Letters for April 11

Response to Vestal column

“Idaho kids need protection from lawmakers, not librarians,” writes Spokesman-Review columnist Shawn Vestal (March 30). Regarding some of the things he read as a kid, he says, “I remember delighting in all the vulgarity and not really understanding all the drug use in the book, which I was doubtlessly too young to read.” He goes on to write that as a teenager he read more “adult material” with “cursing, foul language, depictions of sex, drug use and drinking, and notably, a disrespect for authority and other ideas that would have been considered dangerous or inappropriate ideas.” So, does he now as an all grown-up man and a “noted” columnist consider all this to be “inappropriate” for kids? No, indeed he writes that such things are “perfect for kids, in my view.”

Vestal lambasts lawmakers for not wishing such things to be readably available to kids, that librarians should be free to make them easily available for them. One wonders then, why did he not print some of these fine admirable choice morsels in this fine family-oriented newspaper if they are much to be desired for our poor deprived kids? Perhaps Mr. Vestal will be so kind as to inform his readers as to exactly when “mere” smut becomes pornography.

Ken Campbell

Deer Park

What NATO needs to do

Enough is enough! The United Nations NATO needs to gather 200,000 troops with full vehicle support and move through Ukraine pushing back or arresting all Russians troops until the country is free again.

The world must help stop this genocide.

James Richard Johnson

Clark Fork, Idaho