Editor Matt Christensen [ 208-735-3255 • mchristensen@magicvalley.com ]
• Sunday, May 22, 2016
OUR VIEW
OPINION “The more we learn about the balance sheets of Americans, it becomes quite alarming.” Caroline Ratcliffe, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, reacting to an AP-NORC poll showing that two-thirds of Americans would have difficulty coming up with the money to cover a $1,000 emergency.
Donald, Hillary and the Bernie Factor
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mong the abundant ironies of this election cycle, there is this: We are now in the eighth year of the most liberal administration since Lyndon Johnson’s. The primary elections reveal a national mood of anxiety, apprehension and anger, in turn reflecting stagnation at home and failure abroad. Two-thirds of Americans think the country is on the wrong track. Yet after nearly two terms of Barack Obama’s corrosively unsuccessful liberalism — both parties have decisively moved left. Hillary Clinton cannot put away a heretofore marginal, self-declared socialist. He has forced her into leftward genuflections on everything from trade to national health care. At the same time, Bernie Sanders has created a remarkably resilient insurgency calling for — after Obama, mind you — a political revolution of the left. The Republicans’ ideological about-face is even more pronounced. They’ve chosen as their leader a nationalist populist who hardly bothers to pretend any allegiance to conservatism. Indeed, Donald Trump is, like Sanders, running to the left of Clinton on a host of major issues including trade, Wall Street, NATO and interventionism. It turns out that the ultimate general election question is not where Cruz or Rubio or Kasich supporters are going — almost all seem to be making their tortuous way to Trump — but where do Bernie Sanders’ supporters go? Most will, of course, go to Hillary. Some will stay home. But Trump is making a not-so-subtle pitch to those Democrats and independents who gave Sanders his victories in the industrial Midwest. The Trump and Sanders constituencies share one stark characteristic: They are both overwhelmingly white. In the Rust Belt, the appeal is to middle- and working-class voters who have suffered economic and social dislocation. The question is whether Trump can win a sufficient number of those voters, erstwhile Reagan Democrats, to flip just a few states that, like Michigan and Pennsylvania,
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have gone Democratic for the last six elections. Which is why Clinton is treating Sanders so (relatively) gently. She wants to be rid of him but cannot alienate his constituency — especially after the ruckus made by his supporters at the Nevada state convention and after his string of recent victories in West Virginia, Indiana and Oregon and the virtual draw in Kentucky. She needs him. Normally, endorsements don’t matter in American politics. But the Sanders constituency is substantial and very loyal. And rather angry now as they can see the Clinton machine winning the nomination through superdelegates. She needs his blessing and active support in the general election. If not carefully cultivated and appeased, say, on the party platform and/or vice presidential choice, Sanders could very well disappear after the Philadelphia convention and leave her to her own devices — which are much lacking, as demonstrated in her recent primary losses. She needs to keep his legions in the game through November. At the very least, she needs him to warn his followers away from a Trump temptation. That, after all, is Trump’s path to victory: Add a few industrial blue states to the traditional must-win swing states — Ohio and Florida, most obviously — and pull off an Electoral College win. The Clinton counterstrategy is based on the global demographics. Trump’s unfavorable numbers are impressive: 79 percent among Hispanics, 73 percent among nonwhites, 72 percent among young people, 64 percent among women, 57 percent in the general population. Which is the more compelling scenario? Right now, Clinton has the distinct advantage. Flipping reliably Democratic states, as well as lowering Trump’s high negatives, are both very difficult. Please see KRAUTHAMMER, C4
STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS
A small memorial was held Wednesday outside Canyon Ridge High School for 15-year-old Vason Widaman, who was killed Saturday in a drive-by shooting.
Panic Won’t Help in Wake of Magic Valley Violence
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his should sound pretty familiar by now. A terrible, violent crime occurs. Police say they’re working to bring the perpetrators to justice. And almost immediately, people begin to talk about how our community is changing for the worse. This isn’t the same community I grew up in, they say. I’m worried for my children’s safety. What’s happening to our city? It’s a predictable response that happens almost every time there’s a murder in the Magic Valley. And that’s perfectly sensibleas people struggle to cope with and comprehend the darkest sides of humanity. But something is different this time. Some invisible line has been crossed. This time, it all seems so much worse. This time, children were at the center of these crimes. In Twin Falls, a student brought guns into a classroom — with altered serial numbers — and one fired into a desk. The next day, a Twin Falls teen was gunned down in one of the city’s newer western neighborhoods, a drive-by shooting just a few blocks from Canyon
Ridge High School. For some, it’s an ugly sign that with growth comes the kinds of crimes we’re simply not used to coping with. For others, the incidents are a sign that our values are changing, that our Rockwellian idealism has been shattered. Before the drive-by scene had even been cleared, residents took to social media in a call to arms. Buy a gun. Protect yourself, they said.You never know what you might encounter. Keep your children home from school, they said. It’s not safe out there anymore. These are not sensible answers. Holing up your family and peeking out at the world through your window blinds with your finger on a trigger isn’t a proactive solution. It’s a reactive response that amounts to defeat. Let’s not let crime reshape who we are. Instead, let’s let who we are help shape our community. You want to keep your family safe? Don’t keep your children home from school; send them out into the world prepared and with love in their hearts. Don’t
buy more guns that may fall into your children’s hands; teach them about the dangers of guns and how to use them responsibly. Don’t teach them to keep problems a secret; encourage them to talk with adults about their struggles and those of their peers. Be a better parent. Get involved in your children’s lives. Dozens of Magic Valley programs are designed to help atrisk youth. Join one, and you might actually make a difference in a child’s life that will keep him from later bringing a gun to school — or worse, shooting someone. Let’s be real here: We can’t prevent every crime. More terrible things are sure to come. But we can collectively create a community whose values elevate peace over violence. Where community engagement — not disengagement — is our first response after a violent crime. Call us idealists or optimists, but we’d much prefer that world to the alternative — the one where we’re all at home, clutching our guns, and anxiously waiting for the next tragedy to strike.
OTHER VIEW
Doctors Have a Right, and Duty, to Discuss Guns The following editorial appears on Bloomberg View: n a nation with more than 30,000 annual deaths from gunfire, and more than 70,000 injuries, promoting the safe storage and handling of guns is an obvious task for public health professionals. At least, it should be. As a paper published online this week at the Annals of Internal Medicine argues, physicians have both a legal right and professional duty to ask patients about gun ownership and storage. Doctors routinely ask about other risk factors, including cigarettes and alcohol. And a 2003 study suggested that counseling on gun safety had a positive influence on safe storage of firearms. At least 278 people were accidentally shot by children
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in 2015; so far this year, the tally is at least 94. When toddlers are shooting mothers, the need for safe gun practices couldn’t be more obvious. But in its quest to elevate the Second Amendment to a place so sacred that questions about guns are deemed blasphemous, the gun movement has concluded that physicians who deal with the gruesome consequences of gun violence have no business trying to prevent more of it. The movement is finding support from courts as well as legislators. In December, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld Florida’s “docs vs. Glocks” law, which restricts the speech and professional parameters of physicians, preventing doctors from asking questions that
some gun owners might find intrusive. The law, which the court has agreed to reconsider en banc, is a sad jumble. It seeks to protect sensitive gun owners from discomfort while still allowing “good faith” inquiries by physicians if questions are “relevant.” But because physicians who violate the law are subject to discipline by the Florida Board of Medicine, they may simply opt out of conversation entirely rather than depend on others to decide who acts in good faith, and which questions are relevant. This is how extreme ideology compounds tragedy. Other states, including Missouri and Montana, have dabbled in restrictions on doctors as legislators cater to a gun movement that is growing more extreme.
Remarks from the podium at this weekend’s annual meeting of the National Rifle Association are sure to feature a long list of bogeymen, although some old favorites — like President Barack Obama, who never did get around to confiscating everyone’s guns — may be supplanted by some new ones. (Safe prediction: The NRA will say that Hillary Clinton now wants to confiscate them.) The gun movement has an interest in fomenting paranoia. Public officials don’t. Confidential questions about gun habits, like questions about driving, smoking and drinking, are legitimate medical inquiries. Legislators in Florida and elsewhere should make it clear that physicians who competently perform their jobs will not be punished.
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OPINION
TIMES-NEWS
SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2016 |
magicvalley.com
SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2016 |
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| SECTION C
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Travis Quast, Publisher
Matt Christensen, Editor
The members of the editorial board and writers of editorials are Travis Quast and Matt Christensen.
Quote “Far too many drivers are losing themselves in the heat of the moment and lashing out in ways that could turn deadly.” Jurek Grabowski of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, referring to a new survey that asserts nearly 8 of every 10 U.S. drivers admit expressing anger, aggression or road rage at least once in the previous year.
OUR VIEW
Twin Falls Must Make Hate Unwelcome W
ant to stare hate in the face? No need to seek it out in the evening news. Why look to Nice, France, or San Bernardino, Calif., or Bangladesh or Iraq or Louisiana or Minnesota or any number of places where unspeakable acts of hatred have rocked the world in recent months? It’s right here at home. Twin Falls city officials have received more than 100 emails in the fallout from the Fawnbrook Apartment case, where police say a 5-year-old was assaulted by young boys. Authorities have released few details about the case — customary when juveniles are involved — but that hasn’t stopped islamophobes and racists from spinning lies about what really happened to fuel their hatred-driven agenda. Don’t take our word for it. Reporter Nathan Brown quotes directly from the screeds in a story in today’s edition. It’s simply shocking. One writer said the council deserved bullets in their heads. Others talked about raping the wives and children of council members. The worst emails were left unsigned, making it hard to determine if the writers were locals, but at least a dozen were clearly from Idaho, officials said. The FBI is investigating the threats. Is this who we have become? An angry mob threatening to kill and rape our local elected leaders over their handling of a case whose details have been grossly overblown? This bears repeating: A girl was victimized, and as a community our hearts should go out to her and her family. But this case isn’t validation of the nefarious-Muslim narrative those opposed to refugee resettlement have tried so desperately to frame it as. Rather than revealing some truth about the dangers of multiculturalism, this case has instead served to reveal our own ugly biases and insecurities. This isn’t the first time we’ve written to condemn hatred, and sadly, it likely won’t be the last. We’re committed to calling out hatred whenever and wherever we see it. Anything less, and the hate will only continue to fester, to spread in our community like a cancer. But our voice won’t be enough. Now is the time for the community to make clear that such hatred has no place in Twin Falls and the Magic Valley. The College of Southern Idaho (sponsor of the federally run resettlement program), the city, the business community — everyone — has a responsibility to help shape our ethos and our culture. That has yet to happen in any collective sense, so hatred has largely filled the vacuum over the past year in Twin Falls, at CSI board meetings, in street rallies, at public comment forums at City Council, and perhaps in the kind of quiet conversations with friends and relatives that make us cringe but not enough to speak up and counter their ignorance. Perhaps you feel too polite. Maybe as a business owner you’re worried taking a stand could jeopardize your company. Maybe as an elected official you’re concerned standing up to hate will hurt your chances for re-election. Maybe. But now is not the time for silence. Now is the time for courage. Now is the time to redefine our region’s story, to overpower the hatred by lauding all that makes the Magic Valley such a special place to live. Because if we don’t, and Twin Falls becomes synonymous with bigotry, forget about attracting new companies to the area. Forget about the progress we’ve all worked so hard to attain. Forget about giving your children a life better than the one you had. Instead, those of us who don’t move away to flee will be left in a town where we passively accepted death threats to our elected officials, hatred to our neighbors. And we’ll wish we would have spoken up a lot sooner.
Have your say ONLINE: Join our community of readers at Facebook.com/ thetimesnews, or register an account at Magicvalley.com and respond to any of the local opinions or stories in today’s edition. ON PAPER OR VIA EMAIL: The Times-News welcomes letters from readers, but please limit letters to 300 words. Include your signature, mailing address and phone number. Letters may be brought to our Twin Falls office; mailed to P.O. Box 548, Twin Falls, ID 83303; faxed to (208) 734-5538; or e-mailed to letters@magicvalley.com.
Shame on lack of D-day article
Democrats and those who hate the Republicans, yet they keep getting elected. Why? What makes the vast maThe greatest single-day event jority of voters stay home and in the history of mankind and not vote? Were their names you ignore it! Shame. And how about VE Day, May 7, “purged,” or couldn’t vote because they didn’t have the 1945, and VJ Day, Aug. 15, 1945. Likely, there is no one on your proper ID for their voting area? Who “purged” those names and staff of a cognizant age, but why? Who created those ID regthat’s no excuse! ulations and why? Jack Wendling It would be easy, in this upTwin Falls coming election, to stay home and not vote. Are these two the best each party can give us to vote for? I would suggest one not stay home, but get out and vote. It I just read a story about a would be a good time to im5-year-old being assaulted by pose term limits on those “in” some young men. The whole situation is horrible. I was raised people — vote them out — and in Twin. It makes me ill to think even tell the D’s and R’s how you the local police treated the whole feel about their selection to run this nation of ours, by casting incident as some kind of joke. your vote for an independent I hope the authorities can live or third-party candidate. What with themselves. we’ve been electing are repreJoan Simmons sentatives that created this mess Boise and do little more than point fingers and place blame. You want change. This November is a great opportunity to make that change. Keith Nielson Lots of blame being tossed Shelley around about the mess we are in today and who caused it. Perhaps those who are to blame are the voters who keep electing and re-electing the politicians that created this mess. Some time ago, here in Idaho, Please read an article The Covoters wanted term limits for alition of Western States “COWS our elected officials. Not really Investigates Twin Falls Child sure how it was done, but it was Rape.” I believe I am aware of overturned and what did Idaho the local political apparatus and voters do? They re-elect those their shenanigans. It is my opinthat they would have placed ion that the victims of this crime term limits on. are also victims of federal and We have those who hate the local government obstruction of
Police mishandled assault case
Vote out the incumbents
Letter: Blog is required reading
Resisting the revisionists: Finally, a first step W ASHINGTON — “The most significant reinforcement of our collective defense any time since the Cold War,” President Obama called it. A bit of an exaggeration, perhaps, but it was still an achievement: Last week’s NATO summit in Warsaw ordered the deployment CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER of troops to Eastern Europe, the alliance’s most serious response yet to Russia’s aggression and provocations on its western frontier. The post-Ukraine economic sanctions have been weak; the declamatory denunciations, a mere embarrassment. They’ve only encouraged further reckless Russian behavior — the buzzing of U.S. ships, intrusions into European waters, threats to the Baltic States. NATO will now deploy four battalions to front-line states. In Estonia, they will be led by Britain; in Lithuania, by Germany; in Latvia, by Canada; in Poland, by the United States. Not nearly enough, and not permanently based, but nonetheless significant. In the unlikely event of a Russian invasion of any of those territories, these troops are to act as a tripwire, triggering a full-scale war with NATO. It’s the kind of coldblooded deterrent that kept the peace in Europe during the Cold War and keeps it now along the DMZ in Korea. In the more likely event of a “little green men” takeover attempt in, say, Estonia (about 25 percent ethnically Russian), the sort of disguised slow-motion invasion that Vladimir Putin pulled off in Crimea, the NATO deployments might be enough to thwart the aggression and call in reinforcements. The message to Putin is clear:
Yes, you’ve taken parts of Georgia and Ukraine. But they’re not NATO. That territory is sacred — or so we say. This is a welcome development for the Balts, who are wondering whether they really did achieve irreversible independence when the West won the Cold War. Their apprehension is grounded in NATO’s flaccid response to Putin’s aggressive revanchism, particularly in Ukraine. Obama still won’t provide Ukraine with even defensive weaponry. This follows years of American accommodation of Putin, from canceling a Polish-Czech missile defense system to, most recently, openly acquiescing to Russia’s seizure of a dominant role in Syria. And what are the East Europeans to think when they hear the presumptive presidential candidate of the party of Reagan speaking dismissively of NATO and suggesting a possible American exit? The NATO action takes on even greater significance because of the timing, coming just two weeks after Brexit. Britain’s withdrawal threatens the future of the other major pillar of Western integration and solidarity, the European Union. NATO shows that it is holding fast and that the vital instrument of Western cohesion and joint action will henceforth be almost entirely trans-Atlantic — meaning, under American leadership. The EU, even if it doesn’t dissolve, will now inevitably turn inward as it spends years working out its new communal arrangements with and without Britain. Putin was Brexit’s big winner. Any fracturing of the Western alliance presents opportunities to play one member against another. He can only be disappointed to see NATO step up and step in. After the humiliating collapse of President Obama’s cherished
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justice for the purpose of political aspirations to protect failed White House policies rather than protection a minor. Local government officials have already crossed the line of lawful and decent behavior that befits their office. From what I can gather, they conspired to cover-up the facts of the crimes from the public, showing that they are tethered to White House policies rather than their sworn oaths to protect citizens of the county. What chance does a defenseless little girl and her mother have for any justice from officials that take orders from an unholy chain of command from Washington, D.C. It infuriates me, and I feel something needs to be done to help this family who were first victims of a heinous crime to their child and once again as a result of a chain of cover ups from the White House down to our own local government, including an investigator who couldn’t interrupt his workout at the gym to respond to the crime at hand. Not to mention the ongoing harassment of the family by the perpetrators who continue to pace outside this family’s apartment, according to this article. Local citizens are being told by the White House Obama appointee and U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson when she issued her scolding and threatening statement to citizens to keep quite! Sorry Wendy, this family needs the help of the community, please find out and do what you can and do it! Oh, and please vote out the narcissists who have been in their positions too long! Daniel Gill Twin Falls
Russian “reset,” instilling backbone in NATO and resisting Putin are significant strategic achievements. It leaves a marker for Obama’s successor, reassures the East Europeans and will make Putin think twice about repeating Ukraine in the Baltics. However, the Western order remains challenged by the other two members of the troika of authoritarian expansionists: China and Iran. Their provocations proceed unabated. Indeed, the next test for the United States is China’s furious denunciation of the decision handed down Tuesday by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague — a blistering, sweeping and unanimous rejection of China’s territorial claims and military buildup in the South China Sea. Without American action, however, The Hague’s verdict is a dead letter. Lecturing other great powers about adherence to “international norms” is fine. But the Pacific Rim nations are anxious to see whether we will actually do something. Regarding Iran, we certainly won’t. Our abject appeasement continues, from ignoring Tehran’s serial violations of the nuclear agreement (the latest: intensified efforts to obtain illegal nuclear technology in Germany) to the administration acting as a kind of Chamber of Commerce to facilitate the sale of about 100 Boeing jetliners to a regime that routinely uses civilian aircraft for military transport (particularly in Syria). The troop deployments to Eastern Europe are a good first step in pushing back against the rising revisionist powers. But a first step, however welcome, seven and a half years into a presidency, is a melancholy reminder of what might have been. Charles Krauthammer’s address is letters@charleskrauthammer.com.
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| WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2016
TIMES-NEWS
OPINION Founded 1905 | A Lee Enterprises newspaper 132 Fairfield St. W., Twin Falls, ID 83303 letters@magicvalley.com
Editorial Board
TRAVIS QUAST Publisher MATT CHRISTENSEN Editor
Quote of the day “Her election would mire our government and our country in a constitutional crisis that we cannot afford.” Donald Trump, pointing to the FBI’s renewed examination of Hillary Clinton’s email practices as evidence the former secretary of state might face a criminal trial as president. Clinton countered by saying, “There is no case here.”
READER COMMENT
Endorsement Lawmakers play politics, children suffer was short-sighted W Y OUR VIEW
our editorial, “Split the ticket in the northern counties”, published on Saturday deserves a strong rebuttal. Your attempt to present me as having no experience and no solutions on the issue on Medicaid expansion is unfair. In addition, you chose to ignore my strong positions on other issues critically important to the voters of District 26. During the interview at your offices, we discussed the Medicaid gap population and I was quoted as saying that “better minds” than mine had discussed this issue. Both in our discussion and in my response to your written questions, I referenced the many studies and data from health care experts who have testified in front of the Legislature on this issue, including Idaho health care providers, Idaho business groups, social service providers and local governments. You failed to mention my belief that this issue, inKATHLEEN credibly important to voters, has been studied and debated to death, wasting valuable time and taxpayers’ EDER money, while families struggle with the resulting medical bills. The solution is simple. Act and cover the gap. Our voters deserve better! You also failed to mention a key matter in your editorial: my invaluable experience in the field of health care management. Over the past 38 years, I have been involved in the health care field. As chair of a local hospital board in our district, we were faced with complex financial and logistical decisions in order to maintain the medical care our citizens deserve. I have been a strong advocate for senior care. So, I do understand the delivery of care and how important it is for families to receive quality, affordable care. I offer voters health care experience unmatched by my opponent. It is well worth noting that my opponent, Steve Miller, who has no health care experience, chose to vote against moving forward on the Idaho Senate bills that would expand Medicaid to the 78,000 citizens who need it. Idaho is one of 19 states that leaves its citizens, including veterans, both uncovered and financially and medically vulnerable. The Idaho House of Representatives, including Mr. Miller, owes every voter an answer to this inexcusable situation. Unfortunately, your editorial solely focused on health care and ignored all the other important issues of concern to voters in this election. However, I have great faith and confidence that the voters will decide how to cast their ballots based on a far more in-depth review of the issues and the candidates than you. Kathleen J. Eder is the Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives, District 26A.
Editor’s note The deadline for submitting letters to the editor about the election is midnight tonight. Letters submitted afterward will not be printed or returned. As always, letters can be dropped off at our office, 132 Fairfield St. W., submitted by email to letters@magicvalley.com, or filed electronically at Magicvalley.com.
hen it comes to treating sick kids, Idaho lawmakers have some of the most hypocritical and regressive attitudes in the country, and it’s killing our children. Last year, lawmakers and Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter rejected a measure that would have allowed parents to treat children who suffer debilitating seizures and epilepsy with an oil derived from cannabis. For these children, conventional pharmaceutical drugs simply didn’t work, but the cannabidoil did. Though some estimate as many as 1,000 Idaho children could have been helped by the oil, Otter torpedoed the proposals, instead allowing only 25 children to be treated with an experimental synthetic pharmaceutical version of the substance. Never mind that states including highly conservative Utah and Wyoming carved out exemptions for cannabidoil — if Idaho parents used the oil to treat their children, they could be charged with crimes. The Gem State, it seems, is a little more hard-nosed when there’s even a whiff of marijuana involved. Now for the hypocrisy. Just last month, lawmakers opted not to issue any recommendations for changing the state’s so-called faith-healing law, which exempts from criminal prosecution any parents who allow their children to suffer or die if they withhold medical treatment for religious reasons. At the center of the controversy is a small religious sect called the Followers of Christ, whose children have died from treatable conditions like pneumonia and food poisoning all because the sect believes it is God’s will. As these children continue to die from preventable ailments — their small bodies laid to rest in a cemetery overlooking the Snake
River — lawmakers are allowing them immunity, claiming they don’t want to take away anyone’s religious freedom, even if it’s the freedom to kill your own child by neglect. So let’s get this straight: A parent who tries to save a suffering child with an oil even doctors say has benefits will be charged with crimes, but a parent who does nothing for a suffering child gets off scot-free, even if the child dies. One Gooding mother wasn’t going to allow a bunch of hypocrites stop her from saving her child. But she’s paying a big price. Kelsey Osborne, 23, was arraigned last week in Twin Falls County Magistrate Court on a misdemeanor count of injury to child after she gave her daughter, Madyson, a butter infused with marijuana. A day after going off an anti-psychotic medication prescribed by a doctor, Madyson was seizing and vomiting. Madyson begged her mom to make the pain stop. At her wits end, Osborne gave her daughter the only thing she thought might help. The butter, she said, was the next best thing to cannibidoil, still unavailable under Idaho law. It worked, and Madyson calmed down and finally slept. But a blood test at the doctor’s office later that day showed cannabis in Madyson’s system. The state took custody of the girl and her brother. Osborne had to break the law to save her child. The irony, of course, is she’d still have custody of her kids had she allowed her daughter to continue suffering. “They’ve already taken my life — they’ve taken my kids — so at this point, I really don’t have anything else to lose,” Osborne told the Times-News. For a party that talks a big
talk about individual liberties, Republicans sure have a funny way of stripping them. In Idaho, individuals can’t vote on whether they want to set a local minimum wage. They can’t vote on whether they want to ban plastic bags in their communities. They can’t vote on local-option taxes. They can’t vote in an open primary. If it were up to Republicans, they wouldn’t be allowed to marry someone of the same sex. And they can’t make decisions about their child’s medical care unless the state approves. But if you want your children to die from food poisoning because you believe it’s God’s will, well, that’s individual liberty, and who is the state to say otherwise? This isn’t really about medicine or individual rights at all. It’s about politics. If the seizure oil wasn’t derived from a marijuana plant, would lawmakers be so reticent to allow it? If the religious sect allowing their children to die were Muslims instead of Christians, would lawmakers be so willing to look the other way? Of course not. But Idaho lawmakers have to be seen to be tough on drugs and sufficiently pro-Christian if they want to stay in office. That may make for expedient politics, but it has disastrous effects in the real world. Just ask Kelsey Osborne. We cannot condone Osborne’s actions because she had to break the law to treat her little girl. And nor can we fully condemn the Followers of Christ for their religious beliefs, however misguided they are. The law is the law, and everyone should follow it. But we can admonish Idaho’s lawmakers. Instead of saving sick kids from preventable deaths, Republicans would rather lock up a mother trying to treat her child with a medicine she believes is working. That’s not only unjust, it’s morally wrong.
well respected by his peers and his guidance is often sought in matters before the county. I personally recommend Jack Johnson for the office of Twin Falls county commissioner. David Pierce, Twin Falls
its wellbeing? I disagree with your rationale when it comes to making a judgement that will affect our community for years to come. Your endorsement sounds as though you want a bureaucrat. Your analysis of the candidates fell short on common sense. In fact, Jill Skeem (a non-bureaucrat) is the very person who can help lead our county moving forward. She is a problem solver. She is a challenger of the status-quo. She is ground pounder. She leads from the ground instead of the air. You want someone who thinks “big picture?” Well, the “big picture” is gained by connecting the dots. Jill has developed her understanding of the “big picture” one connection at a time — from the ground up. Those connections have been made through her entrepreneurial endeavors; her willingness to speak out on controversial issues effecting our community; her leadership on numerous projects benefitting our community chest; and her excellent communication skills. Skeem
is an inspiring force who will bring a fresh perspective to the table. She’s capable of leading a groundswell for innovative solutions to the challenges facing our county. A vote for Jill Skeem is a vote for real connections between citizens and the county. Brenda Grupe, Twin Falls
LETTERS
Vote for policies, not parties
I am not saying we should vote all Democrats into office, or visa versa. What I do believe is we need some new voices in our LegislaThe “good ol’ boys” are at it again. You would think they would ture and governing bodies, state and federal, Democrat and Republearn after all the crap they have pulled in the last few years. Guess lican. What we have now is clearly not working. Idaho is ranked they don’t care because Idaho voters have their heads in the sand 49th in the nation in education! Un-educated? Could that be why and let them get away with it. Their shenanigan’s have cost tax- we keep putting these “Good ol’ boys” back in there? payers a fortune with nothing to Sue Harr, Buhl show for it. We pay them a fortune to get nothing done. Now they are after our big-game animals, to sell to the highest bidder (behind closed doors of course) as well as Idaho federal lands for big lumber companies to buy up. l.R. SimI heard that Jack Johnson was plot, (another billionaire getting running for Twin Falls county involved in politics, tee hee) would commissioner and I am writing be so proud his plan worked, put this letter to express my full supmoney behind electing the pupport. pet politicians, so they will write Jack’s experience and training the rules for him and his wealthy will be an asset for the county. I friends. believe he has the ability to mold This election will show the true the county commission into the colors of Idahoans. Do we really organization that this county devote for a candidate because of serves. their abilities, or because of the I admire his experience and repletter placed behind their name? utation in the community. He is
Vote Johnson for commissioner
Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau
Skeem deserved endorsement I was a bit taken aback by the editorial board’s rationale for its endorsement of Jack Johnson versus Jill Skeem for Twin Falls county commissioner. It appears that your rationale for endorsing Johnson by a “narrow margin” is that he has been an administrator and comfortable within the bureaucracy. Your concerns with Skeems’ candidacy? Well, she’s already doing so much for the community and she actually connects with individuals. Say what? Isn’t that what we want in our community leaders? A leader who listens and connects with individuals? One who has a fire in the belly for our community and
Vote Brody for Supreme Court Please vote for Robyn Brody for the Idaho Supreme Court on Nov 8. She is the best candidate. She will bring with her the legal knowledge, common sense and ethics the position requires. In her long legal career, she has represented clients from all walks of life and understands the needs Idaho families, farmers, workers and small-business owners face. She is truly the best candidate for the position and will serve the people of Idaho with integrity. It is my true honor to recommend her for the Idaho Supreme Court. Matt Pember, Gooding
Mallard Fillmore by Bruce Tinsley
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