Hidden meanings
The media is all gossip these days. They love to make a love song something it isn’t. They’ll tell you Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” is about Jake Gyllenhaal. Really it’s about Idaho’s quickly dissipating wild salmon and steelhead.
The red scarf Taylor left at Jake’s sister’s house is an allusion to the red fish God planted in the Snake River basin all those years ago. The car getting lost upstate? That’s the smolts losing their way to the ocean due to the cesspools created by the four lower Snake River dams.
All we ask is that our elected leaders save these iconic keystone species. But maybe we got lost in translation, maybe we asked for too much. Congressman Mike Simpson’s plan was a masterpiece until Gov. Brad Little tore it all up.
Running scared — the runs are depleted. Sacred prayer — salmon are everything to tribal culture.
I was there — we are all watching as these fish and everything they mean to Idaho are dammed to extinction.
Now Little calls us up again just to break a promise — the promise our country made to Columbia Basin indigenous people in the century-old treaties to protect accustomed fishing spots. So casually cruel. Little is never honest.
Don’t let our state lose the one thing we’ve ever known.
These salmon are rare. We’ll remember them all too well.
I urge readers to call Little and ask him to free the Snake and save Idaho’s wild salmon.
Shiva Rajbhandari
Boise
Who should give?
Recently I received a flyer with a financial request from Herschel Walker, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Georgia. Receiving it reminded me of my opinion as to who should be allowed to contribute to political campaigns.
First, businesses of any size or type should not be allowed to contribute to a campaign. Why? They are not eligible to vote. While that donation may reflect the political views of the owner or owners, it will not reflect the views of all stockholders of a publicly held corporation.
Second, a union should not be allowed to contribute to a campaign. They collect dues from all their members but the union views on the political issue or person will not reflect the views of all of their members.
Next, no political funds should come from outside of the geographical area that is being influenced by the outcome of the election. This holds true for issues or for individuals running for office. In other words, I should not be allowed to contribute to Walker. I do not live in Georgia, so I can not legally vote for him.
We could take a lot of the swamp out of political campaigns as well as reduce their cost if only persons who are eligible to vote for an issue or person were allowed to contribute to the campaign. ...
Not everybody who works for the Lewiston Tribune might approve of them contributing to a specific issue or person. Only the voters should contribute.
Bruce Barnett
Lewiston
