OPINION: Mike Simpson, you owe me this favor, for all our good

An open letter to the not-so-honorable Mike Simpson, representative from Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District.

Mr. Simpson: I gave up my bed for you. In the parlance of today’s politics, you owe me a fair-trade favor. Ordinarily, favors should be paid forward but in my Little Black Book of Reasonable Reciprocation, there is no statute of limitations for collecting a debt.

We have never met. I’m not a Republican. I don’t live or vote in your jurisdiction. We view the world through different cameras but share a love for our “Idaho Alps” — the pinnacled source of the Salmon River’s East Fork.

Our connection? The White Clouds. In 2009, my idyllic volunteer gig at the Bowery Guard Station was disrupted when I was asked to vacate the cabin while your entourage joined U.S. Forest Service personnel to discuss the fate of the White Clouds. When I returned, I knew you had been well feted from the garbage evidence of fine food and conversation lubricants. I hoped the meeting was productive as I had a profoundly personal stake in some legal protections for that wild terrain and its jagged sentinel, Castle Peak.

In the 1970s, I backpacked in “the Clouds” at the same time my mining-engineer dad was employed to plot and plat the demise of the White Clouds with molybdenum mania. We were at odds: environmental ethos versus extraction action. To break the 40 years of legislative limbo and the special interests impasse, the White Clouds needed a dedicated collaborator — and that was you. My dad died before my other treks into the White Clouds. I didn’t know the locations of his mineral surveys. But on two occasions I keenly felt his presence and, serendipitously, found his brass survey marker on a tree near one of my campsites. Ultimately, I believe he would have been pleased with the way you guided a conciliatory settlement.

In 2021, without ingratiating fanfare, you presented an amazing salmon recovery plan that included answers for every conflict, concern and condition associated with freeing our salmon from extinction. It was a brilliant document. With the heart and heft of a genuine statesman, you formulated a White Clouds solution and then, using wisdom and weft, you created a workable design for salmon redemption.

With your experience, political savvy and innate sensitivity, you must now see the gravity of our national crisis. Once you were brave, confident, centered. Now you are cowardly, fidgety, controlled. What happened? You have been bamboozled — but to what purpose?

This is what I know: You are a nondescript bobblehead in the president’s gallery of toys. All that nodding damages the neck and backbone. So this is the favor I ask: For every Idahoan and all Americans, please realign your spine and find your conscience. After backbone therapy, please make amends for your constitutional dereliction.

You can start by firing the chain saw massacre-ist. Next, call your Idaho constituents who were affected by the job slaughter. Then, allay the deportation fears of our migrant workers who keep Idaho’s economy intact. Schedule overdue town hall meetings or, even better, participate in the Saturday event in Lewiston featuring former Congressmen Richard Stallings and Larry LaRocco.

Call your Canadian counterpart and apologize for your president’s bombastic behavior.

Back in Washington, D.C., you can stick a finger in the hole of the “trickle down theory” to stop the leaky assertion that reduced corporate taxes result in consumer benefits.

Next you can mop up the “tinkle down” mess of the president and his musk-rat pissing on federal employees and programs. Remember that the pot of communal money under the butt of Congress belongs to all Americans — you, me, we, us — to be invested in a strong economy and altruistic purposes.

Once you’ve found your voice, you can rail against the ridiculous tariff and immigration orders.

You and your congressional cronies have enabled the executive extortionist to be an internal terrorist and international joke. He is just a barrel of gaffes. The current White House occupant is president-in-name-only; a PINO. (Apologies to our evergreen friends as No. 47 wouldn’t know a pine if it needled him). This president is a total embarrassment. He and his sidekick take sadistic joy in hurting Americans, hurling insults, humiliating allies, hunting enemies and hustling women. Lies and fear are powerful ammunition for a president warring against democracy and citizens. Happiness is contagious and disarms hatred. What are your druthers?

Once upon a time, I gave up my bed for you. Now I give up sleep to worry about democracy’s future. On cold mornings, I rekindle the fire in my stove. The chunk of partially burned wood reminds me of you; it didn’t finish the job but it still has a smoldering glow. Find your spark, Mr. Simpson. Maybe then we can all have sweet dreams again.

Dumas, of Grangeville, is an independent outdoorswoman.