Dam amnesia
In anticipation of the June 1975, dedication of the fourth lower Snake River dam, the Lewiston Tribune published a huge special section.
Included in this edition was a story with this first sentence: “Although completion of the chain of four dams on the lower Snake River has meant good news for power consumers, boaters and would-be shippers of commodities, it’s meant bad times for the fish and their friendly enemies, the fishermen.”
Not even a “maybe.”
The article could proclaim this because a report had been recently issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service detailing the “hazards to the fish and pinpointing the destructive effect of the dams on the fish runs.” And they had data from even before that fourth dam.
They were already doing the mitigation of habitats, fish transport, spillways, screens, etc. So far it hadn’t helped, but they tried to be optimistic: “I think we can do it if we just stay with it,” said the head of the project.
Remember the definition of insanity, generally attributed to Albert Einstein?
Apparently, we have forgotten that fish survival was questioned even at the time of dam construction. A bad case of dam amnesia.
After 50 years, it is time to stop the insanity.
Mary Minton
Clarkston
Restore Idaho’s sanity
Majority rule is a cornerstone of democracy. It is also a myth.
Time and time again, opinion polls show us that what the majority wants, it does not get. Why? Because a well-organized and well-funded minority wins elections that a fragmented majority can’t — especially when the majority fails to vote.
A hard-working majority too busy for politics will get bullied every time by a small group of well-organized fanatics.
In Russia in 1917, there were more than 3 million upper-class and wealthy citizens who had no use for communism. But they were fractured, in a revolt and unable to stop fewer than 30,000 ardent communists from turning that nation into the USSR.
In Idaho today, small but devoted groups get candidates elected who do not reflect the desires of the majority of Idahoans, resulting in legislators who do crazy things such as sending back millions of needed preschool education dollars to the feds to prove some point. They cut school funding even in surplus years. They try to keep voter initiatives off the ballot. And they throw out health safety rules they oppose when the governor is out-of-state for three days.
At this rate, Idaho will end up with no public education because a rabid minority is organized against it. We must stop standing back as bullies take over — or the majority will continue to be forced to tolerate minority rule. It takes well-informed voters, not a revolution, to bring sanity back to Idaho politics.
Mike Ruskovich
Grangeville
