Letters to the editor

Elmer Sprunger was much more than a cartoonist. He was a teacher and a friend.

Elmer was a huuuge fish in a little pond at the Bigfork Eagle. His talent was immense but, for me, it was his quiet dignity and tack-sharp insight that made him more than just the best cartoonist in the Northwest.

I was a 20-something editor at the Eagle and we were just a few months into the war in Iraq. Putting together weekly newspapers with a limited staff can be a small miracle some weeks — particularly on Tuesdays when we put our final touches on articles and actually “lay out” the paperon the computers.

I checked the cartoon Elmer had drawn for the week and it hit me in the gut:

U.N. inspectors were shifting through rubble above a caption that read “The Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction.” In the background, Iraqis with pained expressions on their faces futilely pushed brooms with an inspector in the foreground saying “So far, all we’ve found is the jawbone of an ass.”

We had regularly been writing stories on local kids in the military and, in an on-the-spot decision, I did not run the cartoon and ran an old one.

It was too early for this community, I thought.

The next day, Elmer called. Elmer was talking about quitting.

Oh boy.

I hastily made a trip to Elmer’s home. I sat down at the kitchen table with Elmer and his son, Jerry, who I also considered a good friend and had been very, very kind to me when I first came to town. I pleaded with Elmer not to leave. I tried to explain why I held the cartoon, but he was upset. It turns out, in all his years as a cartoonist, no editor had ever held one of his cartoons and he wondered out loud if he was “getting too old” to be doing this.

In a quick decision, I had gone the safe route. The more I talked to Elmer, the more I understood that he wasn’t out of touch — he was way ahead of his time. He tackled one of the biggest questions of the war months before pundits on TV and newspapers across the country were willing to go after it.

Elmer was doing his job. I wasn’t doing mine.

I spent much of that afternoon in Elmer’s kitchen and I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world.

He still came in at least once a week to check on us at The Eagle. He always brought his good humor, kind words, and a sense that our best days were still ahead for all of us.

Boy, I’m going to miss Elmer.

Tom Greene

Former editor of the Bigfork Eagle.

The hatred and distrust we have generated throughout other countries will come back to bite us. I have formulated opinions based upon my observance of events and history. American forces are accustomed to being able to gallop over the world inflicting destruction and war under the guise of bringing justice, democracy and Christianity. Especially, we will soon have to prove to the world that Christianity actually represents love and kindness.Does it?? Do we really believe this; live this; preach this; and act accordingly as we attempt to dominate other civilizations? Are we really functioning as a nation under our proclaimed democratic principles and Constitution?

The next war will be within. The enemy, those who have learned to disrespect us, has been infiltrating into every community and throughout all states seeking our abundance. However, in defense we will not be able to bomb endlessly and into oblivion because we would be demolishing our very own people, infrastructure, homes, schools and highways. Our own people's lives would be taken. It will have to be the war of the minds, the values, and actions of individuals backed up by a top-down appointed enforcement agency, (armed and dictatorial) intruding into the privacy of our homes and lives seeking so-called traitors, intruders, terrorists. It will be hard to distinguish.

I see turmoil ahead. It will be a learning experience for Americans to say the least. There will be other countries plus the greedy powerful of our own country, dividing up the spoils, the land, the natural resources. Hopefully our constitution will be rediscovered, reactivated, along with the government that our forefathers envisioned, perhaps under other nationalities and languages. Our way of life may be extended to more of the general population. . . and also hopefully it will be a wiser, kinder, more compassionate nation with fair, distribution of the wealth based upon productive motivation, merit and justice rather than power and greed. Prosperity and wealth will come through honest labor and worthiness. Truly needy will be provided for in the interests of helping them to ultimately provide for themselves to the extent of their capabilities.

All is not right with our nation, our government, our people, our way of life. We have become self-centered, self-satisfied, demanding and arrogant. Meanwhile we have naively, been sliding backward morally and intellectually. We are due to be jolted into an awakening.

Clarice Ryan

Bigfork