Letters to the editor: Interfaith Sanctuary, Rep. Liz Cheney, homelessness, gun owners

Interfaith Sanctuary

I live directly behind the proposed Interfaith Sanctuary site. I’ve been disappointed in the way some of my neighbors have fear-mongered and acted out toward this proposal. Personally, my wife and I have stayed out of it. Do we want a homeless shelter next to our house? No, but we have a home, and how can we actively fight someone else from getting a second chance. At the last public meeting, the Interfaith lawyer called my neighbors “heartless.” Maybe they are right to some degree. The thing is, that lawyer doesn’t live on my street, or our neighborhood. It’s not their kids walking to school or the park, it’s not their property value going down, it’s ours. The owner of Interfaith also does not live in my neighborhood, neither do the commissioners tasked with approving the site for use. Guess who is not protesting Interfaith? Every other neighborhood in Boise. The homeless shelter is going in no matter how many signs, protests, public hearings they have about it. So just get it over with and quit dragging it out. To those who support Interfaith, I bet your support would wane if it was next door to you.

Tyler Walker, Boise

Rep. Cheney

When Rep. Elizabeth Cheney, R-Wyoming, was first elected, I dreaded what might come next. After all, she was the daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney. who was far from my favorite politician. And I remembered Liz’s disowning of her lesbian sister. I didn’t believe anything good could come from her career.

But that was before Donald Trump, who has co-opted the entire Republican Party, came on the scene. With his attempts to overthrow our democracy gaining steam with no Republican opposition in sight, my despair increased. When the House established the Jan. 6 Committee with two Republicans on it, including Rep. Cheney, I didn’t know what to expect.

But Rep. Cheney’s work on the committee shows her to be one of very few believers in the American experiment left in the Republican Party today. I applaud her work, something I can’t say about Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher.

Walt Thode, Boise

Gun owners

Ben Long, a self-described responsible gun owner, expressed his contempt for other gun owners in a rant published on the Idaho Statesman opinion page. I don’t know if he’s actually a responsible gun owner — most people don’t store guns unsecured in closets as he does — but he’s certainly an irresponsible writer.

Perhaps Long owns a dictionary but was just too lazy to look up the word “vigilante.” He apparently thinks a vigilante is a person he doesn’t like who carries a firearm in public.

I suggest he take some advice from the Idaho Supreme Court about people who carry guns: “A man may need a gun for a great many things other than that of shooting his neighbor. It should be presumed in the first instance that a man is going to use his gun for a lawful purpose and that he is not out gunning for his neighbor.”

Don Fleming, Pocatello

Homelessness

Having lived in both San Diego and Portland, I was amused by Stephanie Day’s assertions about Boise not becoming like either city in the “Defunding ‘housing first’ for homeless is bad fiscal policy’” editorial.

Policies advocated in the editorial exactly match those already in place in San Diego and Portland: free, unlimited, taxpayer-funded services for homeless with no strings attached. Those services are provided by a network of unaccountable private organizations, some for-profit and some non-profit, whose executives make their livings from the taxpayer money.

The resulting system is a positive-feedback loop, which encourages more and more people to become dependent on the services, and the homeless population to grow. Service providers (some of whom are quite well-paid) are incentivized to expand their clientele and services. The homeless population grows larger, more entitled and dangerous. The providers need more taxpayer money every year. But the system can never keep up with the growing and increasingly unruly homeless population, many of whom don’t want to be involved. Thus, city, county and state governments pour more taxpayer money every year into a system that makes the problem worse, all the while scolding those who object.

Good luck with that, Boise.

Keith Olson, Eagle