| Letters
to the editor from this week's Chronicle:
Our State Needs to Solve Rural Idaho’s Broadband Problem NOW
By: State Senator Carl Crabtree
Insufficient broadband in rural Idaho is putting our students, businesses,
and communities at a significant disadvantage. I am working hard to get
more of this essential to the people living outside the major metro areas.
Our government needs to work with businesses to take sound economic action
now for the sake of Idaho’s small towns.
I am a part of the new Idaho Broadband Task Force. The Task Force includes
legislators, internet providers, universities, tribes, and others. We’re
working on improving connectivity and internet infrastructure across the
state, but it’s especially important that we improve rural Idaho’s connectivity.
We will provide a final report to the governor in November proposing action
for the next legislative session in 2020, if that’s what is required.
We are living in the information age. Broadband is as critical to a
community now, as the railroad was in the late 1800’s, or rural electrification
in the mid-1900’s. If communities don’t have reliable and fast internet
access, they are cut off from the rest of the state and the rest of the
world. Without this resource, people will have little choice but to move
to bigger cities where they can get connected, leaving our rural communities
to shrink and become even more isolated.
For those who live in cities, you may not know that rural students,
ranchers, timber operators, and farmers are constantly battling slow internet
service and coverage gaps. For instance, one of the schools in my district
got free Chromebooks. Everyone was excited, until they realized their Internet
access was so slow, they couldn’t use them all at once and now have to
take turns. That’s just one example of people around here getting saddled
with a competitive disadvantage because of where they live. Businesses
often can’t communicate with consumers, students can’t do their homework,
and rural safety is compromised. How long until they all get fed up and
move out? We’re already seeing young people avoiding our communities because
of the digital isolation. We’re missing out on economic opportunities,
and our population is aging.
We need immediate action, but the government will not and should not
fix this on its own. Through business incentives and partnerships, we can
save your tax dollars while greatly improving Idaho’s rural broadband infrastructure.
While this task is critical, the last thing we need to do is be irresponsible
with your money.
Broadband internet access is critical to education, commerce, and a
high quality of life. But, in rural Idaho, our connective infrastructure
is lagging behind and it’s putting businesses and students at a tremendous
disadvantage. Broadband is not the future, it’s the present, and rural
Idaho is stuck in the past whether we like it or not! We need to improve
our connectivity now, and put all of Idaho on a level playing field. If
we don’t, our small towns might not have much of a future.
Dear Editor:
If you would be so kind, I would like it to become far more widely
known that there has been building here within the inland northwest another
situation that could yet prove as volatile and dangerous as were those
of Bunkerville, Nevada and Burns, Oregon a few short years ago. At
issue here and now, is the rightful, lawful ownership of the Nick and Donna
Nickerson Christian Retreat Ranch acreage, located in the vicinity of Orofino,
Idaho. Owing to a long progression of capricious, "legal" actions
on the part of JPMorgan Chase Bank and PHH Mortgage Services (as sanctioned
by a Clearwater County Court judge and its prosecuting attorney), this
property and the lives of this family have continued under siege.
What needs to be seriously weighed and understood by all, is the REAL WHY
of the matter, seeing as neither any sort of tax protest nor mortgage default
has ever been involved.
Spanning already a decade of time, it's indeed a long and arduous story,
the details of which anyone can learn by visiting www.ithappenedtous.com.
Suffice it to say here that in August of 2017, this ranch was sold
at public auction, and for just over a third of its assessed value.
In my opinion, here is what should most gravely concern every freedom-loving
American: Constitutionally-mandated due process was never followed
in this case, most notably in that, thanks to complicity of action between
the banking establishment and local court authority, the Nickersons' 7th
Amendment-guaranteed right of Trial by Jury has been resolutely denied
them. The good Sheriff involved, "accidentally forgetting" (we might
say) his unique, supreme power and duty as chief protector and law enforcer
over all official matters within his county, mistakenly believed that he
had to follow the judge's order, and thus conduct the sale. Clearly,
he did not, however, and so every action that has gone down, subsequent
to the denial of constitutional due process, must now be declared null
and void, and reversed. We the People must see to it, lest anyone
of us be next!
As merely one concerned citizen, I am appealing to all like-minded
friends and neighbors to come stand together both for the personal protection
of this besieged family, as well as to support and encourage the duly-elected
Sheriff, that he might be courageous enough to correct the errors made
in this case, and properly move it forward by means of his lawful directives.
Lastly, I appeal very specially to the three elected Clearwater County
Commissioners, asking that they personally stand forth and take their places
as leading exemplars in this critical matter and time.
Thank you, and blessings to all!
Carol J. Asher
Kamiah
Redneck Review!
No. 224 - 8/11/2019
Today's review involves a claim "There is no middle ground!"
politically, economically, or morally concerning much of the news thrown
at us on TV and from the press today.
Granted that human nature tends to push individuals to the middle
ground, away from the opposing antagonists fighting it out over one cause
or another. I have found myself in that position before, not wanting
to get involved and off the sidelines! Today's news does give an individual
no option however. The choice is clear, and there really is no middle ground!
Clearly the battle ground today, and tomorrow is over who will control
the presidency during the next term, as well as the House, the Senate,
and indirectly the Supreme Court and our court system. The battle is between
those who consider themselves LIBERAL, and those who claim to be
CONSERVATIVE, associated with the terms, on the LEFT or the RIGHT!
Where does the difference between the two sides show up? The
LEFT caters to those who believe that times change, and that laws
and policies should adjust to new challenges and situations. The
term "relativism" is used here based on certain basic beliefs: "That
views are to be evaluated relative to the society in which they appear,
and are not to be judged true or false based on absolute standards...Man
is considered the measure of all things." When applied to law, "relativism"
is called "legal positivism," and according to constitutional law professor
John Eidsmoe, it has the following characteristics: "1) There are no objective,
God-given standards of law, at least that are relative to the modern legal
system. 2)The author of law then is not God, but man with the highest human
authority being the state which makes the law and backs it up. 3)Since
man and society evolve, the law must evolve as well. 4)Judges guide
this evolution by decisions based on society at the time." (Taken from
the book, Original Intent, by David Barton.)
Politically, this LIBERAL side supports pure DEMOCRACY, illustrated
by: People-->Gov, with the majority of the people deciding what laws
should be passed and enforced. The state or national government is
the enforcing vehicle, and the courts make the evolving decisions. SECULARISM
is the morality involved, denying any real influence of a governing god,
and SOCIALISM is the economics of choice since the state becomes the vehicle
entrusted with creating equality of living conditions for all of the people.
In complete opposition is the CONSERVATIVE side which holds that certain
ABSOLUTES associated with a creator and loving GOD are unchanging and should
govern the behavior of all people, at all times and in all situations.
The traditional TEN COMMANDMENTS and the GREATEST COMMANDMENT, traced back
to the God man, Christ Himself, "You shall love God with your whole heart
and soul, and your neighbor as yourself" dictates a concern for all
fellow human beings, and responsible use of private property to provide
for oneself and one's family, and those fellow citizens who are unable
to care for themselves. FREE ENTERPRISE or CAPITALISM is the economic system
consistent with this belief, while politically, the term REPUBLIC represented
by: God-->People-->Gov best illustrates where the source of good
law originates and who really should be in charge! So each of us
must decide!
Who supports abortion, and which side supports life? Which group
preaches LOVE, and treasures individual differences, and which side stresses
HATE of all who dare to disagree! Which results in freedom and prosperity,
and which results in starvation and regimentation?
Jake Wren |
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