OUR READERS SPEAK

By The Standard Staff - 02/17/2006

Senators need to support Libby trust fund This is a response to the front page Montana Standard article of Feb. 06, “Ads press Burns over Libby bill.” I’m an advocate for all the victims of asbestos-related illness caused by the corporate deceit and greed of the companies that mined, milled and sold their asbestos-laden products.

Groups, such as Americans for Job Security of Alexandria, Va., do not need to disclose where they got their funding for the ads on television. I and others know who pays for all the ads; the corporate companies which have to pay into the $140 billion trust fund.

We don’t need Americans for Job Security or any other outside groups to try to influence our senators Max Baucus and Conrad Burns to opposethis bill.

This bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Arlen Specter, a Republican, and Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, is being debated in the Senate this month.

The past and present systems are not adequate and equitable in this asbestos crisis.

My wife and I traveled to Missoula to look at and talk with others at the “Breath Taken” asbestos exhibit.

We also made the trip to Libby to talk with people and some of the professional staff at the asbestos clinic.

I say this to the outside groups such as Americans for Job Security. Don’t waste your corporate funded dollars trying to defeat legislation that if passed, will help the many thousands who have asbestos induced illnesses.

Use your money to protect jobs here in America (for legalized citizens) from all the illegal aliens coming to our country and all the American companies that are outsourcing our and your jobs to China, Mexico, India, etc.

Bush and his corporate pals, all seem to oppose legislation that would benefit and protect the blue collar workers of America.

Any group who opposes this bill, would not do so if they or one of their loved ones had asbestos induced illness.

This bill offers the best hope of providing equitable compensation and expediting the review process, not only in Libby, but wherever in the United States.

Andrew Sickich 3758 Wylie Drive Helena Gun-handler is responsible for accidental shooting The media is jumping on Vice President Cheney, not the gun, for accidentally shooting his hunting partner.

The media jumped on the bad gun, not the would-be assassin when he intentionally shot President Reagan.

The media still calls for sympathy for the would-be assassin condemns the gun, ridicules the vice president and ignores the gun. In both cases did the gun do the shooting or did the human shoot the gun?

I was on the shooting end of World War II from Omaha Beach to the Elbe River. I was a machine gun officer when our combat engineer battalion was employed as infantry. The media often quotes some murderer as saying, “The gun, it went off’ or something similar.

No gun “went off’ unless someone shot it. A gun will not fire unless it is loaded, off safety, and the trigger is pulled and it won’t hit some person unless it is pointed at them intentionally or accidentally.

In my peace-time target shooting and shooting in combat, I never experienced or know of a gun going off by itself.

I slept many hours sitting propped up against something with my M-1 .30 carbine’s butt on the ground and my hands over the muzzle and my chin resting on my hands.

Yes, a round in the chamber and on safety, I never carried a gun unless it was loaded, instantly ready to do what I wanted.

Conrad Hilpert 1300 W. Aluminum Butte