Obama putting together a great team
Now that we have a president-elect in Barack Obama, a fact that cannot be changed regardless of political preferences, one thing seems very clear in what has been happening since the election in the forming of a cabinet and other appointments: This man has intelligence and vision well beyond anything we have seen in a president of these United States of America in many, many terms of office.
To welcome into your circle of advisors and appointees people who actually fought against you in the long and sometimes bitter campaign speaks volumes as to Barack Obama’s self-confidence, his ability to reach across party lines, and his mastery of the art of building an internal political structure of a nation which needs to be a leader of a free world.
Throughout history there have been events and people coming along at just the right time to chart a new and essential course in the struggles of mankind. Barack Obama is such a man; not simply as to his person as president, but more importantly as to his ability to gather together an impressive team in his administration. The team and its ongoing influence and function is what determines the course of history.
You can already see the attitude of reaching across political lines for communication and cooperation. You can already sense that come Jan. 20, 2009, America will be turning over a fresh page in its long-needed new direction in the world.
Bob McClellan, Polson
Money better spent on health care
Rather than spending $700 billion to prop up and bailout badly managed financial institutions and automobile manufacturers, why not invest the money directly with the entire population by instituting universal health care first?
The benefits would be many, but three of the most important are:
1. It would directly benefit and provide genuine peace of mind to each and every American worker and family as we make our way through the rough times ahead.
2. The money the consumer now pays for health-care premiums and co-pay costs would be freed up for other living expenses.
3. It would improve the competitiveness of American industry by eliminating the health-care costs now shouldered by American businesses.
Robert Gilbreath, Ronan
Isn’t it safer to think it is us?
Mark Pfau, a geoscientist, in his guest column, “Global warming? Get ready for global cooling” (Missoulian, Nov. 10) comes up with the old Ellen Engstedt-Simpson, forest products industry lobbyist presdigitation to claim that the present melting of the polar icecap is nothing but the natural geological hot-cold cycle, and that our having pumped millions of tons of pollutants into the atmosphere has had no part in the climate change.
What do you call pseudoscience committed to a particular political agenda - Lysenkoism? Pfau comes out with it and at the end of his essay plugs the same old Bush-Greenspan-Racicot, hedge-fund-manager deregulation: “We should let the free market economy” take off. “We should not be meddling with mandates to private energy businesses” and “open markets to do what we know best, and that is producing the energy we need to survive.”
Regulation held sway from the Great Depression and FDR through to Reagan, when the public oversight of markets was swept aside in the belief that markets could self-regulate and that government was the problem, not the solution. Today, the question that Adolf Berle raised in 1932 - will democracy rule the corporations, or will the corporations rule democracy? - is one we should be asking again.
Wouldn’t it be safer, wouldn’t it be more “scientific,” to think, now that the planet has so obviously warmed, that just maybe it could be us? Maybe it’s our ever-increasing population, our ever-increasing production of effluents, that may be partly to blame, and that just to be on the safe side we should make a stab at living more modestly and carefully and leaving a smaller footprint on the planet?
George R. Jamieson, Missoula
Her grammar defies diagramming
Ellen Goodman, in her Nov. 17 opinion page column, quotes a Sarah Palin sentence “that defies diagramming”: “But not me personally were those cheers for.” If the governor of Alaska wants to end a sentence with a preposition, she should read E.B. White, who not only ended a sentence with one preposition, but five.
In a letter to J.G. Case, he wrote:
“The next grammar book I bring out I want to tell how to end a sentence with five prepositions. A father of a little boy goes upstairs after supper to read to his son, but he brings the wrong book. The boy says, 'What did you bring that book that I don’t want to be read to out of up for?’”
Mavis McKelvey, Missoula
Why should God bless this country?
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the president’s horses and all the president’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.”
The old economic remedies will no longer work beyond temporary patch jobs for arrogant, fat, greedy American Humpty Dumpty; without the exact remedy, our disease is terminal. Early New England educator Cotton Mather said, “religion begets prosperity and the daughter devours the mother.” Our country greatly prospered as a result of largely faithful, biblically literate people who viewed the world and designed our government knowing we are prone to selfishness and greed. Now, in our unprecedented prosperity, we have almost “devoured the mother” who blessed our obedience. We have relegated the “G word” to a grossly overused phrase, “God Bless America,” yet God’s blessing seems conspicuously absent across our nation that seems to honor abortion, euthanasia and social deviance more than a culture of life.
Why should God bless America after we have exported our national indulgence, greed, immorality and killed over 50 million of our most innocent little ones, both inside and partially out of the womb? American evangelist Billy Graham stated, “if God doesn’t judge America He will have to apologize to the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.” So I say, “God forgive America,” and the sooner believing Americans fall on their knees, pray, fast and humble themselves before the living God, the sooner He may reverse the unraveling that has begun. I speak to an unrelenting increasing unraveling that will become more intense across economic, climatic, geologic and geopolitical lines. God is trying to get our attention; are we home?
As the dark clouds gather, how will we respond? I hope with lots of love for one another and God. Short of this, we will certainly go the way of ancient Israel and Rome.
Robert J. Luceno, Missoula
Who do you think pays medical costs?
To all you knuckleheads who think it should be your “individual choice,” your “right,” to wear or not wear a helmet while riding on a motorcycle, I hope that you can somehow manage to retain that thought in what’s left of your brain as you lay there on life support in a vegetative state.
By the way, who do you think is going to help pay for all of your medical expenses for the remainder of your so-called life?
Virginia Smith, Missoula
Narcissistic sociopaths setting traps
I would like to take a moment to remind readers, if you are like me and enjoy using the national forests and other backcountry areas during the colder months of the year, to be very aware.
I share this time walking in the backcountry with my dog. However, please be aware that there are narcissistic sociopath individuals out and about setting traps with little regard for you or your pets. It doesn’t bother them that theses wicked tools of suffering and indiscriminate maiming and killing are just waiting to cause needless suffering and slow, painful, cold death in most situations. The ones that survive are either maimed for life, shot or stomped to death by the trapper. What a barbaric sport, and only for their fur. It’s a pity that these very self-centered individuals hold little regard for you and your pets. In their world, its all about them and whatever animals they can kill for profit, targeted and non-targeted animals alike.
They often present several arguments, such as, “this helps control animal populations,” or, “it’s my right,” or, “your pet should be in your control at all times.” This does not hold up under scrutiny. Why should I have my pet under control at all times while their vicious traps lay waiting under no one’s control? Just think about it for yourself and you will see through these lame, self-serving excuses.
Imagine finding your favorite pet trapped and either dead or in the process of dying. I am sure you would be very upset. This tells me that trapping is morally wrong and unacceptable. It’s time to put an end to this horrific, barbaric sport.
Marc Cooke, Stevensville
Choose light fixtures that point down
For thousands of years mankind has enjoyed the sparkling blanket of the night sky. The ever-changing images of planets and stars is one of God’s gifts to us. Yet each day, as more lights are installed outside, we lose our night sky to light pollution.
Many people think they have to light up all around their homes and businesses for safety. More lights do not mean you are safer. It means more light glare and pollution, more wasted energy, more greenhouse gases in our atmosphere and loss of our night sky. There is a way to light for safety that actually includes small, covered light fixtures pointed down where we walk, and motion sensor lights to activate if movement is detected.
Through my work educating the state Highway Department about lighting and glare, we now enjoy new street lights that do not shine directly in the eyes of drivers. Take a look at the new street lights on Highway 93 and compare them to the old sage bulb lighting in Hamilton and in Florence. This is the result of education and smarter fixture choices, saving the taxpayers money and saving our precious energy, and night sky.
And after meeting several times with the Missoula City Council, they also enjoy a light ordinance to encourage smart choices.
You too can be a part of saving our night sky and saving energy by turning off your outdoor lights when you are not outside. Choose light fixtures that are covered like a flashlight pointed straight down. Choose light bulbs of 25 watt or less for outside use. Call your power company and ask them to remove your yard light - those mercury vapor lights shine in every direction, even into your neighbors’ bedrooms, and they are the worst polluting, least energy-efficient lighting choice.
Phyllis Bookbinder, Corvallis
Bush, Cheney must face consequences
President Bush and Vice President Cheney are war criminals who must face the consequences of their actions.
Before Bush excuses the behavior of himself and others in his administration who perpetrated these crimes, Bush and Cheney must face impeachment proceedings that hold them accountable.
Jed Taylor, Missoula
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