News you can use
News you can use
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I don’t think I’ve been a particular target of the Fates or anything specifically paranoid like that, I’m just saying that they’ve been busy this month testing my human endurance, with casualties and costs still rising. In no particular order, we have had bloodshed, breakage, wastefulness, unprovoked attacks, decay, disarray and pestilence. I sharpened my kitchen knives, which means — contrary to that old adage that you cut yourself worse with a dull knife — I’ve cut my...
Hurricane Estelle blew in lugging a heavy cloud blanket behind her until the sky looked like cry me a river. Day after day after day, darkness reigned and time warped, smudged and dripped down the mountain walls like Dali-esque clocks. If one took the sky and flattened it out like a topographical map, it would be criss-crossed by rivers cascading off the edges in waterfalls. (Flat sky, flat earth, what’s the difference!) Under cover of day as dark as nightfall, somebody sneake...
Argument is a way for people with differing perspectives on an issue, abortion, for example, to test and reshape each other's ideas and, sometimes, even reason out a new idea together. Unfortunately, not much reasoning together happens when everybody insists on the kind of high minded principles that inspire Facebook memes and protest signs, such as Life Begins at Conception versus My Body, My Choice. Arguments on the order of--Abortion is always wrong-- based on grand...
The package arrived last week and, I have to admit, I was surprised. I knew what was in it, of course. It was a painting that my friends Angel, Nora and I co-own. I had it for one year 11 years ago. Then I brought it to Paris, where Angel was living. But Angel had no time to hang the painting. She had just moved to a new condo and was diagnosed with cancer. And so it remained rolled up under her bed for two years. That’s when Nora decided her turn had come — and she was rig...
OK, I tried to stay out of it, I had a whole column planned about the pitfalls of the most adult activity of my life, then a political candidate from Missoula threw out the right bait at the right time and now I’ve been lured into the Roe v. Wade free-for-all debate. A bear can resist only so many garbage cans, and I could not resist the lure of this anti-abortion regulation argument: Rep. Brad Tschida, R-Missoula, who is running for Senate District 49, said in an email to m...
Yes, it’s a great place to live (for me) but you wouldn’t want to visit. I’ve been accused of having a Paradise Complex, but it is not true. I’ve been told Paradise is full of snakes and liars and have no reason to either believe it or not believe it. Nope. I live in a dusty little cow-town, farm village in Mexico and though I often say I live in Paradise, I mean Paradise for me. For me. Amen. And Awomen. When Dr. Landazari, eye specialist, who lives in Mazatlan, the Pearl of...
If there’s one thing that Montanans can agree on, it’s our fondness for wildlife. From eagles and ospreys to bull elk and bighorn sheep, we still have plenty of what so much of the country has lost. These natural riches are partly why we’re known as the Last Best Place. But it wasn’t always this way. By the early decades of the 20th century, market hunting, poaching and habitat loss had driven many species to the brink of extinction. Then, in 1937, hunters asked the federal government to tax the sales of guns and ammunit...
With the primary elections in the rearview mirror, most of us have a good idea who’ll represent us in the Montana Legislature come January. A new legislature means new ideas and, of course, recycled ideas from past sessions. The only thing our citizen legislature is required to do is balance a budget, but darn near every politician has an agenda. Their ideas got them this far and they’re going to go to Helena and create change … or something. It’s in that spirit that I’m writing this letter to all the returning and likely ne...
My mother has found the perfect pet. She just doesn’t realize it yet. A clever little red squirrel has been trying to get my mother’s attention for months. “He’s such a pest!” my mother complains. But the squirrel does not give up. He has become quite tame, hanging out below the bird feeder, waiting for seeds to drop. He would much prefer to get them from the feeder himself, but my father has inconsiderately installed a length of stovepipe on the pole that holds the feeder, a...
If it ain’t broke, why fix it? That’s an honest question, and one that can apply to a lot of different things. For me, it applies to Havre’s policy on Fourth of July fireworks in the city limits. I just don’t understand what was wrong with the way we as Havreites did it for so many years. Of course, for so many locals, what I’m about to say won’t be popular, but being a columnist isn’t about winning popularity contests, it’s about offering up an opinion, and here’s mine. I...
Why do memories come to visit, often at inopportune times? I’ve questions but no answers. I distinctly remember once telling a minimalist friend how much I admired her way of life. An entire bare wall with one picture. A vase with one sprig of flower. “But I know me. I couldn’t be minimalist in my surroundings. I like it. I just can’t do it.” My home was never cluttered. But wherever one cast one’s eyes, one would find a vignette of simple beauty. That’s my passion. Maki...
Man oh man, has the Supreme Court of the United States of America, land of the free, really taken it on the chin, from mostly liberals, over some of their home-of-the-brave decisions they’ve made lately. But all this angst is clouding people’s thinking. The most recent SCOTUS decisions have fallen like a one-two punch bellow the belt for separation of church and state, or at least church and state-funded schools. June 27 the justices ruled, 6-3, that a Bremerton, Was...
This Fourth of July will be celebrated by a nation in conflict, more politically divided than it’s been since the Civil War. In virtually every community, the rift has grown wider and more contentious, with less common ground. But while reasonable people may disagree about certain political issues, most genuinely want what’s best for their country. Most, but not all. There is a substantial group of rich Americans who are proud to wrap themselves in the flag and declare their love for the country while at the same time usi...
I have been on tenterhooks for a month now, not just about the excitement of having a practical use for a juicy, old-timey word like tenterhooks, but also, and mostly, about science and specifically whether a salt crystal will prove to be Pandora’s box, Spiderman’s arachnid or, like, a dud firecracker where you’re anticipating drama and excitement but get pffft. NPR reported May 24 that large crystals of salt were found in central Australia, and the crystals show signs they...
One day in the far distant future, back when I was God, time is relative, one of my very intelligent earth persons proved that, but more will be revealed, anyway, one day one of my other earth persons requested a visit. Which I granted. I set up times for personal visitation, one hour in the early morning and one hour late at night, since most hours in between, I seem to be out of sight, out of mind. I quite like visitation. No matter whom I am scheduled to see, visitation is...
Montana Sen. Jon Tester, the only active farmer in the U.S. Senate, identified the problem when he said, “I just came off the worst year ever on my farm. We need to do something on climate change. I think we spent $144 billion this year on disasters and I don’t think that included crop insurance. So we need to do something on climate, too.” Agricultural producers are on the front lines of climate change and are experiencing the impacts now. Mega droughts, fire, floods and other extreme weather events cost $145 billion in 2021...
At the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Montana’s 1972 Constitution, there were many memorable moments, including the presentation of Jim Rice, Associate Justice of the Montana Supreme Court, during the panel discussion about “The Basic Rule of Law: The Backbone of a Constitution.” Rice, who prior to his 2001 Supreme Court appointment had been a Republican legislator, spoke out boldly and clearly about the role of the judiciary in defending the institutions of our democracy. Rice said, “we live in a time of extremi...
Yesterday, I took a deep breath and offered my services for a job, for which not only am I ill-prepared, but in my deep heart-of-hearts, I know I cannot do. This will seem like nothing to you but to me it is a BIG DEAL. I offered to go to Glendive to fill in as secretary for my daughter until she could hire somebody adequate to her needs. See? I knew you would say, “So what?” Back when I was in high school (early ’60s) the career opportunities for women were sorely limit...
I don’t know why I’m the one who always has to come up with the solutions to society’s big problems, but here I am shouldering the responsibility again. This time, though, I’m looking to get paid for my genius. After nearly a year of work, just under $300,000 of donor funding spent on creating a new logo for the Montana State Library and an hour-and-a-half of discussion, the library’s commission is now at an impasse over whether the logo aptly portrays the state library’s...
“The damage is catastrophic,” a Red Lodge business owner said. “We’re between a rock and a hard place. And if we don’t get some assistance, we’re not gonna make it.” He speaks for all of us who were hard hit by the flooding last week. We know that there’s a risk of fires and smoke interrupting our summer revenue stream. However, an extreme weather event, like this flooding disaster at the beginning of tourist season, and following on from the coronavirus pandemic, has devastated businesses, infrastructure and households. Man...
My work with children has largely been voluntary over the years, from HELP in the 1980s to CASA this century. Each are programs I heartily recommend. After losing custody of my boys nearly 40 years ago, I also mentored a handful of boys through a program at HRDC. When my sons returned to Havre, we ended up fostering three teenage friends of theirs and took in a disenfranchised foreign exchange student. All of those experiences were gratifying, but nothing has been as challenging and rewarding on a daily basis as driving a...
My husband, Peter, and I went to our first concert in the park last night. We brought our folding chairs and ate food from the food trucks. The weather was perfect, and the music was good. But upstaging the band were a pair of juvenile squirrels in the trees overhead, challenging one another to feats of greater and greater daring. I half expected to have an adolescent squirrel land in my lap. It had been a long day. We had just come from the funeral for one of Peter’s cousins, who died of ALS. It was a somber occasion, as h...
As part of my work as a member of the Senate Interim Education Committee, I was in Helena a couple of days these past two weeks participating in meetings. One discussion was how to get quality based CTE — career and technical education — and dual education credits to rural schools at a cost the state of Montana can afford. The thought is to give rural schools this opportunity through usage of virtual systems. One such program is a CNA — certified nurse assistant — class, which is currently being run out of Miles Communi...
As we all know, or should know, or kind of remember but the exact details escape us, Sweden and Finland applied May 18 to join NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in the wake of Russia’s invasion and ruthless efforts to pummel into submission their fellow European country of Ukraine. No word is out on their application status, but it looks like Finland is winning the popularity contest. Remember, after Sweden and Finland started talking about how they might be, m...
