Two letters are being re-run this week because of a misprint in the Valley Press.
Letters
Hinkle endorsement
Sorry Paul, but we KNOW Greg Hinkle. We have worshipped with him, studied with him and we’re sorry, but he has the values we agree with. We will state that we have argued strongly with Greg about some theological issues, BUT, we have never doubted where he stood morally. So, although we don’t always agree with him, we know his heart!
When we talked with Greg he admitted to wording his reply badly. We choose to judge a man’s heart (and actions) much more than his words. Any one of us can misspeak when under pressure. Come on, Paul, you know what Greg meant, even if he didn’t say it as eloquently as you may have done. (You’ve had a whole lot more time to practice your replies.)
The Democratic party’s last little flyer was the straw that broke the camel’s proverbial back. You are right, the negativity of this campaign makes us sick. (And yes I do understand you have no control over what the send out by the party). But why not just say how you stand on the issues rather than how the other candidate stands? Period! Let their words speak for themselves.
One big issue, we believe in is that life is sacred, that the Holy and Awesome God we live to serve, is the Creator of life. Greg believes in the values that this country was founded on. We are voting Greg Hinkle, in fact, we’ve already done so.
Paul, I (Lea) worked with you and Sherry at Spring Creek way back in ‘88 - ‘89. I enjoyed working with you both very much. I just believe the values I so strongly support, line up more closely with Greg’s than your own.
Please know that this is about the morals and values we support most…such as pro life. It is not personal. And please, no one out there take this to insinuate that I think Paul an “immoral” man, I don’t. Paul is a fun a gentle guy. I just line up more on the conservative side.
I (Lea) registered as a Republican at a young age, however, I have never been one to vote party lines. I vote for the person that I feel will best help preserve the foundation on which our founding father’s established this great nation…and that would be the Lord God Almighty. “One Nation Under God”.
That is why we also support Don Strine and Pat Ingraham!
Respectfully,
Mick and Lea Herndon
Thompson Falls
Support hemp legalization
Call MT USA Representative Denny Rehberg today — requesting a YES VOTE on the bill [HR1009] federally legalizing cultivation of Industrial hemp in the USA changing jurisdiction from the DEA to the Department of Agriculture.
MONTANA farmers — systematically growing hemp can produce 1,000 gallons of methanol from one acre realizing over $700 an acre. But first call your US Congressman and urge him to VOTE YES on the upcoming Ron Paul bill to federally legalize the cultivation of hemp. MONTANA has, as well as 28 other states, already legalized the cultivation of hemp, but can’t plant a crop without first getting a license from the DEA. The application includes a hefty fee which is not refunded if you don’t get the license. This has gone on since it was made illegal to cultivate in 1937. Over enthusiastic religious groups felt that the prohibition of drinking alcoholic beverages would save the youth of America and made alcoholic beverages illegal, as well as some narcotics. Competitors of hemp, the cotton, wood and petroleum industries took advantage of this prohibition furor and instigated, with the help of Mellon, Treasurer/Secretary of the Bank of Pittsburg, and William Randolph Hearst, newspaper mogul, to place Mellon’s nephew-in-law, Anslinger, in a key position in the newly created federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to destroy hemp, listing it as a narcotic plant causing violent acts. Hearst demonized hemp in his vast newspaper circulation spreading lies that have misinformed the public for over 70 years. Hearst involved himself because he had invested heavily in forest land for wood pulp to produce his newsprint.
Prior to the Prohibition era Rudolph Diesel had created an automobile engine that used pure hemp oil as fuel. He named hemp oil and his engine after himself, DIESEL. Henry Ford, the automobile magnet, made an automobile body of hemp materials, proving it harder than steel. hemp is still used on the inside panels of cars. The petroleum industry developed after the USA used Diesel’s motor car and oil for 30 years. Then it simulated hemp Diesel oil and Diesel’s engine calling them both Diesel.
From 1937 till WWII the importation of hemp came from Manila but came to a halt because Japan blocked USA’s hemp import. At that time President Franklin Delano Roosevelt subsidized farmers to grow hemp also exempting them from military service. After WWII ended the DEA kept the cultivation of hemp illegal. The rest of the industrial world grew it and is still growing it. The DEA still forbids its cultivation although US industries are permitted to import the raw materials from other nations and produce products from hemp: from the fiber (BAST); from the woody layer under the fiber (HURD); from the center pith (TOW); and from the SEED. The products range from a nutritious salad oil, protein powders, hemp milk, toiletries, paints, putty, mortar, wall board, cement-like bricks and blocks that are stronger than cement and are fireproof and waterproof, heavy tarps, denims to silky laces, bird seed, livestock feed, and bedding for people and livestock, plastics, cardboard, paper, plastics, pure Diesel oil, methanol, and on and on — hemp is a carbohydrate, with no after burn, where as petroleum is a hydrocarbon which produces a black, sooty after burn, polluting the atmosphere. Competing fiber crops use more pesticides and fungicides, and require more fertilizer and water than hemp, contaminating the waterways with the toxic run off.
Hemp has been a utilitarian companion to humanity over 10,000 years. Kingdoms survived and fortunes grew because of hemp. Egyptians used hemp mortar in their pyramids. Britain’s Monarchy conquered most of the globe with sails and ropes made from hemp. When the colonists settled in the New World they imported hemp products from England. During and after the Revolutionary War the young country had to produce its own hemp. The first presidents, Washington and Jefferson, ordered all farmers to grow hemp as they themselves did. Jefferson even pirated good seed into the country, as hemp was not native to North America. The first 200 years of life in the New World hemp was cultivated as a required crop.
Industrial hemp (the Canadian cultivars, USO 14, USO 31 and Carp) and marijuana are all cannabis sativa L. plants, but are quite different. Marijuana contains 5 percent to 25 percent Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) while the above noted cultivars contain .001 percent to .003 percent THC. Industrial hemp contains another chemical cannabidiol (CBD) which nullifies THC in the plant. Marijuana does not contain cannabidiol.
Edna MacDonald
Thompson Falls
Ms. Sunny Olfert, you completely ignored the point of my October 8 letter. It is that we do not need Mr. Ron Olfert and his group to plan for us. We are quite capable of charting our own future.
Shirley Bakke,
Noxon
We wanted to take this opportunity to say a big “thank you” to the volunteer coaches and board members as well as willing and helpful parents that make the Wildhorse Youth Soccer program such a success. In particular, a special thank you to our coach, Denny Starkey, who generously donated his time and enthusiasm. With a team’s ages ranging all four years of high school, a mixture of boys and girls, and a variety of skills and ability, he led the team to what might be considered the most successful season of high school athletics. Even though we didn’t even have opposing teams many of the games, the team scrimmaged themselves and learned more about themselves and each other, learned that fitness is fun, and improved their skills along the way, while not spending any taxpayer monies or missing any school during the entire season. As an example of how vested the kids are to the sport and to each other, on the night of their year-end awards and pizza party, they played soccer before and after eating. At 7:20 p.m. at night, long after dark, the kids finally straggled off the field to the waiting parents with comments like “That was so much fun,” “I wish the season wasn’t over,” “Did you see that play?” “Can you believe how good so-and-so has become?” How lucky are we to have such a program for our youth? Thanks again to everyone who makes this all possible.
Until next season,
David and Lisa Read
Plains
Friday last week I received a handful of campaign mailings from Sanders County candidates. Jim Elliott’s card stood out for me. In it he talks of “virtually no job that can’t be done right.” Then he states “Folks in Sanders County want and deserve jobs that pay well. Logging and mining can provide these jobs.” He goes on to say “There is no reason the Rock Creek mine can’t do the job. My job as your State Representative is to make sure the job is don right — and that is my promise to you.”
Really! Mr. Elliott would you be making sure the job by Rock Creed mine is done right the same way you made sure Cogen was done right? It was not you who appealed to the Board of Environmental Review to have that plant equipped with the Best Available Technology. That appeal was successfully made by the Community Awareness Network (CAN). You did not come forward when Cogen filed at District Court to have their real-estate taxes lowered or when DEQ settled for 20 percent of the $1.8 million in fines Cogen built up by spewing pollution not allowed in their permit.
I hope you think the “right way to do the job for Rock Creek Mine” is to keep their pollution out of the Clark Fork River, not under mine a Wilderness area, or send people underground and subject to cave-ins, entrapment or death, even for well-paying jobs. I think Rock Creek is even worse for Sanders County than Cogen.
If you are making promises, better it be to find good-paying jobs that happen above ground. Perhaps some assembly or manufacturing. They would probably involve some incentives and be worth them to keep our air and water clean. Eventually they might even pay Sanders County taxes.
Morlene Plouzek
Thompson Falls