OUR READERS SPEAK

By The Standard Staff - 03/05/2006

Kudos to those who support ‘Donna’s House’ Vera Haffey’s succession of articles on “Donna’s House” and the community youth center, shows that it truly does take a village to raise a child.

In these days where parents find themselves with jobs that have hectic schedules that don’t always accommodate an 8-to-4-job, it is an incredible service that the staff, volunteers, and those donating to these services are doing.

Kudos to those who are all involved or support upfront or behind the scenes.

Elizabeth O’Donnell 619 Front Street Butte It’s time to move on from BH, BC game Are we the only ones who think that Janie Payne’s statement in The Montana Standard March 2 about “wishing the stupid adults would get out of it” is somewhat hypocritical?

Maybe she needs to practice what she preaches.

As far as the county’s policies on religious expression, they are most likely the same as those stated in the United States Constitution, which guarantees the right to freedom of speech and religion.

Once the game was over, there were no fights, intimidation, or bullying from either side, so there is no need to investigate the district policy on these matters either.

The school district currently has enough to deal with without having to go on a trivial “fact finding mission.” The bottom line is, we are all just Butte kids, and there is no tension between us. The game is over, we had fun, and everyone has moved on.

Our sign that said “Jesus Loves Us For Free” was made by students who are Catholic, and even Father Vernon was proud to display it.

We cannot be responsible for people’s interpretation of our signs, but they were lighthearted and not meant to offend or “attack on a religious basis.” Since it has been three weeks since the game, it is probably time to get over it and stop making it into something it is not.

For the record, no Butte High students were given extra credit for attending the game. We don’t need to be bribed to support our student athletes, we do it because it’s fun.

Lastly, we would like to invite Janie Payne to sit with us at the next game. Her “Civic Center Psychos” T-Shirt is on us if she wants it.

So, lighten up and let it go. Remember, it was just a basketball game, and although we were separated into Butte Central and Butte High for two nights out of the year, we are all still Butte kids.

We would also like to congratulate Central on its performance at the State A Basketball Tournament. We are very proud of our fellow Butte kids.

Mollie Riordan, Kelly Driscoll, Brian Ellingwood and Ben Bersanti Levi is a Butte native, and a California resident In regards to the coverage of Levi Leipheimer in the Tour of California: I was born and raised in Butte and spent 18 years of my childhood in the Mining City.

I went to the University of Montana. I went on to careers that took me to three different cities before residing in Liberty Lake, Wash.

If someone were to ask me my hometown, I would reply Liberty Lake. My husband, David, and my two children, Sidney and Trey, will no doubt live here longer than I lived in Butte. Liberty Lake is where we own a house, go to work, send our kids to school, recreate and socialize — it is our hometown!

Now, if someone were to ask me where I was born and raised, I would reply Butte.

Levi Leipheimer is my second cousin and godchild. I have watched his skiing and cycling years throughout his life.

Early on, Levi had the opportunity to move to Whitefish to train with the Big Mountain Ski Team at age 14. Butte and the surrounding areas did not have a competitive coached ski team.

From there, at age 16, Levi moved to Salt Lake City to train at Rowland Hall St. Marks School. After graduating from High School in Salt Lake City, Levi headed to Belgium to begin his cycling career.

Levi knew the road ahead of him to become a competitive cyclist. Trying to make your way through the amateur cycling ranks in Europe is anything but easy.

Levi is a hard worker and always knew he wanted to be a professional cyclist since he watched Greg LeMond in the Tour de France. That was when he was 13 years old. How many of us can say we have had a goal since we were 13 and achieved the goal. That is determination.

Levi has resided in Santa Rosa, Calif., for more than 10 years. The last time he could say that he lived in Butte was 15 years ago.

Santa Rosa is where he and his wife, Odessa and their two dogs and 11 cats eat, sleep, train and socialize. It is their home. Now, if you were to ask Levi where he was born and raised, he would reply Butte.

When I know that Levi is racing whether it is the Tour of California, Tour of Switzerland or Tour De France, I used to always look at The Montana Standard webpage to find the coverage only to be disappointed.

I have another site that I can go to where the coverage is consistent www.pressdemocrat.com. This site is the newspaper for Santa Rosa.

Levi’s hometown newspaper seems to cover his accomplishments, however the town where he was born and lived for 14 years fails because of a local newspaper influenced and infused with writers that have not left Butte nor know what it is like to live and achieve a personal life goal.

Teresa (Teri) Campana-Orr Liberty Lake, Wash.

Good stewards don’t fence out animals Allow me to take exception to these quotes from Terry Anderson’s editorial: “Unguided hunters are not necessarily more effective at taking animals than are guided ones.

“Opening access to such places through Montana’s stream access law or opening ranch lands under the new five-week season will discourage such stewardship.” Before addressing these issues, allow me to offer my opinion that many ranchers are indeed stewards of the land, but unfortunately, many are not.

I appreciate the local ranchers who open their grounds to block management and allow access.

Conversely, I deplore people who set up fences that disrupt migrations of game animals as some did recently west of Anaconda. Pretty poor stewardship, in my book.

Ted Turner as a steward? Anyone remember his fences? Perhaps a good steward doesn’t let animals roam wild.

The comment that Montana hunters need guides is both inane and insulting. Does Mr. Anderson think that if we have to pay $3,000 for a guided hunt to take an elk it’ll improve our chances?

Maybe PERC will send me a check for $3,000 and I’ll put that to the test.

Don’t bother contesting Montana’s Stream Access law. We passed it fair and square and for good reason.

I have a lot of respect for private land ownership. What I have a problem with is Anderson’s conceptualization of public lands as being nothing more than an economic asset.

Anderson wants to make our public lands a money making proposition, and the people who are now used to accessing public properties should look at every tree and squirrel for its market potential.

Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I really can’t understand how we need an economics professor to determine how we use our public lands.

Ken Schmidt 2906 N. Cable Road Anaconda It’s time to impeach President Bush I’ve just signed the ACLU’s petition to Congress demanding that the administration tell the people the truth about President Bush’s use of illegal NSA/FBI spying on Americans.

The president and his puppet attorney general have condemned anyone who has questioned their illegal spying programs.

People concerned about the attack on the Bill of Rights contained within the USA Patriot Act are viewed as obstacles to another successful Karl Rove election campaign based on spreading fear and nationalistic hysteria.

It’s time we demand the House of Representatives fulfill its constitutional duties, investigate our lawless executive, and begin impeachment proceedings.

Despite the recent anti-ACLU letter from a reader whose head is deeply buried, members of the president’s own party are demanding a full congressional inquiry into the warrantless NSA domestic spying.

I’m proud to support the American Civil Liberties Union. We don’t need to relive the “Red Scare” days of Wilson, McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO.

Why should we believe that Karl Rove wasn’t listening to all the Kerry campaign phone calls in 2004?

Why should we believe that Bush and Cheney are not engaged in a political conspiracy that makes Watergate small potatoes?

Have these folks done anything to earn our trust? The Katrina tapes are just the latest in a cascade of revelations of how we have been lied to.

The ACLU is leading the way in a patriotic effort to preserve our democracy. It is past time to show Bush and Cheney that no one is above the law.

George H. Waring 518 West Granite St.

Butte