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As I write this, I’m sitting in a hotel room thinking about Thanksgiving two days past. I’m in Seattle for work and not sure how long I’ll be here. Being in Seattle has made me very homesick, but it is also what caused me to reflect on all that I have to be thankful for. I know this column will appear in the Ledger a full week after the actual Thanksgiving holiday, but I still feel compelled to share my thoughts. This may ramble a bit! Being in Seattle for an extended stay has made me reali...
Earlier this year, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) started communicating with Montanans about chronic wasting disease in deer. Several deer in the Libby area tested positive for the disease. Then a moose. Most recently, an elk harvested near Red Lodge tested positive for the disease. The disease is spreading and hunters need to do their part to help slow it down. From the information FWP has provided, nothing can be done to stop the disease. But hunters can use best practices to slow the spread and to help protect other animals. FWP has...
There was once a colorful character named Bat O’Callahan who lived near my home town of Trout Creek, Montana. He and his wife Jessie worked on the Silver Creek Ranch in Riley, Oregon, in the 1950s. Jessie was the ranch cook, and one day a fight broke out in the dining hall among the young buckaroos (which is what cowboys are called in that part of America) and weapons were drawn. Bat shouted, “Guns in the hands of greenhorns!” and took cover. We now have greenhorn political appointees who,...
This week, we've heard several people talking about impeachment testimony. People questioning whether we've watched the hearings and what we think will happen. It's not the first time our country has been faced with this issue. It won't be the last. But when we turned on the television earlier this week and the impeachment hearing was on every network channel, we got a little depressed. This is a time of year when we should be celebrating what we're thankful for and getting our holiday shopping lists ready. Planning for parties and church Chris...
I’ve been following this whole impeachment process against President Trump pretty closely and I think he’s handling it all wrong. I’ll explain my reasoning below, but first let’s develop a little background information. This whole impeachment threat, as far as the Washington Democrats are concerned, comes down to what is called a “quid pro quo.” Here’s Webster’s definition of a quid pro quo: something given for something else.In a nutshell, the Democrats feel that (during a telephonic conversati...
When you get frustrated or think that there is too much negativity in the world, go hang out with elementary students. We're just going to go ahead and say that Monday morning was rough this week. After finally acclimating to the time change, the bitter cold was almost enough to keep us in bed and hide from the Mondays. But then we witnessed something awesome that totally changed our perspective. This week, we witnessed students from schools throughout the county providing special lunches and programs for Sanders County veterans. At Thompson...
Of all the petty annoyances in life, few things seem to set people to fuming and fussing more than having to adjust their lives to the change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time and vice-versa. Imagine, then, how people felt in 1883 when cities and small towns, each of which had its own time system, were forced to set their local times to a national standard. But it wasn’t government that forced the change on this most fundamental example of local control, it was the railroads which m...
Late last month, the NCAA voted to allow college athletes to be compensated. The move was influenced by the state of California's earlier decision to allow college athletes to sign endorsement deals and hire agents. We can see both sides of the issue. College sports are lucrative for schools and for the NCAA, which reports more than $1 billion in annual revenue. It's only fair that the players get a piece of the pie as well, since they are the ones putting in the effort to win national championships and draw attention to their respective...
Last week was Red Ribbon Week at our schools. For those that don’t know about it; Red Ribbon Week is a national drug awareness program aimed at educating students about the dangers of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. The program began in Southern California after the 1985 torture and murder of DEA Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena at the hands of a Mexican drug cartel. The program has been taught in our nation’s schools since 1987. I was at the high school last Thursday to help with the Elks Lodge’s...
Growing up in Sanders County, you didn't want out-of-staters to move in for fear that they would come and change everything. As we have spent most our lives here, we realize the old "not much changes in a small town" is true. Each of our communities has that small-town feel that we love. In Thompson Falls and Plains, we've seen the cities investing in resources such as roads and infrastructure. In both of those communities, work is progressing on much needed repairs to the public pools. To some, repairs and improvements to the city pools and...
The worst thing about a Congressional closed-door hearing is that the opposition does not get any press when they posture and pontificate on the unfairness of whatever. The best thing about closed-door hearings is that, “The private ones always produce better results.” That’s not my opinion, it’s the opinion of former Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy referring to criticism of his holding closed-door hearings on the Clinton-Benghazi issue. I can attest to the fact that many politicians speak t...
In last week's Ledger, we wrote about a plan to open a Veterans Service Office (VSO) in Sanders County. Two groups, Joint Operation Mariposa in Plains and The United States of Hope in Missoula, are leading the effort. Veterans and organizers approached the Sanders County Commissioners with the plan. At this point in the plan, they are seeking letters of support in order to help secure funding sources. We have seen through the efforts of family members and friends how veterans sometimes struggle to access the benefits they earn, get...
In my last column about the “Impeachment Circus,” I made a statement that I think I should clarify. In that column, while discussing information sources, I stated, “I don’t care where the information comes from if it’s credible.” When I reread that sentence, it dawned on me that some readers might mis-understand my meaning and believe I was willing to rely solely on questionable information sources. Also, I think the issue of credible information sources is going to be in the national spotlight...
It's that time of year again. It feels like the big-box stores had Christmas decorations on display before Halloween. And Thanksgiving feels more and more like just a pre-game to the start of the holiday shopping season. We love Thanksgiving. People often go away for Christmas, either on vacation since the kids have extra time off from school, or to visit family. But Thanksgiving is the perfect fall family holiday. It's the last weekend of hunting season, there are plenty of football games to watch, we get in several games of Pinochle and...
Maybe the most interesting thing about Columbus’s “discovery” of America was that he thought he had landed in India, which was where he was headed when he began his trip in 1492. The Italian explorer, sailing under a Spanish flag, missed India by thousands of miles, landing on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, now home to the nations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. But for better or worse it was Columbus who early on was believed to be the first European to discover America. Today, the s...
The first quarter for local schools ends in a couple weeks. The leaves are changing. We’ve had our first snow. It’s time to start preparing for winter. Raking leaves, blowing out sprinkler systems, cleaning gutters and such. We keep noticing how our morning commute gets darker and darker each day. It’s inevitable, and we keep telling ourselves “only two more months and the days get longer again.” We’ve also been more alert of the kids walking to school as the mornings stay darker. Many kids in the county walk to school, and a little extr...
As a buddy of mine used to say as we watched the lunacy around us every day, “The hits just keep on coming!” That sort of lunacy is happening again in Washington, D.C., and as usual the Democrats are leading the charge. Some friends were encouraging me to write about the proposed impeachment hearings the Democrats are pushing. I considered an in-depth discussion but quickly realized that it just wasn’t possible in such a brief format. There are just too many moving parts. As I see it, this...
Last week, several residents attended the open house with Montana Department of Transportation to hear about the options for repairing the Clark Fork River bridge in Trout Creek. The options aren't ideal. They both involve closing the brige for several weeks. It means people who live and work on opposite sides of the bridge will have a very long commute. It will have an effect on people visiting the area. But just as residents and tourists adapted to the road construction between Thompson Falls and Plains this summer, so will we adapt to the...
“Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?” was the question posed by Confederate General James Longstreet after the American Civil War. During that war, the day after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to United States General Ulysses S. Grant, Lee was reunited with his old friend, Union General George Meade, the man who had led the Union forces against Lee at Gettysburg. Like Lee and Meade, General Longstreet and General Grant were also fri...
The dust has basically settled from the NFL controversy that started with Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the national anthem. The act got people fired up on all sides of the issue and created so much buzz and divisiveness that we gave up on watching the big games on Sundays. Football wasn't fun anymore. Last weekend at the Montana Grizzlies football game in Missoula, we got to witness a different type of stand. When the Griz marching band took the field and the announcer asked everyone to rise and joining in the singing of the national a...
I had the privilege last week to attend my granddaughter’s graduation from Air Force basic training. I have to say that watching the ceremony and meeting the young recruits gave me hope for our country’s future! I want to start by saying that I believe the military is an outstanding option for any young adult just out of high school. Particularly a young person who isn’t quite sure what their next step should be. Military service offers a person discipline/structure, training and an incom...
Children of the 80s and 90s grew up watching Zack and Slater on Saved by the Bell. We celebrated when Kelly chose Dylan in the 90210 finale and can still sing every song from the Footloose soundtrack. What do those three shows have in common? They all are the victim of remakes. We were annoyed when the Footloose was released in 2011, and we still refuse to watch it. Sorry, but no one can replace Kevin Bacon as Ren. This year, a 90210 spinoff with the original cast was both one of the most-viewed premieres on Fox, and one of the lowest-rated....
It was fascinating last week to watch as British legislators did what American legislators would be wise to do; stand up for principle. Boris Johnson had just become the British Prime Minister. Known for his dictatorial and arrogant style he immediately ran into a brick wall of his own making; he watched as the first six bills — very important bills — of his leadership were defeated. They were defeated because 21 members of his own party, most of them former cabinet members, voted against him...
Last weekend while we were enjoying some Thompson Falls Youth Soccer, there were a couple local women at the tennis courts next to the high school. But they weren't playing tennis. The women were playing pickle ball. We were impressed that people were using the local recreation facilities, despite the conditions. Thompson Falls had a high school tennis team until the mid-1990s. Since then, the condition of the courts has deteriorated to the point that none of the courts can be used for a competitive game. It's fine for a casual volley, but...
Winston Churchill said, “If you’re not a liberal at age twenty, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative at age forty, you have no brain.” I’d amend that and swap the word “experience” for the word “brain.” My last three columns were an attempt to describe my personal journey from a liberal philosophy to one that is quite conservative. I’ve used examples from my own experience to try and explain that transition. I believe that most conservative thinkers follow a path similar to mine in terms of experience. Meaning simply that they ha...
