NIC: Silent majority, speak up

The Saturday My Turn in the Press suggesting the “NIC trustees are on right track” highlighted the rescinding of President MacLennan’s mask mandate as a major reason for community pushback against trustees Banducci, McKenzie and Barnes.

The author of this article, Anne Patterson, describes the masks as “filthy” and “like yelling 'fire' in a crowded theatre when there is no fire.”

Perhaps Anne hasn’t heard that our local hospital is in crisis standards of care status and is deciding which patients will be getting attention and equipment because they are overwhelmed with COVID patients.

She fails to mention some of the other allegations against Mr. Banducci, such as bullying of other NIC board members, threatening behavior to both the board members and NIC President MacLennan, plus elimination of public comment at board meetings.

Ms. Patterson suggests the election of the new NIC board better reflects the values of the community. Perhaps the election of the new board of trustees reflects the values of the loud minority, and the “wake up call” she suggests should be aimed at the silent majority to take a more active position in electing people who better reflect their values.

The goal of our community college should be to provide a quality education to as many students as possible, as inexpensively as possible, while providing those students a safe and healthy environment. If teachers feel threatened and unsupported by a board of trustees, that affects the instruction they give their students.

The community has a responsibility to help guide the direction of institutions like NIC. Eliminating public comment is a disservice to the community and would be an action exemplified by a dictator. By Ms. Patterson’s words, I and Deborah Rose inhabit the “political swamp” of North Idaho. It is true, neither of us holds the same values or beliefs as she does. Ms. Patterson believes Deborah Rose should be voted out of the planning and zoning commission and should “quit sticking her nose into the business of the board of trustees at NIC.”

So, neither I nor Deborah Rose have the right in this free country to make any comments regarding the direction of North Idaho College? That seems so contrary to the freedoms of self-direction our Constitution guarantees.

Deborah Rose isn’t in an elected position. She is appointed by the board of county commissioners so we’ll see if Chris Fillios and Bill Brooks continue to support her unpaid volunteer position on the Kootenai County Planning and Zoning Commission. We’ll also see if Mr. Banducci, Mr. Barnes and Mr. McKenzie vote out President MacLennan, as Mr. Banducci has threatened, against the wishes of a variety of educational entities.

Ms. Patterson suggests the three new board members will steer NIC away from the rocks of globalism and into the safe waters of nationalism. I’ve heard that before. I’ve also heard there is a global pandemic. Epidemiologists have stated that to eliminate the pandemic the COVID-19 virus must be eliminated globally. I’ve also heard about global warming. So, I guess it’s a great idea to eliminate any thoughts or ideas from outside the U.S. … oh, wait! Isn’t BioNTech, the Pfizer vaccine, located in Germany?

Certainly, NIC doesn’t need to have Kootenai taxpayers subsidize foreign students. It wouldn’t be too difficult to charge foreign students a reasonable fee and allow our local students to gain a more cosmopolitan view if foreign students choose to pay to be educated at NIC.

North Idaho has the ability to self-direct toward a more sustainable political future. It requires interest and a voice. Objection to tyranny and refusal to accept the unacceptable is the behavior that makes us free. We can choose whom we want to represent us. We can also choose to refuse to do business with anyone we feel doesn’t exemplify the values we believe are important.

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Doug Albertson is a 40-year resident of Coeur d'Alene.