Wednesday June 30, 2010

Opinion & Editorial

by Ira Holt, President, Bitterroot River Protection Association

On June 25, 2010, the County Commissioners made some amendments to the Portage Routes that were granted last October to facilitate recreational access to Mitchell Slough. The Bitterroot River Protection Association (BRPA) would like to thank the Commissioners for the time and effort they put into making both the original decisions and the recent amendments to those decisions.

We apologize for BRPA member Michael Howell speaking out of turn at the meeting. (He was gaveled down twice by Commissioner Chilcott during the discussions.) But Mr. Howell, after over a month of negotiations with FWP and the landowners, was surprised and upset at the positions taken by the landowners at Bell Crossing.

Our organization believes that the resulting amendment to the Bell Crossing Portage Route is not the best. After all these years of controversy, it still leaves recreationalists approaching the slough from the north side of the road in the same situation as when the controversy began over ten years ago. That is, facing a double fence with “No Trespassing” signs posted on the fence along the slough.

But BRPA will not be protesting that decision, as is our right under the law. All in all, the three Portage Routes that have now been established along the slough by the Commission are worth applauding. And we thank the Commissioners once again for their role in laying the foundation for a better relationship between recreationalists and landowners along the river. One that fosters and encourages mutual respect for the people’s right to access Montana’s waters and the property owner’s right to privacy.

Safe and sound

Dear Editor,

Last Saturday, during the early morning hours, I was loading my produce getting ready for my weekly booth at the Hamilton Farmers Market. My friend and her daughter were helping when this beautiful hot air balloon passed very close over the roof of our house on Park Place. Our three-year-old 150 lb. Newfy, Gracee Mae, was outside with us. She looked up, seeing and hearing this giant object hovering above us, barking and backing away from the ballon. None of us had any idea what the next nine hours would bring. Gracee Mae turned around and just began running. This is entirely out of her nature; she's a homebody dog, always at my side. Within seconds three trucks were heading after her but it was as if she just disappeared! Our search began. In vehicles, on bicycles, and on foot, friends and strangers alike helped in searching for our best friend. If I miss any one, know you are not forgotton. Thanks to Christy who picked me up wandering up and down Eastside Hwy. with an empty leash in my hand. I never met her before, but she took the time to drive around looking for our dog. Thanks to Earl, who after I approached him while walking his own dog, jumped into his car and looked for a couple hours. Thanks to Scotty who, like so many of our friends, knows and loves our gentle giant, rode his bike for three hours looking. Thanks to Joani, who without hesitation put her four grandchildren in her car and began her search. While Joani drove, the two oldest girls wrote my name and number on small pieces of paper to hand out to people and her two youngest called out the window, "Graaaaceee". Thanks to Auntie Lorrayne for taking care of the kids for the entire time we searched. You are my girls!! Thanks to Officer Mike Sunderland for being empathetic toward a distraught dog owner. He and other unnamed officers actually drove around in the squad cars looking for Gracee Mae. Thanks to the business owners who let us put up the flyers that brought Gracee home. Thanks to the boys walking to the parade who told their mom about a big dog in a culvert, saw a flyer and alerted their mom that was the dog they saw. You boys deserve a round of applause! Thanks to all the wonderful folks in Stevi who gladly accepted my phone number, asked for a description of Gracee and even called me to check if she came home. Thanks to Michael, the pilot of the hot air balloon. When he found out what happened, he was nothing less than amazing in offering to pay for any needed vet care, reward, ads in the paper, or anything else we may need. Thanks to the radio stations for broadcasting that our dog was missing. And especially--thank you Heather and Hannah. My BFF and my petit BFF. I would not have made it through without you!! For those of you who love dogs, you know. Gracee Mae is not just a family pet. She is a part of our family!! And she is home now.

Sandy Gates and David Hamilton
Stevensville

Proper protocol on wild babies

Dear Editor,

I would like to say thank you very much to anyone who has taken the time and effort to take injured or truly orphaned wildlife to area wildlife rehabbers.

Fully feathered young birds sometimes end up on the ground while trying to learn to fly. Please put them into the thick branches of a bush or tree. Parent birds cannot smell your scent and will easily find and feed the young bird when it calls. Keep all cats and dogs under control for three or four days while young birds are fledging in your area. Birds are very important to our survival because of the huge number of insects they eat.

Please do not touch or pick up uninjured mammal young unless the mother or parents are known to be dead and instruct your children not to pick up wild youngsters. Newly born deer fawns and elk calves find a place to lay down (sometimes in your yard or flower bed) and remain there until the mother comes back to feed them, usually at night. With any type of activity near a white-tailed deer fawn during the day, the mother will not return until after dark, when she deems it safe. Newborn fawns will return to the same spot for three or more days, so finding it lying in the same place does not mean it is abandoned.

The policy of MTFWP is to kill any fawn or elk calf that cannot be put back with the mother. Anyone who takes one from the wild may be dooming it to an unnecessary death.

Some people need to understand that rehabbers do what they do for the love of the wildlife. We do not get paid and we do not have a boss for you to talk to if you do not agree with what we tell you. And we are all very grateful for any donations you make to help feed the animals in our care.

Judy Hoy
Stevensville

Voters have spoken

Dear Editor,

Ravalli County voters have shown they intend to lead the way back to conservative, responsible, common sense and fiscally responsible government, at all three levels – local, state and national – as they overwhelming elected a strong slate of Republican candidates for the general election in November.

David S. Hurtt
Florence

More about Republicans and Libertarians

Dear Editor,

My letter to the editor about being aware of Libertarians, whether on the Libertarian ticket or the Republican ticket, was a discussion of political principles. The quotes I used to reveal Art Baker’s Libertarian leanings were exact quotes taken from a newspaper article. I had hoped that any response by Baker would be a continuation of political discussions.

Baker had an opportunity to discuss his statements and clarify his positions if I misconstrued them or if the paper did. He did not, which indicates that his quotes were accurate and truly reflected his political leanings.

Instead he quoted a form letter from Montana Conservative Alliance (MCA) that everyone receives when they send in a questionnaire and get a certain score. He used it to show his “true conservative” positions. The problem with the MCA questionnaire is that it only asks about one of the social issues, abortion, and is therefore flawed in respect to judging whether a person is conservative. It is clear from his statements in the article that he is opposed to laws against drinking and driving or using drugs and driving. He stated: "This puts us all through having to be subjected to the police running around looking for violators. We should refocus on the true crime at the time of collision." This statement speaks for itself and people should remember it when and if he runs for Republican office again.

Personally, I am indeed grateful for the police and sheriff’s officers who “run around looking for violators.” If not for them the numbers of dead and maimed would be much higher. Who knows, maybe their “running around looking for violators” even saved Art Baker’s life or the life of one of his loved ones.

Incidentally, the MCA doesn’t have a web page and you cannot take the test on line. I would invite all to read it and see how you would answer some of the questions, like: “Firearms ownership is not an absolute right; it needs to be reasonably regulated for the good of society.” If you mark that question less than “strongly disagree” because you don’t think that hand grenades and howitzers and machine guns or nuclear weapons and tanks should be allowed under the law then you will not get that form letter calling you a “statesman” that Art got. The questionnaire is available at: HYPERLINK "http://missoulian.com/pdf_2651d094-120d-11df-902f-001cc4c03286.html" http://missoulian.com/pdf_2651d094-120d-11df-902f-001cc4c03286.html

According to Art, because Ron Paul is against abortion he is not a Libertarian. I invite you all to view an interview of Ron Paul in which he calls prostitution, obscenity and recreational use of drugs “liberty” and “freedom” issues, thus there should be no law against them: HYPERLINK "http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2007/12/12/john-stossel-interviews-ron-paul-on-legalizing-drugs-and-prostitution/" http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2007/12/12/john-stossel-interviews-ron-paul-on-legalizing-drugs-and-prostitution/ Ron Paul was the only one to vote against a law aimed at keeping children out of adult pornography and his votes are very revealing.

In the rest of his letter Art uses parts of emails, out of context and out of sequence, to say that, “Dallas feels we would be better off under Communism.” He really had to do a lot of maneuvering of sentences and words and dates and emails to come up with that conclusion! Of course, as a 911 truther (believes that George Bush and others blew up the Twin Towers) he gets his lessons from people like Alex Jones who is an expert in using innuendos, outright lies and deceit, suppositions, maneuvering of words and sentences and imaginations to come to such conclusions. They use this combination to get power and gain, political or otherwise.

This is the same principle he is using as he continues to spread vicious lies that I am a “pedophile” (uses “child molester” sometimes). Three people called me within the last few days who have heard those words from him as he either made those statements in public meetings or face to face. He has also made those claims in letters to the editors that were not printed.

Some have asked me why I respond to Baker’s character assassination attempts (the effects of which were reflected in the votes in precinct 19). I would ask the readers to consider what they would do if someone, who is supposed to be a Christian brother, was writing letters to the editors and going around to your friends and making announcements in meetings that you were a child molester and claiming to have “proof” of such a lie? What would you do? How can you defend yourself? Would you be silent? Maybe if those lies were being said about you, then you could understand.

Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” Lies and rumors are like feathers escaped from a burst pillow. Even though the Christian perpetrator has a duty to gather all of the feathers back as part of repentance it is almost impossible to do. It is possible to stop spreading them, however.

I thank the voters for their strong support in the effort to get the right to vote on any future proposed zoning. (Voting is clearly a communist principle). It passed almost 3 to 1. It was a pleasure leading that effort and those who did all the work to circulate the petition and to educate people, thank you for seeing through the opposition from Libertarians like Baker and Cox.

Dallas D. Erickson
Stevensville

Help the poor and vulnerable

Dear Editor,

As the G-20 meet in Toronto this week, they must take urgent action to address the ongoing economic crisis on the most vulnerable people in our country and around the world. The world’s poorest countries are bearing the brunt of the crisis, with 100 million people set to be pushed into poverty this year, and yet they have no voice in the G-20.

The G-20 promised swift action for the world’s poor at their last meeting in London in April. However, a recent report from Jubilee USA Network found that of the $50 billion in new resources promised by the G-20 to the poorest, less than half has been delivered to date. But banks and financial institutions have been bailed out to the tune of $18 trillion - that’s 785 times more than poor countries have received in additional resources. Please contact our President and ask him to urge the G-20 to keep their promises to the world’s poorest. For more information visit www.jublieeusa.org.

Pamela Brigham
Stevensville

Fairgrounds policy not helping economy

Dear Editor,

1'd like to thank everyone who came and supported Montana Mule Days this year. We had three days of great weather and fabulous fun. I especially appreciate all of our fans from Ravalli County for following us to our new location in Missoula.

I feel at this time I should answer the questions that I was bombarded with from you folks all weekend. We moved from the Ravalli County Fairgrounds in Hamilton due to the increase in costs raised by the fair board/manager -- $2,300 (in 2009) to $5,100 (in 2010). We were told of the increase in March - our show takes place in June. We are a non-profit club and we just couldn't afford an increase of that amount. We had three meetings with Debbie Rogala, the fair manager, and Lee Scharff, fair board member/Bitterroot Back Country Horsemen, attempting to negotiate adjustments. All that was ever accomplished was the price went up each meeting. After those three meetings at which we suggested different options, we gave the fair manager a deadline at noon the next day to get back with us before we committed to anything. Debbie Rogala left word on my answering machine the next morning that they had met with the County finance officer and that was the best they could do. Their big suggestion was to raise the admission and entry fees.

Our organization strives to put on a show for families and to keep the admission/entry fees down so everyone can afford to participate. If the admission and entry fees were raised, and the economy the way it is, the gate attendance would be cut drastically, as would the number of participants. We had 188 mule & donkey entries (1,249 total class entries) with people from six different states - so you see Montana Mule Days is not a small show. I, myself, being a rancher in the valley, am sick and tired of digging into my wallet every time I turn around. It is refreshing to have an event you can afford to take the whole family to.

What a shame for local people whose tax money, donations, and free labor that helped build and maintain the fairgrounds, now have to go out of the county to see the Mule show. A show this size brings in revenue to the motels, restaurants and area businesses. I believe in supporting the community and shopping locally when possible, but it is hard to be loyal when you can't even afford to use the fairgrounds. I think the fairgrounds is important enough to the businesses and county residents to insist that there is a change in the way it is handled. What do we do about this? The County Commission oversees the Ravalli County Fairgrounds. The crew that is in office right now has let this happen even in spite of community complaints. We don't need to hear any excuses. We have all seen what they spend money on. Keep that in mind. It is an election year.

Our supporters and contestants loved the Mule Show being held at the Ravalli County Fairgrounds in Hamilton. Montana Mule Days did not quit Ravalli County - Ravalli County (FairgroundslFair Board) quit Montana Mule Days.

Rod Knutson, Show Committee
Montana Longears Association
Montana Mule Days

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