| Letters
to the editor from this week's Chronicle
To the Editor
Is Private Property Public?
Many civic leaders in Idaho and other
States have issued Orders during the past 9 months affecting property
or what happens on property. Do such orders apply to public or
private property or both? Public property is purchased, controlled, and maintained by tax dollars. Private property is purchased, controlled, and maintained by individual effort and money. If I bake cakes, cakes are my property. If I raise cows, cows are my property. If I raise tomatoes, tomatoes are my property. Property isn’t physical items alone. Since life requires ceaseless effort to maintain, men and women apply their faculties, thoughts, and reason to provide. From this production stems properties: a person’s speech, press, conscience, individuality, beliefs, etc; besides the normally thought of property like tools, equipment, animals, land, or a home. By observation, some civic leaders treat private property as ‘public property’ (ask restaurant owners, potato farmers, hair stylists, and exercise professionals, etc.). How can this be? If so, it follows that private property isn’t private. Why? Private property requires 1) the right to own one’s production/property and 2) the control of one’s production/property. Logically then, private property, when controlled by a civic leader is not private anymore, but seized property. I think this is a slippery slope; when civic leader(s) directly or indirectly seek to control private property, property that they (civic leaders) did not previously purchase, control, or maintain. Scott Perrin Cottonwood Idaho
The
above editorial cartoon, which originally appeared in USA Today was
submitted by former resident Jim Reed with permission from the
cartoonist, Dave Granlund.
Redneck Review! No. 290 – 11/16/2020 Wow! What a week! Two almost totally unrelated events happened in the past seven days, both of which definitely demanded one's attention! The first event DID TAKE PLACE at Moscow's Kibbie Dome last Friday, pitting two of our area's top football teams against opponents from the south. Kendrick's game had to be postponed until Monday of this week because of weather stopping the visiting team! But the other game did take place and the results would boggle the mind of any Hollywood writer! Cottonwood's Prairie High School, undefeated and ranked No.1, and defending its state championship finish last year, found itself up against the a team they had defeated last year, Oakley, and had met before in earlier years. The result was nearly unbelievable, as the local Pirates, beat up badly before the game with the earlier loss of Sports Illustrated recognized Cole Martin as a top high school football player to a season ending injury in the first game, and another devastating injury to All Idaho lineman Dean Johnson, a dislocated ankle and other injuries in the championship's first series, played the entire game missing three starters, John Gehring also had gone down half way through the season, with a season ending injury! Prairie was also handicapped by the fact that football's "mercy rule," a running clock when a team was ahead by 45 points at half time, meant that Prairie starters played very little in the second half. With Oakley's line weighing roughly 15 lbs per man more than the Prairie line, and with the Oakley depth, nearly 40 dressed for the game, numbering about 10 more than Prairie, the local team's lead of 28 - 20 looked very small for the second half! But the drama had only begun, as the battered Pirates from Prairie hanged tough all second half and after unbelievable plays now and then, still found themselves only down by two points 42 - 40 in the last several minutes of play. Clutch 4th down plays, penalties overcome, even the loss of another Prairie big man in the last quarter, all failed to stop a long drive to the end zone and with less than a minute to play, the local Pirates found themselves with a first down at the one yard line. Two center plunges nibbled on the goal line, but a third attempt on a different count caused a fumble, to be recovered by the Oakley team, and GAME OVER! A couple of "knees" and the local dream of a "Repeat" championship was gone in a flash! And a super impressive and gutsy performance against all odds left both the fans and players PROUD! Why all the detail? Because the second event which hit our area and state last week was a reduced Corona status from three to a two+. Area teams are told there should be no fans or at the very most, very limited family fans for all coming basketball games, the girls' season starting this week! No attempt to criticize our governor here! We all know the pressure put on officials to keep people safe! BUT I for one think it is ridiculous! No time to do math here, but the constant headlines of MORE CORONA STRIKES always seem to omit the death ratio, which is very small and falling, and which is COMPLETELY OUT OF STEP WITH the REALITY OF AREAS LIKE OUR OWN! As discussed here last week, it is the people in each area who should make the decisions to attend or not attend games, to wear or not wear masks, to stay home to be safe or attend at one's own risk. Those players in last week's championship games knew the risk of playing a bruising game like football. Players have even died playing games! But life is full of risks anytime anyway, from car wrecks to casualties in war, soldiers who volunteer lose their lives defending their country! Decisions from the top are not only a violation of the First Amendment, but are out of sync with our way of life here in this area! I for one say: IT HAS TO STOP! Otherwise it can be predicted that even the promise of a vaccine will not prevent more Corona in the future, and we will be doing the same for years to come! Jake Wren |
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