Evolution is not science
Don Matteson, your paragraph about Neanderthals on April 4 is only one idea and just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.
To this day, Neanderthals are hotly debated among scientists. It’s still not known who they were, where they came from or what became of them.
“It is now known that Neanderthal man was fully erect and in many details was indistinguishable from modern man,” according to F. Ivanhoe, Nature 1970.
The scientific evidence for evolution is not massive and the fossil record does not support Charles Darwin’s ideas of descent with modification or natural selection as a mechanism for change.
“The General Theory of Evolution and the evidence that supports it is not sufficiently strong to allow us to consider it as anything more than a working hypothesis,” according to Gerald Kerkut, “Implications of Evolution” 1960.
Charles Darwin wrote: “If my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties linking closely together all the species of the same group, must assuredly have existed,” according to “Origin of Species” 1859.
Ernst Mayr contradicts that statement: “All species are separated from each other by bridgeless gaps; intermediates between species are not observed,” according to “The Growth of Biological Thoughtiversity,” Evolution and Inheritance 1982.
Mutations occur at the genetic level but they cannot produce new genetic information to cause positive morphological change. “No matter how numerous they may be, mutations do not produce any kind of evolution. ... There is no law against daydreaming, but science must not indulge in it,” according to Pierre-Paul Grasse, “Evolution of Living Things” 1977.
Fritz Kettenburg
Riggins
Questions need answers
We went to the jail town hall to hear facts, figures and specific answers and explanations to many unanswered questions. It was an opportunity for those who are making the decisions to give complete responses to questions asked as well as hearing everyone’s concerns about location, funding and staffing. Most of the answers were vague at best and some questions were responded to with “the information is not available” or “I don’t have those figures with me” or even “no comment.”
Questions that need answers:
Why are we looking at a jail capacity only half of what was estimated to be needed?
Why is an impossible staffing challenge not being addressed?
How are we going to overcome budgeting issues that were thought to have been planned for?
After more than a year, all we got was the sense that we are no further along and now we can’t even agree on a location.
What happened to the urgency?
Sixty people came prepared to participate with questions and comments including about jail location. It remains unclear exactly what the city’s position is and what it will take to resolve their issues. Are they even considering resolutions?
Maybe Noel Hardin’s suggestion that we have a few more of these town halls is the best way forward. The city might consider having the planning and zoning public hearing at the fire station auditorium in order to accommodate more people. This is a countywide issue and we all need to have our questions answered.
Jack Worle
Clarkston
Is Shinn a lawyer?
So Asotin County Commissioner Brian Shinn says the county cannot “disagree with more enthusiasm” with Clarkston City Attorney Todd Richardson’s opinion on the additional cost if the new jail is built on 14th Street instead of Sixth Avenue.
I’d be interested to know if Shinn picked up his law degree from Dish TV while he was peddling their services.
Just where exactly is he getting his information?
Personally, I trust Richardson a lot more than I trust Shinn.
If Richardson is correct, is Shinn willing to pick up the additional tab with his own money? Or is he betting my money, i.e. county money, on his opinion?
David Porter
Clarkston
Familiar story
Complaints about social justice teaching go back a ways. Family lore has one of my Czech ancestors accompanying early Protestant reformer Jan Hus to Rome in 1415, when Hus and his entourage were guaranteed safe passage and then burned at the stake. Hus, Martin Luther and other reformers presumed to teach their fellow Christians the radical idea that they could read the Bible and engage in moral reasoning for themselves. Importantly, they also taught that religion can be hijacked and used to mask corruption, bigotry and inequality.
Now some well-funded people with odd ideas about what constitutes justice at this point in our nation’s history are making wild claims about indoctrination of the intelligent, ambitious and hard-working young adults attending our public universities and colleges. It’s worth recalling the original sin of social justice teaching in the U.S. dates to the abolitionists, who risked imprisonment and lynching for teaching enslaved Africans to read.
What better expression of genuine social justice than helping uplift Idaho college students of all races, genders and ethnicities into their chosen professions and productive roles within our society? I’d say a few questions about ethics and right and wrong seem a fitting supplement to that education.
Chris Norden
Moscow
IFF is in charge
The Idaho House, now known as the Idaho Freedom Foundation, killed the state education budget Tuesday over fears of the same old “Run for your lives. It’s socialism.” However, they’ve disguised their unfounded fears of socialism with terms such as “social justice” and “critical race theory.” Call it what you will, it is fear mongering and nothing more than another way to minimize the educations of Idaho’s children.
The ignorance of Republican representatives is so exhausting. But, hey, it’s just desserts of the election of President Chaos in 2016, right?
Idaho’s Republican legislators, formerly conservative one and all — with the possible exception of Caroline Troy — also want to include higher education as part of their irrational fears in what they believe is a racket to “indoctrinate” college students into socialism as well as the restrictions on public school students.
Let’s face it: They call it indoctrination but truly believe it’s brainwashing. In their small-mindedness, it’s a gratuitous and groundless process to create a generation of chattel.
How can we keep kids dumb and, more importantly, compliant to the Republican way if limits are not placed on educations?
Small wonder this restrictive state is almost last nationally in all educational categories. ...
Who do you believe? Our so-called Freedom Foundation legislators’ knuckle-dragging belief systems to revert this state to the stone ages? Or the truly educated thinkers who are teaching Idaho’s kids and college students to reject compliance, think cogently and retain a measure of independence from state Republican’s back-assward biases?
Jim Roach
Moscow
Empowering students
Idaho Republican legislators have recently cited “critical race theory” and “social justice indoctrination” as their rationale for failing to pass several education bills.
As an Idaho educator who teaches critical race theory, I would like to clarify. ...
CRT is not “teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other” nor is it teaching that “white people are inherently racist” as alleged by Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin. Rather, CRT encourages people to examine how historical laws and policies trickle down and lead to invisible inequity today.
CRT is only one of dozens of theories ... we teach in our classes. If students attend a university in Idaho, they are required to take courses from a variety of disciplines. ...
They would take an economics course and learn about race and race relations from a number of economic theories. They would enroll in biology courses and learn about race through this lens. They would take history classes and look at the historical and changing understandings of race. They would read books written by authors from different races to understand people’s experiences and ways of making sense of current and past race relations. They would take a sociology class and learn several different theories on how race operates at a societal level.
There is no indoctrination happening in schools. We do the opposite: We teach students a variety of ways of understanding issues so that they are empowered to think critically and become strong leaders and innovators for Idaho.
Kristin Haltinner
Moscow
HRH Mike Kingsley
Rep. Mike Kingsley’s disdain for poor constituents who are hovering at or near the poverty line, possibly such as the tenants who occupy his rental property empire, is standard Kingsley off-the-cuff, but mostly serious rhetoric.
It would be interesting to know if a portion of his tenants pay rent with government housing assistance.
Meanwhile, he advocates that government should be run like a business and, presumably, not in the public housing assistance business. So while he and his John Birch Society ilk push this notion, it is important to remember most businesses only need to do very few things really well in order to create profit for the single person, small group or shareholders who own the business.
Government, on the contrary, must provide an infinite number of things adequately well to the entire population if and when single or myriad of those things are needed. While no poor person has (wisely) ever given him a job, Kingsley gleefully and vocally looks down his nose at those he represents who happen to be less fortunate than His Royal Highness.
Dan Aherin
Lewiston
Make the valley beautiful
Fleshman Way is a great road with functional interchanges, yet it could use a little something to make it appear more appreciated. I’ve seen other cities try landscaping and it didn’t take much. Simply planting some trees and native bunch grasses would be nice. Even edging the sidewalks and sweeping the gutters would improve upon the look of neglect.
This impetus could be applied to all of the valley’s infrastructure that are appreciated but aren’t seemingly finished once the concrete has dried.
The Beautiful Downtown Lewiston campaign was great for the community to see the value of our heritage and to appreciate what we have. But most of us don’t live downtown. Yet we still live in a beautiful part of the world.
It would be nice to treat the whole valley as if it were worthy of our attention, not neglect it beyond its basic function.
Our roads could be beautified, and that would be a good place to start. It might make us happy and inspire us on our way to work. We might find ourselves more productive. We might drive with more civility.
Beauty is a matter of quality. Improving the look would improve our quality of life.
Christopher Rousseau
Clarkston
