Little lives matter, too
Regardless of black, brown, yellow or white, I have had students from all countries.
As a foreign exchange host, students in my home were very respectful and grateful just to have a chance to be on American soil. All lives matter yesterday, today and tomorrow.
I certainly hope we don’t forget the millions of babies being murdered by those in power to control a suction tube. Those little lives matter, too.
What hypocrisy and hysteria our country is living through. One-hundred forty-five days from now will predict what our future holds.
God bless our great country, past, present and future. May we all respect our history, Bible, flag and the men and women in uniform who protect us daily.
Stay safe.
Marge Lunders
Lapwai
End bear baiting
I just returned from a beautiful backpacking trip in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. I hit the trail at Paradise and hiked downstream to the confluence with Bear Creek before exploring the drainage. It was a classic June trip with thunder, lightning, rain, hail, clouds and sun.
June is also a time for bear hunters and bear baiters to visit these lands. I separate the two into distinct groups because the latter dumps food on the forest floor and waits until a black bear visits the odorous pile before shooting it. That is not hunting. You can call it slob-hunting or immoral, wasteful, disgusting, irresponsible and littering. Yet Idaho calls it legal.
What isn’t legal, however, is baiting bears near a campground or campsite and that is what I observed near the Bear Creek pack bridge. The heaping pile contained oatmeal, granola bars, nuts, chili, etc., and my dog was instantly attracted to it.
After photographing the bear bait pile, I soon heard the buzz of an airplane. People further down the trail told me that bear baiters from Indiana had just departed after flying in for the week. As I stood along the river and watched the plane fly away, I had thoughts of anger, sadness and disgust for both the individuals in the plane and for the decision-makers who permit this at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Forest Service. The wilderness deserves better, the bears deserve better and so do we.
Brett Haverstick
Missoula, Mont.
What need was served?
On Heather Roger’s business website, in large font, she said she wants to “fulfill a valuable need in our community.”
So when she and her militant group were brandishing AR-15s and semiautomatics in downtown Lewiston, was she fulfilling that need in our community? We have a well-trained, competent police force in Lewiston and her actions and those of her reported 75 other armed individuals did two things against our community:
1) They made the Lewiston police look incompetent by clearly sending a message that they were incapable of doing their jobs and her group, with no training, would take on the job of policing.
2) They scared many citizens of our community and hurt downtown businesses by walking around as an armed militia. We do not need armed militia in Lewiston; we have police.
Now, all of us have our own ideas on issues. But when you start harming our community with your ideas, it shows you are not being a “valued need in our community,” as Rogers purports.
The Lewiston police are the valued need in our community. So let them do their do their job. And militant people with guns can stay off the streets of our town.
Pat Bates
Clarkston
