Valley Views

valley views Shodair supporters help make Christmas a success

During the holiday, all of us at Shodair were amazed and thankful for the support and donations we received from the community to make the holidays special for patients in our care. As a father I know how magical this time of year is to children, and the amazing team at Shodair works hard to create a comparable level of joy during the holiday season despite the challenges and treatments our patients are undergoing. Each year, it’s because of these generous donors that we can achieve that goal and make the holidays memorable, and we couldn’t thank you enough.

Like the rest of the world, we have had many hurdles to overcome due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of those challenges remain, yet our patients continue to get the best care possible because of the greater Shodair family. Keeping the Christmas spark lit isn’t easy in an acute and residential psychiatric hospital, yet year after year, our patients are blessed by others far beyond our walls in Helena.

We continue to take extra precaution to control the potential exposure to patients and their families, which meant that many kids had to spend the holiday away from the comfort of home and familiar loved ones. Although I knew it would be a challenge for families and patients during the holidays, I had full confidence that our staff at Shodair would go above and beyond to support patient needs and create meaningful memories. And that is exactly what happened.

We hosted safe holiday activities such as movie nights, cookie decorating, sledding in the snow, and even a VIP visit from Santa himself. Children got PJs and hot cocoa on Christmas eve and parents were invited to enjoy a delicious Christmas dinner with their child at the hospital. I am always inspired with the staff’s ability to put the kids’ needs first, often before their own family. Although their job is difficult and demanding, they put their whole heart into their work, and it makes all the difference.

Finally, the amazing generosity of others brought gifts to every single patient, and we could not have made the holiday so magical without the support of the community. Past patients, state agencies, volunteers, students, local businesses, and community members made contributions and offered their time to serve the patients at Shodair. We received, gifts from Toys for Tots, and an additional $3,000 for patient gifts that were handpicked by our staff. PetSmart also made the season merry by giving each patient an animal toy.

As we get ready for this Hallmark holiday of love on Feb. 14, I want to express my love for all Shodair’s family and friends across Montana. Feeling loved by another is one of the greatest gifts we can give any person – especially a child. And, I can say without a single doubt that everyone at Shodair felt loved by others. On behalf of the board of directors, the staff, our partners, patients, and their families, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for blessing our organization. We are so grateful to be part of such a close knit, statewide, and loving community. Valley Views Craig Aasved CEO of Shodair Children’s Hospital

Why do politicians lie?

We’ve all heard the quip, “how do you know when a politician is lying?”

Answer: His lips are moving.

But there’s another obvious question that begs an obvious answer. Why do politicians lie?

Answer: Because they can.

The American media – or what could once be legitimately called the media – draws our attention every day to the lies they have caught their least-favored politicians saying. Often, they are incredibly blatant. The furrowed brows on the left (CNN, MSNBC and the major networks), were almost gleeful when they could trip up Trump in a self-serving fib. Carlson, Hannity and other featured fellows on Fox News hold forth with an unending stream of reported fabrications and falsehoods, readily provided by a desperate president and his administration of race-baiters and pointy-headed socialists.

Here’s the rub. Almost all the politicians’ lies, left and right, have been accurately identified by these outfits. We should be shocked. We should be outraged. But we forget about them in an hour or a day, numbed by the sheer volume of fibbery that enters our weary brains. We figure, eh. They’re politicians. What more can we expect? Our office holders protect themselves in a blanket of citizen cynicism that they themselves have woven. The blanket remains intact because our standards are so very low.

We better think about

this very carefully. Just how accepting of practiced, self-aggrandizing lying have we become – and what does it mean to the very soul of our country? Does truth – and truthful communication Valley Views – really matter in this day and age?

Roger Koopman Maybe Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson answered that question best in a May ‘21 inter-

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view. “Whatever happens from telling the truth, it’s the best thing that can happen. It doesn’t really matter how it looks to you at the moment, or even across the years. It’s an article of faith in some sense.”

Peterson added this: “You know, our culture is predicated on the idea that truth in speech is of divine significance. It’s the fundamental presupposition of our culture. If you believe that, then you act it out, and you take the consequences. You’re going to take the consequences one way or another you know. So, you want the truth on your side? Or do you want to hide behind falsehoods?”

One thing seems clear to me. You cannot build trusting relationships on the basis of false communication. That’s equally true in friendships, in marriage, in business or in politics. It seems to me, when people communicate, there is a certain “covenant” relationship that exists, based on the assumption that the other person is telling you something that, to the best of their knowledge, is true.

It is more than bad faith when you intentionally break that covenant. Lying violates the other person and violates their rights. It’s morally and ethically equivalent to theft. When you fill a person’s mind with falsehood – replacing the truth with a lie – you are literally stealing from them. It is far worse than being held up at gunpoint by a road agent who takes your wallet. At least then, you know that a theft has just occurred. But when a person who you trust to be telling you the truth is in fact telling you lies, they are taking advantage of your trust and leaving you defenseless.

Why do politicians lie? Partly because we are drawn to lies. We love to have our ears tickled and we love to believe gossip. Secondly, because in the political world, lying works. How does the saying go? “A lie travels halfway around the world before truth has put its pants on.” This is true even when we know, intuitively that we were just lied to.

Yet tolerating habitual lying by your favorite politicians is identical to participating in it. Complain not when your moral blindness leads to you getting the very government you deserve.

Roger Koopman is a former small businessman, two-term state legislator and two-term public service commissioner. He lives in Bozeman, Montana.

vj

Mil levy could help feral cat population

Editor,

Since the last feral cat article, I have learned there are four in-city Polson feral colonies. I maintain only one I call “the magic 30.” I can only hope kind people are feeding these cold and starving animals. My magic 30 are as diet-spoiled as any house cat – and they deserve it. These shadow angels are rightfully afraid of people. To stay that way is their survival. They come out of hiding at night to be cats. Of course they come out when I feed them, but they know it is save to respond to my signals. Two of these angels each at a different site (I go to 3 sites) are ear-clipped survivors of the now – I think – defunct but successful trap-neutuer-return and maintain program sponsored by Life Savers.

Is there a Life Savers? The organization seems to have faded away with the passing of its advocate Linda Crawford a year or so ago. The two earclipped survivors are Squeaker and Max – both 8 to 10 years old and both as sweet and loving as any companion cat. Max won’t even eat until there is a petting connection.

The history of cats is amazing – worshipped and mummified in ancient Egypt to being unwanted throwaways today. By their very nature, they bring humans a message – learn to coexist. They did their part in the plague of the middle ages. Doubt you would find a mouse or rat in downtown Polson. The only way to stabilize the population of these victims is to neuter. Some cat owners cannot afford this big expense – maybe that’s how the feral situation started. Maybe vets would offer a neutering discount for ferals. We have mill levies for landfill to swimming pool. Maybe we need to have a small bit for neutering these Polson feline citizens. We have a humane responsibility to them. I do know these “God’s Little Footsteps” need some advocates.

Joan St. John Polson

Danger at Riverside Park

Editor,

Around lunchtime on Saturday, Jan. 29, I decided to take 7 kids (all under 11 years old) sledding at Riverside Park in Polson. What would be better on a nice winter day? While I stood by a tree, someone from 110 or 114 4th Ave West apartments shot me in the leg with a bb gun. I knew it was a bb and where it came from based on how I was standing. So, I looked up the hill, over the snow drifts made by the plows, searching for an open window, a shadowy figure of a kid trying to hide, something. Then I got shot again in the neck just below my chin.

When I reached up and felt hot blood, I was shocked, outraged, and furious. I’ve just found out I have to have surgery to remove the bb since it is so deep in my neck. How could any reasonable person shoot an innocent woman? Not only shoot her, but shoot at her through a crowd of kids (youngest being around two years old), aim for her face, and do it all deliberately? Had I not looked up the hill at the apartments I could be blind in one eye right now. I reported the incident to the police, and they interviewed the reluctant tenants. Now what? I saw no sign posted warning local fam-

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