It is with great sadness that I read Flathead County Commissioner Brad Abell’s words placing the blame of the American family’s decline at the feet of “black families” while purportedly trying to identify the causes of homelessness in our community. To be specific, in a national newspaper article (subsequently re-posted on Mr. Abell’s Facebook page) Mr. Abell claims that the breakdown of the American family “began with black families” and that “It started with the Black population of the United States.”
It is impossible to catalog the vast expanse of groundless, unintelligible speech. But imbuing a minority population with such extraordinary power capable of such tragic effect on so many across such a large country is something that should be seen as ludicrous by even the just-barely sober-minded reasoner.
Nevertheless, freedom to speak is freedom to speak. What concerns me here is not that Mr. Abell hold’s those views within the confines of his private life (as abhorrent as I might find them to be) but that he espouses them from the elevated perch of the county commissioner’s office and is literally advertising them to the world under the seal of the Flathead County. This form of representation that colors all of us as bigoted and poorly-reasoned does not show the sober good judgement that is necessary to effectively govern. Who, specifically, would want to come visit Kalispell and its environs if they thought they would be surrounded by such naked racism? What company might want to relocate or open a branch if they thought this was a common place sentiment of our work force? I tender that most would be repulsed by such possibility.
And sad as it is to now feel so compelled, I think it is necessary to point out that black families did not cause the rapid rise of housing costs in the valley and the resulting housing shortage, nor the prevalence of medical bankruptcy, nor the psychological traumas inflicted on children through abuse and neglect, nor the flooding of our communities with opioids and other chemicals of destruction. Nor, I should add, did black families strip away the mental health services that could help stitch back together those families that experience crisis in our community.
Mr. Abell was elected to govern this county, to enhance its reputation in the eyes of the public, rally our cause to corporate America as a good and vibrant community, and to approach complex problems in a clear-eyed and sober manner. Mr. Abell’s recent remarks painfully show how he is failing us all.
Steve Moore
Kalispell