Page 30 - Flathead Beacon // 4.27.16

NOTES FROM THE HINTERLANDS
TWO FOR THOUGHT SAME TOPIC, DIFFERENT VIEWS SAUDI ARABIA’S ROLE
TRISTAN SCOTT
WHEN DOVES CARY
BY TIM BALDWIN
The federal government has kept secret 28 pages of
a report on 9/11. The president indicates he is poised to release those documents, which supposedly will have severe repercussions on our relationship with Saudi Ara- bia. Saudi Arabia has responded very harshly, including threatening to drop its investments in the U.S. dollar.
It’s been 15 years since the attacks. Our presidents have classi ed this report for reasons purported to help us win the “War on Terror.” Meanwhile, it is reported that the U.S. government has given billions of dollars’ worth of our most sophisticated weapons to Saudi Ara- bia. One LA Times reporter said this about the situa- tion: “The implication of o cial Saudi complicity in the 9/11 attacks and the possible coverup by successive U.S. administrations is mind boggling.”
Notably, Donald Trump has discussed the 9/11 attacks in his campaign – very di erently than most mainstream talking points. Months ago Trump said, if he is elected, “you will nd out who really knocked down the World Trade Center.” Some commentators, like Mark Levin, criticized Trump for his 9/11 exposition calling him a “radical kook.” Coincidentally, after Trump’s trumpet- ing, this report is anticipated to be released. What does Trump know about the classi ed report? Is Trump right that there was government coverup?
The people have a right to know the truth of 9/11, whether President Barack Obama or Trump releases the information.
BY JOE CARBONARI
Consider oil owing as blood in the body that is
the world economy. The money and military might to develop, protect, and exploit it came largely from Britain, France and the United States. We got the oil, the Saudi family, Sunni Muslims, got the oil money. Life in the desert was much improved.
Their social development, however, has not kept up. What worked well and was necessary in the harsh- ness of the desert is not appropriate for the world of today. Cutting people’s heads o is unnecessarily harsh, and suggests a strain of insensitivity that is both distasteful and dangerous. It is, however, the practice of the day in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi’s brand of Sunni Islam is called Wahha- bism. It is strict. Women are neither free nor indepen- dent. Society as a whole is restricted in expression and action the Saudi elite somewhat excepted. Oil money has allowed the Wahhabis to establish schools around the Islamic world to teach their brand of thinking. ISIS is this brand of thinking taken to the extreme.
The Saudis are going to have to change their way of thinking, and so are we. The Saudis are not as inter- ested in peace and stability as they are in maintain- ing and extending their power in the Arab world. They must get their Wahhabism under control, and we must stop pretending that they are playing nicer than they actually are. It’s not working.
S MINNESOTA’S NATIVE SON AND PATRON saint, Prince’s funky blend of pop, synth and new wave has, for longer than I’ve been alive,
de ned the sound and style of Minneapolis, a city whose heart and soul and progressive independence will forever bear the purple helix of Prince’s genetic sig- nature, so otherworldly and unrivaled is his in uence.
I grew up in Minnetonka, a nondescript western sub- urb of Minneapolis set around a sprawling lake of the same name, which is brie y and famously mentioned in “Purple Rain,” the 1984 rock drama starring the late, great musical iconoclast, whose sudden death on April 21 was mourned by fans across the globe.
But nowhere was the mourning more personal than in Minneapolis, a city that Prince always considered home, and which last week glowed a somber, bruised purple as throngs of fans took to the streets in homage, singing and sobbing and singing some more.
Prince was a child of Minneapolis, but his cultural authority rose to a galactic scale as he in uenced art, music, sex, race, politics, and religion. His musical genius, his virtuosic performances and his un ltered, unapologetic style conspired magically as high art, but even his mere existence seemed like a radical demon- stration of what it means to be ercely and honestly oneself.
Prince was impossible to pigeonhole. He was head-scratchingly di erent and by proxy he made it OK for his fans to be di erent. Prince showed us that the best way to be cool was to be us, and taught us to celebrate our individuality.
That’s a big lesson as a young person.
At a time when the simple task of being “you” can seem insurmountable, and being cool can seem irra- tionally important, Prince was upstaging the world by strutting around to a rhythm entirely his own, divining melodies and octaves the rest of us aren’t programmed to hear, and packaging them for hip-swiveling mass consumption.
Even though Minnetonka is located just 15 miles from the creative epicenter of Minneapolis, as a teen- ager it might as well have been in another universe, and Prince helped bridge the gap.
Today, as an adult, I have deep a ection for my hometown, but as a teenager I perceived it as cultur- ally aseptic and lusterless – a dramatic departure from the vibrant, creative verve of Minneapolis, the place of record stores and thrift shops and a carousel of cool music venues. It was the place of Prince.
“A strong spirit transcends rules,” Prince once said, and his creative and cultural in uence strengthened many of our spirits.
At a certain age we started driving to Minneapo- lis and its cultural ethos became more immediate. We haunted its record stores and its ethnic restaurants and bought vintage clothes and went to concerts at First Avenue, which Prince’s “Purple Rain” transformed into a world-famous landmark. His plastic cassette cases and liner notes littered the oorboards of our cars, and his music scored the soundtracks to our ado- lescent lives, tracking our growth as we learned how to be our best, individual, independent selves.
“I don’t wanna die, I’d rather dance my life away,” Prince sang on “1999,” a line that will be repeated in the wake of his sudden death.
It’s a line that should be repeated.
But in the afterworld, where more than 30 years ago Prince assured us that “everything’ll be alright,” there is an angelic choir throwing an eternal dance party on all our behalves.
So don’t forget to dance.
GUEST COLUMN CHRIS MARCHION
ROBINSON’S VIEWS ARE INCONSISTENT
Association of Counties, sportsmen, conservationists and the energy industry. This e ort is credited with ensuring state management of sage grouse and avoid- ing an Endangered Species listing.
Montanans deserve an honest dialogue when it comes to sportsmen/landowner relations. It’s clear the past positions and policies advocated by Robinson are counter to her opinion piece.
Wildlife management and land management is com- plex work. Gov. Steve Bullock has worked diligently to bring diverse groups together to develop responsible changes in the management of wildlife and public land. That model has led to successes like HB 140 in 2015, which ensures funding for our game agency. It has led to a better understanding of our stream access slaw under the Bridge Access Bill of 2009. Common ground pro- vided the state better management of wolves under HB 73 in 2013 and it’s what brought organizations across the political spectrum together in defeating bad legis- lation such as the transfer of public land onslaught of 2015.
I applaud Robinson for joining Mr. Gianforte to pres- ent voters a choice in leadership for our state. To show leadership in the conservation arena she must move beyond the narrow localized positions she articulated in the past and demonstrate an ability to bring public and private interests together to solve the challenges of wildlife management, public access, and landowner relationships. The Bullock administration has demon- strated successes in this arena despite partisan politics. How the Gianforte/Robinson team propose to solve the remaining challenges remains as clear as mud.
Chris Marchion lives in Anaconda.
C
ANDIDATE FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR Lesley Robinson’s recent opinion piece (April
13 Beacon) has inconsistencies with her public record that deserve discussion.
Lesley has been participating in the stakeholder meetings for bison restoration along with representa- tives from the major agricultural groups and legislators who farm and/or ranch. This undermines her argu- ment that landowners weren’t being listened too when it comes to bison management. Establishing a viable wild bison population in Montana is a worthy project. Lesley is arrogant to imply this legitimate e ort with a wide variety of stakeholders should be stopped before an honest evaluation has been completed.
Commissioner Robinson has opposed new wildlife management areas as well as the Habitat Montana program. In 2013, she testi ed in support of a “No Net Gain” bill that would have hamstrung the popular program and forced the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to sell o any land in equal acreage to land acquired, making suspect her claim that “no one wants to see public land sold o .”
As the chairwoman of both the Montana and the National Association of Counties Public Lands Com- mittees, she advocated and voted for the transfer of public lands. This makes her proclamation that she and gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte are opposed to transfer of public lands unbelievable.
Lesley Robinson also says that landowners didn’t have enough say in sage grouse management decisions, yet she testi ed in support of SB 261, the Montana Sage Grouse Stewardship Act of 2015, which passed with overwhelming support from urban and rural legislators, the agricultural industry, the Montana
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APRIL 27, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM