Letters To The Editor
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 10:49 AM PST
Camping regulations should be changed
We went hunting and camping the first weekend of hunting season, as we have for the past 30-plus years without any problems, at Little Slate Saddle in Unit 14.
Our whole trip was ruined by two very unprofessional female forest service employees (pine cone cops), whose policy has evidently changed without anyone knowing it. So why can’t we camp the whole hunting season like the neighboring national forest allows? As I understand it, hunters can keep their camp through the entire hunting season.
They not only evicted our camp but also several other camps. It took two days to move five miles away, and we cannot return for 45 days. Just like Joe Wilson (age 91) was fined, my friend Jim Bullington was also fined and has to appear in federal court. It seems to me that we need a change in personnel and policy in the Nez Perce National Forest. If there isn’t a change, the people and their friends say they won’t be back. Therefore, this will cut down on the groceries, liquor, beer, gasoline, propane and, of course, hunting licenses and tags. Since hunting licenses are already down 30 percent, what does this mean for the economy?
Ron Swift
Riggins, Idaho
State-sanctioned gambling editorial correct
Editor,
I agree with the “Our Opinion” column in Sunday’s Argus. State-run lotteries, or lotteries of any kind, is gambling. It is just another sugar-coated vice that draws people into a morass of despair. Lotteries, gambling, are really an attraction for people to try to get something for nothing, which, in effect, dilutes the principle of a good work ethic. It also takes good, hard-earned money from those who can’t afford it and need it the most and throws it into the black hole of never-never land. It is an insidious mechanism that there should be a law against as a social disease. I laud the Argus Observer editorial board for publishing their views. I think the article should be titled “Dying with state-sanctioned gambling,” however. This nation is already suffering from the lust of trying to get something for nothing or to get it now and maybe paying for it later. Well, it is obvious we are now paying for it later. We don’t need the government to help us get into trouble.
Gerald F. Haines
Ontario
