Page 28 - Flathead Beacon // 3.18.15

28 | MARCH 18, 2015 OPINION LIKE I WAS SAYIN’ Kellyn Brown
FLATHEADBEACON.COM
TWO FOR THOUGHT
Local Topics, Opposing Views
By Tim Baldwin
President Barack Obama has to make a decision on whether to use Iran to fight ISIS. Some commentators have expressed that the U.S. military should not do this, arguing that Iran’s leader is a stately version of Osama Bin Laden. What should Obama do?
When a nation engages in a war, it should use other nations (if it can) to win the war, even if that ally is a “lesser enemy” to destroy a “greater enemy.” However, there is another principle involved: when both decisions are equally bad, there is no moral obligation to take affirmative action one way or the other. Additionally, when one cannot determine the probable consequences that would result from taking affirmative action in favor of one evil over another, prudence dictates that one not choose the unknown evil but contain the known evil.
Our Constitution requires Congress to declare war so we can properly apply the principles of war: identify the enemy, quantify and qualify our interests, and whether to finance the war and for how long. We cannot aim first and shoot later. As it relates to the Middle East, the decisions are complex, complicated and messy.
Looking at how conditions have worsened for decades there, it is no wonder why Americans are getting sick of it. We should be very cautious about worsening conditions there and our reputation in the world.
By Joe Carbonari
Consider it like gun control. Only a few nuclear “guns” should be allowed. If a nuclear “gun” is triggered in anger, or “righteousness,” lives will be lost and the world altered. Iranian leadership, religiously based, has called for the extermination of the state of Israel. Iranian leadership should not have a nuclear gun.
Its decision-making process, guided by its interpretation of Islam, does not well serve. It is too, autocratic, too harsh, and too intolerant. It is inherently unstable. It will change.
That change may well be chaotic. Not a place for a nuclear “gun.”
Today, strong Iranian influence extends around the Persian Gulf from Pakistan on the southeast to Yemen on the southwest. Iranian influence reaches to the Mediterranean, including both Syria and Lebanon. Iran is said to have 20,000-30,000 “boots” on the ground in Iraq alone, including on several occasions, those of their very best. They are ascendant in their region, they are spreading violence, and they do it in the name of “god.”
We can’t bomb them permanently out of the nuclear weapons business. We can just slow them down. Buy a yea ... at risk of war. Stronger economic sanctions? You bet – if enough of the world will cooperate?
In the end, our hope is regime change, a change in basic thinking by the powers that be. Let’s buy time.
Fighting ISIS
Running Out of ‘Reality’
APRODUCER FROM NEW YORK CALLED ME last week at the Beacon office. She had some questions about Montana, specifically about the people who live here. She was looking for some “characters,” perhaps locals who “live off the grid.” She explained that she works for a company that wants to film a reality television series in the area. She’s a little late to the game.
Sure, the number of reality television series has continued to grow, but by my unscientific count they are now especially prevalent in this state. I half expect to receive a pitch to feature this company on a show about the trials of working at a newspaper in a relatively rural region. By the way, that pitch has already happened, just not us.
This month, TruTV is filming a reality series in the area featuring Christmas enthusiasts called “Santa in the Barn.” The show, set to premiere in the fall, features 10 contestants competing to be the best Santa Claus. The producers, I assume, expected more winter-like weather in Montana this time of year. So did we.
There is still high demand for series following people with unusual jobs, or doing unusual things or dressing in red-and-white suits in front of a rustic or rural backdrop. This all began in Alaska years ago.
In 2005, “Deadliest Catch” premiered on the Discovery Channel. It followed crab fishermen on the Bering Sea performing one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. It was a hit and has now aired for 10 seasons. Since then, the trend of filming men and women has spread to other jobs and other states like ours.
Animal Planet filmed Rob and Mike (who goes by “Animal”) as they rode motorcycles across the Flathead Valley chasing fugitives for a show called “Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunters,” which aired last year.
The History Channel has filmed in this area for its reality show “Mountain Men,” which showcases people living in remote areas, some of them off the grid. Tom Oar, a trapper in the Yaak who stars in the show, told USA Today he was happy with how the show has turned out, but added, “They always have to make it seem more dangerous. I’m too boring otherwise.”
History has also aired several seasons of “Ax Men” and featured a couple Montana logging operations, including one based in Kalispell. A few years ago, following an especially heated episode, viewers confused the reality television with the Axmen store in Missoula. The Missoulian reported that the Axmen had to explain it is a “heating, alternative energy, farm and ranch, recycling business/museum in Western Montana. We gladly admit we have nice and easy jobs at our retail store.”
It’s often awkward when reality television collides with reality.
Other shows feature potential buyers of log homes (a Beacon employee was actually shown on one episode) and camera crews following the state’s game wardens – this one airs on the Outdoor Channel. And who can forget when ABC’s juggernaut romantic reality series “The Bachelor” arrived in Whitefish in early 2013 and shut down Central Avenue for country singer Sarah Darling’s concert?
Montana is at once a hot commodity on the reality television circuit and nearly tapped out of ideas. Perhaps that’s why contestants dressed as Santa Claus were competing in the valley this month and why I was asked by a producer if I knew any local characters.
If people are so curious about our state, they should simply visit. We have paved roads, airports and nice residents. Most of us hold traditional 9-to-5 jobs and live on the grid, which, admittedly, is a little boring.
After all, the producer I talked to said she was looking for something reminiscent of “Duck Dynasty.” Again, I think they’re running out of ideas.
GUESTCOLUMN | MariaArrington
Where Have the School Nurses Gone?
Ever think about the things that happen to our kids’ health once we drop them off at school for the day? It used to be that we figured school health would be handled by our school nurses, but that is a dead or dying belief. The few school nurses we have are so swamped by their responsibilities in the face of budget priorities and funding deficits that it would be impossible to say we have our children’s health needs on the radar at all.
I want to give a few real life examples. One student is an unstable diabetic with a single mom who is the only breadwinner in the family. Last year, the school had no school nurse available to help with blood sugar testing and insulin injections. The child missed three months of school because he/she needed to stay home with mom (who was missing work) to monitor the blood sugar status. This year, the school hired a school nurse and that child has missed only three days of school – and mom is working to support the family.
Think about another student who had a cardiac arrest at school. Luckily this school had a nurse present and she immediately instituted CPR. That child is alive today because that school had a nurse. What would have happened if the nurse was busy at another school or if there was no nurse at all? Not every teacher or school staff member knows or is good at CPR.
I have heard of families who have changed school districts in order to have their child in a
school where there was a school nurse to help with their child’s health problems.
The few school nurses we have in Flathead County schools are facing enormous odds and challenges. There is only one nurse to be shared out between our two Kalispell high schools. These two schools have more than 1,200 student each and that nurse is hired to work only two days a week – one day at each school. On those two days she sees up to 10 kids a day in addition to trying to handle all the paperwork mandated by the school district and the state department of health and human services. We have homeless kids, disabled kids, asthmatics and diabetics in that population as well as in all our school populations!
I could go on and on about the statistics that are present in our schools this very minute, but how did we get to this place? Budget shortages and funding deficits have forced school districts to make harder and harder decisions year by year. Parents don’t realize how far health resources have deteriorated in the schools or they feel that this problem is bigger than one complaining parent can handle. To me, this is an indication that we value our children less than we value other aspects of school spending.
Maria Arrington is a retired public health nurse in Bigfork