Opinion
2022 was the year of celebrating the 50th birthday of Montana’s Constitution – its visionary provisions and the unique bipartisan approach adopted by the citizen delegates who wrote it. Our perspective is from a combined total of over 30 years of legislative experience under both our current Constitution, as well as the one that preceded it. We see Montana’s Constitution as a truly glorious document. It has honorably served our citizens as well as our landscape for half a century, and we are dismayed that, out-of-the-blue, this 2023 legislature finds the need to consider 57 fundamental changes to it. As we celebrated the anniversary of the Constitution last su...
A very smart woman once told me, “Pain is greedy.” And now I use that sentence more times a day than I can count. Pain IS greedy. It can consume us with not only physical sensations, but can build on our mental and emotional burden. Being in pain can even challenge our brain power to perform simp...
No doubt everyone grows old in their own way. But once you actually hit it — that three letter word, “old” — watch out: “An aged man is but a paltry thing,/A tattered coat upon a stick . . .” So wrote William Butler Yeats, back in the last century, conjuring a mystic...
Editor, Canadians approach the appointment of judges differently than Americans do. Consider their Supreme Court. Justices are selected by the Governor General from a short list of qualified candidates assembled with input from provincial law societies. Political affiliation isn’t a consideration. A...
Republicans’ number one goal this legislative session has been to provide financial relief to Montanans struggling with Joe Biden’s inflation and the high cost of living. An early, priority package of eight pieces of legislation is aimed at delivering on that mission. Together, these bills combin...
One of my top priorities this legislative session is strengthening Montana’s position against hostile foreign nations like China. National security is primarily a responsibility of the federal government, but as a Marine who served in Iraq, I believe elected officials at all levels of government should...
Montana farmers and ranchers face numerous challenges. Some of these challenges such as weather, commodity prices, and bank loan rates are beyond a single farmer’s ability to manage. On the other hand, there are challenges faced by Montana producers, which one could reasonably consider as manageable ye...
The grizzly bear is a unique and vital part of Montana’s wildlife heritage. Our state animal, the great bear once roamed throughout the plains of central Montana, before being extirpated from the flatlands by settlers, and relegated to the mountainous country of western Montana. Now, after decades of p...
You may have driven through the community of Arlee on your way to Flathead Lake or Glacier National Park. Today the beautiful Jocko Valley is threatened by a proposed asphalt plant on a 157-acre gravel pit. I realize gravel is a necessity in today’s world for highway and irrigation projects. But rig...
State Senator Carl Glimm has introduced legislation (SB 210) that would inject the government into end-of-life medical decisions. I agree with those who oppose this legislation on the grounds that it would violate a fundamental freedom under Montana law that people, in consultation with their physicians, sho...
