Letters for May 20

Washington officials show courage

I’m disappointed but not surprised to hear Spokane’s former U.S. Attorney Jim McDevitt (Letters, May 6) urge our state to bend a knee to President Donald Trump’s overreaching efforts to arrest immigrants in Washington state.

I compliment Washington Attorney General Nick Brown for asserting our state’s sanctuary powers against federal overreach, providing a wall against Trump’s lawlessness.

Federal judges nationwide, including those appointed by Trump, are ruling against Trump’s weaponized Justice Department for seizing and deporting people without due process. Yet McDevitt sides with rural sheriffs in Adams County who are eager to cooperate with ICE and Homeland Security agents, some masked like fascist goons in authoritarian countries.

Even the “worst of the worst,” which McDevitt baselessly asserts are the sole targets of these federal agents, deserve due process under our Constitution. People cannot be labeled in advance as deportable without this basic legal protection.

McDevitt, a Republican, promotes a “duck and cover” state response to federal overreach, saying we’d be safe from Trump if we just complied with his mandates and stayed out of the Department of Justice’s “crosshairs.”

Nothing could be further from the raw truth of the authoritarian playbook. History shows that such compliance only breeds further attacks on the rule of law.

Yale historian Timothy Snyder, in his books “On Tyranny” and “On Freedom,” says the opposite: “Do not obey in advance” when despotism threatens. I salute our Washington state officials for having the courage to resist.

Karen Dorn Steele

Spokane

Sand Lake trail restoration

Sand Lake is a popular fishing and huckleberry picking destination and the trail from the end of Forest Service Road 2670 off Elmira Road has been destroyed through a logging operation. Your help is needed to encourage the loggers who will be up there again within a week or two to clear it up again for the enjoyment of the public.

On a recent hike above the logging area, I got a nice overview of this recent over-story logging operation, which removes all trees over 7 inches diameter. I could see the darker demarcation line of older trees where logging stopped, which happens to be where this old established trail to Sand Lake used to be. From this eagle’s eye view, the logged over area didn’t look too bad, as logging trails were interspersed with swaths of remaining younger understory trees.

The logging operation was an Idaho Department of Lands endowment project, which raises funds for Idaho schools. Communication with Alta and IDL representatives was good and we were reassured that the loggers would try to preserve the trail to the lake as it had been used for many years for huckleberry pickers and fishermen alike. However, that was not the case as the trail is now completely obliterated under slash.

The loggers could clear the trail with the machinery that will be on the mountain shortly. If you are or have been using this trail in the past, please consider calling Luke at Alta, (360) 219-0008, and Jordan at IDL, (208) 263-5104, and encourage them to clear the trail for all to enjoy.

Gabrielle Duebendorfer

Sandpoint