Which country?
I wonder which country Marge Lunders is referring to when she writes in a Dec. 24 Tribune letter, “Terrorism is running rampant all over our country.” Is there something I do not know? Has the government been toppled (almost, but not in this administration)? Has the infrastructure been destroyed? Have states seceded from the rest of the country?
Is she talking about the number of mass shootings all over the country? If so, I ask, whose fault is this? It seems the Republicans want the wholesale distribution of firearms, not the Democrats. And, more often than not, it is longtime, white residents doing the shooting.
While I am at it, which president thought he was the greatest? Which president became the laughingstock of the world? Which president struggled to put a single coherent sentence together?
It is not 46. You might look at 45 again, Marge.
Wayne Beebe
Pullman
High points and humdrum
The Dec. 17 Tribune Opinion section had two striking high points and a humdrum editorial.
The first high point was a Mike Luckovich cartoon that made sense. How’s that for an anomaly? Then a Mike Epstein/Marco Munez letter also made sense. (I thought I had stumbled into a “Mission: Impossible” show.)
Drum roll, please.
Luckovich is known for ferociously attacking anything and everything that even suggests decency. Epstein/Munez usually launches verbal tirades at those who do not worship his version of socio-communism.
A pleasant surprise; cheers to them both.
In his humdrum editorial, Marty “Get the Shot (GTS)” Trillhaase railed against voters who reject higher taxes for the indoctrination system the elite have the gall to call “schools.” There is zero evidence GTS has ever considered the poor, paltry results of the establishment’s “education system.” When compared with schools of other countries, American schools were not even ranked in the top 20 countries for 2023 (worldtop20.org/worldbesteducationsystem).
South Korea and The Netherlands are Nos. 1 and 2. The NEA’s fixation on 1, teachers’ pay, and 2, drag-queen story hour cannot help but detract from more practical and useful subjects like the three R’s.
Bridger Barnett
Clarkston
Insensitive manner
On a recent call to a deputy clerk at the Nez Perce County Courthouse in Lewiston, I was appalled at the insensitivity and uncompassionate manner in which my concerns were addressed.
My son is incarcerated in Boise right now and I had received several fines in the mail addressed to him. I called to see what I was supposed to do about them. I was told the court receives payments all the time from inmates who had found employment while incarcerated.
This clerk assumed my son had not tried to get employed while in prison. What she did not assume was my son had tried every week and had even written a cover letter and resume, as the other inmates laughed at him. She went so far as to say that his family could pay his fines.
Does she have any idea how heartbreaking it is for families to be separated from their loved ones regardless of the bad choices that have put them there? Since when are public employees supposed to be so uncaring? Has she ever had a loved one incarcerated?
As a public employee with the courts, she should use professional ethics every time she speaks to the public. Does she always speak this way? What if I or anyone else spoke to the public in this manner? Would this be acceptable?
If this letter makes this particular deputy clerk think even a tiny bit before she makes such assumptions, then my goals will be achieved.
Debby Dahlberg
Lewiston
