Page 26 - Flathead Beacon // 2.25.15

26 | FEBRUARY 25, 2015
LIKE I WAS SAYIN’ Kellyn Brown
Counting Blessings and Praying for Snow
THEY’RE JUMPING OUT OF WINDOWS IN Boston, prompting the mayor to tell them to settle down. New England has compiled so much snow that residents are apparently stir crazy.
“I’m asking people to stop their nonsense right now,” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said earlier this month. “These are adults jumping out windows. It’s a foolish thing to do, and you could kill yourself.”
But they’re not listening. They continue to post videos online of themselves diving into giant snowdrifts. That’s what the snowiest month on record will do to a city. As I write this, more snow is in Boston’s forecast, which could add to the 8 feet that has already fallen.
In much of New England, this season has been especial- ly brutal, but other parts of the country have also suffered. Last week, Cleveland set a record when the temperature dropped to negative 17 degrees. Chicago’s frigid air set a new low – which had stood for 79 years – when the temper- ature dipped to minus 8 degrees. Even parts of the South are seeing snow.
Meanwhile, on a recent weekend I traveled to Fairmont Hot Springs near Anaconda for a wedding. After an hour of basking my exceptionally fare skin in the sun, I feared it would burn. In February. In Montana.
Mother Nature is often unpredictable, but she’s been especially weird this year – leaving skiers in the West wondering what happened. While winter storms such as “Quantum” and “Linus” (yes, the Weather Channel has begun naming them) have taken aim at the Northeast and South, some regional ski resorts, such as Turner Mountain near Libby, have closed.
Still, we should count our blessings. Whitefish Moun- tain Resort and Blacktail Mountain have good coverage and are 100 percent open even as consistent snowfall has been sporadic. It could be worse. Way worse.
Washington state is experiencing the worst ski season many there can remember. Mount Spokane – the mountain where I spent many of my childhood weekends – is closed waiting for snow in what is its second shortest season in 25 years. So are Snoqualmie and 49 Degrees North. Other mountains, such as Mount Baker, have limited operations as some friends of mine found out the hard way when they headed west for a birthday ski trip but never skied.
The sparse snow has had a trickle-down effect on some mountain economies. The Bellingham Herald recently re- ported that the lack of snowfall has hurt the foothill com- munities of Mount Baker, quoting a local who said, “If March doesn’t get (much snow), I think it will be quite con- cerning.”
If Washington is bad, California is awful – only because it’s been dealing with sparse snow for four straight years due to extreme drought. Several mid-sized mountains have closed again and even larger resorts with snowmak- ing equipment are struggling to stay open.
Tim Cohee, owner of China Peak Mountain Resort, recently told the Associated Press, “Name a business that could go through four years of this. I’ve seen a couple wimpy years before, but nothing like this – nothing even close.”
But this year the gloom has spread, reaching into parts of Canada. Mount Washington on Vancouver Island in Brit- ish Columbia is closed. So is Castle Mountain near Pincher Creek, Alberta.
Meanwhile, skiers are flocking to resorts in the north- east and even West Virginia. One ski center in Massachu- setts actually had to temporarily close because it had too much snow.
Again, we should count our blessings. Our largest local mountains are open and attracting skiers in the West living next to bare mountains. But heading into March, I’m pray- ing that some of the snow New Englanders are jumping into out their windows will head this direction.
OPINION FLATHEADBEACON.COM
TWO FOR THOUGHT
Same Topics, Different Views
Interpreting Holy Books
By Tim Baldwin
Many people will reject truth that comes from their enemy. This was seen when many conserva- tives harshly criticized President Barack Obama for noting, at the National Prayer Breakfast, the op- pressive acts committed centuries ago under Chris- tianity. Perhaps their criticism came because they refuse to acknowledge what distorts religion, in- cluding Christianity.
Many conservatives have turned the conflicts in the Middle East into a religious issue. They pro- mote America’s fight against “ISIS” as a way to kill infidels. But Obama sees the terrorism as a distor- tion of religion. Obama’s view seems to be support- ed by the many Muslims who are fighting against ISIS and condemning their misapplication of the Koran.
Battling for correct interpretations of holy books is not unique to Islam. One of the quantum leaps for individual liberty made centuries ago in the West was when theologians and philosophers began using a scientific method to interpret the Bible. They argued, if your interpretation of the Bible promotes hurting innocent people or mak- ing slaves of people, it is necessarily wrong. This maxim helped create the “Age of Enlightenment,” which created government and political models on the rights of individuals, not on the elite, whether political or religious. Its influence exists today and likely will forever.
Simply put, no just God would command unjust things from people – whether to make killers of the innocent or slaves to tyrants. I say, amen to that.
By Joe Carbonari
To keep ourselves safe we must deal with Islamic terrorism. It is too dangerous. The Is- lamic State’s leadership must be demolished, rendered inoperative. There will be blood.
We cannot, however, destroy all their sup- porters and “camp followers” – nor should we. Call your god what you will, but don’t cause me harm because you were “told” to. If your god makes me lesser deserving of con- sideration in life than you, his follower, then I think you should think about your god a bit more deeply. “Do unto others ...”
It appears the Islamic spiritual world has been slow to move out of the past. Yes, we in the Western World have had our Crusades, but we have moved on.
As Islam does its updating, military ac- tion alone will not solve our safety problem. It may take years, possibly decades. In the interim we also need to control our internal threats. There are some. Treating the Islamic community here in the U.S., and around the world, with the degree of respect they actu- ally deserve will lead to more safety, more quickly, than if we don’t.
If you wish to bring someone to your way of thinking, you do not insult them. You sug- gest that together you look at your differenc- es in a new light. The world is ever-changing. We must continually adapt, and we must help others to adapt. It’s a small world.
GUESTCOLUMN | BrianPeck
No Balance in Daines’ ‘Forest Reform’
Recently, papers in Northwest Montana have carried articles about Sen. Steve Daines trumpet- ing the need for “forest reform” and a “balance” between natural resource protection and resource extraction.
But for Daines and much of the conservative right wing, the only “balance” they’re after is a bal- ance between industrial logging, mining, oil and gas drilling, and the motorized/mechanized exploi- tation of public lands for private profit. Lost in the shuffle are inconvenient things like clean water and air and intact wildlife habitat.
One need look no further than Daines’ words to see where he’s coming from and it isn’t healthy forest landscapes based on ecologically sustain- able management. Rather, his idea of reform and balance include: “improve forest ‘output’; create economic opportunities; good paying jobs in our timber industry; greater state authority; improved recreational access; and revenue for schools” – for- merly known as “Clearcuts For Kids.”
Daines clearly has confused the Forest Service with the local Chamber of Commerce, and sees the nation’s public lands as little more than commodity conveyor belts, and its forests as 2X4’s in waiting. And the “reform” they have in mind is nothing less than the privatization of the public’s lands for the private profit of industry.
If Daines and his industry accomplices were truly interested in ecological, as well as economic, sustainability when they talked about “sustainable
timber harvests,” there would be room for discus- sion. Unfortunately, their real priority remains what it has always been – “Getting Out the Cut” and treating the nation’s forests like tree farms.
Daines would have us believe that the problem is environmental groups who file lawsuits over tim- ber sales, and the Equal Access to Justice Act that lets them recover legal fees when the Forest Ser- vice is caught breaking the law. Nonsense. Blaming environmental groups for blowing the whistle on a lawless Forest Service is like blaming Paul Revere for warning that “The British Are Coming.”
And the Equal Access to Justice Act was written for every American who dares to challenge bad de- cisions by their federal government, but fears being overwhelmed by its vast battery of lawyers funded by our tax dollars. The Act levels the playing field for “We the People” so we don’t have to “pay up or shut up” when faced with an overreaching govern- ment. Daines would “reform” the Act so you and I would have to pay up front before challenging the Feds.
If Daines is truly interested in reforming the process, lowering lawsuits, and encouraging sus- tainable timber harvests it’s pretty simple – join environmentalists in demanding that the Forest Service “Follow the Science and Obey the Law” on every project. But Daines won’t do that because his real goal is harvesting trees, and harvesting votes from a gullible public.
Brian Peck lives in Columbia Falls.