‘Intrusion’ has history

Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo believe the federal government is intruding, and that the Non-Discrimination Act would be better handled by Idahoans?

Both men have good points, and we would all like to have a little less intrusion, but history points to a failure of some states to act for the good of their citizens. Had the federal government allowed states complete control, does anyone really believe we wouldn’t still have slavery in the Deep South? At the very least, if it wasn’t for the U.S. Supreme Court, you’d still have sections on a bus or in a restaurant that would be for “coloreds” only.

I’m neither gay, black or young; just an old-timer who has seen what happens when one group of people think they have all the answers for a Utopian world.

I was stationed in Huntsville, Ala., for six months in 1969, and what an eye-opener that was for a young kid who grow up in Southern California. Several years after the courts threw out segregation, it still hadn’t sunk in.

Yes, we’d all like a little less encroachment from Uncle Sam, but until we all have the same mindset, then someone has to make the big decisions.

Tom Zwart

Colville