Nov. 3 Letters Part 6: Our Readers’ Opinions

Stop blaming Trump

Blaming Donald Trump for everything that’s happened in the last three and a half years proves many people have their heads in the sand or are led by hatred. He’s not the one who’s been in power. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the ones and still are. Trusting anyone who has the power to correct and change things now but doesn’t, and makes you believe it will happen after her promotion, is a huge mistake. Sometimes when you “turn the page” the novel becomes more of a nightmare.

She’s said in interviews she wouldn’t change a thing since she’s been vice president, so you actually do know her and her policies. We have been living with them. Unfortunately, this includes those who have been killed unnecessarily under her reign.

In another interview in reference to Trump, she said you need to own what happens under your administration. Obviously she’s an expert at the blame game and takes no responsibility herself. In that same interview, she mentioned Trump’s name more than 40 times in 24 minutes. She is the queen of deflection and ... hiding behind the magician’s curtain. Stop being distracted by the shiny object and wake up to what’s truly happening.

She has said, no regrets. You don’t have to like Trump or have dinner with him. You just have to love your country. Those who feel MAGA is a four-letter word don’t know what it stands for: make America great again. Tell me, what’s wrong with that?

Shirley Brewer

Grangeville

The next fry cook

After watching the news Oct. 22, it made me proud that our former president is looking for a job after he loses the election. I hope he will fit in well as a fry cook.

I guess I am getting old. I remember when my parents would vote and the votes would be counted after the voting polls were closed. This was to help people get out and vote because we were told that everyone’s vote would count.

Now it seems that, with early voting, the news media, the political parties and the candidates are out there letting everyone know exactly what the early votes are for each of the candidates. It sure sounds like interference in advance of Tuesday’s election.

When did the election procedure change and who benefits? While we’re at it, why are the red states attempting to change the voting regulations before this election?

Just an old mind trying to figure out who is lying and who you can trust.

William Watts

Clarkston

Support Proposition 1

Dorothy Moon using a broad-brush, quasi-offensive term to describe how Californian transplants have changed Idaho’s politics makes me laugh, considering how she and her gold-mine owning husband live outside of Stanley, Idaho, and come originally from Missouri.

Proposition 1 will help people like me have a say in our state politics. I registered Republican last year. I don’t want to have to keep doing that just so I have a vote that counts.

I believe in live and let live, not my way or the highway. Idaho’s current obsession with banning books, rewriting history and minding other people’s medical business is anti-freedom, authoritarian, regulation-promoting and leans toward heavy-handed paternalism, where the government knows better than you do what you really need.

Vote for Proposition 1. Let all of us have a say.

Anne McLaughlin

Moscow

Accept the truth

Echoes are amplified in empty spaces. In the absence of truth, lies too often are repeated.

The truth is that millions of illegal aliens are not coming into the United States from all over the world. The truth is that Haitians are not “eating cats and dogs” in Springfield, Ohio. The truth is Mexicans are not “poisoning the blood of America.” The truth is that our President Joe Bidden won the 2020 election.

As we move closer to the election Tuesday for president of the United States, we can find echoes that repeat themselves in homes, neighborhoods, churches and political rallies. Lies are amplified by print and visual media. The greater danger is that many use the megaphone of their mouths to make the echo so loud that many cannot hear the truth.

The origin of the word comes to us from the Greeks etymology. Echoe was cursed by Zeus’ wife Hera. She was forced to repeat the last word spoken to her and torn apart by Pan and spread across the world.

Let us tear the lies apart by accepting the fact that Trump lost in 60 courts with Republican and Democratic judges who rejected his lies about the 2020 election. Let us accept the testimony of elected officials of Springfield — the city manager, mayor and governor of Ohio — that Haitians are not eating dogs and cats.

Our very real differences are not a curse but a blessing. God bless America.

Stan Smith

Viola

Vote pro-education

Those on the far right use their skewed interpretation of the U.S. Constitution to justify all sorts of things. Yet, they are oddly silent when it comes to the Idaho Constitution, especially regarding education.

The brave pioneers who founded Idaho understood the importance of public education. They deemed it so important they included it in the Idaho Constitution:

“... it shall be the duty of the legislature of Idaho to establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.”

There’s no mention of “school choice”or “vouchers”or any of the other buzzwords used to promote siphoning public tax dollars away from public schools and toward private schools. It’s clear what our forebears intended.

They didn’t stop there. Read further and you find:

“Neither the legislature nor any county, city, town, township, school district, ... shall ever make any appropriation, or pay from any public fund or moneys whatever, anything ... to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university ..., controlled by any church, sectarian or religious denomination whatsoever.”

The largest beneficiaries of vouchers are church-run schools, like Christ Church’s Logos School in Moscow.

Idaho lawmakers can’t ignore their “duty” to support public education. Their oath of office requires upholding the Idaho Constitution. Funny how selective some legislators’ memories seem to be.

When you’re voting Tuesday, remember these names: Julia Parker, Lori McCann, Kathy Dawes and Trish Carter-Goodheart. They won’t forget their constitutional responsibility to support public education once they’re elected.

Kathy Barnard LaPointe

Moscow

Reelect Dan Foreman

In the May primary, several prominent Republican senators were shown the door by the voters in their districts, including Senate pro-tem Chuck Winder. Change is underway in the Senate, with conservatives being chosen by the voters over their Republican in- name-only counterparts. New leadership will be voted on in December.

The conservative senators are evenly divided with the RINO senators after having been the minority in the recent past. True change can be made if we retain the few conservative senators that are being challenged in this November general election.

Dan Foreman is one of those senators. His reelection will be central to a new path for our state. Every freedom-loving voter in District 6, please vote for Dan Foreman. Your vote can drastically change the course of Idaho’s future for the better. No offense to his Democratic opponent, but Idaho needs Dan Foreman to be reelected this November.

Fortunately, Dan Foreman deserves to be reelected because his voting record on issues of freedom and spending were exemplary. Two rating services rated Dan an A and an A+, so I am asking you to put him back in the Senate for the next two years.

Be the answer for Idaho. Vote Dan Foreman, state senator District 6.

Patricia Wilkins

Kamiah

Vote for Julia Parker

Julia Parker is a conscientious problem solver who has consistently stepped up to serve the community, and I’m thrilled that she’s running for Idaho state Senate.

I’ve known Julia for many years in various capacities as a fantastic fellow parent, and I know people who’ve trusted and depended on her in her work as a nurse caring for elderly people. Julia has a proven track record of working collaboratively with people from a wide range of backgrounds. I know she will engage with all her constituents honestly and really listen to them, as she has done as a city council member. She has thoughtful and valuable contributions to make to our state in the areas of health care, education, tax relief, conservation and economic development, and she is respectful of all Idahoans. (You can read about these on her website, votejuliaparker.com.)

Julia is energetic and effective, exactly the sort of person we need for this job; in fact, the exact person we need for this job. I urge you to join me in voting for Julia Parker for Idaho state Senate.

Judy Sobeloff

Moscow

Read about initiatives

I see on every TV channel, streaming channels, running 24-7 and mail-out ads an appeal to vote no on all four initiatives in Washington state.

Whoa. I start to think, what deep pockets can afford to pay this monstrous bill to run all these ads? What are they trying to hide?

Please read the initiatives in the voter pamphlets and make up your own mind.

James Fry

Pullman

Vote for Dennis Lenz

Election time is drawing close, and I wanted to make sure that you knew who the best person was for the District 1 Asotin County commissioner position — Dennis Lenz.

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and working with Dennis for many years, from working with him since fourth grade to now. Dennis and I used to keep statistics on the sidelines for the Clarkston Bantams football team. I don’t know of many individuals that would be capable of a task like that in the fourth grade.

He is a longtime resident of Asotin County. He has a vast level of business as well as practical experience from his tenure at the Idaho Transportation Department to the Clarkston School Board. I’ve also had the pleasure of working with Dennis on the Clarkston School Board, where he continually demonstrated superb decision-making skills and the ability to listen and gather information before decisions were made. He is willing to make tough choices and do what is best for the people and community he serves. A fresh voice, his local enthusiasm and excellent people skills will make him a quality District 1 Asotin County commissioner.

You cannot go wrong with Dennis Lenz as District 1 Asotin County commissioner and can be assured that he will serve you well in making Asotin County the best possible.

Russ Davis

Clarkston