There’s strong support for keeping public lands in public hands | Opinion

Public lands in public hands

Public opinion in Idaho strongly opposes the sale of public lands a sentiment shared across both Democratic and Republican parties. Senate Joint Memorial 111, prepared in 2026, urges Congress to keep national public lands in public hands. It tells lawmakers to oppose selling or transferring these lands. The Memorial expresses the state’s staunch support for keeping public lands within Idaho under public ownership, emphasizing their importance to the state’s identity, economy and way of life.

It highlights how these lands provide unique landscapes, opportunities for hunting and fishing protected by the Idaho Constitution, and space for exercising Second Amendment rights. The memorial argues that transferring or selling these lands would negatively impact industries like grazing, timber, mining and outdoor recreation, which contribute more than $15 billion annually to Idaho’s economy.

Selling or transferring these lands would not only jeopardize access and tradition but also place unsustainable and unpredictable financial burdens on states, local governments and Idaho’s taxpayers.

I urge everyone who uses and enjoys public lands to support and vote for Kaylee Peterson for U.S. Congress who will keep our public lands in public hands plus support the $15 billion annual contribution to Idaho’s economy from public lands.

Don Vernon, Middleton

The least of these

Idaho, and the US has lost its soul.

Jesus said: “What good does it do for a man to prosper if he loses his soul?”

People in some nursing homes seriously neglected. Children are going hungry. Many people can’t afford rent. A deaf ear is turned to things like this. But complain about property taxes and boy do people listen.

What verse in the Bible says that’s how a Christian should be. I don’t exactly feel sorry for those people. And I don’t respect a spiritual release that encourages or consoles it. “You did not not for the least of these, you did it not for me.”

It is that simple. Get your excuses out now. Jesus won’t hear them.

James Brenton, Boise

Time to rethink political possibilities

In 1759, George Washington reoriented the entrance to Mount Vernon from east to west. The west symbolized the frontier — new land, opportunity and the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Today, those frontiers are gone. Mount Vernon now faces east, overlooking the Potomac River and the seat of political power in Washington, D.C. That power has become increasingly dominated by corruption, greed and an oligarch class whose enormous wealth translates into extraordinary political influence. Meanwhile, the independent middle class has steadily eroded as wealth has become concentrated in fewer hands, leaving millions of Americans with little savings and limited opportunity to build financial security.

Our governing institutions — the presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court — have failed to reverse widening wealth inequality. As artificial intelligence reshapes the economy, the danger is that power and wealth will become even more concentrated unless policies change.

America needs to reject the complacency of a broken two-party system and pursue reforms that restore economic opportunity and political power to ordinary citizens. We need a new frontier — not of land, but of shared prosperity, independent thinking, and democratic renewal.

It is time to face west again.

Kurt Smith, Boise

Stop trying to push religion on me

I am a non-theist, but I don’t begrudge anyone from being a theist. I’ll likely think you’re naïve, gullible, maybe even stupid, but whatever you need to believe to make it through the night is OK. Besides, if you need to believe in Heaven and Hell to be a good person, I’m glad you do.

Just don’t try to foist it off on me or the country.

So it worries me that an influential faction of government leaders, especially in the military, can’t seem to abide non-theists and more to the point, non-Christians. Puerile Pete Hegseth et. al. are clearly attempting to drive out or intimidate into silent acquiescence people like me. (Don’t ask, don’t tell).

Well, believing in heaven, or purporting to, hasn’t made him or them good people.

I’ve advised kids to consider a military academy or ROTC for college. The education would be good to excellent and no student loans. It worked for me. But would the obligated service nowadays be welcoming, or even bearable, to a free-thinking, critical thinker (to say nothing of a Muslim, Black, Latino, Asian, gay or female person)? Perhaps Pete-ism too shall pass. I hope so, the sooner the better.

Jim Runsvold, Caldwell