A Few Thoughts… On what we have now

By Sandy Compton
Reader Columnist

My last column prompted interesting letters to the editor, some of which weren’t printed because the writers didn’t wish to be in the public eye. One that did get published suggested the editor ban me because my views didn’t agree with theirs. They may wish to brush up on the Constitution, in which the First Amendment — the very first — guarantees freedom of speech and of the press. 

Trump and Vance took advantage of freedom of speech when they abused Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in front of millions of witnesses, but Trump wants to violate freedom of the press by hand-picking reporters who can ask him questions. And now, Trump treats with Putin — a murderous dictator — as Musk concentrates on putting thousands of good people out of work. You know some of them.

Meanwhile, a recent Sunday was the occasion for my semi-annual trip to Nespelem, the Colville Reservation village where Joseph of the Nez Perce is buried. He lies with others who landed there upon return from banishment to Oklahoma and several hundreds of their descendants. This was my 60th visit to honor an honorable man who was essentially a captive for the last half of his life, but never gave in to his captors. 

On my way, I traveled through Creston, Wash., a farm town 50 miles west of Spokane on U.S. Highway 2. There I saw a crude homemade sign featuring a red circle with a slash across it. In the circle were the words “liberal socialists.” This pissed me off for the insulting quality of the message, for the intolerance and hatred it signifies, and for its reminder of our tendency to blame our own problems on someone else. 

As I went on, I thought of many things we have in this country that are the result of “liberal socialist” thinking. 

I traveled on one of Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s interstate highways, built for the common good with taxpayer money. I crossed the Columbia River below Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Grand Coulee Dam on a steel girder bridge, both built for the common good with taxpayer money. I passed public schools and drove many miles on excellent secondary highways, all built for the public good with taxpayer money. I visited the National Park Service facility at the dam, a lovely example of education and commemoration built for the enjoyment of all with taxpayer money. 

I thought of other blessings we have that were built with taxpayer money: post offices, railroads, airports, harbors, ferry systems, much of our Western electrical grid, irrigation projects, the national defense system, state colleges and universities, all benefiting the common good. I also marveled at my ability to cross several significant borders without having to even slow down, much less stop and seek permission to enter — or leave. 

Looming behind that roadside symbol of willful ignorance at Creston were giant grain elevators to be filled again in the fall with wheat to be transported on public highways and subsidized railroads to places far and wide, including seaports built with the help of… well, you know. 

It occurred to me that without the efforts of “liberal socialism” all this would never have come to be. We might still be living in isolated villages trying to wrest a living from the earth as we could, suspicious of any stranger and casting bones to determine the future. 

Those who wish to rid themselves of “liberal socialists” — roughly translated as the Democratic Party — may wish to remember that countries with one-party systems include Stalin’s USSR, Putin’s Russian Federation, Communist China and Hitler’s Third Reich. In these one-party systems, many of the amenities were built with blood.