Oct. 20 Letters Part 1: Our Readers’ Opinions

Choose Dawes, Parker

Approachable, empathic and a former K-12 science teacher, Kathy Dawes is ideal for Idaho House seat 6B, opposing Brandon Mitchell whose signs say “freedom counts.”

“Whose?”

Delivering the freedom of homelessness: Mitchell sponsored HB545, now law, allowing landlords unlimited power to raise rents and fees and reject federal rent vouchers held by the needy.

When the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children’s (IAEYC) three-year, $18 million federal grant for preschoolers — which had a successful first year in communities like Kendrick — needed a state nod to move on to year two, Mitchell’s “no” was one of two that killed it, helping ensure freedom from education. His vote saved the taxpayers nothing — the money was already granted to be spent on the kids. Poof to $12 million.

With his vote for the Dan Foreman-sponsored bill criminalizing abortion health care, Mitchell helped strip freedom and equal protection under the law from all Idaho women, provoking the gynecologist exodus.

Foreman, opposed by Democrat Julia Parker, voted no to the Education Department budget and many other education funding bills, from 4-H to Idaho Launch. Yet he co-sponsored SB1038 for publicly funded vouchers to private religious schools, blurring the separation of church and state.

Julia first impressed me with her gentle nature, her commitment to civil discourse. Subsequently, I’ve found her incisive, well-spoken and inspiring. More information and Foreman’s voting record are at votejuliaparkerforidaho.com.

I choose Kathy and Julia. Both speak for the dignity, rights and freedoms of all, including protecting Mother Earth.

Karen Schumaker

Deary