Opinion

Let it snow!

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​A few years ago Montana had a dreadful dry year with devastating summer forest fires. That same summer Houston had immense flooding with a heavy dose of rains from Hurricane Harvey. When this happened, I couldn’t help but to think: What if there just happened to be some guy……who had just flown into Houston from Montana, prayed for rain, but forgot to say where? Boy, would they feel like an idiot. That stormy thought brought up a memory.

Trump can leave a legacy of life

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Mitch McConnel’s rationale on appointing Supreme Court Justices in the last year of a President’s term just isn’t rational. In 2016 he refused to hold hearings on President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland claiming that the nomination should be made by the winner of the coming Presidential election, which certainly wasn’t going to be Obama. In 2020 he pushed for the appointment of a Supreme Court Justice a month before the election. He didn’t make the argument he made in 2016 because the next President might not be Trump. He went to some lengths to justify his reversal of rationale but did it even matter? In 2016 he denied Obama’s appointee because he could. In 2020 he pushed Trump’s nominee because he could. But politicians don’t say, “I did it because I could,” they offer a reason—any reason—and it serves to make it justifiable to much of the public.

Howard’s priceless gift of simple giving

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The Christmas tree was a scrub cedar hacked from the edge of the woods that bordered the farm. Big-bulbed lights, strung in barber pole fashion, generated almost as much heat as the nearby wood stove. Yellowed Christmas cards, saved over the years and perched like doves in the untrimmed branches, served as ornaments.

Leave it better than you found it

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As I wrap up my four-year term as your State Auditor, I’m reminded of a common lesson Montana parents teach our children: leave things better than you found them. On a family camping trip that might mean picking up a forgotten piece of litter and leaving behind some extra firewood for the next folks to use. To me right now, it means leaving this office in great shape for our next Commissioner of Securities and Insurance, Troy Downing.

Rebuilding the new year with hard-won peace

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​As I make my preparations for the holiday season, I find myself taking periodic reality checks. I was struck with reality particularly hard as I sent out Christmas cards and letters and blithely signed “Happy New Year.” Last year I did the same thing never realizing the year that lay ahead of us. Now, at the end of that year the reality of those greetings is that it means picking up the pieces and attempting to mend our world which is broken. When I read the cards this year, the language of Christmas takes on new meaning — joy, hope, love, goodness and, of course, peace. A broken world where the word “peace” is twisted and battered and in shreds. ​The whole world is hurting, but the United States seems to have been hit harder than other countries and we are reeling from the economic disaster the pandemic has brought upon us. And I am reminded of the poem by Shelley entitled “Ozymandius.” Upon seeing the ruin of a mighty statue lying in the desert, the poet hears the words that are written on the wind,

Republicans unified to fulfill Montana’s conservative mandate

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This election, Montanans sent a clear message to Helena that they expect Republican leaders to be unified in reforming the way state government does business. Montana voters elected the first Republican governor in 16 years and expanded Republican majorities in the Montana Legislature. This November, I was elected Speaker of the Montana House of Representatives by my Republican colleagues and I am both honored and committed to achieving our conservative mandate.

‘Political democracy can endure only as guardian of economic democracy’

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In early 1999, I wrote a column about lions and gazelles.

Faith in Christ is the basis of creation

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The apostle Paul began his epistle to the churches in Galatia by expressing his concern that the gospel that called them is being deserted for another gospel. His declaration in verse 8 and again in verse 9 is But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!

We’ve been living with too much rudeness

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There’s a lot of disgruntlement if not downright hate these days in America. On Facebook, strangers snipe at each other. Old friends “unfriend” each other based on political preference. Talking heads trade insults on cable “news.” The angry acting out isn’t new: Four years ago New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told an interviewer on public radio “…hate has become the currency of this nation. We hate, therefore we are.” The facts bore him out: The FBI had just documented a 16-year peak in all types of hate crimes.

Election officials should be applauded, not threatened

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Political courage on the Republican side of the political spectrum seems to be blooming in state legislatures and the offices of state and local election officials, but it is scarce in Congress. It’s hard to tell the big boss he is wrong and harder still if it’s a message so unwelcome that he won’t and can’t hear it. But in Georgia’s 2020 election, which Biden won, the Republican Secretary of State and his elections staff have been unwavering in defending the running and the results of the election. That also holds for all 50 election administrators nationwide, who have stood their ground. They need to be applauded for it. Actually, they need to be defended and protected for it because the ensuing rejection of the results by the President and his claims that he has been robbed have set off a spate of lunatic threats and retributions by his followers on the people who ran the election. That’s bad enough, but the threats of violence have been also directed at their wives and families.

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