I am not a native Montanan. I moved here 17 years ago. In those 17 years, I saw a lot of Montana: Glacier National Park (many times), Big Hole National Battlefield, Essex, Eureka and Ennis, Red Lodge, Deer Lodge, Beartooth Highway, Miles City, Butte, Bozeman, Stevensville, St. Mary’s Mission, Florence, Hamilton, Judith Gap, Lewistown, Fort Benton, Lolo, Lolo Hot Springs, Yellowstone, West Yellowstone, Gardner, Helena, Bannack, Virginia City, Dillon, Monida, Missoula, National Bison Range, Philipsburg and on and on. Montana is a big, beautiful and diverse state.

I not only explored the state, I read all I could about her history. I downloaded a copy of “The Constitution of the State of Montana” and read it (how many native Montanans have)? I got involved in the political scene and hoped and worked for progressive answers to the problems facing the state. Unfortunately, Montana seems to be stuck in a different century. It seems not to care for its seniors, nor for its children, by cutting education funding for public schools, merely token funding, nor does it care for its middle-class by not giving them a living wage.  

Montanans, you have a beautiful state, with many natural resources and recreational opportunities, but you are failing your most precious resource, the citizens. There is a need for affordable housing, infrastructure (roads, bridges), retrofitting buildings to green and solar, and clean coal. Stop raping the land in search of coal and oil, protect your water. The past is gone and you only have now.

Goodbye and good luck. —Margie Gignac, Kalispell