Political Leanings…

Dear Editor,

I [feel] the need to get something off my chest and give my opinion as to your informative neighborhood paper.

I moved to this beautiful area of Idaho a little over a year ago and feel lucky to live in the Sandpoint area but am so surprised of just how left this paper leans week after week. In fact, I got a good laugh at Jim Ramsey’s article of how this state has turned so conservative right. Really?

I hear so many of your contributors write from a position of guilt and/or emotion instead of a position of common sense, and I think it’s a reflection of what’s also happened in this wonderful country. Now, that’s just my opinion.

I think it’s sad that so many people have become so “politically correct” that if I don’t like President Obama’s policies, or if I think that the “Black Lives Matter” movement is divisive, I’m a racist. If I don’t agree with a person with male genitalia going into a bathroom with my daughter, I’m a homophobe. If I don’t want to see “illegal” immigration or unvetted refugees coming to this country, I’m anti-immigration, and the list goes on.

I’m a former Marine, former police officer and former sub-contractor for the U.S.M.S. I’m not a Democrat or a Republican. I’m a conservative, and if a gay, black, female Democrat was running for President, and I thought she was the right choice for this country, I’d vote for her, not on emotion or because I’m feeling guilty, but on common sense because I do love this country.

Cliff Kattner
Sandpoint

Cliff,

Thank you for writing. Let me set something straight: the Reader is a newspaper written by and for the community in which it is located. I don’t tell our readers what to write when contributing an opinion or commentary piece. I never solicit a certain opinion from our readers. If you think the paper leans one direction or another, by all means, write your own article and submit it. Your argument about the Reader leaning left holds as much water as someone who complains about politics but doesn’t vote. If you’d like to see something different, take action and send me something from your point of view. Otherwise, welcome to Sandpoint. I’m sure youíll find that this is a diverse community with many, many viewpoints.

-Ben Olson, Publisher