Great family entertainment right in town
I highly recommend a visit to the Western Montana Fair, despite the heat.
With limited time, I made it to only two buildings so far. The floriculture exhibit is a joy to see: all those beautiful, and some unusual, flowers our citizens have cultivated; the miniatures a very interesting delight. The home arts - full of gorgeous quilts, rugs and amazing new crafts of cross-stitch and so much more.
Margrit Syroid, Missoula
City stands behind Big Brother tactics
I am writing in response to the offensively placed cameras on the bridge going across Rattlesnake Creek at the Rattlesnake Middle School.
What I am so concerned with is the fact these cameras can be legal. I do understand that fear-mongering has been going on for the past eight years. I do understand that somehow our government can legally tap our cell phones if we disagree with the establishment. But, on the other hand, I am flabbergasted by fact that a Missoula resident feels it necessary to place security cameras peering over a high-traffic, public area for Missoula residents.
If his concern is for his safety, point the cameras on his property and not the public’s. It is a pretty sad state of affairs when the meaning of community is thrown out the door in order scare people with some red-light-flashing security cameras.
Something else that concerns me is the fact that the city of Missoula apparently stands behind these Big Brother tactics. Would it not be a little more effective to put cameras on the California Street Bridge so that, when a beloved homeless veteran is beat to death (Dec. 6, 2007), the Missoula Police Department could have possibly known about it before he was not able to be saved.
Willy Miller, Missoula
People deserve credit for resolution
I want to take this opportunity to thank the Missoula City Council, the Missoula County Board of Commissioners, the Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce and the Montana Association of Railroad Passengers for recently unanimously passing the adoption of a joint resolution supporting the Amtrak Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008. I would especially like to thank Dave Strohmaier for drafting this resolution and presenting it to Missoula City Council members.
I would also like to thank our Montana delegation and Governor’s Office for their continued support for Amtrak service through northern Montana and for their support to expand service through southern Montana.
Now more then ever, the American public wants alternative transportation choices. With record high gas prices, ever-increasing greenhouse gasses, climate change, overpopulation causing increased cars to be on our nation’s highways, and dreadful airline treatment, increasing passenger rail service should be our highest priority.
Transit ridership throughout the United States is at its highest level in 50 years. Although Montana does not have the population that many of the cities on the west and east coasts encompass, we have greater distances between our towns and cities and therefore passenger rail to these destinations is essential.
It’s imperative that the people of Missoula continue to support and demand passenger rail service for Montana. Remember, to make changes and get things done in this country it takes a “grassroots” effort from average people.
Michael Ackley,
Vice president, Montana Association of Railroad Passengers,
Missoula
Yes, I want a president who can inspire
It has become a lazy media refrain that we “don’t know much” about Sen. Barack Obama.
If you believe that’s true, then you haven’t been willing or interested enough to look. His insightful and candid pre-political autobiography, “Dreams From My Father,” sketches a detailed portrait of the shaping of his character: raised by a single mother and his grandparents, working hard in school to get scholarships, struggling with his own identity. His recently released law school exams provide unprecedented access to the way his mind works as he wrestles with thorny constitutional questions - the very questions presidents confront every day.
Obama has extremely detailed policy prescriptions on his Web site. Issues ranging from economic revitalization and energy conservation to fighting terrorists are addressed in full. Before you repeat the all-too-easy line that Obama only offers empty rhetoric or that we don’t know where he stands on a given issue, you might try reading through some of the material you’re otherwise ignoring.
Several recent studies have concluded that while Obama has received more press attention than either his Democratic rivals or his Republican opponent, he has also received more negative, critical coverage. Even so, there are still those who don’t know that he is a Christian. That he has always supported withdrawing from Iraq, not immediately, but “as carefully as we were careless going in.” That he introduced legislation into the Senate to cut red tape and ensure quality care for wounded soldiers at Walter Reed.
I am supporting Obama because I want a president bound by conscience and intellect, not ideology. A president who knows when to fight and when to compromise. A president with specific ideas, plans, vision, as well as the practical political acumen to accomplish them.
And yes, I want a president who inspires me.
Tobin Addington, Bonner
Predators growing in number
Judge Donald Molloy’s decision to honor a preliminary injunction will continue to create further hardships for livestock and pet owners; our Fish, Wildlife and Parks; and the federal government’s Department of Wildlife Services.
These last two public organizations are already over-worked with wolf issues. Wolf management, including hunting seasons, by the the three states’ fish and game divisions, would decrease somewhat the workloads of dealing with problem wolves.
As far as the implication of pockets void of wolves and those pockets contributing to a barrier to biodiversity, check out the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service’s section on gray wolves in the Northern Rockies on the Internet and then click on “wolf pack distribution.” The resulting map is impressive to say the least.
Wolves came in from Canada on their own and were introduced back into Yellowstone, but how have they now appeared in northern Colorado, all of Wyoming, western Montana, Idaho, as well as eastern Oregon and Washington? What do wolves do best? Disperse!
On the last day of last year, Montana FWP reported there were 422 documented wolves and 41 packs in Montana. “Documented” is the key word. There are wolves in the Missions, the Bob Marshall Wilderness and parts of the Bitterroots, as well as other primitive areas, that have likely not seen man nor man them (read: not documented). Those wilderness areas are vast!
Considering all this, I suspect that Montana’s wolf population as of Dec. 31 was more in the neighborhood of 500 wolves. Then add the surviving pups born this past spring (a conservative average of four per pack) and there’s another possible 160 wolves! Total by this December? Around 650, minus 20 to 40 taken out by Wildlife Services, poaching and road kills.
The point is that wolves are here to stay, and with their numbers increasing every year.
Michael Johnson, Missoula
Regs result in conservative decisions
As someone involved in selling technology developed in Montana to government agencies, I sympathize with the efforts of GCS Research and S2 Corp. to obtain Department of Homeland Security contracts (Missoulian, August 4).
My experience with government procurement practices has been that the agencies aren’t adverse to innovation and cost savings, but that complex regulations and practices, including the requirement for prime contractor responsibility, force them to be very conservative. Thus, firms with extensive experience managing government projects (such as Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, IBM) always have an advantage. The task of even answering a government request for proposal or invitation to bid can easily overwhelm the capabilities of a small company: the requirements for documentation, work plans, project management references, financial bonding, and minority business involvement are both stringent and exhaustive.
The key to success is to have the state’s small technology firms convince the project management giants that Montana products and services are worth including. Perhaps our state’s congressional delegation can assist with this lobbying, although I’d be wary of any legislator who becomes too responsive to the needs of business.
Carter Young, Missoula
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