Letters to the editor July 6

The dollar bill

To begin to understand the American revolution, you only need to look at the back of a dollar bill. 

The right side depicts the front and the left side depicts the back of the Great Seal of the United States. This seal was created by Howard Thompson, one of the lesser-known founding fathers, and approved by Congress in 1782.

On the front of the Great Seal we see an American bald eagle bearing on its breast a shield with 13 vertical stripes; clutching in its left talon 13 arrows and it its right talon an olive branch. The eagle’s head is turned right toward the olive branch; a scroll held in the eagle’s beak bears the familiar motto E Pluribus Unum; and a crest above the eagle’s head contains 13 stars from which the light of “glory” shines through a cloud. This is our nation’s official coat of arms.

All thirteens represent the 13 original American states. The Latin motto E Pluribus Unum expresses the joining of. Those states into one nation. The shield is born on the breast of an American eagle without any other supporters to denote that the United States of America ought to rely on their own virtue. The olive branch and arrows symbolize the power of peace and war which is exclusively vested in Congress. Symbolically, the right side is superior to the left side, and the eagle’s head is turned to the olive branch, the symbol of peace, rather than to the arrows, because we fight wars for the sake of peace.

On the reverse side of the Great Seal we see an unfinished pyramid. At the top in the zenith, an eye in a triangle surrounded by a light of glory. Over the eye, are these words “Annuit Coeptis,” which means in Latin, “He approves of what has been started.” At the base of the pyramid, we see the Latin numbers MDCCLXXVI for 1776; and underneath the motto “Novus Ordo Seclorum,” which means the “New Order of the Ages.”

The pyramid signifies the strength and duration of the new American republic. The eye over it and the motto refer to the many signs of divine providence in favor of the American cause. The date underneath is the date of the Declaration of Independence and the words below it signify the beginning of the new American era that begins in1776.

We still live in the new American era. Like the unfinished pyramid under the eye of God, the earthly work of American freedom, aspiring to be worthy of divine approval, is always unfinished.

­— Ted Morton, Whitefish

Gun safety

Having grown up in a place where hunting and target shooting were fun activities to participate in, my father always stressed the importance of gun safety.

Our newest senator, Sen. Tim Sheehy, having served in the military would have appeared to have been instructed in firearm safety. But with the two latest incidents involving exploding ammunition and continuing to still use it speaks for itself. Not to mention the Glacier Park incident in 2024 with the mishandled handgun incident resulting in a questionable injury. At least he was lucky enough to parachute into Glacier National Park.

­— Lewis Moore, Rollins