IDAHO: Strengths of past needed now

Ruthie Johnson’s speech at Kathy Sims’ services deserves a response.

Nobody understands that this was a Democrat state and county. My speech started back in 1967 when the town went empty during the Vietnam era. Now think about it. Yes, they were Democrats, but how someone voted wasn’t anyone’s business. Now we have Fox, CNN, MSNBC making money off how people vote.

What I saw were loggers, miners, millwrights, machinists; young men pulling a green chain. Back then if you passed the NIC millwright program you could get work anywhere in the world. It was that good of a program. They’d bust you in the face if you crossed them and pull your car out of the ditch if you got stuck. They were men, first and foremost, and they all went to serve our country. And I saw Californians with flowers in their hair driving U.S. 95 to Canada. They’d be considered illegal aliens today if Richard Milhous Nixon hadn’t needed a bailout.

Now we are Republicans, we have girly guns in our pockets and a Bible in our hands and hearts full of hate for everything. We have a label for everyone we don’t approve of. And we have a full Californian Idaho legislation except Mary Souza, who’s from Spokane, and the state has never been in such a mess.

We have a California Republican Central Committee. What a joke the Republican Party is. Like a big hunk of red meat our central committee acts like maggots squirming through it.

I’d trade 10 modern Republicans for one old Idaho millwright any day.

RUSS McLAIN

Coeur d’Alene