreds of hours of training, and they still can make tragic mistakes with guns. This Santa Fe school had armed officers and had practiced a comprehensive active-shooter plan. In spite of that preparedness, guns wreaked havoc and tragedy. Mass murders with firearms are increasing — and do not forget that they are not just happening in our schools— they are happening in churches, in nightclubs, at concerts, in theaters. We can turn our institutions of learning into fortresses, but the carnage will continue elsewhere.

Our president repeated those tired old words about grief and support and love and prayers. Something DIFFERENT must be done. What has been brought home with gut-punching power is that phrase — “If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got.” Our leaders MUST have the courage to recognize that background checks and gun locks and bans on automatic weapons and strong measures to keep guns out of the hands of anyone who means such carnage do not threaten the Second Amendment rights of our citizens. The Second Amendment clearly uses the phrase “well-regulated.” Our leaders and our citizens must support firearm regulation. The problem is not that we don’t have enough guns. If that were the case, we should be the country whose citizens are least likely to die by guns rather than what we are, the most likely.

While only 30 percent of Americans own guns, it is important to respect the rights of those who do. Stronger gun laws will protect us all — gun owners and non-owners alike. Ponder the words of Houston Police Chief Art Acevodo who wrote this about his frustration over the lack of action on gun control, “Please don’t post anything about guns aren’t the problem and there’s little we can do … I will continue to speak up and will stand up for what my heart and my God commands me to do, and I assure you He hasn’t instructed me to believe that gun-rights are bestowed by Him.” —Jeanne Southwood, Bigfork

Shootings are bad, but what about millions killed by abortion?

The school shooting in Florida was heart-breaking, 17 children dead. This shooting spawned nationwide protests, primarily against gun violence, and for gun control.

Yes, there were 17 more kids dead, but we kill over 1,100 kids a day by abortion in the USA. How many die each day from drug overdoses? Where is the outrage? Since they opened the abortion clinic in Whitefish they have probably killed more than 17 kids. I guarantee that Planned Parenthood in Helena has killed way more than that. Where is the outrage? With scissors, forceps, and needles, WE have killed over 70 million of our kids, but we want gun control. How about self-control!

When I was a kid, the only things in school that I really feared were my teacher, bad grades, and retribution from screwing up. My teachers and parents were an unbeatable team, and I had the sore backside to prove it. Oh yeah, God was in the school too. Where He belonged and still does.

We have become a culture of death. What difference does 17 more kids make? When a baby in the womb, screams as it is being torn apart and no one hears it, did it really scream? If our kids today were asked to draw a picture of the USA, the primary color they would need is BLACK. —Jay Trepanier, Kalispell

Ohio State scandal is most likely political

As a former faculty member at The Ohio State University for 15 years, why am I NOT surprised that this progressive institution trying not to become the next Penn State hired a politically biased and actively anti-Republican law firm (yes, I know, that descriptor is somewhat redundant for most law firms), Perkins Coie, to investigate randy behavior by a homosexual doctor that occurred 30 years ago?

Believe me when I tell you that Ohio State is ALL about politics. Why am I not surprised that this law firm, notorious for the famous Hillary Clinton campaign-sponsored Russian anti-Trump dossier, with no law offices in Columbus, Ohio (home of Ohio State) was hired rather than a local law firm in a city with quite a few good law firms? Or why hire a law firm with primary practices in corporate finance, government and regulatory law and political law (obtained directly from their web site) to handle their risk in a case of alleged sexual abuse by a team doctor?

Why am I not surprised that rather than hearing about the head coach’s involvement we are focused on a Republican congressman, Jim Jordan, who was a 20-something-year-old assistant coach? Could it possibly be because Mr. Jordan is the next possible speaker of the House and his House committee is investigating Perkins Coie’s role in the dirty dossier?

Why am I not surprised that none of the wrestlers who support Mr. Jordan’s claim of not knowing of the abuse are being aired by the drive-by media? And why has none of the lying and criminal behavior by some of Mr. Jordan’s accusers been reported by most of the biased media?

What I AM surprised about is why any decent person would go into the cesspool that has become American politics. Calling it a swamp is being kind. No wonder Trey Gowdy is leaving Congress. The smell must have become so strong he couldn’t stand it anymore. —P. David Myerowitz, Columbia Falls