Letters to the Editor
Tuesday, March 6, 2007 11:04 AM PST
March 6, 2007
America is a place made by immigrants
Editor,
What's all this fuss and feathers about illegal immigrants? I thought our country was formed from a bunch of people who were all illegal immigrants - illegal immigrants who pushed the “real Americans” into tiny pockets of resistance and then slaughtered the ones who took offense. Wait a minute, maybe those “real Americans” were really illegal immigrants in disguise, who illegally migrated from Siberia across the land bridge and proceeded to wipe out most of the Anasazis and other primitive “real Americans.”
Now let's think a minute. Could it possibly be to our ultimate benefit to welcome these new people with open arms, assimilate them and add their culture to our own ethnically pure, excuse me, ethnically impure culture, and benefit in many ways, including an enlarged vocabulary, and perhaps an enlarged set of Monday legal holidays? After all, it is possible that what goes around comes around.
James R. Johnson
Payette
Weapons incident at
Ontario Middle School
Editor,
I would like to apologize for the timing of my letter to parents of OMS students informing them of the weapons incident.
In an effort to keep OMS a safe school, we are working with students, parents and staff to increase our skills and raise awareness. We are working with a student safety committee. The committee is discussing safety in and around our buildings. Our staff recently completed a Bullying Awareness workshop, and there will be a Bullying Awareness presentation from 6:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. March 6 in the OMS Tiger Gym. This presentation is open to the pubic, and we encourage parents and patrons to attend.
Our students attended a large group bullying presentation in December, and they will be attending a bullying awareness presentation in smaller groups this month. It is important that we create a culture where people report incidents that may endanger others. It is imperative that as a community we all work together to create an environment that demonstrates support for our children.
LaVelle Cornwell
Principal, Ontario
Middle School
Is the Payette airport a good investment for the community?
Editor,
The Payette Municipal Airport Planning Study Narrative Report commissioned and adopted by the Payette City Council in 2000 states that the Payette Municipal Airport accommodates 6,500 operations annually. Of this, 77 percent are from out-of-town.
In a comprehensive report, The Economic Impact of Airports in Idaho, the Division Aeronautics of the Idaho Transportation Department, estimates the Payette airport contributes $800,942.48 per year to the local economy.
Based upon this economic impact, the capitalized value of the airport to the community and taxpayers of Payette is between $5 million to $10 million.
According to these authoritative figures, far from being a money loser, the Payette airport may be the best investment Payette has ever made.
I hope you will join me in supporting the continuation of the Payette airport.
Robert E. Bainbridge
Payette
Pit bull mandate is the wrong answer
Editor,
I'd like to take a few minutes to write about our opposition to the pit bull ordinance presently under consideration by Payette County. We feel that this is an unnecessary, unfair and unjust reaction to what has been a few isolated incidents in our area. The huge majority of pit bull owners and their dogs are responsible members of this community, have caused no problems for anyone and probably never will.
As in the past, with other breeds, the excessive publicity of a few incidents has brought about a climate of fear and reactionary creation of regulations that will do little to alleviate the problem. It only punishes those who are already responsible, loving pet owners with well cared for and socialized dogs.
We would support a two-pronged ordinance that both punishes irresponsible owners involved in cruelty such as dog fighting with heavy fines and a system that would confiscate abused dogs. These animals could then be either rehabilitated and placed in loving homes or sent to sanctuaries such as the no-kill Best Friends in Kanab, Utah.
Larry and Connie Scott
Payette
Legislature should have done more before tragic high school fire
Editor,
Just as Nero fiddled while Rome burned, the Idaho Legislature piddled while Middleton High School burned.
For over seven years, the Idaho Legislature has known that there is a $700 million backlog in school construction, renovation and repair. And for over seven years the Legislature has ducked and dodged their constitutional (and Christian) responsibility, leaving many Idaho children to attend unsafe schools.
The Legislature has tried every delaying tactic from trying to amend the Idaho Constitution to pushing children into unsupervised religious-based charter schools that have been likened to Idaho's version of the madrasa. What will it take to get the Legislature's attention? A fire with fatalities? Instead of wasting their time with another parental consent abortion bill (as they were doing when Middleton High burned), perhaps legislators should pass a bill on parental consent to substandard schools. That makes as much sense as everything else the Legislature does.
Gary L. Bennett
Emmett
