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Brennan's Wave

Critics had their time to speak up

In response to recent negativity toward Brennan's Wave, I feel it is necessary to inform the community about public comment opportunities that are long past. There were multiple well-publicized opportunities to voice your opinion, including two separate formal public notice and comment periods relating to permits required by state and county government. There were also numerous newspaper articles and television press coverage regarding the project over the last several years.

Please keep in mind that the benefits to the river and the community will far outweigh the short-term disturbance.

Andrew McNaught, Missoula

Dick Cheney

Editorial trivialized shooting incident

After chastising the press for focusing on the near 24-hour delay in the surfacing of the story about Dick Cheney's hunting accident, the Feb. 15 Missoulian editorial went on to defend this lag by reminding us how traumatic and humiliating it must have been for Cheney. The editorial also mocked those in the media who insinuated a cover-up.

Well, if it turns out there was a cover-up, I hope the writer has the dignity to apologize to those in the media who are less inclined to give benefit of the doubt to a vice president who is known for his secretive, above-the-law behavior.

For an example of this behavior, look no further than the well-known fact - which the editorial failed to mention - that Cheney was hunting illegally at the time of the incident, without the proper upland bird stamp. And now there are reports that alcohol might have been a factor. If so, then Dick Cheney, one of the few Americans who can boast two drunken driving busts on his record, might have had reason to delay the kind of investigation that reporting the incident might have triggered.

The editorial concludes by cautioning that “Offering this as some example of the administration shooting first and asking questions later trivializes the fact that there's a guy in intensive care.”

Perhaps the Missoulian should send the poor guy some flowers and then entertain the possibility that this incident might indeed involve a cover-up, or even shed light on the character of the current administration.

Shooting first and asking questions later; keeping stupid mistakes on the down-low. These acts do, arguably, characterize the current administration. By attempting to wash away this incident as “an act of carelessness - no more, no less,” this editorial trivializes our nation's right to responsible leadership, and to leaders who aren't paralyzed by trauma, humiliation, or truth.

Ari LeVaux, Missoula

Medicare

Prescription drug plan at odds with us

Does the Medicare prescription drug plan seem confusing? It is not. Consider the drug and health condition exemptions, the $3,600 doughnut hole, co-pays, deductibles, exemptions, premiums that come out of our limited incomes, higher costs for delaying, rulings against purchasing lower cost drugs outside the plan.

Consider that Conrad Burns is forcefully promoting it. Max Baucus proudly takes credit. It was executed behind closed doors with no forewarning, no alternative choices and no input from us. It pushes our fear buttons.

Powerful and wealthy insurance and drug industries are set up to win and profit further while we continue to face the health care crisis.

I recommend we invest our premium dollars in slot machines. The advantage is that we could choose our own machines with less confusion and pressure. The payoff odds would still be the same.

Lillian Paulson, Missoula

Bush administration

Ports deal another reason not to trust

Once again through his actions, President Bush has shown the American people that what he says is not to be trusted. With this latest scandal of selling the operation of U.S. ports to a foreign country, the president has gone against everything that he has spoken about regarding national security. It is bad enough that our government sold the operations of our ports to Great Britain, but to then allow the United Arab Emirates to gain control through a buyout is inexcusable.

Does this man thing the American people are stupid? Are we all walking around with the word “idiot” tattooed on our foreheads? For many of us this is a blatant attack on our intelligence.

President Bush had declared that he did not know about the sale until the deal was already done. He has said the same “I didn't know” about other questionable activities of his administration. What is he doing with his time in Washington, and why doesn't he know what the members of his administration are doing?

National security aside, it does not make good sense to sell off U.S. operations or assets to foreign countries as a way to obtain funding for the management of this country. Foreign countries already own a vast amount of U.S. Treasury bills and notes. What happens when these countries decide to cash in the IOUs the United States has put up?

The American people deserve the politicians who are in office, because for the most part, we are not interested in electing qualified individuals. Most Americans are concerned about maintaining the status quo of ringing up huge personal debt, buying cheap foreign goods at corporate box stores, and saber rattling for democracy throughout the non-democratic world.

Unfortunately, due to the ignorance and passivity of the American individual, this country is flushing itself down the toilet, day by day.

Richard H. Hoffman, Whitefish

Wake up and get informed

To my fellow citizens. Wake up! Your future is being stolen by the present administration. Your jobs are being sent overseas; your future is absolutely threatened with being saddled with debt into the future for your children and grandchildren for who knows how long.

Get informed. Listen to Amy Goodman's program “Democracy Now” on TV's MCAT Channel 7 at 6 a.m. and again at 10 a.m. for real news and interviews you don't get in the regular media. If you haven't time for the TV show you can get it on the Internet democracynow.org every day (Monday through Friday) also on iPod. If you listen to radio talk shows, listen to Air America at 105.9 FM with various talk hosts form early morning all day and evenings. Rachel Maddow, Al Franken, Randy Rhodes, Ed Schultz and Dave Hartman, etc. They interview knowledgeable people, senators, congressman, authors and others as well as taking comments from the public.

Elections of senators and congressmen are coming up in November 2006. It is important to know the issues. Remember, your future is at stake.

Florence Chessin, Missoula

No Child Left Behind

Policy ignores students' emotional issues

Unfortunately “No Child Left Behind” is a priority in our schools. Emotional issues do not fit in and bullying by both faculty and students is readily condoned. We have attempted to address emotional issues regarding our children with administrators and have been consistently told that emotional issues are not a priority; rather “No Child Left Behind” is the priority. Research proves that students who are praised and rewarded for their own ideas and individualism excel; those who are ridiculed, berated and told they are liars withdraw. Conformists receive awards; non-conformists receive detention.

Several examples illustrate this point. Students are asked to stand in the classroom because we are going to have a pizza party at the teacher's home; one student, excited, joins the class and is abruptly told to sit down; she is not invited. Teacher gives an assignment, “You are to write a paper about someone who has accomplished something.” One student asks to write a paper about Jerry Garcia and is told no. Another student asks to write about Hitler and is told yes. Is this to imply that Hitler accomplished something and Garcia did not? A teacher is screaming at a student in front of the entire class, using humiliating and degrading language; another teacher enters and asks if she needs help. A student is told to stare out the window facing away from peers and teacher the entire class period. A sixth-grade honor student calls two other students retards, freaks and the girl a whore.

This letter is about abuse in the schools with little or no regard to emotional scarring. How do we prevent this abuse? The policy of “No Child Left Behind” should not be an excuse to ignore emotional issues.

Dorine McKenzie, Missoula, and three co-signers

Lynx habitat

Let's protect this species the right way

The fact that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is finally proposing to designate critical habitat for the lynx is an important step in the right direction.

Lynx depend heavily for their survival on specific habitat types, most notably forests that support their primary prey - snowshoe hare. Moreover, the degradation and fragmentation of such habitat is one of the primary threats to its continued existence in the lower 48 states. Any serious effort to ensure this species' survival and recovery, therefore, must involve the identification and protection of that habitat determined to be “essential to the conservation of the species,” which is precisely what the Endangered Species Act's critical habitat provisions were intended to accomplish.

The fact that critical habitat has not done more to help recover endangered and threatened species has much to do with ineffective and patently unlawful implementation. A prime example is the Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed critical habitat designation for the lynx, which excludes all federal lands, including national forests in Montana, that currently serve as a stronghold for this rare forest creature. Omitting core recovery areas on federal lands while proposing to designate only private and state lands not only defies common sense, but will also significantly undermine critical habitat's ability to help ensure the survival and eventual recovery of the lynx.

We support the idea of designating critical habitat for the lynx, but we need to do it right and include all those lands that are truly necessary to recover this ailing species.

Minette Johnson,

Defenders of Widlife, Missoula

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