L E T T E R S

July 10, 2007

Tami Jo Arvik Blake
Agri-News editor
PO Box 30755
Billings, Montana 59107
406.259.5406
editor@imt.net

A true Bunch Quitter...
Congratulations, Tami Jo Blake!

After reading your expose on the temporal R-CALF debacle, we have decided to recognize you as winner of the "Jack Kisling" award.

Who's Jack Kisling? Well, he was one of the most beloved columnists in the entire Rocky Mountain Region. Other writers considered Jack "the writer's writer." A longtime tri-weekly columnist for the Denver Post, Jack managed to stir the Republicans, Democrats, unions, Catholics, Protestants, the mafia, and SWINES (Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything). It was amusing to read letters to the editor from people who knew "damn well that SOB Kisling is a Republican," and those who wished "Kisling wasn't of those rank Democrats," and it went on and on.

The people who were cock sure they knew exactly what Jack was hated him. The people who didn't loved him. I knew Jack for 20 years before he passed, and NEVER once could guess what side he was on.

Jack once called me a Bunch Quitter. I didn't know whether he threw me a grand insult or a great compliment. He went on to explain, "A Bunch Quitter is an independent thinker and doer." We embellished on that, and thus began our now-famous annual Bunch Quitter Soiree. By mailed invitation only - we handpick those hard-workin', honest, kind individuals; those who are visionary in their pursuits to build, take risks, and LEAD; adults who are charitable toward the community and beholden to no one but God.

Your actions have shortened the too-long-list of people who are void of awareness as to how their aura of influence either negatively or positively impacts themselves and others. Welcome Tami Jo. You ARE a true Bunch Quitter. Jack would be proud of you, as we are!

Chuck & Roni Sylvester

Editor's Note: Wow - I'm blushing. Though I've never been one to follow the crowd, I'm not sure I'm deserving of your compliments! Hard-workin', honest, kind, beholden to no one but God - all are traits that I work toward every day, but I would by no means consider myself a finished product. I do very much try to do what's right, and not what's politically acceptable. It's a sad fact that we live in a world where it's a scary thing to do the right thing... not what's nice, but what's right. But it makes my job a whole lot easier when I know I've got great readers like you all backing me up. TB