Letter of Consideration Public Comment from Sally BeckerAimee Brunckhorst
From: Eric & Sally Becker <thebeckers@gorge.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2023 4:51 PM
To: Kalispell Meetings Public Comment; cocontactus@flathead.mt.gov
Subject: EXTERNAL Letter of Consideration
Dear Kalispell City Councilmembers and County Commissioners
Recently we moved back to Kalispell after being gone for 20 years. During our time away, we lived in beautiful
cities in both Washington and Oregon, but their beauty never compared to that of Montana. Montana's beauty
is not only in its landscape, but also in its community. Kalispell is a community that has a reputation of having
citizens that are hardworking, honest, and practical. We are back here because of the community's sensible
priorities for its citizens.
There are things that many have experienced in other states, particularly on the west coast, that they hope to
protect Montana from. I am one of those people. One of the biggest challenges to the cities we have left is the
government and community leader mindset that boundaries are bad or unloving. In particular, the homeless
were singled out as a segment in society that required special treatment outside of normal parameters set by
the community. This special treatment led to cities in chaos - as you can see through examples like Portland
and Seattle.
There are homeless in our community and our children need to see that we have the same expectations of
behavior for them as we do for any of our children. If not, there are the consequences of having a community
frustrated with your behavior. Simply put:
• Would my teenager be punished if he pooped in the street or sidewalk? Yes
• If my daughter decided to lay down in front of a public building when she was tired, would I correct
her? Yes
• If my son held up a sign asking for money that said "too honest to steal and too ugly to prostitute",
would I be embarrassed of his behavior and correct it? Would someone send an officer to talk to him
about it? Yes (by the way a homeless man holds this sign by Chick Fil A regularly)
• If my daughter threw trash on the ground, would I ask her to pick it up? Is there a fine for littering? Yes
We teach our children to respect the community, its property, and others, while being alert to dangers
presented by others. I respectfully ask leaders to consider, why are we confusing our youth by giving different
expectations for the homeless in our community than we do for them, or anyone else? Inconsistency in
boundaries makes families, communities, cities and counties malfunction. Instead, loving boundaries make a
community healthy, safe and strong.
Drifters are different from the homeless in a community. They come to extract resources from organizations or
the government and then move on when the city has nothing left to offer. I agree with the commissioners, if we
are attracting more homeless drifters to Kalispell then we are hosts to strangers, encouraging unhealthy
behavior. Our homeless population should be decreasing, not increasing. To demand the resignation of the
County Commissioners or City Council that are asking citizens to protect their community and businesses from
being taken advantage of is wrong.
In WA and OR, once a little bit of pacifying unhealthy homeless behavior was allowed, more problems
came. Our shelters in our town offered food from the finest of restaurants, ones that we personally could not
even afford. Of course more homeless people came! And not to live in the shelters, but to take advantage of
the services provided then slept in their camps anyways because that is what they preferred because there
were no boundaries enforced there. Services offered without a time limit offer a false pacifying love. I worked at
a nonprofit that helped women, and we had a time limit on the services offered because the goal was to not be
needed any longer so that people could live independently.
WA and OR also taught the youth that all the homeless are kind. Personally, I watched one of my teenage
son's friends befriend a homeless man. He would say this homeless man was his buddy. And guess what, I
learned later that person attacked this boy. That young man was taught that someone was safe because it
was "not kind" to say a homeless person could potentially be unsafe. In fact, saying so might get you
"canceled" in your community. God loves us all, but there are many in this world that are unsafe and unstable
which is exactly why communities have boundaries and expectations that demand us all to achieve more. So,
to be clear, I am not saying all homeless are unsafe, criminals or mentally ill, but I am saying that all homeless
should be expected to obey the rules in their community, while striving to overcome their circumstances.
Thank you for leading us in the right direction. Where we lived before, I made the mistake of not speaking up to
protect our community and I failed them. I do not want to make the same mistake again and hope you find my
comments helpful for future decisions. I am very grateful for your service.
Sincerely,
Sally Becker