Page 12 - Flathead Beacon // 3.25.15

12 | MARCH 25, 2015 NEWS FLATHEADBEACON.COM
Huckabee Headlines Stillwater Christian School Fundraiser
Facts
FIGURES
Numbers in the news
$1.5
million
Winning bid at an auction in Great Falls last weekend for an oil painting by C.M. Russell titled “For Supremacy,” which depicts a battle between Blackfeet and Crow warriors. Three Russell pieces — two oils and a bronze — combined sold for $2.85 million during the auction
5
Miles per hour increase on Montana highways being proposed by Republican Rep. Art Wittich of Bozeman. It was the fourth proposal this legislative session to increase highway speed limits.
16
Number of tank cars found leaking and removed from a 100- car train traveling from North Dakota, through Northwest Montana, to Washington state.
Former Arkansas governor tells Kalispell crowd that he has not ruled out running for president in 2016
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Hucka- bee told a crowd gathered at the Flat- head County Fairgrounds on March 19 that he would soon decide whether to run for president in 2016.
Huckabee, who served as governor of Arkansas before launching a failed bid for the Republican nomination in 2008, was the keynote speaker at Stillwater Christian School’s For Such a Time As This dinner and fundraiser on March 19.
The annual event has attracted not- ed conservative and Christian speakers in recent years, including Oliver North, former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow and Dr. Ben Carson, another possible 2016 contender.
During Huckabee’s 45-minute speech, he talked about the importance of education and raising children in a Christian environment. He was also critical of public school systems and other institutions that are obsessed with “political correctness.”
“So many of the values that a mother and father give their children are under- mined by an education system that has gone off the rails,” Huckabee told the crowd. “I don’t remember someone be- ing hurt or injured (when I was younger) by someone talking about God or men- tioning Christmas in a public school.”
He continued saying that the ero- sion of Christian values is leading to a “world that is decaying and rotting from within.” He also mentioned, but did not dwell on, other hot-button political is-
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee plays with the jazz band at Stillwater Christian School’s annual For Such a Time As This dinner on March 19. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
sues of the day, including gay marriage, gun control and abortion, all of which he has expressed disapproval of in the past.
During a question and answer peri- od following Huckabee’s speech, he dis- cussed the recent election in Israel and was critical of President Barack Obama’s response to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election. Huckabee said he was a longtime supporter of Netan- yahu and likened him to England’s Win- ston Churchill.
“Israel is our only true ally in the Middle East and it’s unexplainable why the current administration would be so scornful of it,” he said.
A question likely at the top of many people’s minds, Huckabee was asked whether he would run for president in 2016. Earlier this year, he left his weekly television show on Fox News to explore
another run for the White House. In Ka- lispell, he kept his true intentions close to the vest.
“I’m getting close to a decision but it won’t be tonight,” he said.
Huckabee’s speech came just a day after Stillwater Christian School an- nounced a $1.8 million expansion that will add six classrooms to the facility lo- cated south of Kalispell.
Huckabee, who was a pastor before getting into politics, said that schools like Stillwater would help shape the next generation of Christians.
“You radically increase the likeli- hood that a student will turn out OK when that student is insulated, not iso- lated, with a Christian worldview,” he said.
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