Tuning out the public
Kudos to Tribune Outdoor Editor Eric Barker and to Publisher Nathan Alford for the excellent and thorough coverage the paper has given to the issue of the lower Snake River dams and to the plight of Idaho’s salmon and steelhead.
Shame on the federal agencies and their inadequate public information and input process required by their draft environmental impact statement.
The originally scheduled six public meetings to be held to inform the public and to gather public input were, understandably, canceled due to the COVID-19 crisis.
These meetings were replaced by an inadequate public call-in effort that failed to generate much input and totally failed to provide information to the public.
The money the federal agencies saved when the public meetings were canceled was not redirected to a media campaign nor was the meager 45-day comment period extended.
Clearly, the federal agencies were interested only in satisfying the legal requirements and not really in hearing from the public.
Keith E. Carlson
Lewiston
Likes MAGA
Hooray for John Webb.
Me thinks that the slogan MAGA is the greatest invention since bubble gum. It doesn’t offend me one bit. If it does offend some of our elite population, then that is their problem if they can’t handle it.
I even have one of those in my family.
Lastly, I say it’s too bad House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can’t be impeached. ‘Nuff said.
Gordon H. “Gordy” Mills
Lewiston
Too little progress
Our national picture has slowly emerged to create some progress such as voting rights for women, but is struggling in approving equal rights due to several states dragging their feet to approve that right into our Constitution.
Looking back at historical images of city and rural life, one sees many instances of the inequality. In photographs, women generally stood behind men, were remanded to the kitchen and prevented from buying anything above groceries. Although Idaho was one of those states approving Equal Rights Amendment, it continues demonstrating it as an inequality state with men controlling for decades afterward by continuing to consider women as unequal partners in employment, social and political lives.
Sure, some restrictions have lessened, but nationally one sees that age-old male directives never die out completely. I have hope that women one day soon will unite fully and make their rights adhered to in our Constitution.
During this crisis affecting so many and needing so much help to survive by getting medical and financial aid along with home quarantining and social distancing to return to a semblance of normalcy, the Idaho Legislature, comprised of a male majority, found the time to draft a bill, approved and signed by the governor restricting women from obtaining their freedom of choices in a medical care regarding abortion.
This is not an easy decision for them to undertake, but why do men still get to decide their options? Maybe women can put in place the authority to decide men get vasectomies.
Mike Petrusky
Clarkston
What’s best?
Consider libraries today in the electronic world we now live in. I did some research and indeed they’re still an asset to communities.
To the city council: In light of this awful looming plague that is about us, are we seeing the best for the community? What’s the worst that can happen if the project were to be tabled until this epidemic passes?
Please weigh the opportunity you may have to use these funds to help infected and or dying folks.
Do we sincerely believe those who have so graciously given would mind waiting a while and potentially saving a business or a life?
Greg Broemeling
Juliaetta
