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Talented team needs help to go to finals

This letter is to provide information about the little-known or touted University of Montana Equestrian Team.

The team is funded by the Sports Club Union under the auspices of ASUM and is allotted $2,000-plus per year, funds used to cover not only van rentals, gas, food, motels and show fees for the currently 20 active and showing members, but to also pay for all expenses of board, feed and care for the team horses.

Team members compete in shows in Montana, Idaho and Utah, with each member competing in three to six classes per show at a cost of $17 per class ($51 to $102, per show, per member). In addition to dealing with school costs, members must provide these additional funds and, since they oftentimes cannot, do not attend shows.

With these facts in mind it is obvious that, although most welcome, $2,000 per year is not nearly enough to meet the needs of this UM-sanctioned group. Donations of hay would be most welcome and are tax deductible.

The team has sent numerous riders to Nationals in the past few years and is currently tied for the top spot in the region. With no new funds, riders will not be able to attend Nationals in April 2009, and the team will lose its prestigious ranking.

Since Missoula and its surrounding areas - the Bitterroot Valley, the Frenchtown area, north toward Evaro Hill and east toward Drummond - are all wonderful horse-friendly countries, I would ask anyone interested in helping to please contact Elena Ruddy at elena.ruddy@umontana.edu or 396-0548, and offer to help off-set the needed monies so that this illustrious group may continue to represent UM in its noteworthy and time-honored manner. Thank you.

Becki Archibald, Missoula

County attorney should be removed from office

Recently, Montanans went to the polls to vote for local, state and federal election choices. In Ravalli County, taxpayers living in “incorporated” or metropolitan areas such as Stevensville, Hamilton and Darby were not allowed to vote on the controversial “growth policy” initiative. This amounts to about 15,000 disenfranchised voters. Our Supreme Court should throw out any law that disallows a taxpaying citizen to vote on an issue pertinent to their county. The initiative and petition process is difficult enough; restricting it with law is burdensome government.

The sole person responsible for our local voter exclusion was George H. Corn, the Ravalli County attorney since January 1991. Of note, Corn’s salary is $94,500 for 2008; that is pretty heady income for this area. The Montana Attorney General’s Office gives no regulation to Corn; we have seen how no regulation worked in our financial markets. In the defense of the voting decision, Corn used laws and legal language that included the infamous “qualified electors” to exclude voters. This phrase is used to include voters in election law in every state within the Union.

Since we are all done voting, I suggest that Ravalli County voters simply vote Corn off the island for now. The grounds are taxation without representation, the founding grievance for creating our nation. In November 2010, all qualified electors (voters) of Ravalli County will have an opportunity to vote Corn out if he is up for re-election for the fifth time.

We have had no monarchical influence on the North American continent since 1776. In Ravalli County, King George can use the law to take voting rights from residents without answering to anyone. The qualified voters of Ravalli County can remove him in 2010: public officials must answer to the people of Montana.

Michael Spreadbury, Hamilton

CEOs get paid more than presidents?

I think that it is amusing that corporate America justifies paying CEOs tens of millions of dollars a year because it is necessary to obtain top executive ability, and we pay the president $400,000. Any questions?

Doug McClelland, Missoula

Oliphant cartoon was racist, offensive

The Missoulian’s Nov. 7 edition shows a huge cartoon by Oliphant in the center of the Opinion page. In the cartoon, a caricature of President-elect Barack Obama strides across water and the Greek chorus beneath the waves make their fishy Oliphant comments.

I was shocked at the blatant racism inherent in the fish’s comment, “Who does he think he is?” (Where have we heard that refrain before: he doesn’t know his place ... ?) And the other fishy comment, “I know who he thinks he is - I wonder more who he really is.” An allusion to the slimy suggestions brought forth in the campaign that (hint, hint, whisper, whisper, wink, wink) he might be a terrorist.

That the Missoulian would publish this cartoon shows that either the editorial board didn’t understand the cartoon in its nastiest meaning or they felt it permissible and perhaps even humorous to stoke the hate-filled fires that often flared during the McCain-Palin campaign. Shame on you for publishing this cartoon and further shame on Oliphant for creating it. Your inability to recognize the gifts of Obama does not diminish him; it diminishes you.

Sandra Bolles, Clinton

Support for Obama has consequences

This is in response to the article about Dan Cooper of Cooper Firearms and his support of Barack Obama in this last election (Missoulian, Nov. 9).

Actions have consequences, and Cooper is now finding out what they are. If you wish to support a politician who is as anti-gun as Obama is, you should expect some blowback when you are making your living by making and selling firearms.

It also might require your reporter to tell us just exactly who and what is the American Hunters and Shooters Association, and where they are getting their funding from, and at the same time, give us some information on their spokesman and his associations, and how long he has worked to preserve what he claims to speak for. From what I have been able to ascertain, it is a front group created to provide cover for Obama’s anti-gun stance.

I am a gun owner and supporter of the National Rifle Association, and proud of it; I don’t receive any marching orders from them but they do provide information on Obama’s anti-gun voting record that reflects rather badly on this charade that he supports our right to keep and bear arms.

I want to thank you for providing the forum for this.

David W. Skranak, Eureka

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