Disturbing incidents
Some disturbing incidents have happened lately or are about to happen.
First, to be censored or reprimanded for your opinion speaks to me of past regimes that we, as Americans, are reminded of: Hitler’s Germany or third world countries run by gangs and communists.
Idaho Rep. Lori McCann should be able to vote the way she feels best and not to be governed by any party committee. All three of Ms. McCann’s votes are in a positive way for the good of the people: two votes to help build the character of our children and one to help young adults acquire jobs in much-demanded fields of work.
The second incident that might happen is the Dayton Library closing because of a few people who do not like a few books that the library is now keeping in a new “parenting” section of the library. If the vote in November is in favor of closing the only public library in Columbia County, it will be the first library in the nation to do so.
This issue certainly reflects a disturbing movement — a tactic of totalitarian regimes: the dangers of censorship and banning of books or further, burning of the books.
Cosette Moore
Pomeroy
Take a stand
“Facing public criticism, peer hostility, and widespread disapproval, would you compromise your principles to blend in with the crowd, or would you stand for what you believe?”
That question faced the NBA’s Orlando Magic starting forward Jonathan Isaac, as described in his book “Why I Stand,” before deciding to “stand alone” as the only player to not kneel in 2020 for the national anthem “amid league-wide demonstrations in support of Black Lives Matter.”
In his book, Isaac discusses what led him to courageously stand his ground.
Was he thinking of Chance Phelps, a young man from Dubois, Wyo., that day? Probably not. But did he share similar ideals: love of God, country, family?
Chance didn’t face potential ostracism when he stood to answer the call of duty by joining the U.S. Marine Corps, but he did face losing his life, which he did.
Just 19 years old, Pfc. Chance Phelps was killed in Iraq in 2004 on Good Friday with a Saint Christopher medal on him.
Part of Chance’s story is told in the 2009 Emmy Award-nominated HBO film “Taking Chance,” covering his journey home from Dover Air Force Base to his final resting place in Wyoming. Yet the film captures an even larger story of nobility, patriotism and the American spirit.
Sept. 11th seems the perfect time to take a stand for our national anthem (as Jonathan Isaac did). It’s probably what U.S. Marine Chance Phelps (posthumously promoted to lance corporal) would have done were he still alive.
Ronda Granlund
Clarkston
Online poll results
I had to look twice at the results of last week’s Lewiston Tribune online poll about the Republican debate.
Almost half of the voters thought that Donald Trump won the debate even though he never bothered to show up.
At first I was surprised, until I remembered that these very same people also voted for Trump in 2016, when he never bothered to show up for the presidency after the election either.
Patrice Yeatter
Kooskia
