<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2745.2800" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>Vision 2020 is a forum for public debate. No single member is or
should be in a position to control the conversation, set the ground rules or
decide what is or is not a matter of interest or a worthy topic. .
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Silence is assent. If you doubt that, review the history of the
German people prior to World War II. Humor is a powerful weapon, even, or
perhaps especially, when it is pointed. It is one that I prefer to
use in the hope of deflecting the stones that will be literally
thrown by the enthusiastic supporters of a theocratic government, if their
political dreams come true. It is arguably easier to pretend that no
threat to our community and its citizens exist. I suppose it is less
threatening (on a personal level) to ignore the civic and social
impact of a hate group than to go head to head and toes to toes with their
leadership . I wouldn't know.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>For those that choose the path of moral cowardice,
apathy, or social convenience, based on an incredibly naive
lets-all-be-friends-together philosophy, know that you do it at the expense of
those of us who will not be intimidated, silenced, intellectually
befuddled by pseudo -religious babble. It is not an unpleasant
task to confront bigotry, racism, and homophobia. But it is a heavy
burden to tote that load for a bunch of self-styled liberals who have
the unmitigated gall to flap their ineffective wings like ostriches
from the moral high ground of their own self-righteous indignation
when their sensibilities are wounded.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There is a never ending laundry lists of projects or concerns that if
solved, or in some cases, even seriously addressed, would improve the
quality of life in Moscow and on the Palouse. All of these issues are
important. But I can promise you that if local government and civil
leaders are guided by a philosophy that doesn't support public schools, equal
employment opportunity for women and minorities, fair and equitable property
tax, city ordinances and county statues that are drawn not form Leviticus
but Idaho and U.S. code, none of you will give a damn about getting sidewalks
shoveled when it snows. By then, you will have more pressing issues on
your minds.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Rose Huskey</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And no, Dale Courtney, you do not have my permission to cut and paste this
onto your blog site.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Verdana size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">"One cannot
level one's moral lance at every evil in the universe. There are just too many
of them. But you can do something, and the difference between doing something
and doing nothing is everything." Daniel Berrigan<BR></FONT><FONT lang=0
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR></FONT></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>