Archived Story

Letters for Monday, April 23, 2007

Missoula County

Setback ordinance is overkill

If you own property in Missoula County that touches any river or stream, whether seasonal or not, you had better pay attention, get involved and try to modify the unbelievably bold taking of your property rights that is being proposed by the County and the Clark Fork Coalition. You will not be compensated and your property values will be impacted.

The Stream Setback Zoning Ordinance, Section 2.21-Stream Setbacks, will be passed in some form by the three county commissioners without a vote of county residents. I have been assured of this personally in a phone discussion with a commissioner As usual, our county commissioners, who are elected primarily by Missoula city residents, will be influenced by that large voting bloc to pass an ordinance that will severely impact your ability to enjoy your property rights while they sit smugly in town totally unaffected by this draconian and devastating intrusion into your life.

We are all concerned about water quality, but the burden of protection and improvement is going to be unfairly foisted off on county residents while the city of Missoula continues to pollute the Clark Fork. I have no problem not allowing construction in a floodplain, which is not regulated today, but I do have a problem with a sweeping ordinance that will not even allow you to mow your lawn near an intermittent seasonal stream in your front yard.

The extreme reach of this ordinance is unbelievable. It sets a new standard for environmental overkill. As currently proposed, it will make criminals out of countless county residents, significantly impact your property values and drive an ever-widening wedge between conscientious landowners and the environmental extremists. So far four public hearings have been conducted with nearly unanimous public opposition. The Legislature killed legislation nearly identical to this, but Missoula County is determined to press forward.

Larry Hayden, Alberton

U.S. Senate

Tester profile was refreshing

In this age of great cynicism (and great reason for it), it is more than refreshing to see a terrific human being portrayed in a way to lighten all our hearts. Kudos to Betsy Cohen for her wonderful April 8 article on U.S. Sen. and Montana farmer Jon Tester.

Eugene Beckes, St. Ignatius

Climate change

Cosmic rays may play role

In her letter regarding climate change (Missoulian, April 15), Liz Rantz asks that more attention be paid to alternative theories of causation.

A good place to start is the work of Henrik Svensmark, a physicist with the Danish National Space Center and director of the Center for Sun-Climate Research and others who have shown the relationship between cosmic rays and cloud cover and how this important relationship is affected by solar activity.

Cosmic rays help to make low clouds which cool the Earth. High levels of cosmic rays occur during lower periods of solar activity, increasing cloudiness and cooling the world. Deflection of cosmic rays by increased emission of solar winds during high sun activity results in less cloud formation at lower levels and a warming effect because high, wispy clouds tend to trap heat.

This reinforces the work co-authored by University of Ottawa geology professor Jan Veizer and Israeli astrophysicist Nir J. Shaviv in a paper to the Geological Society of America (Tim Patterson, Aug. 4, 2003, Missoulian), which relates the variation in cosmic ray intensity to solar activity due to the position of our solar system in the spiral arms of the galaxy.

Over the years, many theories have been advanced to explain the onset and retreat of glaciation on Earth, including plate tectonics and variation of the planet's orbit. Changes in cosmic ray intensities may well be the solution to this perplexing question, as well as lesser events such as the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age.

Bob Wheeler, Clinton

Montana Rail Link

Use cleaner locomotives in Missoula

My business and residence is across the street from the railroad tracks on North First Street West. I want to stress my and many others' main concern is for the safety and well being of the children in our fine community.

It is my great concern - because we live so very close to the railroad tracks and Interstate 90 and are living and working in a very high-use area for activities such as building trains, moving outdated locomotives back and forth 24/7, fueling and winter idling - that the amount of diesel fumes (particulate) in our area is a very serious health hazard, most notably to children. Also a concern is the unrestricted access to the tracks in front of the Gold Dust Apartments.

Because Montana Rail Link has already taken great steps ahead of EPA emissions standards by employing the SD70ACe locomotive in areas of western Montana, I would pray that it would also employ these same fuel-efficient and cleaner engines in Missoula's rail yard as a good-faith effort.

This would in many ways, I believe, increase greatly the standard of living and safety for the children and the population at large in a very positive way - this, too, being our downtown district.

Denny and Phyllis Washington have over time proved their great concern for the smaller ones in our communities. I can only hope this situation can be addressed for the benefit of all the people in Missoula. I believe it is time this situation is taken seriously by our city's leaders, MRL and the Northside and Westside people.

Mark Anthony Kersting, Missoula

Iraq

Tackle false war arguments head on

We've all heard them ad nauseam, but here are 10 Karl Rove talking points still resonating on Main Street USA and eroding Democratic efforts to end the occupation of Iraq. This list could be much longer, of course, but the following seem to be the typical responses from the average Rush Limbaugh ditto-head:

De-funding the war means de-funding the troops.

Strategic redeployment means precipitous withdrawal.

Withdrawal means even more chaos and violence.

Withdrawal means defeat, sending a terrible message to the world.

Withdrawal by a certain date means playing into the hands of the terrorists.

Withdrawal means giving al-Qaida a failed state from which to launch attacks.

Withdrawal means the terrorists will follow us home; if we don't fight them there, we'll fight them here.

The Democratic bill has too much pork (meaning domestic, non-war-machine spending).

Democrats are playing politics with the troops' lives.

Keeping our troops on the front line in Iraq indefinitely means showing resolve against stubborn enemies, reducing the number of terrorists in the world, reducing the threat to America, reducing violence against the Iraqi people, stabilizing their government, and bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East.

The will of the people should win out eventually if we present a solid front and can break through the corporate media wall. With the irrefutable facts on our side, we true patriots - the ordinary families, students, teachers, soldiers, workers and taxpayers of this great nation - command the moral high ground. So why can't levelheaded thinkers everywhere accurately refute each of these points directly, consistently and forcefully without digressing into long-winded, eye-glazing dissertations? It's even more critical that the Democrats in Washington, D.C., who have the larger audience, also tackle head on each false argument and fear card in as plain language as possible on behalf of all citizens.

Ryan Lawlor, Kalispell

Bush administration

Pass resolution to investigate abuses

U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg now represents only a minority who are for imperial invasions, not negotiated peace. Now, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales cannot locate his constituency for spying on citizens, torturing an ill-defined “enemy” and confining thousands without charge or legal recourse. Even the new “secretary of war” opposes him.

And when Vice President Dick Cheney demands blind obedience of the many so the few may profiteer, he battles a simple fact, “We have lost our fear.”

We demand our Congress stop this war - and party animals though they are, both our House and Senate set the deadlines.

We require the courts to make government agencies do their jobs, and the Supreme Court orders the EPA to stop coddling polluters, Abramoff goes to jail for financial corruption, and Scooter Libby will reside there for obstructing justice. The criminal and the corrupt - the low-hanging fruit - are on their way out.

But the top of the tree has been out of reach. An arrogant and lawless executive nestles there protesting it is “forbidden fruit.” Congresspeople have echoed the sentiment, leaving it to state legislatures to write the resolutions holding those in high office accountable for their corruption and crimes.

Paraphrase: “The U.N. Charter, the Geneva Conventions, FISA, The U.S. Army Field Manual, the Constitution, and the will of the people be damned,” Bush and Cheney have said. “We are the deciders.”

We must put up the picking ladders - contact our legislators at (406) 444-4800, and have them pass the Montana Senate resolution to investigate the executive for abuses of power. Missoula's Sen. Dave Wanzenried has the bill.

Democracy requires we stow the spoiled apples in a shuttered barn.

Bruce Russell Sr., Missoula
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