Page 30 - Flathead Beacon // 8.26.15

LIKE I WAS SAYIN’
TWO FOR THOUGHT SAME TOPIC, DIFFERENT VIEWS WHY NOT TRUMP?
KELLYN BROWN
FRESHMAN ORIENTATION
MANY GRADUATES FROM THE VALLEY’S high school class of 2015 are about to hit the road, heading to far-flung universities with their cars packed to the brim with clothes and dorm room furnishings, half of which they don’t need.
I had plenty of expendable and stereotypical items crammed into my 1985 Subaru station wagon when I embarked on my journey from Spokane to Wyoming. There were rock-and-roll posters, a beanbag chair, a trunk full of miscellaneous items, including, but not limited to, compact discs, hacky sacks, a lava lamp and a George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine.
Decorating that first dorm room, many teenagers’ first home away from their parents’ nest, is a right of passage for college freshmen. Forget Feng Shui, now you get to furnish a room how you choose fit.
The problem, I soon realized that first week of col- lege, is that dorm rooms are tiny; even smaller when you empty a carload of stuff into them, and smaller still when your roommate does the same. Luckily, my first dorm mate was someone who shared my taste in tacky décor and loud music. So we decorated to guitar riffs blaring from oversized speakers that would be exces- sive in a regular-sized apartment.
When we finished, every inch of the walls were covered with tapestries, corkboards and posters that glowed when illuminated with black lights. Chairs, can- dles holders and a refrigerator were crammed into the corners, leaving about 30 square feet in which to walk around the room. It was cluttered, but it was ours.
Unfortunately, that newfound sense of indepen- dence and ownership soon wore off. As the items spread across the floor, those small quarters felt claustropho- bic. And the incense could no longer mask the smell of old burnt cheese wafting from the Foreman grill. Even the posters on the wall began to look dreary.
Those first few months of college are humbling (or should be), sharing a room, bathroom and washing machine with dozens of others who were as eager as you to move out on there own. Instead, I was convinced renting my own place off campus would break the bond- age of dorm living and, when I transferred to the Uni- versity of Montana, I would get that chance.
This time, I packed a Toyota Tercel and hit the road; this time, I would be really on my own, sharing a house in Missoula. I had found on a bulletin board a perfect new roommate who explained how great his pad was. It had a deck and, best of all, a hot tub. My junior year was going to be great. My parents don’t even have a hot tub, I thought.
I had traded the George Foreman grill for real pots and pans, oversized speakers for a desktop, and hacky sacks for a longboard. But little changed. The best week- ends were those when my parents arrived with a bag of groceries and stuck around long enough to help me catch up on dirty laundry. And my roommate’s parents, who lived across town, served as my second home.
Many incoming freshmen will adjust fine to those first years of college, and the rest of us should learn from them. Because the rest of us, once confident teen- agers driving across the country in a vehicle filled with all our belongings, soon realized we don’t really own anything and know even less. We continued to lean on our parents, who were less impressed by the broken hot tub in the backyard than ensuring that their children survived.
Good luck out there in the real world, freshmen. Pro tip: Leave your lava lamp and black light posters at home.
BY TIM BALDWIN
World Net Daily recently posted an article that described Donald Trump as a political warrior. The polls reflect that Trump’s leadership, in reality, overshadows all other Republican candidates. Trump isn’t alone here. Bernie Sanders displays daunting leadership, too. But unlike Trump, media give Sanders no attention or pres- idential viability. Curious, given notable predictions that Hillary’s campaign will flop and Sander’s growing pop- ulist appeal.
It may be surprising to see similarities between these two leaders — one a capitalist, the other a socialist. Both strongly appeal to the middle class; are not “bought” by elites; support controlling immigration; oppose NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership; support individuals’ gun rights; are anti-establishment; and not afraid to run as Independents.
If Trump’s popularity sustains, but for some reason he is not the Republican nominee, Trump may extend his popularity by running third party. If Sanders meets the same fate of not being the Democrat nominee, Trump and Sanders could join forces. This dynamic-duo ticket could prove a powerful third-party ticket against what would likely be entrenched establishment candidates, like Bush and Biden.
Would Trump and Sanders be able to successfully challenge the two-party monopoly America has had most of its life? Their warrior leadership suggests, yes. In that case, Trump and Sanders would represent much more than a presidential race. They would represent what people want most: freedom from corrupt politics.
BY JOE CARBONARI
Donald Trump had to run for president. It was
a simple business decision. Donald Trump’s busi- ness is The Donald Trump Show. It is all about Donald Trump. Running for president, and losing with style, is the business plan. It is not a net loss but rather a gain for the Trump Show. It ups his celebrity status. It plays to his ego. It is good for Donald Trump. For the American people, it should be unthinkable. Ironically, not thinking seems to be involved.
Intuition, how you feel about a candidate, may lead a vote, but only if not overwhelmed by energy. If a candidate taps a strong vein of shared emotion within you, say anger or frustration, intuition can be ignored. Actually thinking about the suitability of a candidate who emotionally triggers a vote may never take place. It is irresponsible and self-indul- gent. Trump is a threat to all of us.
Donald Trump’s style is not unlike that of a bully. He is also loud-mouthed. He makes some of the other candidates look weak. He could make some important others, world leaders, look weak, too. In a volatile world this is gasoline. Trump goes to Teheran, Trump goes to Moscow, Trump goes to China.
Hotels and casinos are Trump’s milieu. He knows the businesses, he knows the people and he knows his role. It is where he belongs. He should return.
AMERICAN RURAL DIANE SMITH DEPENDING ON AN UPGRADE
I
Cursors disappear for no reason. Documents are in unfamiliar files. Even as I write this, I’m nervous that another mystery keystroke might eat this sen- tence. My mobile phone is to the left of me, tablet to the right, yet here I am, stuck in the middle with a Sony Vaio that’s clearly Windows 10 intolerant.
It reminds me of how deeply dependent we’ve become on technology. To do our work, connect with our friends, shop, read...the list goes on. In fact, I believe that we rural and small town users are even more dependent on our technology than our big city neighbors. If folks in a big city want to read the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, they can find a hard copy. If they want to buy the latest gizmo, they can go to the Apple store and bring it on home. If they need a doctor, there’s one down the street.
Out here, we’re downloading our daily newspapers,
making purchases online, using cutting edge virtual technologies for healthcare, being part of the remote workforces of major corporations.
That’s why the challenge of technology infrastruc- ture is so important to us in rural and small towns. We use it all. We are uniquely dependent on the wired net- works that deliver vast amounts of data and video as well as the cell phone networks that keep us constantly connected and the wifi networks that we all use in our homes and at our favorite coffee shops.
The last major rewrite of the Communications Act was signed into law in 1996. It includes a vitally important requirement, “Consumers in all regions of the Nation, including low-income consumers and those in rural, insular, and high cost areas, should have access to telecommunications and information services ... that are reasonably comparable to those services provided in urban areas and that are avail- able at rates that are reasonably comparable to rates charged for similar services in urban areas.”
Here’s a promise: That one sentence will become increasingly important to us all in the coming years.
Let’s hope it works out better than my latest upgrade.
HAVE SPENT THE PAST SEVERAL DAYS TRYING to reclaim my laptop from its so-called upgrade
to Microsoft Windows 10. It was supposed to be so easy. Yet here I sit, feeling like Bruce Willis in an early Die Hard, beat up and huddled in the elevator shaft muttering with dripping sarcasm, “Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs ...” Bwahahaha!
Diane Smith is the founder and CEO of American Rural where she works to create greater awareness of the growing opportunities for those who choose to live, work and prosper in rural and small town America. Learn more about Diane by following her column here or visit American Rural at AmericanRural.org.
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AUGUST 26, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM