Letters to the editor July 21

Senior center

I am writing about the senior citizen center. We used to have a very nice place in the dining room where we could eat our lunch and then play bingo. Now they want to change all that.

They want to let us eat lunch in the dining room, and then if we want to play bingo, we have to go to the activity room, which is across the hallway. We have to set up tables and chairs and then when we are finished we have to put all the tables and chairs away.

I’m 90 years old and unable to put up tables and chairs. There are even people older than I am. 

I cannot understand why it can’t be like it used to be. The time used to be 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., and then it went to 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., which is way too late for some people. 

Why can’t we just stay in the dining room and eat and then play bingo? All in the same room; that makes sense to me.

— Emily Combs, Kalispell

Consider a different path

I voted for Alani Bankhead in the Democratic primary because I didn’t think the alternative was the better choice. That said, she wasn’t my first choice — Seth Bodnar was, but he wasn’t on the ballot. I had hoped Bankhead would recognize that much of her support came from voters looking for an alternative rather than from broad enthusiasm for her candidacy, and that she would step aside to give the strongest possible candidate a chance to turn the Senate seat purple.

Then, trying to understand her vision for flipping the seat from the MAGA stranglehold, I watched a recent podcast where she said her plan to win the election was to ask everyone who voted for her to donate $5. Bankhead raised $45,000 in the second quarter of fundraising. Grassroots fundraising has its place. But this isn’t the kind of money that makes this seat competitive, no matter how much activists may want it to be. Bodnar raised the majority of his $1.9 million in the second quarter from individual donations. Unfortunately, this is the money needed to flip this seat.

Are we better off putting parties over country? Tilting at Bernie’s windmills even though I’ve seen firsthand Montana change over the past six years? As a Democrat, I can clearly see that the only path for our values to survive is for anyone but MAGA to win this seat. 

Democrats are outnumbered in this state. The population of disappointed Republicans appears to be growing. It could be any number of reasons in Trump’s second term. Trump ran as a populist. Instead, he and his family commit breath-taking corruption to enrich themselves; fleece the Treasury with legislation that has focused on giving a small number of billionaires more money; cost the rest of us thousands in tariffs and inflation, and has other insane policies that hurt wide swaths of people from farmers to the self-employed. 

Many independents and Republicans are looking for a different path and are not going to vote for Bankhead. They might consider Bodnar. I’m supporting independent Seth Bodnar and hope that Bankhead will find a way to do the same. 

— Stacy Rye, Missoula

Molnar’s conduct

Brad Molnar: The trouble you are in is trouble you caused yourself. It has nothing to do with the utility merger or any other of your votes or public discussion about your votes. 

You had internal and external investigations that agreed on the accusations of sexual harassment, retaliation and more — based on witness testimony and written documentation. Despite a complete lack of evidence to support your made-up story about being framed, you continue with your tall tales. If you face the reality of your unprofessional and illegal conduct, that will be a meaningful start to your redemption and your victim’s restoration.

— Julie Baldridge, Kalispell