Letters to the editor Oct. 18
Tester champions Montana women
When election season rolls around, it’s hard to know who to trust and what to believe. But Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s endorsement of Senator Jon Tester is an endorsement that cuts through all the political double speak and says it like it is: Jon Tester champions Montana women.
During his time in the U.S. Senate, Senator Tester has earned the trust and support of the women in this state. We know that he will never stop fighting to protect us from harmful anti-women legislation, like stripping us of our reproductive rights or our access to quality health care. He knows that when women are not supported, neither are our families nor are our communities. Women need to have access to the same opportunities as others, whether that’s economic opportunities, education, or the ability to make basic health care decisions. That’s why he relentlessly works to make sure that he not only stands up for Montana women back in Washington, D.C. when the GOP tries to chip away at our rights, but he also expands opportunities for women, such as co-sponsoring the Paycheck Fairness Act or voting for budgets that fund health centers in Montana like Planned Parenthood.
When it comes time to send someone to Washington, D.C. to represent the interests of Montana’s women, there’s only one person I trust to do that and it’s Senator Jon Tester.
— Margaret Morris, Whitefish
Support Decker in Lake County
Please join me in supporting Gale Decker for re-election as our Lake County Commissioner. As a father, husband, teacher, coach, and community leader, Gale exemplifies honesty, fairness and thoughtfulness. His life long residency in Lake County provides Gale an understanding of our diverse community. As one of our current County Commissioners, Gale has a proven track record of working with and for the citizens of Lake County. Gale’s concern and devotion for our community is always evident in his decision making process as our current County Commissioner. Please join me in voting for Gale Decker.
— Greg Hertz, Polson
Tester up to old tricks
Jon Tester is up to his old tricks again. Democrat lawyers sued and were successful in having the Green Party candidate removed from this year’s ballot.
You may recall that in 2012, Senator Tester committed a similar dirty trick involving third party candidates. In that election, a Tester-ally PAC spent $500,000 promoting a libertarian candidate in a desperate attempt to siphon votes from Steve Daines. Sadly, it worked.
It’s bad enough that Tester lies in many of his campaign ads by pretending to be conservative, now he’s actively suppressing third party candidates.
Montanans need to send a clear message this fall that Tester’s dirty D.C. swamp tricks do not work in our state.
— Marcus Esmay, Columbia Falls
Reach out to the other side
I was hiking up Strawberry Lake trail the other week with my dad and these words came to me in the midst of conversation “it’s not that FOX or MSNBC lies, it’s that there’s no overlap in their coverage.” The honesty of a media source in America in the second decade of this century can be best judged by the newsworthy events it does not cover and the relevant/important details it leaves out of stories it does cover. This is meant to be mediating.
I’d love to see more mediating opinions, throughout my life. We can do it in the workplace — work together despite differences. It’s one of the few places where we are still brought together in community across ideological/political divides, where real conversations can happen.
There were a couple years where I was the one on social media putting out a question or opinion in a thought or emotion-provoking manner. I’d get scores of comments on many posts. I learned the direction that all the common arguments go on all the common issues among the people in my circle of acquaintances. After a while fresh opinions become scarce.
Love each other, Americans. Easy to say, but though to do in the midst of polarizing influences. Politics will always be dirty. Often (and eventually all) those who play dirty hurt themselves. Let’s focus on reaching the side we really need — the opposite side, as much as we focus on bolstering our own side. To make lasting change we need support on both sides. We’ve seen that to be true with passing administrations and majorities in Congress.
— Matthew Lamberts, Bigfork
Vote to protect immigrants
I didn’t get a vote about where I was born. I was delivered into this world and later learned that I live in the United States. Our citizenship comes with great privileges. We have rights and freedoms that an individual in other countries may never experience.
I grew up in Texas, in a community with immigrants, including individuals from Mexico. Immigrants were not strangers to me, they were my friends, neighbors, teachers and simply people. They have families, love their children, feel heartbreak, success, failure and rejection - just like you and I do.
In my 20s, I had the opportunity to live, work and travel in other countries. I learned other languages and was welcomed into other cultures. I cherish these memories and the deep friendships I made with people in other nations. They didn’t hold my background against me.
Today, I work in a place with people from Ireland, Venezuela, Brazil, India, Switzerland and other countries. They were born in these places through no choice of their own. Like me, they decided to make Montana their home. They have families, love their children, feel heartbreak, success, failure and rejection - just like you and I do. They contribute time, skills and money to our community, making the Flathead Valley a better place to live. I’m proud to call them neighbors.
I believe cultural experiences make better, kinder and more thoughtful humans. And we could use more of that in our world right now. I had no choice about where I was born, nor did you, but we do have a choice to help others in need. We can help by demanding an end to inhumane immigration policies and the current hateful rhetoric. In the mid-term elections, vote for candidates who protect immigrants and their families, not demonize them.
— Shannon Freix, Kalispell
Why vote no on I-185
KRMC has another blot on their integrity. They recently sent out an advertisement stating that I-185 was a plan to help children avoid smoking. How ludicrous and absurd! I-185 is an unconstitutional bypass of the Legislature that creates an unfunded mandate, which increases taxes and does not address any of the actual insurance needs of Montanan’s.
Yet KRMC is naturally in favor of it as they would be among the potential recipients of the cash. Just more of the same greedy business tactics expressed by KRMC!
— Leonard Falk, Kalispell
Tired of career politicians
Recent results in American elections have made me very cynical of the electorate. I am tired of career politicians and their self-serving behavior. I’m tired of the two-party system and the choice of “lesser of two evils.” With Gallup showing a majority of people identifying as independent and congressional approval at such low levels, the time seems perfect to elect to the U.S. House of Representatives an independent voice that is a voice of reason instead of insanity. Elinor Swanson is that voice and her voice is refreshing. She believes in freedom and equality for all. Minimal government and maximum freedom. Live and let live.
— Robert Windorski, Kalispell
Tester and the 2nd Amendment
Jon Tester says he supports the 2nd Amendment while in Montana. In Washington he voted for all of former President Obama’s anti 2nd Amendment judges, including two Supreme Court justices Kagan and Sotomayor.
Now he voted Against President Trump’s appointments of Justice Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, both very strong supporters of the 2nd Amendment and other Constitutional laws.
He criticizes Matt Rosendale as not being a native Montanan. Rosendale may have some faults, but he has good reasons for supporting the 2nd Amendment. He came from a state which has onerous gun laws and has seen the results. Baltimore, Maryland has one of the highest murder and gun crimes in the United States.
Today many of us who were not born in Montana came here to get away from bad gun and other radical liberal laws. I like many others, left those things behind and love Montana. For the last 18 plus years I consider Montana more of a home than any other place I have lived in my previous 60 years. No one can choose where they were born or where their parents moved them, but we can choose where we live later in life.
— Dexter Hamilton, Kalispell
Maintain the positive momentum
Only someone ignorant of World War II history or having an irrational hatred for President Trump would compare the current administration to Nazi Germany. Such a comparison is an insult to the thousands of young Americans and Veterans that fought and died on the beaches of Normandy and in Western Europe to defeat Nazi Germany and preserve our freedoms.
It is disturbing is to see our former president use millions of dollars in left-over campaign funds and contributions from far-left extremists like George Soros to create and direct Organizing for America, a paid army of 30,000 leftist zealots dedicated to actively disrupting and opposing the agenda of the Trump Administration. Some have resorted to assault and violence against Trump Administration officials and other conservatives in order to suppress dissent from their Socialist agenda. These actions are right out of Hitler’s playbook, when he used the infamous “Brown Shirts” to stifle opposition.
Unfortunately, Sen. Jon Tester has endorsed some of the Socialist and OFA agenda by advocating a single-payer government health-care system (medicare or VA for all) that would bankrupt the country, obstructing presidential nominations, opposing immigration reform, opposing health care reform and voting against tax reform that has increased wages and lowered taxes for most Americans.
If we are to maintain the positive momentum of a vastly improved national economy, hundreds of thousands of new manufacturing jobs, low unemployment and rising wages, then we need to reject the left-wing assault on American values and elect a different U.S. senator who will vote for what we deserve.
— Philip L. Barney, Polson