Letters for June 27, 2023

Reading options at City Council meetings

Recently, I read that reading the Bible at City Council meetings is related to city business as a “way to determine our beliefs and views.” What a marvelous idea!

In that spirit, I happily volunteer to read from the Vedas, the Quran, the IChing and any other religious texts to help make that determination.

When’s the next meeting?

Bill Todd

Spokane

Joe Biden proven incompetent

Joe Biden’s decisions on immigration, Afghanistan, student loans, our economy and clean air have proven him a bumbling incompetent. When Biden announced his mandate for electric vehicles, the price of fuel increased over $1/gallon, followed by record high inflation, making electric vehicles more acceptable. Electric vehicles are impractical. Their battery technology is flawed, making them a dangerous fire hazard. Their increasing use will place an added load on an already overloaded electrical grid. Electric vehicles are unnecessary, there are numerous alternative fuels.

Biden’s financial policies resulted in three bank failures, an unstable economy with record high inflation and increasing interest rates.

The increase in gun violence shows that gun control laws don’t prevent or reduce gun violence. Most rearrested felons possess illegal firearms. Gun control laws don’t work! Biden’s assault weapon ban is unconstitutional and a violation of his oath of office.

The Department of Injustice definitely has a double standard. One for members of the political establishment and one for nonmembers. President Trump should be thanked, not prosecuted for service to our country by keeping sensitive documents from Biden.

Arlie Kellogg

Sandpoint

There’s a need for ranked choice voting

About 350 years ago, in an age of constant strife when power and truth belonged to princes and priests, two English philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, professed two very different “social contracts.” Hobbes argued people live in a constant state of war driven by personal and tribal struggles for power, and peace could only be brought about by a sovereign monarch with irrevocable powers. Locke believed people are equal and independent, that they naturally respect each other’s rights to life, liberty and property, and give consent to the formation of impartial institutions to resolve disputes, i.e. governments.

Fortunately, our Founding Fathers adopted Locke’s social contract. And in a further rejection of Imperial rule, they diffused power between the states and a central government, and divided the central government’s power among three separate branches. They built a social contract requiring cooperation and compromise.

Our political parties, which were NOT part of their vision, are obsessed with power and a “winner take all” mentality. Today’s political duopoly is good at raising money but terrible at governing. These corrupt organizations, which are the antithesis of Lockean philosophy, have rigged the rules to perfect their power. To crush this duopoly, we must follow Alaska’s lead. Idaho needs open primaries and both Washington and Idaho need rank choice voting. All citizens, regardless of party affiliation, must be intentional in promoting Locke’s “social contract” lest we completely devolve into a Hobbesian hellscape.

Jim Baumker

Liberty Lake