Facts, not rhetoric, should guide decisions
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Editor,
It’s great when an apparent adversary unwittingly agrees with you and then supports your points by overstating the obvious with innuendo (yes, the First Amendment is alive and well in the Mission Valley, thanks to the Valley Journal granting equal opportunity airtime for unsupported opinions – and like belly buttons, everyone has one). Unfortunately, opinions apparently seldom require, nor are based upon, facts; rhetoric and warm milk and cookies will suffice.
The chasm between opinion and fact is something even Evel Knievel wouldn’t attempt to jump, but that hasn’t stopped an illustrious few.
The $100,000 Orton grant is a “matching” grant. Translated, that means it comes with strings (some still remain nebulous, cloaked in silence): the city of Polson must match the first $25,000 with cash and the remaining $75,000 “in kind,” with write-offs for volunteer labor and such, to receive their prize, which reportedly is to pay (pay with $200,000?) for the Native American tradition of storytelling and other miscellaneous activities over the next two years. While the city council was aware of these conditions, it was apparently not made publicly available to the citizens of Polson or the public at large. Elsa Duford, at the last city council meeting discussion period, requested more time for the public to study this partnership (grant) but the “fix” was in and the council voted to unanimously accept the grant – a foregone conclusion since the two-year clock on the grant had already begun the month before.
So, I ask myself, what else is being innocently withheld from public view and appropriate public consideration before acted upon, and in how many parliamentary ways can the city government abuse the public’s trust? Is the “public” deemed not capable of evaluating programs that will affect them, so why bother them with the information or facts? It’s an interesting concept, but not a new one — just polished and recycled policies from days gone by, sustainability in action through a carefully orchestrated recycle program.
Michael Gale
Ronan
