Missoula and Western Montana speaks up: Letters to the editor for the week of Mar. 17, 2023
- Updated
Our weekly round-up of letters published in the Missoulian.
This quote is from a Missoulian article that was published Jan. 24, 2006: “Loosen your belts: The West Broadway "road diet" is coming to an end. It's not working on any front, Mayor John Engen said Tuesday night, and Missoula needs to try something different.” This was roughly four months after it had been implemented. Seventeen years later we’re still dealing with it. Now consider what happens if the Higgins Avenue Corridor Plan is implemented and it is later decided that it wasn't a good idea to eliminate traffic lanes. There's no going back after tearing up the road to add raised bike lanes. The plan is to incorporate it with the Main Street/Front Street conversion which changes both streets to two-way traffic. This results in the elimination of somewhere around 100 parking spaces when you include those lost to the proposed Caras Park expansion and those to be eliminated on The Hip Strip. When you consider three new hotels downtown did not provide a single parking space for guests and the Federal Building is expected to house somewhere around 400 employees bringing more activity to downtown, does it make sense to eliminate traffic lanes on a main thoroughfare?
Owen Kelley,
Missoula
I so appreciate thoughts expressed in this publication by Judge Nelson, Bob Brown, Jim Goetz, and (Woman Talking) Mary Sheehy Moe. These seem, however, voices crying in a wilderness of dunderheaded proposals and enactments which spring from a Montana super-majority of leaders and followers wrapped up in the past tense.
There is exceptionalism but it’s not a national character trait. For example, it’s found in members of fundamentalist churches in volunteers who collect and give clothes and food to the homeless – not in their organizations writ large, and most certainly not in their Oracles, who advance Dominionist Manifest Destiny, serving the needs of of the white male heteropatriarchy and the neoconservative security state, borne of the secrecy attached to building the Bomb. This has caused our endless wars – at least 15 of them since 1950 – not including the bumbling machinations of the CIA in numerous countries.
All the while, as the Corporatists, moneyed displacers, climate refugees and gentrifiers change Montana into the Last Place, ‘leaders’ fritter away earth time advancing religiosity, destroying the constitutional provision for the Common School, and, with earth burning and plastic cups still flying out of vehicles, all lie in uneducated orthodoxy armed to the teeth.
Bill Shea,
Missoula
We've been fooled into thinking that legislators and Fish Wildlife & Parks are striving for our best interests. Make no mistake that these entities are businesses that are primarily interested in their perpetual existence. More so, their best tool is to let people believe that legislators and FWP are the "experts" and that decisions and actions are best left to them – it's similar to thinking to leave medical expertise to the doctors, not others. I plead with Missoulian readers to question the motives of Fish Wildlife & Parks and of our legislators. Complacency and a lack of information, and the difficulty to figure out how to get involved with public comment gives both our legislators and FWP extreme power in decision making. The keepers of our wildlife and ecosystems in Montana need constant overview to be accountable. What we don't know "does" hurt us. Legal torture by trapping continues and is both thriving and increasing in Montana. The cheerleaders of this barbaric activity lie to us and are backed up by our government and FWP. Our wolves are being slaughtered and bear and mountain lion chasing/killing dogs are legal, all under the fraudulent guise of "managing."
Tom Irvine,
Stevensville
Enos Mills first called for protection of grizzly bears in 1919. Not until 1973 would the U.S. pass the Endangered Species Act. In 1975, with less than a thousand grizzlies remaining mostly around Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks, the lower 48 grizzlies were listed as protected under the ESA.
Now the governors of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho want grizzlies delisted from the ESA so they can get back to shooting them. With the Montana Legislature trying to pass more radical laws to shoot and trap wolves, Governor Gianforte urged the Legislature to cool its jets until they get grizzlies delisted. Then it can pass laws that are more cruel to both wolves and grizzlies.
The most generous estimates say we have increased grizzly numbers in the lower 48 from 2% to 4% of what they were before we humans shot, trapped and poisoned most of them and stole their habitat. Now we want to call that sliver of an increase a full recovery of grizzlies. My, aren’t we generous!
Until our culture and governments wise up and show some true compassion and generosity to wildlife, grizzlies need the protection of the ESA.
Keith Hammer, chair, Swan View Coalition,
Kalispell
Please rethink your opinion if you think the U.S. and allies could easily take down China if it invades Taiwan. China probably has the most advanced military in the world. China is the world's most prosperous supplier of goods of various kinds in the world. China has an advanced technological force that could influence or take down most anything anywhere anytime. Why doesn't the U.S. ramp up our manufacturing base and stop buying so much stuff from China? How about a very high-level, diplomatic push involving many countries that might stop WWIII? Would Americans really vote for a war with China over Taiwan; sending thousands and thousands of troops, planes thousands of miles away? Who would pay for this? The tension is ratcheting up so I suggest that more citizens from many countries start to weigh in on what would make the Russian/Ukraine war look rather unimportant. China is "on the move", so to speak and supports Russia, if you weren't aware. Stop buying all that stuff at Walmart from China! Make more stuff in the U.S., Canada and Mexico!
Ross Stenseth,
Missoula
The Missoulian quoted State Senator McGillvray: “…buy long-term care insurance. Take personal responsibility,” during legislative discussions on elder care. However, can his constituents afford it? One website reported the yearly cost of Long-Term Care at $5,025 for a couple aged 55 (no details about actual coverage). Social Security averages $1,745.35 per person, or $41,888.40 yearly per married couple. Assuming the couple’s long-term care premium did not change from age 55 to age 66 (a very unlikely assumption) spending $5,025 for long-term care is about 12 percent of the couple’s SS earnings; and, remember, they paid at least $5,025 for the insurance each of the years before receiving SS. This type of insurance covers assistance with daily tasks – bathing, meals, etc. However, it is not available to everyone; pre-existing conditions are considered. Another kicker is the “hard cap” that most policies have on daily costs, about $100 to $450. If the daily expenses go beyond the set limit, the senior pays the difference out of pocket, even if the maximum benefit over the life of the policy is in the $100,000 or more range. Long-term care insurance is no panacea!
Linda Holtom,
Missoula
As Montanans are struggling with huge problems like workforce housing, elder care facility closings, and worker shortages, legislators are choosing to waste their time on drag show bans, book censorship, attacks on transgender youth, and the latest crazy one, definition of sex. There’s no reason for legislators to interfere with the privacy and First Amendment rights of people who want to live their lives in peace. I support my LGBTQ+ community members and reject any legislation that prevents them from enjoying the freedom to live their authentic lives.
The Republicans were so proud of their "super majority" because they could get important work done. The work that they have chosen to do does damage to many hard working Montanans.
This legislative session is more than half way through. I challenge the Legislature to get to work on real issues that can have a positive effect on all of us.
Sue Furey,
Missoula
The Biden administration is presenting proposals to give the IRS a hefty sum of money that expands their scope of power and hires 87,000 agents, effectively quadrupling the size of the agency. Let me rephrase that: The IRS is getting OUR taxpayer money so that they can grow and come after even more of OUR taxpayer dollars. Our Republican Congressional members have already made it clear that they won’t support this nonsense. Senator Tester meanwhile has indicated he will blindly follow the President on an IRS expansion.
The IRS currently can’t handle keeping personal information safe. In the past couple of years, not only has the IRS allowed data to be stolen by hackers multiple times, but they leaked sensitive personal information of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers on their web site. Now imagine what we’re allowing the Administration to risk if our representatives don’t stop the plan.
Senator Tester has always fallen right in line with the leftist leaders of his party. For once, we need him to buck that trend and stand up for Montanans.
W. Deschamps,
Missoula
Here is a good idea – free school lunches for all students! There are a number of strong reasons for enacting this policy, but my favorite is that it benefits the students: They are healthier, they are better able to concentrate on their studies, they are less distracted and irritable. And in the final analysis, it is a civilized thing to do. What benefits the children, benefits the society.
Patricia Hogan,
Missoula
As a former special education teacher, I urge everyone who cares about high-quality public education to contact your state senator and the Senate Education and Cultural Resources Committee to ask them to vote NO on the "Students with Special Needs Equal Opportunity Act."
This bill would allow parents of students who get special education services to take funds designated for their child's education and homeschool their child, enroll them in a private school or enroll them in an online school.
Such a program could deprive students with special needs of highly-trained special education teachers and evidence-based instruction. It would also decimate school budgets, harming all public-school students, families and teachers.
Why does it seem as if some Montana legislators are trying to kill public education? Kids deserve a fair shake. Our state prides itself on its public schools. People who move here from other states are amazed at how excellent our schools are. And businesses in our state rely on a well-educated workforce.
In short, we must defend and strengthen public schools rather than harming students and families. We can do better. Visit www.leg.mt.gov/web-messaging to contact your senator.
Peggy Schmidt,
Missoula
Three plus years of construction, millions of dollars spent, much inconvenience to the public and a grand renaming ceremony...and yes, we now have the much needed widened four lane bridge across the Clark Fork. All done, right?
But no, wait, now the city's bureaucrats want to change it into a two-lane bridge. Makes good sense, doesn't it? So, let's spend a million or two more, take another couple years of construction and more inconvenience to the public. Then there will be city bureaucrats who will say it should be a four lane bridge. And again...ah yes, bureaucrats being bureaucrats.
And good news for K. Johnson, whose Jan. 12, Missoulian letter wondering when the city would address the two lane bottleneck on Russell from Mount to Third...the answer, any day now. Back in 1978 when I moved to Missoula, the bureaucrats stated that the next year that part of Russell and the two-lane Russell Street bridge would be redone. Well, the bridge did get replaced five years ago with four lanes. So, any day now the bureaucrats will be getting the Russell bottleneck completed. But don't hold your breath waiting.
Fred R. Luety,
Missoula
In a recent op-ed, Hogan Gidley (Missoulian March 7) claims that ranked choice voting (RCV) is wrong for Montana because it’s too confusing. If so, we can thank Mr. Gidley for confusing us. Here’s how it works. First, if there are only two candidates, RCV is identical to our current system. Second, under RCV if there are three or more candidates and candidate A receives a majority ( >50%), candidate A wins. Very simple, end of story. Where RCV shines in reflecting voters' will is where there are three or more candidates and none receives a majority. RCV prevents an election in which, say five candidates split the vote, producing a winner with as few as 21%, resulting in electing somebody who almost 80% of voters didn’t want. Mr. Gidley’s claim that under RCV ballots can be discarded is wrong. If a voter ranks all candidates, that preference is reflected throughout the stages of the process. If a voter chooses not to rank candidates beyond their first choice, their vote is not discarded any more than are votes for a candidate who fails to win the plurality in our current system. With RCV voters' will is more clearly expressed and nobody gets disenfranchised.
Richard Harris,
Charlo
Join me in celebrating Red Cross Month, the perfect time to honor those who power our mission here in Missoula and across Montana.
Those heroes include our blood donors who keep hospital shelves stocked with essential blood products, our volunteer responders who meet families’ immediate needs following a home fire or other disaster and our Service to the Armed Forces team who provides comfort and care to military families.
Last year alone, we helped more than 550 people in Montana following a disaster and collected 45,000 units of lifesaving blood.
We also can’t forget our generous financial supporters and community partners who stand by us in good times and bad. When the sirens sound, our communities know they can count on us because we know we can count on you.
Support our work by scheduling an appointment to give blood, raising your hand to volunteer (we have opportunities for almost any interest and skillset) or by making a financial donation.
On behalf of those we serve, we thank everyone who makes our lifesaving mission possible. Learn more and turn empathy into action at montanaredcross.org.
David Roberts, Red Cross Board of Directors,
Missoula
Rest assured that objections to Rank Choice voting boil down to this – it will take away my unfair advantage. E.g. beneficiaries of the two-party system will naturally fear the threat of good governance posed by third party candidates. Ignore them. Among the disasters it could have prevented are Bush Jr. and DJ Trump, which should be testament enough.
T. Lincoln Ballard,
Missoula
I am writing this letter to express my gratitude and appreciation for Congressman Ryan Zinke taking a balanced and metrics-based approach to the grizzly issue. Zinke introduced the "Grizzly Bear State Management Act of 2023" to reinstate the 2017 Interior Department rule that delists the grizzly in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). This bill comes after two previous attempts by the scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to return management of the bear to the states. Both times an activist judge overturned the wildlife biologists' recommendations. Since then, the population has actually grown unsustainable at best, and at worst deadly. The bill limits the delisting to a single ecosystem around Yellowstone where bears are pushing out other wildlife and increasingly habitualized and have dangerous encounters with humans. The bears in northwest Montana would be unaffected while the USFWS concludes a study in the next year. Zinke's bill recognizes the reality that lumping both populations of bear together would be premature and sink any chance we have at victory. While it is my hope that the grizzly is delisted across all Montana, the prudent first step is the GYE bear. Again, Thank you Congressman Zinke.
Kathy Whitman,
Missoula
The Montana Legislature is rewriting laws to restrict local governments’ authority. In an April 2019 joint resolution, Missoula City and County committed to supplying the Missoula urban area with 100% clean electricity by 2030. A cryptocurrency mine in Bonner imperiled that goal because its operations used 1/3 as much electricity as the entire Missoula urban area. The electricity-gulping mine had no socially redeeming value. It created wealth for its owners and provided only a fraction of the jobs that would be created by a traditional Montana industry.
In response to the threat against our community’s electricity supply, commissioners in 2021 made permanent a cryptocurrency mining zone to protect community residents. The zone didn’t prohibit crypto mining but did protect the climate and the City/County clean electricity goal by requiring that the mine supply its own renewable energy.
Now, the Montana Legislature is pushing SB 178, prohibiting local governments from enacting regulations to protect residents from cryptocurrency mines. The bill would cancel Missoula County’s regulations on the mines.
Don’t let the Legislature succeed in its efforts to hamstring local governments. The Senate passed the bill. It’s now in the House. Ask your representative to vote NO on SB 178. leg.mt.gov/web-messaging/.
Gary Matson,
Milltown
I just finished reading "Hollywood's Spies" by Laura B. Rosenzweig, "Hitler's American Friends" by Bradley W. Hart and "Hitler in L.A." by Steven J. Ross. After finishing these books, I was both stunned and furious over the staggering history we weren't taught. This history started 20 years before I was born, and continues to present day.
America First started in the early '30s, by White National Christians and Catholics such as Father Coughlin. They had cute names such as American Patriots, American Rangers, Royal Order of American Defenders: sounds familiar. Proud Boys, 3% ers, Oathkeepers and Freedom Caucus.
Joseph Geobbels (Hitler' propaganda minister), praised Democratic Senator Burton Wheeler of Montana, for his attacks on Hollywood. He heralded him and fellow isolationists as the sole representatives of sanity in America! America First was much more bipartisan then than now.
I want the Republicans to allow true history to be taught to all Americans, so that we can correlate between then and now. I don't want the kids today to find out that 50 years from now that they were lied to. There are a lot of great things in our history, but there are also some very ugly things as well. Let's hear it all.
Richard Wheeler,
Missoula
An old saying goes “Birds of a feather flock together.” Rep. Rosendale says that his photo-op last week with members of a neo-Nazi group was a mistake, and that he condemns hate groups, hate speech and violence. As the March 6 Missoulian article points out, this type of thing has occurred before. But if his voting record on human rights is so clean (and not just lily white), then why do they seek him out?
Kathy Spritzer,
Missoula
More like this...
This quote is from a Missoulian article that was published Jan. 24, 2006: “Loosen your belts: The West Broadway "road diet" is coming to an end. It's not working on any front, Mayor John Engen said Tuesday night, and Missoula needs to try something different.” This was roughly four months after it had been implemented. Seventeen years later we’re still dealing with it. Now consider what happens if the Higgins Avenue Corridor Plan is implemented and it is later decided that it wasn't a good idea to eliminate traffic lanes. There's no going back after tearing up the road to add raised bike lanes. The plan is to incorporate it with the Main Street/Front Street conversion which changes both streets to two-way traffic. This results in the elimination of somewhere around 100 parking spaces when you include those lost to the proposed Caras Park expansion and those to be eliminated on The Hip Strip. When you consider three new hotels downtown did not provide a single parking space for guests and the Federal Building is expected to house somewhere around 400 employees bringing more activity to downtown, does it make sense to eliminate traffic lanes on a main thoroughfare?
Owen Kelley,
Missoula
I so appreciate thoughts expressed in this publication by Judge Nelson, Bob Brown, Jim Goetz, and (Woman Talking) Mary Sheehy Moe. These seem, however, voices crying in a wilderness of dunderheaded proposals and enactments which spring from a Montana super-majority of leaders and followers wrapped up in the past tense.
There is exceptionalism but it’s not a national character trait. For example, it’s found in members of fundamentalist churches in volunteers who collect and give clothes and food to the homeless – not in their organizations writ large, and most certainly not in their Oracles, who advance Dominionist Manifest Destiny, serving the needs of of the white male heteropatriarchy and the neoconservative security state, borne of the secrecy attached to building the Bomb. This has caused our endless wars – at least 15 of them since 1950 – not including the bumbling machinations of the CIA in numerous countries.
All the while, as the Corporatists, moneyed displacers, climate refugees and gentrifiers change Montana into the Last Place, ‘leaders’ fritter away earth time advancing religiosity, destroying the constitutional provision for the Common School, and, with earth burning and plastic cups still flying out of vehicles, all lie in uneducated orthodoxy armed to the teeth.
Bill Shea,
Missoula
We've been fooled into thinking that legislators and Fish Wildlife & Parks are striving for our best interests. Make no mistake that these entities are businesses that are primarily interested in their perpetual existence. More so, their best tool is to let people believe that legislators and FWP are the "experts" and that decisions and actions are best left to them – it's similar to thinking to leave medical expertise to the doctors, not others. I plead with Missoulian readers to question the motives of Fish Wildlife & Parks and of our legislators. Complacency and a lack of information, and the difficulty to figure out how to get involved with public comment gives both our legislators and FWP extreme power in decision making. The keepers of our wildlife and ecosystems in Montana need constant overview to be accountable. What we don't know "does" hurt us. Legal torture by trapping continues and is both thriving and increasing in Montana. The cheerleaders of this barbaric activity lie to us and are backed up by our government and FWP. Our wolves are being slaughtered and bear and mountain lion chasing/killing dogs are legal, all under the fraudulent guise of "managing."
Tom Irvine,
Stevensville
Enos Mills first called for protection of grizzly bears in 1919. Not until 1973 would the U.S. pass the Endangered Species Act. In 1975, with less than a thousand grizzlies remaining mostly around Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks, the lower 48 grizzlies were listed as protected under the ESA.
Now the governors of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho want grizzlies delisted from the ESA so they can get back to shooting them. With the Montana Legislature trying to pass more radical laws to shoot and trap wolves, Governor Gianforte urged the Legislature to cool its jets until they get grizzlies delisted. Then it can pass laws that are more cruel to both wolves and grizzlies.
The most generous estimates say we have increased grizzly numbers in the lower 48 from 2% to 4% of what they were before we humans shot, trapped and poisoned most of them and stole their habitat. Now we want to call that sliver of an increase a full recovery of grizzlies. My, aren’t we generous!
Until our culture and governments wise up and show some true compassion and generosity to wildlife, grizzlies need the protection of the ESA.
Keith Hammer, chair, Swan View Coalition,
Kalispell
Please rethink your opinion if you think the U.S. and allies could easily take down China if it invades Taiwan. China probably has the most advanced military in the world. China is the world's most prosperous supplier of goods of various kinds in the world. China has an advanced technological force that could influence or take down most anything anywhere anytime. Why doesn't the U.S. ramp up our manufacturing base and stop buying so much stuff from China? How about a very high-level, diplomatic push involving many countries that might stop WWIII? Would Americans really vote for a war with China over Taiwan; sending thousands and thousands of troops, planes thousands of miles away? Who would pay for this? The tension is ratcheting up so I suggest that more citizens from many countries start to weigh in on what would make the Russian/Ukraine war look rather unimportant. China is "on the move", so to speak and supports Russia, if you weren't aware. Stop buying all that stuff at Walmart from China! Make more stuff in the U.S., Canada and Mexico!
Ross Stenseth,
Missoula
The Missoulian quoted State Senator McGillvray: “…buy long-term care insurance. Take personal responsibility,” during legislative discussions on elder care. However, can his constituents afford it? One website reported the yearly cost of Long-Term Care at $5,025 for a couple aged 55 (no details about actual coverage). Social Security averages $1,745.35 per person, or $41,888.40 yearly per married couple. Assuming the couple’s long-term care premium did not change from age 55 to age 66 (a very unlikely assumption) spending $5,025 for long-term care is about 12 percent of the couple’s SS earnings; and, remember, they paid at least $5,025 for the insurance each of the years before receiving SS. This type of insurance covers assistance with daily tasks – bathing, meals, etc. However, it is not available to everyone; pre-existing conditions are considered. Another kicker is the “hard cap” that most policies have on daily costs, about $100 to $450. If the daily expenses go beyond the set limit, the senior pays the difference out of pocket, even if the maximum benefit over the life of the policy is in the $100,000 or more range. Long-term care insurance is no panacea!
Linda Holtom,
Missoula
As Montanans are struggling with huge problems like workforce housing, elder care facility closings, and worker shortages, legislators are choosing to waste their time on drag show bans, book censorship, attacks on transgender youth, and the latest crazy one, definition of sex. There’s no reason for legislators to interfere with the privacy and First Amendment rights of people who want to live their lives in peace. I support my LGBTQ+ community members and reject any legislation that prevents them from enjoying the freedom to live their authentic lives.
The Republicans were so proud of their "super majority" because they could get important work done. The work that they have chosen to do does damage to many hard working Montanans.
This legislative session is more than half way through. I challenge the Legislature to get to work on real issues that can have a positive effect on all of us.
Sue Furey,
Missoula
The Biden administration is presenting proposals to give the IRS a hefty sum of money that expands their scope of power and hires 87,000 agents, effectively quadrupling the size of the agency. Let me rephrase that: The IRS is getting OUR taxpayer money so that they can grow and come after even more of OUR taxpayer dollars. Our Republican Congressional members have already made it clear that they won’t support this nonsense. Senator Tester meanwhile has indicated he will blindly follow the President on an IRS expansion.
The IRS currently can’t handle keeping personal information safe. In the past couple of years, not only has the IRS allowed data to be stolen by hackers multiple times, but they leaked sensitive personal information of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers on their web site. Now imagine what we’re allowing the Administration to risk if our representatives don’t stop the plan.
Senator Tester has always fallen right in line with the leftist leaders of his party. For once, we need him to buck that trend and stand up for Montanans.
W. Deschamps,
Missoula
Here is a good idea – free school lunches for all students! There are a number of strong reasons for enacting this policy, but my favorite is that it benefits the students: They are healthier, they are better able to concentrate on their studies, they are less distracted and irritable. And in the final analysis, it is a civilized thing to do. What benefits the children, benefits the society.
Patricia Hogan,
Missoula
As a former special education teacher, I urge everyone who cares about high-quality public education to contact your state senator and the Senate Education and Cultural Resources Committee to ask them to vote NO on the "Students with Special Needs Equal Opportunity Act."
This bill would allow parents of students who get special education services to take funds designated for their child's education and homeschool their child, enroll them in a private school or enroll them in an online school.
Such a program could deprive students with special needs of highly-trained special education teachers and evidence-based instruction. It would also decimate school budgets, harming all public-school students, families and teachers.
Why does it seem as if some Montana legislators are trying to kill public education? Kids deserve a fair shake. Our state prides itself on its public schools. People who move here from other states are amazed at how excellent our schools are. And businesses in our state rely on a well-educated workforce.
In short, we must defend and strengthen public schools rather than harming students and families. We can do better. Visit www.leg.mt.gov/web-messaging to contact your senator.
Peggy Schmidt,
Missoula
Three plus years of construction, millions of dollars spent, much inconvenience to the public and a grand renaming ceremony...and yes, we now have the much needed widened four lane bridge across the Clark Fork. All done, right?
But no, wait, now the city's bureaucrats want to change it into a two-lane bridge. Makes good sense, doesn't it? So, let's spend a million or two more, take another couple years of construction and more inconvenience to the public. Then there will be city bureaucrats who will say it should be a four lane bridge. And again...ah yes, bureaucrats being bureaucrats.
And good news for K. Johnson, whose Jan. 12, Missoulian letter wondering when the city would address the two lane bottleneck on Russell from Mount to Third...the answer, any day now. Back in 1978 when I moved to Missoula, the bureaucrats stated that the next year that part of Russell and the two-lane Russell Street bridge would be redone. Well, the bridge did get replaced five years ago with four lanes. So, any day now the bureaucrats will be getting the Russell bottleneck completed. But don't hold your breath waiting.
Fred R. Luety,
Missoula
In a recent op-ed, Hogan Gidley (Missoulian March 7) claims that ranked choice voting (RCV) is wrong for Montana because it’s too confusing. If so, we can thank Mr. Gidley for confusing us. Here’s how it works. First, if there are only two candidates, RCV is identical to our current system. Second, under RCV if there are three or more candidates and candidate A receives a majority ( >50%), candidate A wins. Very simple, end of story. Where RCV shines in reflecting voters' will is where there are three or more candidates and none receives a majority. RCV prevents an election in which, say five candidates split the vote, producing a winner with as few as 21%, resulting in electing somebody who almost 80% of voters didn’t want. Mr. Gidley’s claim that under RCV ballots can be discarded is wrong. If a voter ranks all candidates, that preference is reflected throughout the stages of the process. If a voter chooses not to rank candidates beyond their first choice, their vote is not discarded any more than are votes for a candidate who fails to win the plurality in our current system. With RCV voters' will is more clearly expressed and nobody gets disenfranchised.
Richard Harris,
Charlo
Join me in celebrating Red Cross Month, the perfect time to honor those who power our mission here in Missoula and across Montana.
Those heroes include our blood donors who keep hospital shelves stocked with essential blood products, our volunteer responders who meet families’ immediate needs following a home fire or other disaster and our Service to the Armed Forces team who provides comfort and care to military families.
Last year alone, we helped more than 550 people in Montana following a disaster and collected 45,000 units of lifesaving blood.
We also can’t forget our generous financial supporters and community partners who stand by us in good times and bad. When the sirens sound, our communities know they can count on us because we know we can count on you.
Support our work by scheduling an appointment to give blood, raising your hand to volunteer (we have opportunities for almost any interest and skillset) or by making a financial donation.
On behalf of those we serve, we thank everyone who makes our lifesaving mission possible. Learn more and turn empathy into action at montanaredcross.org.
David Roberts, Red Cross Board of Directors,
Missoula
Rest assured that objections to Rank Choice voting boil down to this – it will take away my unfair advantage. E.g. beneficiaries of the two-party system will naturally fear the threat of good governance posed by third party candidates. Ignore them. Among the disasters it could have prevented are Bush Jr. and DJ Trump, which should be testament enough.
T. Lincoln Ballard,
Missoula
I am writing this letter to express my gratitude and appreciation for Congressman Ryan Zinke taking a balanced and metrics-based approach to the grizzly issue. Zinke introduced the "Grizzly Bear State Management Act of 2023" to reinstate the 2017 Interior Department rule that delists the grizzly in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). This bill comes after two previous attempts by the scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to return management of the bear to the states. Both times an activist judge overturned the wildlife biologists' recommendations. Since then, the population has actually grown unsustainable at best, and at worst deadly. The bill limits the delisting to a single ecosystem around Yellowstone where bears are pushing out other wildlife and increasingly habitualized and have dangerous encounters with humans. The bears in northwest Montana would be unaffected while the USFWS concludes a study in the next year. Zinke's bill recognizes the reality that lumping both populations of bear together would be premature and sink any chance we have at victory. While it is my hope that the grizzly is delisted across all Montana, the prudent first step is the GYE bear. Again, Thank you Congressman Zinke.
Kathy Whitman,
Missoula
The Montana Legislature is rewriting laws to restrict local governments’ authority. In an April 2019 joint resolution, Missoula City and County committed to supplying the Missoula urban area with 100% clean electricity by 2030. A cryptocurrency mine in Bonner imperiled that goal because its operations used 1/3 as much electricity as the entire Missoula urban area. The electricity-gulping mine had no socially redeeming value. It created wealth for its owners and provided only a fraction of the jobs that would be created by a traditional Montana industry.
In response to the threat against our community’s electricity supply, commissioners in 2021 made permanent a cryptocurrency mining zone to protect community residents. The zone didn’t prohibit crypto mining but did protect the climate and the City/County clean electricity goal by requiring that the mine supply its own renewable energy.
Now, the Montana Legislature is pushing SB 178, prohibiting local governments from enacting regulations to protect residents from cryptocurrency mines. The bill would cancel Missoula County’s regulations on the mines.
Don’t let the Legislature succeed in its efforts to hamstring local governments. The Senate passed the bill. It’s now in the House. Ask your representative to vote NO on SB 178. leg.mt.gov/web-messaging/.
Gary Matson,
Milltown
I just finished reading "Hollywood's Spies" by Laura B. Rosenzweig, "Hitler's American Friends" by Bradley W. Hart and "Hitler in L.A." by Steven J. Ross. After finishing these books, I was both stunned and furious over the staggering history we weren't taught. This history started 20 years before I was born, and continues to present day.
America First started in the early '30s, by White National Christians and Catholics such as Father Coughlin. They had cute names such as American Patriots, American Rangers, Royal Order of American Defenders: sounds familiar. Proud Boys, 3% ers, Oathkeepers and Freedom Caucus.
Joseph Geobbels (Hitler' propaganda minister), praised Democratic Senator Burton Wheeler of Montana, for his attacks on Hollywood. He heralded him and fellow isolationists as the sole representatives of sanity in America! America First was much more bipartisan then than now.
I want the Republicans to allow true history to be taught to all Americans, so that we can correlate between then and now. I don't want the kids today to find out that 50 years from now that they were lied to. There are a lot of great things in our history, but there are also some very ugly things as well. Let's hear it all.
Richard Wheeler,
Missoula
An old saying goes “Birds of a feather flock together.” Rep. Rosendale says that his photo-op last week with members of a neo-Nazi group was a mistake, and that he condemns hate groups, hate speech and violence. As the March 6 Missoulian article points out, this type of thing has occurred before. But if his voting record on human rights is so clean (and not just lily white), then why do they seek him out?
Kathy Spritzer,
Missoula
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