Elect Nelson this fall
I have been privileged to know Jim Nelson for 32 years and am honored to call him my friend.
Nelson was raised in Dayton and started his public service career in Moscow as a police officer. He then became a Fish and Wildlife officer and was stationed in Pomeroy. That is when I first met Nelson, being his neighboring officer, stationed in Clarkston.
Although he had plenty of opportunities to promote, Jim and his wife, Sue, chose to stay in Pomeroy because of their love for the community. Nelson earned a reputation as one of the finest wildlife officers in the state. During most of his career, he doubled as a reserve deputy for the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office.
During all those years that Jim and I worked together, he could always be counted on when I needed help. He always conducted himself in a professional manner, treating others with respect and dignity.
During my 30-year career, I worked with a lot of good people but none finer than Nelson. If you talked to others who have worked with him, they would say the same.
Nelson received numerous awards during his career with Fish and Wildlife, including the Award of Valor for being credited with saving the life of a young girl by apprehending the predator who had kidnapped her.
He is currently the resource officer for Pomeroy High School. His dedication to his community, his honesty, integrity and professionalism will make Nelson a great Garfield County commissioner.
Ken Woltering
Clarkston
Saving the fish
The federal agencies responsible for restoring Snake River salmon, steelhead and lamprey have no intention of doing so.
In fact, based on their actions, one can only conclude that they fully intend to send the centerpiece of cultures, economies and ecosystems to extinction. All six recovery plans they’ve submitted have been illegal because they don’t include the one action necessary to restore the fish, namely, the removal of the four lower Snake River Dams.
After losing in court five times, they had the audacity to submit plan No. 6 with the same deficiency. And even though they identified dam removal as the only viable recovery solution, they recommend something different. They cite disruption of electricity production and shipping as their justification, despite ample evidence that dam removal would be cost-effective.
Three things are clear:
l We must restore the fish; they are beauty and bounty, the foundation of countless lives and livelihoods.
l Dam removal is necessary.
l Dam removal will only happen if the benefactors of the current system are treated fairly.
Fortunately, many of us in the Pacific Northwest, including Congressman Mike Simpson and Govs. Kate Brown and Jay Inslee, recognize these realities and are engaging in the collaborative process that will facilitate salmon restoration. The key to “having it both ways” is to draw the distinction between the services the dams provide, and the dams themselves. We can’t have the fish and the structures, but we can have the fish and the services the structures provide.
David Cannamela
Boise
Keeping Moscow safe
Moscow Mayor Bill Lambert made a courageous, difficult and correct decision when he canceled the recent soccer and baseball tournaments in the middle of play because of the danger of spreading COVID-19.
Everyone would like sports and other activities to be normal, but these are not normal times.
At the recent city council meeting, several spoke regarding extending the mask ordinance past Aug. 6. The opponents cited inconvenience or a perceived violation of their rights.
One grandmother lamented that her grandson couldn’t go swimming this summer at the Moscow pool. Yes, we are all inconvenienced. My own grandkids had recently moved within one block of the pool and were set to get season passes. This COVID-19 is a national crisis and a crisis mandates we all give a little to save ourselves and others.
Anything less is just plain selfish.
I am very grateful that our council and mayor study the issues and rely on proven science when they consider restrictions, such as the mask ordinance.
With the daily increase in cases in Latah County and the reopening of schools, the University of Idaho and New St. Andrews, more may have to be done to reduce the spread.
This ordinance also supports businesses that require masks. Extending and enforcing the mask ordinance means “mask on — business open.”
The mask requirement is good for people and good for profits.
Thank you, Mayor Lambert and city council, for doing what you can to keep us safe.
Linda Pike
Moscow
Wasting billions
In the midst of the pandemic news, the case count and the death count, we hear that President Donald Trump is pulling American troops out of Germany because Germany does not spend enough on defense.
This morning I read that the Pentagon announced America will spend billions for the move and that lawmakers from both parties will oppose it because “it will weaken the military deterrent against Russia.”
Did I understand this correctly? Billions of dollars during the pandemic, when a thousand people a day are currently dying in America from the virus and when the medical community is pleading for more tests, more equipment, more beds and more help.
Billions of dollars when pandemically unemployed Americans are pleading for financial help with their ongoing day-to-day lives, rent, mortgages, funerals?
Billions of dollars when the educational system is pleading for help reinventing itself for the challenge of balancing a quality education with their need to keep students, teachers and staff safe?
Billions of dollars when the law enforcement agencies across the country are pleading for financial help so they don’t have to sacrifice their current budgets to help fund perennially underfunded social services?
Billions of dollars? Am I crazy to ask if those in positions of power in America have their priorities straight? Am I crazy to ask: Why?
Georgia Tiffany
Moscow
Time to go
President Donald Trump has more in common with his declared love, Kim Jong Un, than obesity and trouble reading English.
He fancies himself a supreme leader, beyond reproach, accountable to no one. But Trump has a problem Kim doesn’t — an election.
With three months to go, his polling numbers are so bad it appears his campaign has been flushed down his golden toilet and an Electoral College win looks highly unlikely.
His entire time in office is a wretched example of incompetence and corruption but his recent blunders have awakened the USA to just how bad he is.
His horribly dishonest non-response to COVID-19 has cost lives and caused an economic meltdown. With more than 160,000 dead Americans he still rejects science, encourages the Kool-Aid Klan to do the same and suggests shooting up bleach and sticking an incandescent light bulb up your butt.
He’s on the wrong side of the USA’s long overdue racial reckoning movement. He misrepresents Black Lives Matter, dog whistles fear tactics to suburban white people and champions statues honoring traitorous Southern terrorists. But, lest we forget, he feels Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan are good people.
Instead of holding Vladimir Putin accountable for placing a bounty on the heads of our brave warriors in Afghanistan by the Taliban no less, he cowers in fear of the narrow eyed dictator. Putin no doubt has the goods on the president. ...
Come Nov. 3, it’s time for the USA to tell our apprentice dictator: “You’re fired.”
Johnnie Martinez
Lewiston
Waiting to reopen
Hello all of our Christian cowboy balladeers. We would like you to know that we will be resuming church services as soon as the restrictions at the Guardian Angels Barn are lifted.
We appreciate all of your continued support. We will put out a notice in the religious section when church can resume. Stay safe. God bless you all.
Darlean Norskog
Lewiston
Protests spread virus
A quote from an article in the Aug. 6 Lewiston Tribune from The Associated Press:
“Boston — Fourth of July gatherings, graduation parties, no-mask weddings, crowded bars — there are reasons that the U.S. has racked up more than 155,000 coronavirus deaths.”
The Associated Press conveniently forgot to mention the biggest reason for the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more than a month, we had hundreds of thousands of people roaming the streets of thousands of cities, rioting and protesting the death of George Floyd. Most of these protests were densely packed crowds with few protesters doing anything to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
When the protests started, our economy was in almost total shutdown. Nearly everyone was doing what our top health officials said was needed to combat the virus. Nonessential businesses were closed, and people were confined to their homes. Our schools were closed. Millions of people lost their jobs and millions more lost their businesses and life savings. There was an upsurge in domestic violence and drug-related deaths. Alcohol sales skyrocketed. Our country paid a huge social and economic price to “flatten the curve.”
The protests and riots have erased much of the gains that came from the shutdown. Now we are facing more COVID-19 deaths and potential economic devastation. The death of George Floyd was horrific, and I support the First Amendment right to peaceful protest.
But we cannot let exercising our rights destroy our country. God help us if we have another racial incident.
Marvin F. Dugger
Lewiston
Test not that hard
Concerning the cognitive test of our president and his presidential qualifications, one might deduce the following:
1. Since it is a simple test, why would anyone think it is “hard”?
2. Why would anyone have to work so hard at remembering the five words in order as he does each time?
3. He seems to be inferring that he is sharp and intelligent. Obviously he is neither. And, anyone could easily recognize that he is just plain stupid.
4. In addition to being mean, selfish, lazy and incompetent, he is a liar, a cheater and a traitor.
5. He is greedy, never spending his own money, but profiting from his office. Just wait for evidence of his manipulation of the stock market in addition to his other scams.
6. He is as power hungry as a dictator. Plus, he is personally responsible for suffering, pain and even death from his policies and fascist actions, attacking the very foundation of our government. How can anyone in his or her right mind support or even tolerate such a man?
I can’t understand it.
John Charles Stalter
Clarkston
