Dad was right
When I was a child, one day I asked my dad: “What’s the difference between a Democrat and a Republican?” Being the good dad he was, he answered my question.
This was his answer: “The Republicans are for the rich people and the big corporations. The Democrats are for the working people and middle class.”
I’ve learned over the years that his answer was absolutely correct.
The Idaho Republican Legislature just proved how right my dad was. They recently voted to give $600 million in income tax breaks to the wealthy and big corporations. Then they voted against a bill that would have taken the sales tax off groceries, which would have helped the working people and middle class.
Rep. Mike Kingsley, R-Lewiston, voted for that tax cut for the rich and against removing the sales tax from groceries. I would like to know how the recently elected mayor of Lewiston, Sen. Dan Johnson, R-Lewiston, voted on these issues. He most probably voted with the Republicans — for the rich and against the rest of us.
Kingsley and 14 other Republicans then put on a big show pretending to try to get a bill passed eliminating the sales tax on groceries. Political theater is always important to these lying Republican hypocrites.
My dad was the smartest man I ever knew. He certainly did understand exactly how politics work in this country. Republicans give to the rich and take away from the poor.
Joan Vanhorn
Lewiston
Leave teaching to teachers
State Sen. Carl Crabtree of Grangeville and Rep. Judy Boyle of Midvale co-sponsored Concurrent Resolution 118 to provide U.S. history lessons that show the nation’s triumphs as well as its faults.
The resolution states it is “imperative that children are taught about mistakes as well as unprecedented accomplishments toward freedom and fairness for all.”
As a retired history teacher with 35 years of experience in Idaho public schools, I take offense that the Legislature feels such a resolution is warranted. State law establishes what school districts teach in all curricula areas. Locally elected, volunteer school boards administer oversight of curriculum compliance.
Has either legislator actually read what is in the history curriculum taught in Idaho public schools? Idaho history teachers have. This resolution is an unnecessary redundancy.
What will be next? Resolutions demanding logic be taught in math and science class? That rhythm be taught in music? Or that color be taught in art?
Noted American historical documentarian Ken Burns once said, “Being an American means reckoning with a history fraught with violence and injustice. Ignoring that reality in favor of mythology is not only wrong but also dangerous. The dark chapters of American history have just as much to teach us, if not more, than the glorious ones, and often the two are intertwined.”
Please stop using public school education, educators and school boards as your punching bag to scare your supporters into fearing something that is not happening.
Scott Funk
Lewiston
Caved in
The Idaho Fish and Game Department recently lifted trapping restrictions for river otter on the mainstem of the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River and the mainstem of the Salmon River, among other places.
Don Ebert, the Clearwater Region’s commissioner on Fish and Game, voted in favor of lifting the restrictions. Ebert explained his vote as a vote respecting Idaho’s heritage of trapping rights.
Indeed, the right to trap was added to Idaho’s Constitution in 2012. But is Ebert being honest about preserving Idaho’s heritage? Trapping once involved fortitude and wilderness orientation skills. U.S. Highway 12 runs along the mainstem of the Middle Fork. U.S. Highway 95 runs along the mainstem of the Salmon. Nothing in our heritage calls for otter trapping from asphalt roads.
Our fish and game values run deeper than the bottom-line carcass value.
People love to see river otters. For the 100,000 boaters who pass down the main Salmon each year (according to recreation.gov), seeing river otters would be a highlight for any float trip.
How much would our river outfitters like to post comments from customers who saw river otters on their family vacation to Idaho?
To Mr. Ebert and to your fellow Idaho Fish and Game commissioners who voted for expanded river otter trapping, I suggest that you caved in too easily to the appetite of Idaho’s trapping lobby. You voted against our fish and game heritage. You voted against our recreational economy. Constitutional otter slaughter: obscene. Go find some better clothes to wear.
Greg Larson
Moscow
