Page 28 - Flathead Beacon // 5.13.15

28 | MAY 13, 2015
LIKE I WAS SAYIN’ Kellyn Brown
OPINION FLATHEADBEACON.COM
TWO FOR THOUGHT
Local Topics, Opposing Views
By Tim Baldwin
A military training operation known as “Jade Helm 15” is raising concerns. Conspiracy theorists think Jade Helm shows that President Barack Obama is planning to invoke martial law across America, but more rational theories opine that Jade Helm is designed to train soldiers for situations like the current happenings in Baltimore where normal domestic police are insufficient.
Alexander Hamilton said this in Federalist Paper 70: “Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential ... to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.”
Protecting the community in desperate situations presents numerous social and constitutional problems – a true no-win situation. Republican systems are designed to prevent rebellions by recognizing the people’s right to choose their government and leaders.
The system can falter over time though, which leads citizens to distrust their government. Of course, governments always resist these rebellions even if rebellion is justified. Using the military to quash “anarchy” will only spark more rebellion. That leads where – more military use?
Good politicians will abolish systems that foster rebellion and adopt systems that protect people and liberty. Here’s a start: train police and prosecutors to respect Americans’ natural and constitutional rights. There would be no need for Jade Helm 15.
By Joe Carbonari
Jade Helm 15. The “Don’t Mess With Texas” boys have it backwards. If Texas were ever to be taken over, it would be from the top, politically, not through their borders by night or beaches by day. Only about 1,200 troops, reportedly, will be involved in Jade Helm – special operations troops, with Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force personnel. Specifically mentioned is the 82nd Airborne, which perform custom flights. Over a period of three months starting in July they will be active in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona.
Terrain similar to that to be found in areas outside the U.S, where our forces might be active, will give opportunity for realistic practice for quick, efficient operations where the locals may be less than helpful, or worse. Apparently Texas, Utah, and parts of California are coded as red, “hostile,” on operational maps. Could this be Obama at work, planning a takeover of Texas?
Well, it could be, according to some of Texas’ citizenry who are ready to fight, and perhaps too willing. Trouble is, when you back even a small amount of misguided thinking with large amounts of private money, and some pandering politicians, you can attain a level of visibility, suggesting credibility that makes “crack-pot crazy” acceptable. Votes follow.
All votes count. We must out-vote the crack- pots.
Jade Helm 15
GUESTCOLUMN | SteveBullock
The ‘Good Kids Out There’
GAIL STROHSCHEIN WALKED INTO OUR office last week with an envelope of photos and a story to tell. It’s a story, she said, that is especially important right now. She mentioned the riots in Baltimore and Jon Krakauer’s recently published book on sexual assaults involving college students in Missoula. While those are important, she said another narrative is being overlooked.
“The main reason I came in here is because there are good kids out there,” Gail, who is nearing 80 years old, said. She sat down in my office to tell me about it.
A few weeks ago, high winds toppled a 90-foot tree on Gail’s property across the road in the Helena Flats area. It was quickly removed and sawed into pieces. Gail’s neighbor brought over a wood splitter and the two began chopping up and stacking about two cords of wood, which in a pile would measure 8 feet high, 16 feet long and 8 feet deep.
It was slow going. She began at 10 a.m. and continued working through the afternoon. At one point, a woman pulled over and asked if she could send some boys over to help. At first, Gail was skeptical of the proposition and asked the stranger if the boys knew how to stack wood. The driver assured her that they did.
Soon, nine very fit young men appeared and got to work. They were all wrestlers at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Just one of them lived in the area. The others were visiting and of varying backgrounds and ethnicities.
At this point in the story, she began flipping through her photographs of the nine smiling college students carrying wood, laughing and posing with a dog. They looked like they were enjoying themselves, laboring under the sun to help a stranger.
“I still don’t know their names,” Gail said. “I don’t know where they live. I don’t know nothing.”
But they had a lasting effect on her. Retelling what happened the afternoon of May 6, she choked up a bit, “You just look and see all these kids that come to help you. I would have worn out. I couldn’t have kept going all day.”
The boys, however, made quick work of the wood. “They were like bees,” Gail recalled, and had the wood stacked and her property cleaned up in about an hour and a half.
That’s Gail’s story. That’s why she drove to our office in Kalispell. To her, this is news that needs to be shared. And her telling also tells you something about Gail. She’s a self-described optimist and thinks others should be, too. And they should.
People in general tend to remember negative experiences more than positive. A 2001 article in The Review of General Psychology explains, “Bad emotions, bad parents and bad feedback have more impact than good ones.”
In other words, even if far more good than bad events happen in our lives, we still remember the bad more vividly.
Here’s another Gail story that tells you a little bit about how she approaches life. When her lilacs were poisoned, she refused to let someone offer a reward to find out who did it. “Because I didn’t want to know,” she said. “Because I didn’t want to dislike any of my neighbors.”
So often in this job, someone stops by our office or calls the newsroom with a story about disagreements. It’s human nature. Then there’s Gail, a stranger who simply wants you to know, “there are good kids out there. And I’m praying for each and every one of them every night.”
I agree with Gail. There are good kids. There are a lot of good seniors, too.
Montanans Should be Proud of this Legislature
In the run-up to the 2015 legislative session, ex- pectations were low. Montanans expected this ses- sion to be more about politics and less about perfor- mance. Four months later, I’m pleased to report that the 64th legislative session has been anything but.
Where previous sessions were dominated by partisan bickering at the expense of real benefits for Montanans, this year we saw a bipartisan group of legislators joining me in working to find com- mon ground on some of the biggest issues facing our state. Montanans should be proud of this session.
I worked with legislators from both parties to ensure that our state continues our track record of responsible fiscal management, including main- taining a healthy rainy day fund. Montana has con- sistently been named the most fiscally prudent in the nation, and this trend will continue. We did this without raising taxes, while continuing our record investments in public education.
Tens of thousands of hard-working Montanans wake up every morning knowing that because they don’t have health insurance through their job and can’t afford it in the private market, they are one ac- cident or illness away from bankruptcy. Because of this legislative session they’ll soon have access to quality, affordable health care. We also made criti- cal investments in mental health, so families can get help for loved ones. We bolstered our state’s child protection system. And we extended help to autistic children.
We cleaned up our elections. Every election season, Montanans are bombarded by misleading anonymous dark money attacks filling their inbox and flooding their TV. Because of this legislative
session, the groups funding those ads will now have to tell Montanans where they’re getting their mon- ey and how they’re spending it.
Our state economy is strong, but we can make it stronger and increase wages by investing our work- force. So we froze tuition at Montana colleges and universities, while providing scholarships in the fields of science, technology, engineering or math. We also ensured that veterans looking for a job con- tinue to receive preference in employment decisions.
I signed into law the Tax Fairness Act to provide more consistency for businesses.
We supported job creation in Indian Country by improving access to capital and providing assis- tance for economic development projects.
We provided predictability and economic cer- tainty in eastern Montana by passing a plan to man- age sage grouse and reduce the likelihood it is listed under the Endangered Species Act.
That’s not to say that this session didn’t have its share of disappointments. Investments in quality early childhood education and infrastructure job creation were victims of partisan politics.
Despite that, this legislative session has been a breath of fresh air in a time when gridlock rules the day. Montana has set a new example for the nation on how to get things done.
As governor, I’ve made it clear that my door is always open to folks from all political stripes who want to put politics aside to do good things on be- half of the people of this great state. I look forward to building on these results as I continue to serve Montanans.
Steve Bullock is governor of Montana.