What has happened to you, Sandpoint?

Dear Sandpoint,

What happened to you? You used to be so kind, independent, unafraid of your neighbors … but you're becoming suspicious, insulting, and aggressive … and based on unproven people; people you have never loved beside, who don't go to school, or fish, or hunt, or ski, with your families, some with whom you've shared for generations.

Look out your window. Don't listen to anyone who tells you to believe atrocities that you surely know are outrageous. There is room for the person angry they saved all their lives to have it taken, or saved for decades to retire on the lake and who've been priced out by new wealth.

There is room for those who think sharing is prudent so that no one in want is wanting yours. There is room for those who ache for those who get turned away from the hospital because they can't afford the deductible for their chemo treatment, and so work to help them. Open your hearts again.

Let go of the desire to punish the things you cannot see or be certain of. The fears of prisons to lock each other up - you've already done it in your hearts. It's time to heal. It's time to see with your own eyes again, and trust. There's room for the old and the new with a return to the independent spirit of Sandpoint.

LORI REID

Ponderay