God Particle poses question

The Feb. 22 Dilbert cartoon raises a good question: What do we do with the Higgs Boson (otherwise known as the God Particle) once we can access it readily? We could use it to rearrange the subatomic structure of Iran, or any other country or individual that threatens world peace. Or, we could use it to create an unlimited source of power, thus making oil irrelevant.

Can flawed human beings be trusted with that kind of power? We did a great job of using the atom, didn’t we? Just saying.

Candy Frankel

Spokane

Restore presidential primary

The 2012 election is an extremely important one! Carrie Phillips, county election manager in Coeur d’Alene, said, “One thing the primary election ballot won’t include is the presidential candidates. New this year for Idaho is that both the Republicans and the Democrats will be holding county caucuses to determine party presidential candidates.”

In other words, the public is not allowed to pick the candidate of their choice. Instead, a group of caucuses (ahem – possibly the good ol’ boys) will pick the candidate for us.

There are a lot of citizens who will not be able to attend the caucuses because of disabilities, soldiers overseas, etc.

We feel that we are being robbed of our rights.

The polls are already funded, so the expense of putting the presidential candidates back on the ballot is very little.

If you feel as I do, please write (or call) Gov. Butch Otter, Office of the Governor, State Capitol, P.O. Box 83720, Boise, Idaho 83720.

Ask him to veto any repeal of the presidential preference primary law and tell him we want the right to choose for ourselves. Contact your state senators and representatives because they can help change this too. This needs to be done right away.

Anita Poland

Post Falls

Lawmakers aid special interests

Do you care about jobs? Do you want accountability and ethical behavior from your legislators? We have to help make it happen. The 2012 session of the GOP-dominated Idaho Legislature is half over. What is there to show for the hundreds of hours and thousands of taxpayer dollars wasted over the past six weeks?

Instead of working to put Idahoans back to work, the GOP spent weeks focused on removing the peaceful Occupy protesters from exercising their First Amendment rights on public land.

Instead of developing a state-based health care exchange that would have reduced costs for all Idahoans, they considered creating a special license plate whose proceeds would go directly to former congressman Bill Sali.

On issue after issue, the GOP chose to work for the benefit of their special interest donors, rather than work on legislation to make life better for average Idahoans. With only six weeks left in the session, we must let them know that we want more.

We want our legislators to look at ways to create more jobs, not dismiss proposals. We want them to consider ways to make legislators more accountable. We want better sunshine laws. We want them to do their work.

Cheryl D. Halverson

Tensed, Idaho