Beware of unruly dogs
Cat owners, be vigilant. Dog owners, please keep your dogs secure in your yard.My cats were playing on the front lawn when one of my kitties was brutally picked up and shaken by a cream/white husky dog. I was witness to the whole horrifying event, watching my kitty screaming and clawing to get loose. I ran screaming to get the dog away from my Latte. Latte then ran away, dragging his hind legs.
I got the dog into my car and ran to find my injured, terrified kitty, who was crying and trembling as I picked him up to get him to my vet.
I love animals and have helped many dogs reunite with their owner, who says, “How did they get out?” Most dogs I find rarely have a name tag. The owner says, “I’ve been meaning to get them” or “My dog just lost them.” I spoke with the owner of the husky, who said, “Oh, it was windy and the gate/door blew open and the dogs got out, my Lab loves cats but not my husky.”
My beloved kitty, Latte, would still be alive and enjoying his happy, carefree life at my home but for an irresponsible owner who can’t keep tags on her dog and who can’t keep her dog secured in his fenced yard. Due to this dog owner’s negligence, my kitty suffered and died and I am devastated. I am so angry with irresponsible dog owners.
Gail Miller, Missoula
Penalties for volunteering off base
I am a senior at Sentinel High School and a peer tutor for Sentinel’s team at the Montana Special Olympics. Several weeks ago, I signed up as a volunteer with the school to help at the Special Olympics April 23-25.The peer tutors from Sentinel assumed that attendance records would not be penalized for missing these days from school. For many of the seniors involved, participating in these three days wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
Both peer tutors and teachers were informed that the school’s athletic director, Scott Whaley, was only allowing one day to volunteer and not have attendance penalized, and therefore not graduate.
All of Sentinel’s sports and clubs receive outstanding support from the school and administration. Every absence caused by an away game or tournament is dubbed “school-related” - it does not count against a record.
When I inquired personally about this matter with Whaley, he argued that we volunteer to do this, that it’s our choice. At the same time, I don’t see anyone forcing anyone to participate in sports and clubs either, making that optional as well.
Even though the choice is ours as volunteers, we should be given a break at school and allowed to attend the entire event. What Whaley must not realize is that the students involved in Special Olympics will never have the same opportunities to play on a school sports team - this is it. Anyone participating in the games should be given equal treatment.
Montana Special Olympics is completely volunteer-based. Without volunteers, there are no games. And without these games, the athletes would miss out on a lifetime of priceless memories and friendships. The experience alone is reward enough to last for a million years. All we are asking for a little more support and consideration.
Juanita Gardipee, Missoula
Rankin remarks were correct
I would like to correct an interpretation of what Willis Hintz of Lolo wrote in his letter to the editor of April 21 regarding Hillary Clinton’s remarks at her Town Hall meeting in Missoula.I too was at Clinton’s meeting. Previous to that, I also was in Washington, D.C., at the Jeannette Rankin statue ceremony, which was held in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on May 1, 1985. I have a copy of the “Statue of Jeannette Rankin Book 1880-1973.” The publication was about the acceptance and dedication of the Statue of Jeannette Rankin, and many dignitaries and officials told about her life in Montana. They gave tribute to the memory of Rankin, the nation’s first congresswoman and a courageous public figure of great vision. This included her role in getting suffrage for women in Montana, and later the nation.
In 1980, I read Kevin S. Giles book, “Flight of the Dove,” the story of Jeannette Rankin. He wrote about her whole life. He said that Rankin, in 1909, at the age of 29, quit her work and volunteered her services to the women’s suffrage movement, which took her from North Dakota to Florida, Delaware, New York and to Washington state. After helping Washington state get suffrage for women, she came home to Montana and led the movement that got its women the right to vote in 1914. The suffrage issue went to the polls on November 3, 1914, and Montana became the first state in America to approve suffrage on the First Referendum. The tally said 41,302 men had voted for the Amendment, and 37,588 men had voted to defeat it. The 3,714 majority made Montana the 10th state to grant suffrage for women.
In 1916, when Rankin ran for Congress, both men and women voted for her. Thus, Hillary Clinton mentioned that men in Montana had voted for women previously.
Caryl Wickes-Connick, Missoula
Clinton not in touch with rural America
I must take exception to the statements Carol Muir made in her letter of April 28 regarding Clinton and Obama.Perhaps Muir truly believes that Hillary Rodham Clinton is in touch with rural America because she lived in Arkansas. May I remind her that Hillary was deeply involved in a corrupt administration of that state during her tenure? Remember Whitewater? Her vision of rural America may be based on her summers spent at the Rodham summer cottage without heat. Summer cottage? The Rodhams of Pennsylvania did not know or become involved with “low income” people nor anyone who was not in their social strata. What compassion for rural America does Muir refer to? May I also point out that Hillary voted for the war, which has taken over 4,000 precious lives of our men and women. I would also like to remind Muir that if backroom politics and subterfuge had not been used during the Clinton presidency, we may have a decent health care system in this country as we speak.
Please do not discount what Sen. Obama is trying to accomplish by uniting this country after seven years of the divisive Bush administration. Racial reconciliation is possible through his efforts. He worked with the poor on the streets of Chicago and went on to represent his constituents in the Illinois Legislature. He brought affordable health care to those that needed it most. If Obama can weather the continuous and vicious attacks by Clinton and be elected, we can actually change the political system in this country as a united people. Hillary? Don’t go away mad, just go away. And Hillary? Don’t forget to duck!
Cheryl Bramsen, Florence
Allow youth to voice concerns
The front-page article “UM may suspend eight for protest” was upsetting to me (Missoulian, April 29).Even though the April 30 Missoulian’s front page article, “Students suspended for sit-in,” has given the University of Montana protesters a three-day punishment, this also is unacceptable. The principle of the action by the University of Montana does not change my opinion. Morality and legality many times are two separate issues. They are not always black and white. I believe as an American that we still want the freedom of speech, and to support the actions we feel are unjust without punishment.
Two hundred years ago, two world-changing men, William Wilberforce and John Newton, took stands against the slave trade in England and changed their world forever. I ask, “why can’t the students at UM change our world also?”
To have the university hide behind a policy (within the school) that allows the possibility of such courageous student body members to protest the injustice of not allowing our state university system to monitor factories that are being paid to manufacture university apparel by sweatshop labor is wrong, both morally and legally, in our country.
The United States of America does not allow sweatshop labor.
I quote Bishop Desmond Tutu, who said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
We must allow our youth to voice their concerns of morally wrong injustices without the threat of the loss of their educational degrees.
Please consider the damage that the possibility of suspension or threat of suspension creates to our state, the university system and the students.
Charlotte Gray, Corvallis
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