Publish columns from real Montanans
I couldn’t agree more with Clare Kelly’s letter (Nov. 7) regarding Kathleen Clary Miller being out of touch with real life in Montana. I attempt every two weeks to avert my eyes from her column, as it never fails to irritate me. But for some reason I read it anyway and then am annoyed for the better part of my morning.
I too live in Montana, I too own a drift boat. I did not build a trophy house in the woods; I bought a modest house in Missoula within biking distance of my husband’s work. My drift boat was bought from a friend who had to sell his precious fishing boat as his work in construction had dried up in this same economy that “liquidated” Miller’s father’s estate. He didn’t want to part with it and sold it for a song so that he and his wife could move to another city where she will work and he will stay home with their 1-year-old son. We too have great memories of fishing with him, eating sandwiches and drinking PBR while enjoying the Blackfoot’s beautiful scenery. My hope is that when they recover financially, we could sell it back to him for what we paid.
I for one will work harder on averting my eyes; I can’t bear to be as depressed as she states she is.
Amy Quintero, Missoula
Issue was about forcing beliefs on others
The irony is always so rich when someone complains that their rights are being taken away, but it turns out that the “right” they claim is being “abridged” involved their ability to take away someone else’s rights.
The letter at issue is Annie Bukacek’s, “Left is attacking 1st Amendment rights,” Nov. 9. Her complaint involves, first, a California court barring two doctors from invoking their religious beliefs to deny artificial insemination of a lesbian, and second, the prosecution of some Montana pharmacists for refusing to dispense contraceptives because of religious beliefs.
Bukacek claims that these cases represent blatant disregard of First Amendment rights protecting religious rights, but she completely misunderstands the protection afforded. The amendment protects one’s “free exercise” of their religion from federal or state interference, and in neither of these cases were the doctors or the pharmacists forced not to practice their religion; they could still believe whatever they wanted to, go to their church along with others who believe as they do and so on.
What was at issue was the doctor’s or pharmacist’s ability to force their religions beliefs on their patients or customers as part of “practicing medicine.” As such, both the medical personnel involved were not “practicing medicine” as much as they were “practicing judgmentalism” (specifically in the case of birth control).
The state has a valid interest in examining what went on here because both of these professions are licensed and regulated due to very real concerns about both individual competence and practice. And it is not a part of practicing medicine to base medical care decisions on one’s personal - and admittedly unregulated! - faith.
And it bears restating here that it was these practitioners who were trying to force their religious beliefs on those who had come to them for medical, not religious, care.
Bill Clarke, Missoula
Let irresponsible companies fail
I’d like to start this letter by thanking Sen. Jon Tester and Rep. Rehberg for voting against last October’s bailout (otherwise known as the CEO Christmas bonus package). They are two of the precious few who listened to the overwhelming will of the voters, unlike Sen. Max Baucus, who continues to throw our hard-earned money down the drain.
AIG is now on its third bailout, and the company is still failing. I sure hope that the CEOs enjoyed that hard-earned luxury vacation last month. I’m sorry that our hard-earned tax dollars that Baucus gave them wasn’t enough for something more extravagant. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still failing and have now extended their hands for billions more of our money. The federal government refuses to disclose information to the public on $2 trillion in loans made to failing companies. The list goes on and on. Unfortunately, most of our elected officials in both parties support these actions.
Has anyone stopped for one second to think about the consequences of what they are doing? Our children’s future is looking awfully bleak. As a nation, we are rapidly bankrupting ourselves for at least one or two generations to come. What happens when the loans come due? What happens when we finally realize that throwing trillions of dollars at a problem does not solve it (especially when the problem was initially caused by fiscal irresponsibility)? What happens when there is no more money to throw at the problem?
It has become painfully obvious to most that our nation is spiraling into a severe recession, if not a depression. Sure, throwing money at the problem may briefly delay the inevitable; however, we are still going to have to hit bottom at some point.
Let the companies that have been fiscally irresponsible fail.
Bryan Henry, Missoula
Find top scientists to support point
This is in response to the guest column by Mark I. Pfau (Nov. 8).
I am not a climatologist or geoscientist, but I did spend my professional career of over 34 years in basic research at a prestigious university. I supervised graduate students and served on several high-level scientific advisory committees in the medical school, dental school and the National Institutes of Health.
Pfau seems to make two points, which are not really related. First, he supports the idea of “intelligent design” promoted recently by Ben Stein, who would have us believe that the government controls the direction of research and teaching at universities and institutions of higher learning.
My take on Pfau’s view is that environmentalists would have us believe that global warming is caused by man-made activity. The experts do not say this. Their stand is that human activity has made a serious and unexpected sharp spike in global warming and it is accelerating.
The second point is that Pfau thinks that the variations in global temperatures seen over millennia are natural and should be expected, and even believes that we now should expect to see global cooling. I have been informed that the sharp rise in global temperature that has occurred after the industrial revolution is unnatural and unexpected, not at all in keeping with previous periods of warming and cooling. Pfau doesn’t discuss this.
One should not confuse the religious belief of intelligent design with scientific findings.
If intelligent design can be scientifically tested, then I would like to see it done. If Pfau can name “top-caliber” scientists who have shown that human activity has not contributed to rapid global warming, then he should name them. Where are their peer-reviewed publications? On this very important topic let us keep our religious beliefs separate from credible, factual knowledge.
Les Rutledge, Hamilton
American people gave Obama his chance
Whether you are a Republican or Democrat you must agree this last election was inspiring. Not only because the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream was partially fulfilled, but also because the American people showed all the politicians who was in charge. The politicians work for the American people, not the other way around.
We give a politician a certain amount of time to do a job that satisfies us, and if they don’t, we fire them, or if they do a good job, we keep them on the team. Even though politics is the only job I know of where you vote yourself a raise.
President-elect Barack Obama is going to have a tough next four years and if he doesn’t cut the mustard the American people will fire him.
We have had quite a few Americans who didn’t like decisions made by presidents. For instance, George Washington with Jay’s Treaty, Abraham Lincoln’s with his emancipation proclamation, JFK with the Cuban missile crisis, the meeting president Roosevelt had with Winston Churchill after he heard by many people that the Americans wanted nothing to do with the war in Europe. Many of the financial hardships this country and the world are suffering are said to have been caused by programs he set up. People were poor when he was president and the American people loved him for trying to help them.
I’m not saying Obama and FDR will be at all alike, but the American people have given him a chance. We’ll see what the next four years hold.
Jason A. Freytag, Missoula
Speak back against racism and hate
Mike Miller’s letter of Nov. 6, “there goes the neighborhood...,” invokes an historically loaded racist sentiment unworthy of the Missoulian’s readership.
It may be that Miller’s letter represents the opinions of some in western Montana; however, we can be better than that, we must be better than that. If we are to realize the hope for change for which President-elect Barack Obama’s victory stands, we must gather the courage to speak back to those whose racist fears and hate-mongering poison the possibilities for improved conditions for all Americans. Such small-minded sentiments have no place in the America in which I work to live.
Heather E. Bruce, Missoula
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