Embarrassed by rep’s actions
Idaho Rep. Brandon Mitchell needs better manners. Unfortunately, on April 14, we happened to be scheduled for the same late-night flight back to Pullman from Seattle. Mr. Mitchell was noticeable because he was arguing loudly with the clerks at the Alaska Air gate. Several people looked at each other in embarrassment as he criticized the two ladies and loudly announced, “No problems on any flights until now.” He huffed and puffed, walking away from the counter and back towards it as his companion remained quietly to discuss the issue in private conversation. It turned out that our entire flight had been canceled, which may or may not have been the issue for Mr. Mitchell.
But I was embarrassed as bullying gate staff was unnecessary and discourteous. They were not the corporate decision-makers that caused Alaska Air’s woes.
Mr. Mitchell’s disdain for the rules was also apparent that night as he sat with the rest of us surrounded by people wearing their masks. The SEA-TAC airport continually announced the FAA requirement. Yet he was utterly maskless, and it was almost like he was daring authorities to interfere with him for publicity. But he was willing to wear a neck gaiter before flying out of the Moscow-Pullman Airport on the previous Monday. So, refusing to wear a mask must not have been a vital matter of principle when he started his journey. I saw a person expecting special treatment, which is dangerous in an elected official.
Rep. Mitchell may have been tired, but so was I. I had been up working and traveling for 17 hours straight, and the Alaska Air cancellation caused me great inconvenience. But complain to Alaska Air corporate, don’t take it out on the staff.
David Morse
Moscow
Please return sign
Thank you for running the photo of the “Every Vote Must Count” banner and the description of Vote Forward efforts at Community Congregational United Church of Christ. Our congregation’s participation in Vote Forward letter writing is a reflection of our belief that God values all people.
Unfortunately, some people in this country and in this community still consider certain groups to be unworthy of a voice: shortly after the picture was published the banner was stolen. It is impossible to know the exact motivation someone might have for taking the sign, but it is disappointing that such an act would be carried out by someone in the Pullman community and tolerated by the thieves’ friends and acquaintances.
Please, if you have the sign, return it, no questions asked; and if you have information about the theft contact the Pullman police department. Pullman prides itself on being a friendly small town; but occurrences like this eat away at the fabric of our community. We can be better than this — but we all have to work at it.
Carl Hauser
Pullman
Voters needed in primary
The percentage of people who vote in Idaho’s primary is historically low in stark contrast to the votes cast in the November general election. This year we need to have a record primary turnout.
The closed Republican primary ballot contains the same judicial candidates as the Democratic ballot. Also on both ballots are levy requests. These levies are important, though hard to justify when the legislature refuses its constitutional responsibility to adequately fund our schools. Essentially the Idaho legislature is holding taxpayers hostage. We must pass levies to bridge the funding gap, holding onto the slim thread of hope the legislature will finally be forced to do its job. In the meantime, it falls upon us to ensure the kids do not suffer the legislators’ dereliction of duty.
The Republican majority legislature, who has neglected education for decades, now has members trying to dictate what can be taught in schools at our expense. The lieutenant governor bankrupted her office in this folly. Our tax dollars are being misappropriated to fund political grifts by self-avowed fiscal conservative “freedom fighters.”
We must take back Idaho. We must replace bad legislators with reasonable ones who will do their constitutional duty. This website offers recommendations for the Republican ballot:
takebackidaho.com/voter-guide/.
Vote for schools on May 17.
Marilyn Beckett
Moscow
The arc of justice
We are approaching the 70th anniversary of the founding of League of Women Voters Moscow. I’ve been reading up on what the earlier league members did. There was the study of the landfill. At the time, trash from town was dumped on Lenville Road and rats were a problem.
There was study of what to do with the slot machines that had been used to support the Gritman hospital. Our local league members have been very creative and dedicated. There were campaigns, early and often, to get people registered to vote. Sometimes volunteers went door-to-door to remind folks to get registered. They stamped on paper grocery bags “Don’t forget to vote.” Our LWVM of the past was a vocal and fiery organization. They had run-ins with the county registrar’s office and the Moscow City Council. There was a couple of women in the league’s Observer Corps who showed up for the school board meeting. When they were asked what they were doing there, and they said they had come to observe the meeting, the meeting was adjourned and reconvened in private.
For me, these stories put today’s news in perspective. We live in an ever-shifting landscape of events and consequences. Though we live in relative isolation here on the Palouse (the historic lands of the Nimipoo) we are part of the main. A Unitarian minister wrote in a sermon,“We cannot understand the moral Universe. The arc is a long one, and our eyes reach but a little way; we cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; but we can divine it by conscience, and we surely know that it bends toward justice.” Those words were a rallying cry for the learned Dr. Martin Luther King, generations later. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Let’s stand together.
Zena Hartung
Moscow
Midge gets it right
Tiffany Midge’s column (April 16) was right on. She views “land acknowledgments’’ (saying the names of the tribes who called the land under our feet “home” before we did) as a way to educate people, to “create space for deeper sensitivity,” and to honor the Indigenous people of the region. I first heard a land acknowledgement in my church several years ago and was struck by it. It wasn’t a lightning bolt moment, since I knew the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) reservation had been downsized over and over, and before the reservation, the area they lived on was enormous. It was a moment of increased awareness. Awareness of what? That many people have lived here, they had a name, that my time here is really next to nothing.
Scotty Anderson, whose column Midge is responding to, denigrates land acknowledgments (and, I assume, responses like mine) as “woke drivel.” Well, he certainly is an expert in the “drivel” part. By the way, if you Google “Scotty Anderson,” you get a cool guitarist in Cincinnati. If you Google Tiffany Midge, you get an impressive list of publications and accomplishments.
Diana Armstrong
Moscow
