Commentary
Believe Gianforte: He is a man of his actions
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” -Maya Angelou When Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte — then candidate Gianforte — assaulted a reporter, the entire country was shocked: A politician attacking a reporter? That seems crazy. A little more than 24 hours later, the puzzlement shifted from the multimillionaire former tech […]
Analysis: How the U.S. invested in the War on Terrorism at the cost of public health
Here’s one big takeaway from our country’s disastrous 2020 covid response: For 20 years, we’ve lavished attention and money on fighting human terrorism and forgot that the terrorism of nature is equally deadly, deserving equal preparation. Today, with more than 545,000 U.S. covid deaths, I hope we’ve learned the huge cost of allowing our public […]
Death by numbers: The forgotten (young) faces of COVID
It’s hard to say when we became numb to the numbers. It’s the nature of numbers to obscure names and faces, to obliterate the story of one lost life with six digits representing hundreds of thousands of others. But then someone sends along an obituary of someone you knew. Or you drift off to sleep […]
Montanans need a better deal
For far too long, American taxpayers have been short changed as our oil and gas resources have been doled out at bargain basement rates. The broken federal oil and gas program has resulted in an excess of public lands stockpiled by the oil and gas industry. As Dan Bucks, former Montana Revenue Department Director recently […]
How one Missoula tech company used COVID-19 funds to support local businesses
Fifteen years ago, we started what became MissoulaEvents.net because we believed the community wanted a centralized place to know what was happening when, and that we could build and strengthen our city through a new kind of online platform. Fast forward to March 2020, when events across Montana were widely canceled or moved online, and […]
Blame for Boulder: First the shooter, then the enablers
Less than two weeks ago, a district judge in Boulder struck down the city’s ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. The ban, adopted by the City Council in 2018, was a rare point of optimism for Coloradans who believe American gun laws express a form of civic insanity and who live in a state […]
COVID funds offer a once-in-a-generation opportunity to raise up Montana
When we went into the 67th Legislative session three months ago, we were in the throes of an unprecedented public health and economic crisis. Democrats knew at the start that our single priority was going to be to advance policies that create jobs and opportunity for all Montanans and allow our state, our local economies, […]
Your bolo tie won’t get you into Heaven, but it will get you through the doors of the House
One of the most poignant songs John Prine wrote (and there’s plenty of competition for that) had the chorus: “Your flag decal won’t get you into heaven anymore.” The anti-war anthem suggested that just waving a flag isn’t sufficient justification for killing or war. The idea is simple: Plastering a flag decal on your bumper […]
Nationalism, American style
The third clause of the American Pledge of Allegiance speaks of “… one Nation under God, indivisible….” The pledge, and the clause, is an American commonplace, quotable by most, recognized by all. When I was a child, it was declared each school day morning. Perhaps, in classrooms here and there across the nation, it still […]
Chivalry resurrected: Kansas men vow to protect women from those who lose their ‘man cards’
The first time I ever heard an aggrieved white man assert that “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” it was 1982, in my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, where the city council was about to reject an ordinance protecting gay people from discrimination. I’ve been listening to white people use Christianity to argue […]
When the outdoors are the exception
MISSOULA –The group of women approaching me on the path is clearly at ease, walking shoulder to shoulder on the double-track, snow-stacked mountains glowing to the north. I came here with my dog seeking similar release, except that I’ve only found sparks to a constant, smoldering fury. There’s nothing close to six feet between the […]
A clean bill of health for APR bison and a fresh start with Phillips County
This month, American Prairie Reserve shared with the Phillips County Conservation District that, as before, our bison herd has been given a clean bill of health. As Senior Bison Restoration Manager for American Prairie, I am one of several members of our team that’s living and working in Phillips County, supporting the day-to-day management of […]