Applauding Obama’s humanitarian efforts
My husband, Dr. Calvin Ashby, and I are voting for Barack Obama because of his statesmanship and courage in calling for aid for Cuba’s hurricane victims. We are disgusted by the hypocrisy of the Bush administration and Republican party policies.
Cuba is reeling from two deadly hurricanes that left thousands homeless and caused billions of dollars in damage. Obama asked Bush to suspend restrictions on visits and humanitarian care packages from Cuban-Americans. “This is a time when the Cuban people - not Castro - need and deserve American compassion and assistance,” Obama said. “A failed Bush administration policy, however, stands in the way of moral and necessary aid.”
Bush and McCain mocked Obama for saying America “should never fear to negotiate” with our enemies. Yet, besides embracing terrorist-dictator Gaddafi, Bush has diplomatic relations with the repressive governments of China and Vietnam, and negotiates with totalitarian North Korea.
Obama’s solution to Cuba’s natural disasters showed true courage and wisdom. Allowing relatives and private organizations to send aid directly to suffering people on the devastated island avoids bureaucracies and political impediments. Although Obama knew calling for suspending the Cuban embargo could hurt his Florida campaign, he rose above politics by advocating a private-sector humanitarian solution.
This is statesmanship in the tradition of Ronald Reagan, who reached out to the Soviet Union and China and changed history by doing so. America needs a courageous and innovative president rather than one such as McCain who would only perpetuate the failed Bush policies.
Ann F. Ashby, Florence
GOP politicians want to distract us with lies
Are we better off now than we were eight years ago?
Voters must demand truth. The media must get us the truth. Our country’s problems are too serious and too numerous for anything less.
Food prices are up. Heating costs are up. Gas prices are up. Medical costs, bankruptcies, home foreclosures, unemployment, education costs, our national debt, corporate bailouts and bank failures are all up.
Republican politicos are lying to us. They are trying to distract us with: They will take your guns away! Fear-mongering misinformation does not serve our country.
The Constitution gives each of us the right to own guns. Period. I have been a gun owner all my adult life, but I understand the needs of police who are up against violent gangs and drug lords armed with machine guns in big cities. Other states have needs Montana does not; and we should not interfere with the decisions of other states.
Home values are down. The buying power of the dollar is down. The value of pensions, life savings and investments are down. Wages, job security, infrastructure repair and even respect for the Constitution are all down.
Republican politicos try to distract us with: They will take your Bibles away! Enough lies. Enough distortions. Enough!
The only thing McCain will change is the name on the door. He has been a major player in the Republican policies that have caused these crises. As chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, McCain pushed through deregulation that put poisonous toys, food and medicines in our stores. His deregulation led to the bank failures and Wall Street meltdown. His chief economic adviser calls us, the American people, “whiners.”
The media failed us by not challenging the lies that led us into Iraq, to the deaths of 4,000-plus of our military.
Claire Kelly, Stevensville
Will health issues be addressed by plan?
In a Sept. 12, Missoulian guest column titled, “Hunting heritage ensures wildlife abundance,” M. David Allen and Tony A. Schoonen state the following; “Leaders ... have outlined the extraordinary challenges and issues facing wildlife and hunting today.”
The various government agencies and conservation organizations are planning to formulate a 10-year action plan for wildlife conservation. By far the most serious threat to all mammals, birds and other wildlife in Montana are the serious health problems consistent with thyroid hormone disruption. Is this issue going to be addressed?
In studies using domestic ungulate species, thyroid hormone disruption during development resulted in many health problems on fetuses and newborns, including; herniated umbilicus, inability to maintain heat, severe weakness, neurological damage, underdeveloped bones, digestive system problems, underdeveloped external male genitalia, failure of the brain to develop normally, disrupted hair development and predisposition to cancer, obesity and diabetes.
These health problems are extremely similar to those documented on hundreds of wild animals in Montana. Most of those health problems have been observed and documented in wildlife since 1996, some in alarmingly high numbers. If a wild animal dies immediately prior to, at or soon after birth it is difficult to determine rates. For underdevelopment of facial bones on elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer and pronghorn antelope, rates are being documented. Increasing rates of male reproductive problems have been documented for a 10-year period. Additionally, many of the listed health problems have also been documented on one or more individuals of many of Montana’s bird species (see our Web site, www.animalmalformations.com).
No wildlife conservation plan will be complete without addressing these serious wildlife health problems and devising a plan to determine, 1. if the primary problem is fetal thyroid hormone disruption, and 2. what is causing it, allowing mitigation to begin as soon as possible.
Judy Hoy, Stevensville
Feminism more than just 'liberal ideology’
I feel so fortunate to have been raised by a woman who had her three daughters’ best interests in mind and cared enough about our futures to stand up for our rights as women. Mom was an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, and I believe there is even an incident of bra-burning in her history. Her efforts to promote equality and freedom for women have not gone unnoticed or unappreciated by her daughters. We are three strong, independent and successful women because of our mother, and women like her.
It is because of this that I was rather confused by reader Mark King’s comments (letter, “Letters About Palin Full of Hate,” Sept. 12). He stated that, “Feminism isn’t and never has been about women as much as it has been about the left-wing ideology.” Did it occur to King that without the feminist movement, Sarah Palin would not be where she is today?
Feminists are concerned with the legal, contractual, property, voting and reproductive rights of women. Protection against sexual harassment and discrimination, equality in the workplace, as well as bodily integrity and autonomy are hallmarks of the feminist movement. Sarah Palin, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro owe their very careers to the feminist movement.
If you love, admire and respect women - as my dad does, as my husband does, as my brothers do - it is to be hoped that you will spend a few minutes learning a little of the history of feminism, rather than simply lumping it in with liberal ideology. There is much to be gained, and your daughter will thank you.
Pamela Johnson, Hamilton
Crippling universities not way to prove point
I see that Gary Marbut and the Montana Shooting Sports Association want folks to vote against funding the university system to make the point that it is wrong that university property is gun-free. I, like Marbut, believe in the Constitution and support the Second Amendment, but to advocate a crippling funding cut to make one’s point seems petulant and short-sighted.
Universities like the University of Montana make many huge, beneficial contributions to their states and their communities. One of those benefits is an open dialogue and free exchange of ideas. Marbut and his ideological allies might make their point with reason and evidence-based arguments, if there are some. If they do this well enough, and show that the community will benefit from adopting new policies, then the force of opinion will join them and the university (ever sensitive to public opinion) will rethink its position.
If they believe that the university policy is illegal, there are courts in which to challenge that belief.
However, to advocate hamstringing the university with funding cuts to make one’s point reminds me of a child holding its breath to make its frustration known, or of that old saying, “Cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.”
I have met some Campus Carry folks and they seemed calm, reasonable, informed and are good students. They were busy educating the public, and some wore empty holsters to class as reminders to others that not all agree with gun-free zones. None advocated underfunding universities. Neither should the MSSA.
Dan Sieckman, Missoula
'Clarifying’ easements harms taxpayers
The Plum Creek land sale is bad for the federal taxpayers and counties like Missoula that have Plum Creek land. Plum Creek will sell 320,000 acres of land for $520 million; the brokers are the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land. The federal government will contribute $250 million; the balance comes from other sources. The scam is twofold: selling commercial timberland at development land prices and turning Plum Creek’s (and others similarly situated) easements for forest management into easements for development, not just in Montana, but all over the USA.
Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey says that there is a need to “clarify” the easements that Plum Creek has across federal land. What were thought for decades to be easements only for forest management are now easements for development purposes. It is the position of Rey, and Plum Creek, that there is no ambiguity in the easements, but that clarification of the language is necessary. This clarification is really an amendment of the easement that would allow development that would harm the ecology of the forest, burden counties with expensive fire protection and make Plum Creek hundreds of millions of dollars.
A portion of the environmental community is happy because the land will be protected from development. The $250,000,000 in federal money will buy Sen. Max Baucus votes in an election year and Rey will be in line for a real good job when he leaves federal employment and returns to his former employment as an industry lobbyist.
The Nature Conservancy has been in bed with industry before; e.g., it was involved in a scam to allow J.R. Miller to buy Sula State forestland for 25 percent of its value. Apparently, when you are doing God’s work, it is OK to sleep with the devil.
Jim Shockley, Senate District 45, Missoula
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