Letter to the editor Feb. 28, 2010
VITAMINS: Don't restrict supplements
I am a 68-year-old lady, who has Meneire's disease in my left ear. I need my kelp pills to regulate the fluid in my inner ear. Also I have carpal tunnel disease from working 20 years in a factory. I need my vitamin B6 to alleviate the pain in my wrist. Please reject S.3002 DSA, the Food Supplement Criminalization Act. I need my supplements.
BILLIE LEONARD
Rathdrum
BUDGET: Time to raise taxes
It's no secret that a serious financial crisis has hit the state of Idaho. The question is how the state legislature is going to deal with the current financial situation. It appears that their response is going to be to set the budget based upon the expected revenue and then go home without doing anything significant to improve the situation. After all, it's an election year and they don't want to do anything to upset their constituents whom they will be asking for a vote from in November.
Even a fifth-grader can understand that if the cost of running the state goes up, and the revenues don't, then something must give. I agree that cuts must be made, but revenues must also be increased in order to minimize the potentially devastating effects of those cuts. We are all in this together, and together we must all bear the burden of getting out of the situation.
So tell me legislators, are you smarter than a fifth-grader?
RICK JONES
Rathdrum
ESSAYS: Students, wax patriotic
"What did the Lewis and Clark expedition do for my family?"
That's the theme for the 2010 Patriotic Essay Contest sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, 4th Degree, Bishop Kelly Assembly 185, Coeur d'Alene.
I encourage students from public and private schools, as well as home-schooled students, to participate in this year's contest.
Essays may be submitted March 1 through April 17. There will be three cash prizes. First place is $200, second place is $100 and third place is $50. Entries will be judged by The Press editorial department.
The contest is for students in grades 6 through 8. Entry forms are available by calling Graham Crutchfield at 762-0773.
A completed entry form must accompany every entry. Entries must be postmarked no later than April 17, 2010.
GRAHAM CRUTCHFIELD
Hayden
PRESS: Culture is A1 news, too
I recently attended a musical concert at North Idaho College that I enjoyed very much. I was wondering why none of the cultural events of our area get news coverage. It seems to me that every time the high school football team does so much as throw a football they make the front page. Isn't that what we have a sports section for? Why don't any of the cultural events that happen ever make the front page?
I realize that we have an entertainment section as well, but if we give the high school football team the front page shouldn't we also give the high school band the front page?
It is becoming harder to keep these extra curricular activities, such as band and choir, in the schools. These are just as important as the sports programs. But if all the community knows about is the sports then that is all that will stay in the schools. I do not think that sports should be removed from the paper or the schools but I do think that there should be a balance between sports, entertainment and news. We are a well rounded community and I think that the newspaper should portray that.
ADAM RATIGAN
Hayden
ROAD KILL: Bigger issues confront us
As if Washington politicians don't already have the nation chanting, "Throw the bums out," politicians at home are giving us further reasons to increase the volume.
Though there are lots of choices, I refer specifically to Dick Harwood, a representative from St. Maries who is pushing a piece of legislation that would allow licensed hunters to legally tag road-kill in Idaho. That's right, road-kill.
Imagine that. In these troubled times when major issues keep mounting, Dick Harwood wants to use his limited legislative hours - and those of others we've elected to tackle serious problems - on what should be, literally, a dead issue. The budget? The state's infrastructure? Who has time for those things when we can be debating the various virtues of asphalt tenderized venison?
And just think of the additional revenue Idaho could generate if the bill is made into law. Can't you just see true sportsmen from all over America coming here to scour our roadways for a set of trophy antlers they can hang on the wall and brag to their grandkids about?
Maybe Harwood ought to slip an earmark or two into his bill. I've seen bloated carp rotting on the shoreline that might rival the state record.
In hindsight, this proposed piece of legislation should be no surprise to anyone, because you get what you vote for. This is, after all, the same Dick Harwood who came to our little town for a meet-the-candidates forum during his last campaign and opened his presentation complaining about "them environmentalists" protecting the whales. When I politely reminded him that, being an inland state, Idaho probably had more pertinent issues on which its legislators should focus instead of marine mammals, he switched to wolves.
That, at least, is an Idaho issue. But one has to wonder if Harwood can handle that or any other real issue. I mean, if the man hasn't the foresight to see the trouble and expense that passing a road-kill bill would cause for an already troubled agency like the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, we might be better off electing the squashed animals he wants to tag.
When wolves become a problem we can legally hunt them, but the best we can do with guys like Road-kill Dick is vote them out of office before they devise another waste of time for legislators who have more important duties.
MIKE RUSKOVICH
Blanchard
SNAKES: Say whoa to the boa
I am sure Jon Chrysler is a very nice young man and takes very good care of all of his reptiles and would never turn one loose.
I have spent a few hours in reptile houses in zoos in Chicago with my daughter, who really liked snakes and was really fearful that one of them could get loose. Thankfully, that never happened.
I am totally against importing these constrictor type snakes into the U.S. and also against transporting them across state lines. In my opinion, many people purchase these snakes as pets when they are about 1- 2 feet long. They grow very quickly, and soon are at least 8, if not 15 or 20 feet long. A snake of this size requires a very large enclosure, and most snake owners will not pay $2,000-$6,000 for the proper enclosure to house their pet. So, they turn them loose, and this is very dangerous in any warm area. They thrive in the heat and hibernate to some extent in cold weather.
There have been about six documented deaths from owners being "hugged to death" by their pets who got loose or during routine cage cleaning between 2003-2009. Two of the deaths were children aged 7 months and 2 years. In both cases the snakes escaped their cages. The other four were adults ages 23-47, and one occurred during cage cleaning. These snakes do not belong in our homes. Visit these big guys in zoos!
JAN SAVILLE
Post Falls
POLITICS: Name of game is liberty
Historically, immigrants assimilated by choice desiring the designation of "American" as a preferred society seeking the promise of liberty with freedom from tyranny and despotism. They became citizens with national patriotic pride asserting their unalienable rights to individual liberty and government by the people. George Washington said in his 1796 farewell address, "Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."
I question the representation of elected officials and I question their patriotism to the Republic of the United States of America or to the Constitutional Law so coveted by generations. The progressive government of today is the anti-Christ of Liberty. That government must be replaced with a proper elected representative government the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution intended. Americans must end the progressive's lies and corruption of our historical heritage by criminals in government as if it were cancer.
It is about Liberty, not about party or a socialist utopian idealistic dogma.
RON SPENCER
Bayview
FOR FUN: How much is enough?
The Coeur d'Alene Press has been chock full of serious stories lately. The issues go from the County Comprehensive Plan to possible resurgent racism in North Idaho to the economic meltdown.
The problems never seem to have answers and the problems mount and multiply.
In the middle of all this I had an anniversary, Christmas and a birthday in a 30-day period. My wife asked me what I would like for gifts and my answer was simple: Ammunition. By my birthday, my wife asked me how much ammunition was enough. That simple question set me to thinking and I could not come up with an answer.
In the middle of the night, I awoke with one of those gestalt (ah hah) moments. I had the answer. I had THE ANSWER. No one could ever challenge the answer. It was the right answer.
With certain reservations, you have enough ammunition when you have 500 rounds per gun barrel. If you have four guns then you need 2,000 rounds. A quick check is simple enough. Take a single shot shotgun out for the afternoon and you rarely shoot more than 150 rounds. Big caliber rifles is the same story and besides the shells cost a fortune.
Now the exception is .22 caliber long rifle. 22 isn't reloadable, so the rule here is 10 to 20,000 rounds.
So, when the paper publishes this letter, many women in Kootenai County will have their present shopping for their husbands solved for years to come.
At a recent gathering, our Chaplain was missing, so I said grace: "Lord, thank you for all we have, and thank you for all we don't have. Amen." I consider it the perfect prayer and am considering having it copyrighted.
I wouldn't be surprised if the citizens of this county raise a statue in my honor down at the courthouse. It is a good thing I am a well-balanced person. Now that I have authored the perfect prayer and answered the all-important question of how much ammunition is enough, what is left to accomplish?
ROBERT B. HUNT
Post Falls
Hear ye, hear ye!
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