The decision by the Flathead County commissioners to seat another supporter of censorship on the ImagineIf Library’s Board of Trustees is the last straw! Given a stellar candidate, Jane Wheeler, for the job, our county commissioners unanimously chose the censors’ candidate, Carmen Cuthbertson, to produce a four-person reactionary majority on this board. This matches Donald Trump’s six-to-three reactionary majority on the U.S. Supreme Court and the outrageous seditionist Republican minority in the U.S. House of Representatives. An election is coming, and it’s time for major change in the direction of our country, from the county commissioners all the way up to Congress!
If Flathead County is to be known as anything more than an ignorant backwater, we must start by replacing Commissioner Pam Holmquist with a more enlightened commissioner. Holmquist’s leadership has earned the county a string of lawsuits that continue to drain our coffers. Jack Fallon, who came very close to defeating Holmquist in a four-candidate Republican primary, should consider a write-in campaign for November.
The U.S. Supreme Court cannot be rescued in the short run from its reactionary majority, which has given us the decision overturning Roe vs. Wade as well as the decision curtailing the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to limit carbon emissions to slow climate change. We can start a long-term movement to change the court by electing Democrats to replace Republicans in the U.S. Senate, starting with Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines in 2026.
Regarding Cuthbertson’s drive to eliminate the book, Gender Queer, from the library, I myself have read the book. I would not recommend it for grade schoolers; it would be incomprehensible to them. I would recommend it to teenagers who are dealing with defining relationships with others as they mature. The part of this book that is explicitly sexual comprises two pages of a roughly 200-page book. Let us not maintain a prudish ignorance among our teens.
Bill Cox
Kalispell