Good for Powell
On Monday, the Lewiston Tribune’s Page 2 reported that “Colin Powell backs Biden” is not surprising for this highly accomplished Republican who served under Republican President George W. Bush. Powell was so popular that Americans even attempted to draft him into running for president.
Why? He is a man of integrity, a man who represented a Republican Party that’s no longer with us. Back then, the news media published a piece titled “Powell’s 13 Rules for Life.”
One of his rules was: “Never have your ego so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.”
That, it seems to me, is the problem with many of today’s Republicans, including President Donald Trump’s toady senators and congressmen, who unfailingly support Trump no matter what he does.
I can admit that voting for President Richard Nixon in his second-term run for the presidency was a mistake, but I know Republicans who still will not admit that.
These people have a need to be right, to support Trump, no matter how pathetic he gets, and to support a party that no longer has decent values that it used to stand for. They are seemingly oblivious to how that reflects on their own character.
Powell and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney (I wish he were the Republican’s presidential candidate) have integrity, a belief in the Constitution and the courage to defend it, even if it means defying a sitting American president of their own party.
Our nation could use a lot more of that and a lot less of what we’ve got.
Steve Koehler
Grangeville
It’s legal
Some facts for those who were upset about the armed presence downtown on June 6:
Gun laws in the state of Idaho allow Idaho residents to carry legal firearms, purchased legally, with or without a permit in the open or concealed, within the state.
If an Idaho citizen undergoes the training required for an Idaho enhanced concealed carry permit, 37 other states honor that as well.
There was nothing illegal about people being armed in public on Saturday. The fear some people exhibited is created in their own minds. No one was being threatened.
Black Lives Matter demonstrators shared the streets with the armed people after the BLM march was over. They displayed their signs to passing cars, had discussions with the armed group and none of them were molested or threatened in any way.
I did see some people driving by waving BLM signs from their cars while giving the finger to the armed group multiple times. They were largely ignored. There were no injuries and no shots were fired intentionally or accidentally.
I don’t think people who express their fears of people carrying guns realize that in Nez Perce County, they are likely in the presence of someone carrying a concealed weapon much more often than they know. That is the concealed part of concealed carry. Nez Perce County is the third most heavily armed county in the United States.
Brad Manau
Lewiston
Too late
In an article titled “Collapse of civilization is the most likely outcome” — and it might already be too late to change the outcome — Australia’s top climate scientist, Will Steffen, stated: “That there was already a change we have triggered, a ‘global tipping cascade’ that would take us to a less habitable ‘Hothouse Earth’ climate, regardless of whether we reduced emissions.”
In the November 2019 Journal of Nature article “Climate tipping points — too risky to bet against,” the authors say: “We argue the intervention time left to prevent tipping could already have shrunk towards zero, whereas the reaction time to achieve net zero emissions is 30 years at best. Hence we might already have lost control of whether tipping happens.”
Steffen says, “Net zero emissions by 2050 would be ‘too late” and the only thing that will save us are radical solutions committing to: no new fossil fuel developments of any kind from now, a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 100 percent renewable energy, reaching net zero emissions by 2040.”
For climate change in Russia, Google “2019 was hottest year on record for Russia: weather chief” and “Siberia dries out as forests burn and climate heats.”
One Siberian town, Khatanga — population around 3,500 — which is north of the Arctic Circle with daytime temperatures for this time of year around a chilly 0 degree Celsius reached 25 degrees Celcius on May 22, more than double the record to date.
For additional information, read the Siberian Times.
Tom Fellows
Lewiston
What was the message?
In the wake of the June 6 demonstrations in Lewiston, it’s hard for me to visualize a path to a solution for the outcry of our citizens over generations of social inequality if intimidation and harassment are present.
What was seen in the Black Lives Matter rally was a peaceful protest showing solidarity with the experience of generations of inequity. The protesters did what they set out to do. ...
Truly disturbing was the initiative by others to show intimidation and force from a self-proclaimed and unauthorized position of “law enforcement. ...”
Groups were clearly seen in force, carrying military-like weaponry in public. ...
If this had been a group of people of color, there would likely have been a very different response from law enforcement. ...
Lewiston, I am surprised by how you handled this situation. You, too, have a history not so long ago that even my father remembers of signs plastered in doorways reading “No dogs, no Indians allowed” in that order.
Is a vigilante presence the message that you wish to convey to the public who would come to recreate, live and build here? Is this the message that you want to be associated with? What are you saying to youth?
The Lewiston-Clarkston Valley would have been far better served by not allowing the show of force, intimidation and harassment from people who also showed up, perhaps in some way, trying to initiate a response from an already volatile group trying to keep its cool. ...
Anthony Smith
Lapwai
Churchill’s echo
I am a fan of Winston Churchill, and have a collection of his saying and speeches.The following seems apt, in the current violence.
“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”
Mayors of Minneapolis, Los Angeles and New York City, do you recognize yourselves?
Hollywood leftists, extreme liberal leftist Democrats and other pandering politicians, are you desperate to keep your positions?
The country is being torn apart, and your best ideas are late curfews/no curfews, no National Guard, no bail and defund law enforcement? All in the name of what? Appeasement?
Historical note: Churchill’s comments were in response to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s Sept. 30, 1938, speech on the Munich pact with Adolf Hitler, when Chamberlain said that agreement would result in “peace for our time.”
One year later, the Nazis took over the Polish corridor and then invaded Poland. For a more contemporary version, the previous president shipped millions to Iran under cover of darkness as a reward (bribe?). Note that the United Nations declared this past week that Iran had now broken every commitment of its nuclear pact with every nation.
Yep. “Appeasement” : How’s it working for you? More importantly, how’s it working for law-abiding, America-loving voters?
It is not pretty, from where I sit.
Frances Rotter
Grangeville
Terrorists roamed city
The armed citizens who showed up in Lewiston to oppose the Black Lives Matter march are the definition of domestic terrorists.
Under the guise of keeping the peace, these idiots engaged in domestic terrorism. If instilling fear in people was not their goal, they would have left their firearms at home and protested like normal, peaceful citizens. Instead, they opted to instill the community with as much fear and hate as they possibly could.
Someone who takes a gun to a political rally is by definition a person intending to instill fear and terror in others to get a response. This is domestic terrorism.
The so-called Second Amendment marchers did not need their guns to promote their cause. They flooded downtown with mentally unstable people, put a military assault rifle in their hands and decided to roam the streets en masse to make sure nobody missed their show of force.
I simply cannot imagine a person so insecure that he needs to carry a gun at all times. A person that insecure should automatically be disqualified from owning firearms in the first place.
Many here in America are sick and tired of the fascist autocracy these domestic terrorists think America should be. Our Constitution sets our republic up to be a democracy, not the election-less fascist autocracy Lucky Brandt’s recent letter calls for.
A person who brings guns to a protest with the intent of instilling fear in others is, by definition, a domestic terrorist.
Brian Rhoades
Genesee
Protect and serve?
I recognize racial profiling and discrimination in policing. But recent events have made me review past events and wonder whether their job is to protect their community or write tickets and arrest people.
More than 10 years ago, a police officer in the town of Palouse stopped me for walking my Labrador retriever mom on a leash with four puppies not on leash bounding behind her. I was not within city limits and outside his jurisdiction.
He said the “dogs must be leashed.”
When I said, “But they’re just puppies,” he said, “The Law’s the law.”
After I said, “This is why cops get a bad reputation,” he got out of his patrol car, grabbed me and threw me down onto the gravel road hard enough to cause me to bleed from my head and go to the emergency room. I am not young, black or male, but clearly this was excessive use of force.
In another incident in Pullman years ago, my colleagues and their wives went drinking at Rico’s on New Years Eve. They had a designated driver who did not drink.
As they were driving off, a Pullman police officer pulled them aside. When the breathalyzer did not show any alcohol in the driver, he cited them for crossing the center line. It was a snowy night and you couldn’t even see the center line.
My friend did not contest it, but this was clearly a case where cops had to get something for stopping someone.
Charlotte Omoto
Palouse
