No restraint
The May 23 commentary by Kendrick’s Bob Hassoldt was a fresh view that deserves both our future attention and careful reflection. The headline concerned “What threatens Earth,” but the thrust of his content pointed to invasive species to North America from the remainder of the world.
Implicit in his accounts are not only the alien invasive species but the economic systems and philosophies that crossed the oceans, beginning officially in 1492.
I am referring to the various “isms” that led to the digging, chopping and shooting every available resource, with the notion that they were inexhaustible and that population growth and economic gain could and should go hand in hand and last forever.
That was a long time ago. ..
Alas, in the “success” and the many wonders wrought, we have become our own worst enemy.
Our everlasting greed has not been matched by our self-discipline or restraint; not even close.
We have game laws (too often violated) and often too little game.
We perpetuate fish counts but too few salmon for an honest season.
All the while, the magazine ads perpetuate the population, promote newer and more machines, electronics and gizmos that all but guarantee you will kill or catch a trophy.
A young lad or lass today, with an iron-sighted rifle, a simple fishing pole and a knife, does not have half the chance they might have enjoyed just a half-century ago. What is left is going fast.
All hail the prophets of profit and techno-growth. ...
Steven R. Evans
Lapwai
Take another look
What’s wrong with Mexicans? They are typically family-oriented, hard-working and surprisingly good-humored. Their government has sucked for generations so they work away from home to support their families. At $6,000 per person to be smuggled across the border (half of their yearly wages in the U.S.), they’re determined and make great sacrifices. They are brave and admirable.
What’s wrong with the Chinese? They also typify hard work and strive not only individually, but globally. They are part of an ancient culture with a modern ideology at odds with our own. But we sent our jobs to them, and we choose to buy goods from them, knowing that they are in global competition with us. Basically, we are voting for China with our dollars. And when we blame them for our choices, we are abdicating our responsibility. It’s neither good for our character individually nor as a people.
How do we feel about these people when we listen to our favorite personalities? Does the media engender charitableness toward humanity or teach us how to respectfully navigate our nation toward responsibility?
As we are fed a top-down narrative, we might be wise to remember that it’s not those above us who will save us, but it’s our interpersonal relations that will keep us alive. The hard-working people around us are good to know and support. So to the Mexicans who are here, be a good host, and don’t blame the Chinese for taking the opportunities that we have given them.
Christopher Rousseau
Clarkston
Democracy threatened
Isn’t House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy the same hair ball who crouched under a table wetting his britches in abject terror while begging the ex-president to send troops to protect members of Congress from Donald Trump’s band of hoodlums storming the Capitol building on Jan. 6?
And now he’s back on the bozo bandwagon after axing Liz Cheney from her caucus leadership position, claiming Jan. 6 was just “a friendly gathering” of Trump flunkies.
Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman told CNN’s Anderson Cooper recently, “Our democracy is threatened today as never before” by the Trumplicans’ all-out fascist assaults on our democratic system.
“Subscribing to the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen has become a prerequisite for thriving, surviving and rising as a Republican,” said Friedman. “And that means this GOP is built on a gigantic lie.”
Friedman asks how anyone could possibly trust a political party — actually it is a cartel — whose foundation is hopelessly, falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen.
“It’s mind boggling that the majority of Republicans would sell their souls that shamelessly,” says Friedman.
It’s amazing that the majority of Trumplicans have been willing to blindly accept all the B.S. Trump shovels at them. But the grifter has mastered the art of mind control as well as any fascist dictator ever, including Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Vladimir Putin, et al.
History will record him as a murderer and a traitor to America’s Constitution and democracy.
Mike Epstein
Clarkston
