Page 26 - Flathead Beacon // 5.27.2015

26 | MAY 27, 2015 OPINION LIKE I WAS SAYIN’ Kellyn Brown
FLATHEADBEACON.COM
TWO FOR THOUGHT
Local Topics, Opposing Views
By Tim Baldwin
The Patriot Act is sun-setting soon. The decision of whether to extend, amend or eliminate it is dividing Re- publican hopefuls for president.
Not surprisingly, Sen. Rand Paul wants to cut a key component: government spying on Americans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants the spying continued. Siding with McConnell are Sens. Marco Ru- bio and Lindsey Graham. Sen. Ted Cruz holds a middle position between Paul and McConnell. Sen. Jon Tester expressed approval of Paul’s privacy concerns. Surpris- ingly, the Republican-controlled House voted to end the bulk collection of phone data but allowed surveillance on an individual basis through court approval – a much more reasonable approach.
Individual privacy is an essential pillar of liberty. As the Montana Supreme Court repeatedly confirms, the Montana Constitution protects privacy more than the U.S. Constitution. Montanans, thus, should pay close attention. Sadly, some people miss this and opine, “if you don’t have anything to hide, government intrusion shouldn’t matter to you.”
Security is important, and government has a role to play. But security comes as much, if not more, from a responsible and free people, not government intrusion. Giving up essential liberties for speculative or remote security destroys our constitution’s foundation.
Lately, Republicans seem to understand this bet- ter, thanks to the influence of politicians like Rand Paul and overwhelming public opinion. Hopefully, this posi- tive trend will continue into the 2016 presidential term and beyond.
By Joe Carbonari
Is the risk of losing our sense of privacy overbalanced by our risk of terrorist at- tack? In the case of telephone and internet traffic we have the technology to find out who’s communicating with whom.
We can take it from “who’s talking to a terrorist” to “who’s talking to my wife.” There’s room for a lot of mischief.
To put that power, unchecked, in the hands of a president, and his administra- tion, or anyone else, is unwise. The best check we have is access. Don’t centralize the records but do make it an enforced il- legality to cross-run a number without a judicial order. Limit the number of judges so authorized and choose them well. Still, there is risk of the over-friendly assent to access. We tend to favor those who share our values. All the judges involved, at whatever level, are human. They are sub- ject to bias; there will be risks.
Nonetheless, when I think of the re- sponsibility of safeguarding myself, and all others, from a serious terrorist threat, I feel that a small degree of risk is worth it. If the situation was bad enough, the threat truly high, I’d run the numbers, and I’d run them fast. The judge is the doorkeeper. I’d expect the door to be opened most of the time. We face threats that are existential. We should be wise
The Patriot Act
GUESTCOLUMN | RobCook
Freshman Advice
WHEN I GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL I was more eager to escape the confines of my parents’ house than I was to embrace higher education. I proved this when I received my first semes- ter’s report card, which was awful, and prompted my bewildered Dad to ask a poignant question: “What do you want to do with your life?”
The truth is, at 18, I didn’t know. Few do. I had only looked at a couple schools and randomly chose to pur- sue a photography degree at a junior college in tiny Pow- ell, Wyoming, based more on its location than its practi- cality. In my mind, it was so far off the beaten path that I could truly embrace my newfound independence. Ap- parently, I was not ready for this.
Freshmen in college often fall into two camps. First, there are those who embrace academics, have a rough idea of what they want to do with their lives and have little trouble transitioning to life after curfews. Then there are the rest of us.
The rest of us have trouble explaining what we are studying and why and, if we’re from out of state like I was, the reason we chose a particular school in the first place. In the end, I was happy with the college I attend- ed, but I still couldn’t provide a valid reason why I was there, except that I wanted to be in the middle of no- where.
So there I was, wasting time and money in the mid- dle of nowhere and quickly realizing that home wasn’t that bad after all. And at least a handful of high school graduates donning caps and gowns over the next few weeks will come to a similar realization.
It may take a few weeks, or a few months, but at some point a few of you will survey your dorm room while heating up a Hot Pocket for breakfast and conclude you really appreciated your life in high school. You’ll re- member when the clothes, now strewn across the floor, were once magically washed and folded. And you’ll re- member when food wasn’t prepackaged in boxes. And at some point, you might call your parents and explain why your world is falling apart and you’re starving and you have no direction. You’ll realize that all the advice you ignored when you were eager to strike out on your own may come in handy now.
I’m lucky. My parents never stopped giving me ad- vice, even when I griped about it and said I didn’t need it. I still joke with my dad about how he largely chose my profession for me.
After taking three years to get a two-year degree in photography, I decided to transfer to the University of Montana. While walking the Missoula campus, Dad asked me the same question he had for years, “What do you want to do?” I explained my grandiose plan to write science fiction novels and told him I should pursue a creative writing degree. Instead of dismissing the idea, he suggested I broaden my options. A few hours later, I ended up meeting with an advisor at the School of Jour- nalism. A few years after that, I landed my first real job covering politics for the Associated Press in North Da- kota.
There’s nothing wrong with a creative writing de- gree, but in hindsight, I’m glad I listened to my parents. It turns out they were actually giving me advice for my betterment, not just to be annoying.
As some point, most young stubborn college stu- dents realize this, but it takes way too long. So here’s some advice for college freshmen. Whenever you think about how great and independent you are, answer this one question: When is the last time you sent your par- ents a care package?
The Fix Was In
“The fix was in” has become the rallying cry of Montana’s extremists and, as such, it represents their efforts to engage and energize the small mi- nority of Montanans who believe they share the same nihilistic views. As rhetoric and sound bites go, it is an interesting choice.
First, it implies that the forces arrayed against them were so powerful and nefarious that they should be lauded for their failed efforts to “hold the line” and excused for their preordained defeat at the hands of such an overpowering and malignant op- position.
Second, it conveniently characterizes those leg- islators who were responsible for the defeat of their extreme agenda as treacherous, self-serving, and even treasonous.
There is a certain amount of irony, and a gener- ous portion of duplicity, in this attempt to explain the failure of the extremists’ cause. The phrase brings several questions to mind.
By what measure of personal responsibility did it become acceptable to blame others for failure? Perhaps the extremists should reexamine the story they are trying to sell in light of their supposed af- fection for this cornerstone of their idealism?
By what definition of representative government did it become necessary to pledge a vote to out-of- state interests? Perhaps we should inquire with Americans for Prosperity and other Koch funded political action committees to see which of the ex- tremists owed their votes to hidden masters?
The truth is, the fix was in, but it was orchestrat- ed by the extremists and it only lasted for a short time. In the time period from the middle of last No-
vember, until the first rule vote was taken in Janu- ary, they tried to lock down the Montana House of Representatives by carefully staffing select “kill committees” and by attempting to enact new super majority rules.
Fortunately for the vast majority of Montan- ans, there were enough legislators to form a bipar- tisan working coalition that rejected the proposed rule changes and secured six “silver bullets” to nul- lify the actions of the “kill committees.” From this point onward, the “‘fix” that was envisioned by the extremists was no longer “in.”
The same working coalition went on to suc- cessfully address three issues of generational im- portance to Montana: campaign finance reform, a healthcare expansion plan that provides a pathway to sustainability for Montana’s rural hospitals, and the protection of western Montana’s waters from outside interests.
Each of these issues required frank discus- sions within the working coalition and compromise among its members. Each was vehemently opposed by the extremists who were somehow secure in the certainty that they could keep them locked up in the committees of their choosing.
Only after it became apparent that the coali- tion could not be fractured by the deluge of attacks funded with out-of-state money did the extremists attempt to reengage on these issues. By then it was too late, and they were left in the uncomfortable po- sition of explaining how they managed to lose a fight that they had fixed.
Rob Cook is a Republican state representative from Conrad.