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REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK 30 AMERICAN RURAL 30 DRAWING BOARD 31 Viewpoints
LETTERS
A Republic, if We Can Keep it
As we celebrated Constitution Day on Sept. 17 I prayed we all remembered that we, the citizens of this great country, were celebrating over 200 years of free- dom and individual rights because of the U.S. Constitution. Our constitution is like no other anywhere in the world, guaran- teeing us liberty and justice for all.
Today so many in the mainstream media – as well as most of our government servants, refer to our form of government as a “democracy.” And yet nowhere in the constitution does the word democ- racy appear. Coming from the Greeks, democracy denotes government by the people, which basically means rule by popular opinion. That form of govern- ment totally ignores our God-given indi- vidual rights. As John Adams famously warned, “Remember, Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democ- racy that ‘did not commit suicide.’”
There was deliberate and signi cant intention behind our founding fathers creating for us a Republican form of gov- ernment. Republic, from the Latin res publica, which translates as “The public a airs,” means literally that we are gov- erned by law. A Republic serves to hold in check those who would infringe on our individual rights. Our Republic, through our U.S. Constitution, was established to govern the government and not the people.
For many years now our government has increasingly been ignoring its consti- tutional boundaries, centralizing power through the three branches – legislative, executive and judicial.
As one who stands rmly behind our U.S. Constitution, I put the question to you: Are we going to keep our Republic? Personally I pledge my allegiance to the Republic, one nation under God.
business by the same fringe environmen- tal groups that are funding the governor’s campaign.
Several timber mills have closed during the Bullock administration, at a cost of countless jobs and devastation to local communities. Has the governor made any progress towards improved timber management which would protect jobs and prevent catastrophic wild res?
The oil boom is bust. Cattle ranch- ers are barely breaking even, and wheat farmers are losing money. To be fair, the governor can’t be blamed for global commodity prices, but we should expect our elected o cials to tighten their belts during tough times, just like the rest of us do. I’m a part-time citizen legislator and a full-time beef producer. My family knows that when cattle prices are down, you make the old pickup last one more year, you don’t eat out much, and you drive instead of y if you have to go somewhere.
However, our career politicians don’t seem to have that ability. State spending has grown faster than in ation during the Bullock administration, and now our tax revenues are in a steep decline. The $300 million rainy day fund the gover- nor loves to boast about has been cut in half, and could go much lower. The gov- ernor’s Obamacare expansion in 2015 put another 70,000 able-bodied, childless adults on the government dole. Montana will have to pick up a larger and larger share of that tab in the coming years.
The 2017 budget will have to include a tax hike, or a disciplined approach to spending. Our current governor has proven himself incapable of the latter.
Before you enter the voting booth this fall ask yourself two questions:
1) Am I better o than I was four years ago?
2) How much room is there in the fam-
ily budget for higher taxes?
Eric Moore Senate President Pro Tempore Miles City
Insist Climate Change is a Primary Topic
I just saw a television political ad paid by the American Petroleum Institute that encouraged voters to be “energy vot- ers” – to vote for candidates that would encourage petroleum exploration and production. It brought to mind the issue that is not front and center during this presidential campaign – global climate change. I am a retired civil engineer and have tried to educate myself about this issue and I have to tell you, it scares the crap out of me. I consider it to be the most critical issue we face today.
In spite of what you may hear from the climate change deniers funded by Exxon Mobile, the Koch Brothers, and their wealthy friends, global climate change is not a hoax. Petroleum producers such
as Chevron, Shell, and British Petroleum accept that climate change is real and human caused. CO2 has been known to be a greenhouse gas since 1859. CO2 is at a higher level than earth has experi- enced over the last 450,000 years. The additional CO2 is from combustion as shown by chemical ngerprinting. This CO2 not only increases temperature but also is absorbed into the ocean where it is causing acidi cation. Organisms which require shells, such as plankton, will have increasing di culty building these shells in the increasingly acidic environment. This could lead to collapse of the ocean food chain. Approximately 70 percent of our oxygen comes from phytoplankton in the ocean. A collapse of these organ- isms would have devastating e ect on our viability. The other major source of our oxygen – forests – have also declined by 500,000 square miles since 1990. The arctic has been experiencing tempera- ture increases over twice that of the tem- perate zone. The 7 million square miles of organic-rich permafrost in Siberia, Canada, and Alaska have begun rapid thawing. The anaerobic digestion of this thawing permafrost and the melting of ocean-bed methane hydrates in the Arc- tic Ocean are increasing the generation of methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than CO2. If this process is not interrupted we could enter into a runaway temperature rise that we are helpless to counteract.
Ninety- ve percent or more of climate scientists who publish in peer-reviewed journals believe that climate change is real and caused by human activity. I can- not see why people in positions of respon- sibility and power ignore the global cli- mate change information available to them and fail to act to slow or interrupt this process are not considered crimi- nals. The economic and physical harm that climate changes will have on the world’s citizens will be severe. The peo- ple who are leading the climate change denial movement are primarily rich old white men who apparently are not con- cerned about future generations. Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren are at special risk.
Please, please, insist that this issue be the primary topic in discussions with political candidates. Does it make sense to promote candidates who would encourage expansion or continuation of CO2-producing petroleum and other fos- sil fuel products? Time is of the essence. It has taken 200 years to create the current situation and will take time to stabilize and – hopefully – reverse the changes. Elect candidates who will responsibly and rationally act to correct this problem.
Charles W. Davis II Columbia Falls
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View from the Trenches
Lauralee O’Neil Kalispell
Gov. Steve Bullock recently wrote an opinion piece bragging up Montana’s economy. Perfectly understandable. He’s a politician running for reelection. But economy, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Let’s see how things look to those of us outside of Helena and in the trenches.
Most likely, Colstrip will lose units 1 and 2, and maybe the whole plant. Think because you don’t live in Colstrip this doesn’t a ect you? Think again. Your electric bills could go up as much as a third, maybe more. The Montana coal trust is used to fund roads, water, schools, and infrastructure. Without this source of funding, these services will be cut or your taxes will increase. There is no alternative. Colstrip is being put out of
LETTERS
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SEPTEMBER 21, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM