Law needs changing
To the editor,
I recently pulled into the parking lot of a local business and parked beside a car with a baby inside screaming and crying like something was very wrong with him. It was the kind of crying that would make anyone upset to learn that the baby was in the car alone.
When I went into the business and found the parents and informed them that they had left the baby in the car screaming his head off, the mother instantly became confrontational, and informed me that she was a parent and that it was none of my business, and that if I had a problem with that we could take it outside.
I told her that I could call the cops and let them know that the baby was in the car alone. She said that there were two children in the car (I would guess the ages were around four years old and eight months old), so I did call the police, and when they showed up I was informed that in this state it is not illegal to leave small children unattended in a vehicle.
This cannot go unnoticed, and it cannot continue to be legal practice in this state. This law needs to be changed before a child is abducted or dies due to a parent not wanting to be inconvenienced by taking a baby out of a car seat and into a store with them.
Kimberlie Wehrman
Hungry Horse
Our shorts are not in a knot
To the editor,
We've been Hungry Horse News subscribers for many years and enjoy every issue. But I felt your column in the March 31 issue about Iowa needed a reply.
If it was meant to be funny, it wasn't. It was insulting. Perhaps you should take one of your "hikes" to Iowa and meet the real Iowa farmers who raise corn, soybean, oats, hay and various other crops, and not catnip.
And believe me, we Iowans are not "wussies" with our shorts in knots.
The National Public Radio announcer who called it "puma paranoia" should find a new job. Let's have a column worthy of a managing editor.
We've spent many months in Montana visiting family who live in the area and enjoy it.
It's beautiful country.
Esther Klapperich (Lawrence)
Stacyville, Iowa