Letters to the editor
Special thanks to a
special bunch
The Whitefish Winter Carnival Parade would like to send a special thanks to the volunteers and contributors for supporting a wonderful winter tradition. This year's parade was a great success and fun for all.
Special thanks to: Whitefish Police Dept, Chief Bill Dial, Officer Mike Ferda & Bill Wilson ,Whitefish Volunteer Fire Dept, Chief Sipe, Travis, Joe, Dan & Darryl, Flathead Co Sheriff's Posse, Stewart Smith, Midway Rental, Will Wheat, Celebrate, Heidi Hagemeier, Whitefish Boys Baseball, Kurt Blades, Glacier Twins Baseball, Rita Hanson, Whitefish City Parks & Rec, Dan Keyes, Whitefish Lake Golf Course, Tim Olson, Big Mtn Tire, Flanagan's Central Station, Great Northern Brewery, The Village Shop, Whitefish Train Depot, Park Side Federal Credit Union, Don K Chevrolet, Whitefish Chamber of Commerce, Central School Knitting Club, Silvertip Engraving, Towne Printer, Sportsman Ski Haus, Professional Audio Engineering and Mark Schmidt.
Volunteers: Danielle Packard, Linda Lindquist, Barb Torres, Chelsea Goldberg, David Meehan, Janet Dudey, Brandy Arnoux, Mike Taylor, Jenny Meehan, Dana Taylor, Shannon Street, Janet Weiss, Jereme Kolden, Kelly Talsma, Joel Larsen, Tim Mcgunagle, Megan Romo, Betty MacLaren, Anita Welch, Margie Thompson, Seth, Ian Cantrell, Patrick Meehan, Dylan Parr and Tyler Stone. Thank you!
Angie Meehan, Parade Chairperson
If it's broke - fix it
Social Security is another example of corruption infesting a government program. Our lawmakers are telling us the program is running out of money. What used to have 43 workers per beneficiary now has or soon will have three workers per beneficiary. We are living longer beyond retirement age, causing a higher than expected payout to the elderly. But among the many other excuses we are being told how the system is going broke, the biggest reason is, Congress has been stealing money from the Social Security Trust Fund for years. Oh, they would prefer to call it borrowing or a loan because they have replaced that money with an I.O.U. But it has never been paid back.
Some lawmakers want us to believe nothing needs to be done to correct the problems with social security. They look at the total amount of money in the trust fund (including the billions of dollars of I.O.U.'s on paper) and say nothing is wrong - leave it alone. And do not put any portion of taxpayers money in a private account.
Yes, social security is in need of repair. The I.O.U.'s will never be paid back. The thieves that stole the money have long ago spent it and have no intentions to replace it. The lawmakers are given a pass and the taxpayers are left holding the bag - again.
So now may be the time to take advantage of the proposed privatized savings accounts. It makes good logical sense to have a portion of your money set aside in a manageable fund. Growing at a higher rate and more stable than the current Social Security System. And doesn't it make good logical sense to have a portion of your money set aside, growing and waiting for you and your family when you retire without Congress stealing it from you?
Jay DeRusha
Whitefish
Leather doesn't
necessarily mean gang
After reading the letter of Mr. Morgan in the February 5th edition, I felt I had to respond. How unfortunate it is that some people cannot look at something as innocent as the Whitefish High School wrestling team poster without assuming the worst. I'm not quite sure why Mr. Morgan assumes the young gentlemen in the picture were wearing "gang-like garb." All of the jackets, hats, gloves and other articles of clothing were very generously loaned to the young men by the Kalispell Harley Davidson shop to wear during the photo shoot. In no way were these to represent gang-like garb. If Mr. Morgan believes this apparel is gang-like he would think the worst of my 65 and 70 year old mother-in law and father-in law.
As for being on motorcycles, the act of riding a motorcycle such as a Harley Davidson has become a very popular past-time for people from all walks of life. And the idea that being on a motorcycle automatically makes you a gang member is ludicrous. The young men in the picture are posing in a tough manner because wrestling is a tough sport, not because they are considering illegal or immoral acts.
If Mr. Morgan knows any of the young men in the picture, he would know that they are a very caring, loving, respectful group who always exhibit the best sportsmanship. If Mr. Morgan does not know any of these young men, perhaps he should get to know them.
Terry Starr
Whitefish wrestling parent
"Gang-like" attributes?
In response to Robert Morgan (Rankled by Wrestling Poster, February 3, 2005)
After reading your recent article about the Whitefish Wrestling team, we would like to set the record straight on how the team conducts themselves.
Our names are Amanda Allen, Mary-Grace Hatcher and Sarah Henderson and we are the managers of the Bulldog wrestling team. As their managers we have had the privilege of spending a great amount of time with these young men.
The idea of the motorcycles, and leather for the poster came from the stereotypical view of a motorcyclist being tough. This poster in no way advertises our team as being gang related but rather as trying to show that our strength is high and that these boys deserve to be out there on the wrestling mat. Wrestling is a sport that takes physical and mental toughness. Using this poster to portray toughness does not mean that there is a lack of respect or that they are replacing academic achievement or true fair-minded sportsmanship with toughness.
Many members of this team are actively participating in youth groups, honors society, choir, and have achieved 4.0's. How do these qualities represent "gang-like" attributes? Mary-Grace has recently moved here from Atlanta and has seen her fair share of gang-like activity. This team poster does not come close. As a family, this team chooses to kneel and pray before every dual or tournament. Please explain to us how this doesn't present an admirable role model for future Bulldog athletes.
On a personal note, we spend almost every weekend and sometimes two night out of the week with the team, and in no way have we ever felt disrespected by anyone on this team. If you were to ask anyone who has come in contact with any one of these boys we are sure they'd say the same. The Whitefish Wrestling team is respected throughout the state because of their sportsmanship. We have received the highest of compliments regarding our behavior on many occasions. The poster was intended to get their faces seen and this was a fun way to do it. We feel that this poster does not degrade Whitefish as a community and it was not intended to offend anyone. Our only regret in writing this response is that we won't be able to read it because we all will be in Billings, representing our community while supporting our team at the state wrestling tournament. The next time you have a doubt about the quality of youth and programs in Whitefish try getting to know us first hand.
Amanda Allen, Mary-Grace Hatcher and Sarah Henderson
The Whitefish Wrestling Managers
On behalf of the Whitefish Speech and Debate team, we were very excited about the coverage you have provided to the community on our successful season. It was exciting to let the community see what a great season we had been having, but there was one very important thing left untouched: We won state!! This took place last weekend, yet in this week's paper, there was nothing about our precident state title. We were led by two dedicated coaches, Beth Beaulieu and Gil Jordan, and our senior veterans, Katie Deister, Allison Frieze, and David Harrison. Individual state champions were Porsche Erekson in Original Oratory, and Chausea Jacobsen and Erica Calys in Policy Team Debate. Other finishers were Kelly Gemignani in Serious Oral Interpretation (2nd), Mo Murri in Impromptu (2nd), Matt Gwaizdon in Lincoln Douglas Debate (4th), LeAnn Books in Original Oratory (8th), Jessie Kuennen and Taylor Beach in Policy Team Debate (3rd), and Jacob Fern in Extemporaneous (6th). In team sweepstakes, we totalled 104 points, while second place Billings Central scored a mere 58. Thanks to everyone who made our season a success and for supporting us!!
Erica Calys
Whitefish
Editor's note: As series of unfortunate events prevented us from giving the Whitefish Speech and Debate Team a timely congratulations. Please see this week's paper for a proper congratulations.
It seems to me that we humans are the kindest and also the cruelest of creatures. On one hand there is the tremendous outpouring of compassion, of money and energy from the American people directed toward the victims of the Asian Tsunami. On the other hand there are the torture techniques the Bush Administration has employed on a broad basis to Iraqi prisoners in places such as Abu Ghraib prison, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and as is now being revealed, in Iraq itself.
On the subject the cruelest of actions, the recent Senate Confirmation Hearings for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been both startling and revealing.
I am convinced that most of us abhor torture, and that we realize the dangers of condoning torture, dangers to our moral leadership standing in the world, dangers to our soldiers, dangers to our own sons and daughters who may have to fight this war.
Yet during the recent Senate hearings, it was appalling to hear the responses our new Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave, regarding her personal views on interrogation techniques. Techniques such as "waterboarding" whereby the victim is strapped to a board and turned upside down while water pours into the mouth and nose, inflicting the sensation of drowning on the victim, over and over again. Instead of a reaction of disgust or even disapproval, Dr. Rice, who as Secretary of State will be our "ambassador to the world," evaded and claimed she couldn't make a personal judgement. And this was her line of responses over and over again to the Senators who asked. Non-answers are simply tacit approval of torture to the rest of the world.
Even Alberto Gonzales realized that torture is unlawful, both domestically and internationally. So, in an August 2002 memo to the president, he sought to redefine "torture." Torture has to be "the infliction of pain equivalent to major organ failure or death," reads Mr. Gonzales "torture redefinition" memo drafted at his request. Under this definition, putting a suspect in the trunk of a black car in 120 degree heat for hours (one of the revealed "softening up" techniques), or putting electric shocks to their genitals, would not qualify as torture. I can't help but wonder if he would change his views on his re-definition of torture if he were an American soldier captured by Iraqi insurgents.
The August memo has since been retracted (we didn't really mean for you to see that!) by the White House, just in time for Mr. Gonzales confirmation hearings, but what kind of Attorney General, what kind of person, would write such a memo in the first place?
In fact, Mr. Gonzales has called the Geneva Convention prohibitions on torture "quaint" and "obsolete."
This, despite the fact that military experts claim that torture does not produce reliable information because victims "will just tell you anything to get you to stop." And for we Christians, it's also a fact that Jesus (a torture victim himself) was explicitly against it: "Most certainly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." (Matthew 25: 37-40)
Some may assert that it 's OK to torture if it would prevent the death of hundreds or thousands of people. If the correct suspect were tortured, and if the information extracted were somehow accurate, we may save lives.
Yet as a result of the precedent we set by accepting, indeed, by perpetrating torture, millions of innocents will suffer at the hands of torturers worldwide. And someday those innocent victims may be our own sons and daughters. In our acceptance of torture as a tool of interrogation we may or may not prevent the loss of life, but we definitely lose the world.
Eric Funk
Whitefish, MT
Wrestlers are good to the bone
We are the parents of one of the "bad to the bone" wrestlers. I, mom, am the youth minister to four of them, and educator to all of the boys. In a letter last week, Robert Morgan was infuriated and sickened by the wrestling poster which featured our boys dressed in Harley Davidson merchandise and sitting on top of some of the finest bikes ever made, courtesy of the Kalispell Harley-Davidson shop. Does he really think that everyone who rides a motorcycle is a gang member? This is not the first poster of one of our athletic teams dressed up in something other than a uniform and will not be the last one either. The posters promote unity and instill a sense of pride for making it to the ranks of varsity athlete. Lighten up Mr. Morgan, it's for FUN!
Our son, Bradley, is a high school junior and is a 4.0 student; he is a leader in the high school and one of the few three sport varsity athletes. He is a tutor in his spare time and tries to give back to the programs that have already helped to make him the fine young man he is today. Bradley is not the exception; instead, all of the Whitefish High School wrestlers possess similar characteristics to our son. They are ALL individuals who are active in their churches and in our community.
Wrestling is one of the toughest high school sports that is offered. It is competition at its best ^ one on one ^ hand-to-hand, no team to help you if you're tired or having a bad day, just your ability and the results of your hard work out there on the mat for six minutes against your opponent. You would be hard pressed to find a successful wrestler who did not become a successful person later in life. The work ethic that these young men learn is invaluable. Our boys, win or lose, are often praised for their sportsmanship. They are the PRIDE of Whitefish! Clean to the heart? Our match versus Columbia Falls in January left an indelible picture in my mind. In the C-Falls gym during warm ups, the speakers were blaring AC/DC,s song, "Highway to Hell", and as we looked toward our bench we witnessed our boys kneeling on the mat in a group prayer.
We want to thank Stillwater Photography, for taking the photo for this poster. Dave has helped make over fifty other posters for teams around the valley and does this work free of charge so that there are posters of good kids with great values to hang up on walls instead of Hollywood stars and "professional" athletes whose values for the most part aren't worth discussing.
We encourage everyone to come on over to any of our schools and witness the extraordinary kids that we have. Attend any of our sports and activities that take place at Whitefish High School and see for yourself the PRIDE of Whitefish. It's not just the wrestling team, it's the Whitefish Team.
If you're wondering what all the fuss was about and didn,t get a chance to see the poster, check it out on the wrestling website under Whitefish High School Sports. www.wfps.k12.mt.us/wfhs
Aldo & Shelle Kuntz
Whitefish, MT
To the editor:
In response to Robert Morgan (Rankled by Wrestling Poster, February 3, 2005)
After reading your recent article about the Whitefish Wrestling team, we would like to set the record straight on how the team conducts themselves.
Our names are Amanda Allen, Mary-Grace Hatcher and Sarah Henderson and we are the managers of the Bulldog wrestling team. As their managers we have had the privilege of spending a great amount of time with these young men.
The idea of the motorcycles, and leather for the poster came from the stereotypical view of a motorcyclist being tough. This poster in no way advertises our team as being gang related but rather as trying to show that our strength is high and that these boys deserve to be out there on the wrestling mat. Wrestling is a sport that takes physical and mental toughness. Using this poster to portray toughness does not mean that there is a lack of respect or that they are replacing academic achievement or true fair-minded sportsmanship with toughness.
Many members of this team are actively participating in youth groups, honors society, choir, and have achieved 4.0's. How do these qualities represent "gang-like" attributes? Mary-Grace has recently moved here from Atlanta and has seen her fair share of gang-like activity. This team poster does not come close. As a family, this team chooses to kneel and pray before every dual or tournament. Please explain to us how this doesn't present an admirable role model for future Bulldog athletes.
On a personal note, we spend almost every weekend and sometimes two night out of the week with the team, and in no way have we ever felt disrespected by anyone on this team. If you were to ask anyone who has come in contact with any one of these boys we are sure they'd say the same. The Whitefish Wrestling team is respected throughout the state because of their sportsmanship. We have received the highest of compliments regarding our behavior on many occasions. The poster was intended to get their faces seen and this was a fun way to do it. We feel that this poster does not degrade Whitefish as a community and it was not intended to offend anyone.
Our only regret in writing this response is that we won't be able to read it because we all will be in Billings, representing our community while supporting our team at the state wrestling tournament. The next time you have a doubt about the quality of youth and programs in Whitefish try getting to know us first hand.
Amanda Allen, Mary-Grace Hatcher and Sarah Henderson
The Whitefish Wrestling Managers
Congratulations to the best in the state
On behalf of the Whitefish Speech and Debate team, we were very excited about the coverage you have provided to the community on our successful season. It was exciting to let the community see what a great season we had been having, but there was one very important thing left untouched: We won state!! This took place last weekend, yet in last week's paper, there was nothing about our precedent state title. We were led by two dedicated coaches, Beth Beaulieu and Gil Jordan, and our senior veterans, Katie Deister, Allison Frieze, and David Harrison. Individual state champions were Porsche Erekson in Original Oratory, and Chausea Jacobsen and Erica Calys in Policy Team Debate. Other finishers were Kelly Gemignani in Serious Oral Interpretation (2nd), Mo Murri in Impromptu (2nd), Matt Gwaizdon in Lincoln Douglas Debate (4th), LeAnn Books in Original Oratory (8th), Jessie Kuennen and Taylor Beach in Policy Team Debate (3rd), and Jacob Fern in Extemporaneous (6th). In team sweepstakes, we totalled 104 points, while second place Billings Central scored a mere 58. Thanks to everyone who made our season a success and for supporting us!!
Erica Calys
Whitefish
Editor's note: Please see this week's Town & Country section for a proper congratulations to the team.
Responses to torture appalling
It seems to me that we humans are the kindest and also the cruelest of creatures. On one hand there is the tremendous outpouring of compassion, of money and energy from the American people directed toward the victims of the Asian Tsunami. On the other hand there are the torture techniques the Bush Administration has employed on a broad basis to Iraqi prisoners in places such as Abu Ghraib prison, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and as is now being revealed, in Iraq itself.
On the subject the cruelest of actions, the recent Senate Confirmation Hearings for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been both startling and revealing.
I am convinced that most of us abhor torture, and that we realize the dangers of condoning torture, dangers to our moral leadership standing in the world, dangers to our soldiers, dangers to our own sons and daughters who may have to fight this war.
Yet during the recent Senate hearings, it was appalling to hear the responses our new Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave, regarding her personal views on interrogation techniques. Techniques such as "waterboarding" whereby the victim is strapped to a board and turned upside down while water pours into the mouth and nose, inflicting the sensation of drowning on the victim, over and over again. Instead of a reaction of disgust or even disapproval, Dr. Rice, who as Secretary of State will be our "ambassador to the world," evaded and claimed she couldn't make a personal judgement. And this was her line of responses over and over again to the Senators who asked. Non-answers are simply tacit approval of torture to the rest of the world.
Even Alberto Gonzales realized that torture is unlawful, both domestically and internationally. So, in an August 2002 memo to the president, he sought to redefine "torture." Torture has to be "the infliction of pain equivalent to major organ failure or death," reads Mr. Gonzales "torture redefinition" memo drafted at his request. Under this definition, putting a suspect in the trunk of a black car in 120 degree heat for hours (one of the revealed "softening up" techniques), or putting electric shocks to their genitals, would not qualify as torture. I can't help but wonder if he would change his views on his re-definition of torture if he were an American soldier captured by Iraqi insurgents.
The August memo has since been retracted (we didn't really mean for you to see that!) by the White House, just in time for Mr. Gonzales confirmation hearings, but what kind of Attorney General, what kind of person, would write such a memo in the first place?
In fact, Mr. Gonzales has called the Geneva Convention prohibitions on torture "quaint" and "obsolete."
This, despite the fact that military experts claim that torture does not produce reliable information because victims "will just tell you anything to get you to stop." And for we Christians, it's also a fact that Jesus (a torture victim himself) was explicitly against it: "Most certainly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." (Matthew 25: 37-40)
Some may assert that it is OK to torture if it would prevent the death of hundreds or thousands of people. If the correct suspect were tortured, and if the information extracted were somehow accurate, we may save lives.
Yet as a result of the precedent we set by accepting, indeed, by perpetrating torture, millions of innocents will suffer at the hands of torturers worldwide. And someday those innocent victims may be our own sons and daughters. In our acceptance of torture as a tool of interrogation we may or may not prevent the loss of life, but we definitely lose the world.
Eric Funk
Whitefish, MT
Wrestlers are good
to the bone
We are the parents of one of the "bad to the bone" wrestlers. I, mom, am the youth minister to four of them, and educator to all of the boys. In a letter last week, Robert Morgan was infuriated and sickened by the wrestling poster which featured our boys dressed in Harley Davidson merchandise and sitting on top of some of the finest bikes ever made, courtesy of the Kalispell Harley-Davidson shop. Does he really think that everyone who rides a motorcycle is a gang member? This is not the first poster of one of our athletic teams dressed up in something other than a uniform and will not be the last one either. The posters promote unity and instill a sense of pride for making it to the ranks of varsity athlete. Lighten up Mr. Morgan, it's for FUN!
Our son, Bradley, is a high school junior and is a 4.0 student; he is a leader in the high school and one of the few three sport varsity athletes. He is a tutor in his spare time and tries to give back to the programs that have already helped to make him the fine young man he is today. Bradley is not the exception; instead, all of the Whitefish High School wrestlers possess similar characteristics to our son. They are ALL individuals who are active in their churches and in our community.
Wrestling is one of the toughest high school sports that is offered. It is competition at its best ^ one on one ^ hand-to-hand, no team to help you if you're tired or having a bad day, just your ability and the results of your hard work out there on the mat for six minutes against your opponent. You would be hard pressed to find a successful wrestler who did not become a successful person later in life. The work ethic that these young men learn is invaluable. Our boys, win or lose, are often praised for their sportsmanship. They are the PRIDE of Whitefish! Clean to the heart? Our match versus Columbia Falls in January left an indelible picture in my mind. In the C-Falls gym during warm ups, the speakers were blaring AC/DC,s song, "Highway to Hell", and as we looked toward our bench we witnessed our boys kneeling on the mat in a group prayer.
We want to thank Stillwater Photography, for taking the photo for this poster. Dave has helped make over fifty other posters for teams around the valley and does this work free of charge so that there are posters of good kids with great values to hang up on walls instead of Hollywood stars and "professional" athletes whose values for the most part aren't worth discussing.
We encourage everyone to come on over to any of our schools and witness the extraordinary kids that we have. Attend any of our sports and activities that take place at Whitefish High School and see for yourself the PRIDE of Whitefish. It's not just the wrestling team, it's the Whitefish Team.
If you're wondering what all the fuss was about and didn't get a chance to see the poster, check it out on the wrestling website under Whitefish High School Sports. www.wfps.k12.mt.us/wfhs
Aldo & Shelle Kuntz
Whitefish, MT
Editor's note: We received over 15 letters to the editor on the subject of this poster but could only publish a handful.
A 'Grand' thank you
I want to take the opportunity to express my sincere "thanks" to you people who gave me the fine honor of naming me "Grand Marshall for the Winter Carnival Parade and future Centennial Celebrations". Last Saturday, Winter Carnival, was a special day in my life and it is hard to express the feelings I had when a celebrant would shout, "way to go Ted". I hope this year of 2005 will be one we can all remember as a special one for our city and all of us residents. Certainly, I will not forget it.
God Bless Whitefish!
Ted Lund, Grand Marshall
To the editor:
In response to Robert Morgan (Rankled by Wrestling Poster, February 3, 2005)
After reading your recent article about the Whitefish Wrestling team, we would like to set the record straight on how the team conducts themselves.
Our names are Amanda Allen, Mary-Grace Hatcher and Sarah Henderson and we are the managers of the Bulldog wrestling team. As their managers we have had the privilege of spending a great amount of time with these young men.
The idea of the motorcycles, and leather for the poster came from the stereotypical view of a motorcyclist being tough. This poster in no way advertises our team as being gang related but rather as trying to show that our strength is high and that these boys deserve to be out there on the wrestling mat. Wrestling is a sport that takes physical and mental toughness. Using this poster to portray toughness does not mean that there is a lack of respect or that they are replacing academic achievement or true fair-minded sportsmanship with toughness.
Many members of this team are actively participating in youth groups, honors society, choir, and have achieved 4.0's. How do these qualities represent "gang-like" attributes? Mary-Grace has recently moved here from Atlanta and has seen her fair share of gang-like activity. This team poster does not come close. As a family, this team chooses to kneel and pray before every dual or tournament. Please explain to us how this doesn't present an admirable role model for future Bulldog athletes.
On a personal note, we spend almost every weekend and sometimes two night out of the week with the team, and in no way have we ever felt disrespected by anyone on this team. If you were to ask anyone who has come in contact with any one of these boys we are sure they'd say the same. The Whitefish Wrestling team is respected throughout the state because of their sportsmanship. We have received the highest of compliments regarding our behavior on many occasions. The poster was intended to get their faces seen and this was a fun way to do it. We feel that this poster does not degrade Whitefish as a community and it was not intended to offend anyone.
Our only regret in writing this response is that we won't be able to read it because we all will be in Billings, representing our community while supporting our team at the state wrestling tournament. The next time you have a doubt about the quality of youth and programs in Whitefish try getting to know us first hand.
Amanda Allen, Mary-Grace Hatcher and Sarah Henderson
The Whitefish Wrestling Managers