Spend your energy solving problems, not attacking a Pride event | Opinion

Pride

Homosexuality has existed for as long as humanity has existed and to those wanting to deny a gathering in a Nampa park I would ask how someone’s homosexuality has ever affected you. Has it prevented you from getting an education or having a job? Taking a vacation? Having food, clothing or a place to live? This summer children will go hungry because illustrious Idaho legislators refused to provide lunches. Forcing homosexuality underground again will not provide that food. Forcing it underground will not change the fact that It is increasingly difficult for many to afford housing. Forcing it underground will not pay the outrageous medical bills many face because the richest nation in the world refuses to find a way to provide health care for all its citizens. The list goes on and of all the problems this state and nation face a Pride festival in a park is not one of them. All that energy spent opposing it could be put to much better use elsewhere.

Julie Kralovec, Boise

Flag

“Our Flag Was Still There”

In the “Star-Spangled Banner,” there is no mention that our flag was upside down, and the iconic flag at Iwo Jima was not upside down.

At present, too many, including a Supreme Court justice, could care less whether our flag is upside down or not “O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.”

Mary Feeny, Boise

Open primaries

One of the perks of being a native Idahoan is experiencing the wonder during election season at the number of people who moved here recently and now embrace themselves as a “Real Idahoan.” Some choose to run for public office. Sadly, some become intertwined with the Idaho GOP machinery and they get a misguided sense of the support they actually have.

When we look at the numbers, we find that many of these “authentic Idahoans” were placed on the ballot by a very small number of registered voters — in some cases, less than 10%! The force behind this ability to govern with a small minority is the closed Republican primary. The chair of the Idaho GOP holds too much power to choose who runs and how they govern, once in office. In the coming months, we can expect to see the dark-money controlled entrenched leadership of the Idaho GOP go to great lengths to misinform, scare and intimidate the general public into rejecting the open primaries initiative.

All the more reason to vote for it.

John Post, Boise

Wolves

Earlier this spring, wildlife advocates learned that a Wyoming man chased, ran over and captured a young female wolf from his snowmobile, taped her muzzle and dragged her poor wounded body to a bar where he later, finally put her out of the misery he had caused her. Wildlife advocates everywhere reacted with horror, determined to make the public aware of what is going on with unlimited killing of native carnivores, coyotes and wolves.

On Feb. 19, 2023, a snowmobiler in the Appendicitis Hill Wilderness Study Area in Butte County, Idaho, ran over a wolf with a snow machine. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game staffer who received the carcass reported unhealed wounds and buckshot in its back.

Wildlife managers would like the public to believe that this kind of behavior is rare. These reports are just the tip of the iceberg and are a direct result of policies that encourage and incentivize brutality toward native carnivores. Native carnivores are vital elements of a healthy ecosystem and without them, the entire system suffers. Fish and Game managers seem poised to take native carnivores out of the system entirely which would greatly increase biodiversity loss.

Current wildlife management policies will devastate biological diversity in Idaho.

Christine Gertschen, Hailey

Trump

It is alarming that major news organizations chase the Trump propaganda like rats to cheese! We see constant coverage of Trump and his minions getting a “free” campaign platform at his trials. Instead of focusing on the fact that grand juries of American citizens brought forward his indictments, we are given whatever gives his base more excitement from his lies. I’m reminded of the McCarthy era when anyone who disagreed was a communist because the media said so. Journalism or chasing the almighty advertising dollar? Facts instead of sensationalism would be a welcome respite.

Sheila Robbins, Boise

Biden

Given the choice between voting for a convicted felon who was brought up on trumped up charges by a corrupt District Attorney and tried by a biased, corrupt judge, or voting for an unconvicted felon and unconvicted traitor who is a dementia-ridden pathological liar and head of the most corrupt family to ever occupy the White House, I will vote for the convicted felon every time. Four more years of Democrats Creepy Joe and Cackling Kamala’s open borders, high inflation, rampant crime, endless wars, gender insanity, and weaponized law enforcement, and this country will be neither a free nor a sovereign nation. Better a convicted felon than the group of clueless, malevolent fools now in charge.

Guy Webster, Boise

Land rules

We Idahoans enjoy remarkable opportunities to hunt, fish, and recreate on the millions of acres of public lands Idaho is blessed with, I believe the BLM’s recently completed “Conservation and Landscape Health Rule” is good for wildlife, their habitat, and sportspeople.

The BLM manages a diversity of habitats from rivers and mountain streams to wetlands and sagebrush flats to grass-covered foothills and pine forests. These lands offer world-class hunting and fishing that help bolster the state’s annual $3.4 billion outdoor economy and are a key piece in making the quality of life in Idaho so great.

That’s why I was excited to hear about the BLM’s rule that puts fish and wildlife habitat on equal footing with development. Big game herds such as elk, mule deer, and pronghorn need connected habitats to move daily and seasonally, and many of the state’s most prized hunting units rely on BLM lands for valuable winter range.

If we as Idahoans and sportspeople want to see our children and grandchildren experience the wild places and animals we enjoy so much, we should support the BLM in prioritizing conservation to enhance our state’s fish and wildlife habitat.

Drew Wahlin, Meridian