Letter to the editor: Why roll coal?

In the past year, hundreds of Bitterrooters have taken to the streets as part of the national No Kings movement. Unfortunately, many of us have learned a new term, rolling coal, where drivers of altered trucks accelerate past the crowds at First Street and Main Street in Hamilton, spewing clouds of exhaust.

Coal rolling began as entertainment at truck-pulling contests but has migrated to public streets as physical harassment and harm.

Why do some people choose to immerse their neighbors in a toxic cloud?

How can we regard rolling coal other than as violent behavior?

Do we accept this assault as another example of the current decline in legality and civility toward each other?

Do the people who roll coal go home and yuk it up with their buddies about how they “showed them?”

Are the people who roll coal incapable of carrying on a rational discussion about issues we all face?

We will talk with anyone anywhere anytime about anything. We believe that informed, fact-based reasoning can yield workable solutions where uninformed emotion-based opinion cannot.

We encourage all citizens to denounce the rolling coal offense directed at citizens expressing their First Amendment right.

Rolling coal is symptomatic of a serious problem in how we conduct ourselves.

In our American democratic republic, we don’t believe that a political opponent is the enemy. If we let that toxic idea fester unchallenged, we are all in trouble.

Wayne Adair, Hamilton

Gil Gale, Corvallis