Water compact lacks true principles
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Editor,
“Only lay down true principles, and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened into their surrender by the alarms of the timid...” said Thomas Jefferson.
In this age of political expediency and pragmatism, based on moral and ethical relativism, the above admonition of Jefferson is not so popular. The basis of relativism, after all, is the rejection of all absolutes. In a society that embraces evolutionary relativism, there can be no such thing as “true principles,” nor any reason to “adhere to them inflexibly.”
So it is with the current draft of the proposed water compact with the CSKT. In what Chris Tweeten, chairman of the state team on the compact commission, calls “the grand bargain,” the State of Montana agrees “to remove non-Indian rights on the reservation from the jurisdiction and control of the state and place them somewhere else...”
“Somewhere else,” of course, is the “Flathead Reservation Water Management Board” created by the current compact proposal, in spite of the clear language of Article 9 of the Montana Constitution establishing that “the legislature shall provide for the administration, control, and regulation of water rights...”
At best, the creation of this board is diminished representation for private fee property owners within the boundaries of the reservation in regards to securing and administering their water rights; at worst, it is a negation of representation.
If the State of Montana adopts the compact as currently composed, it is embracing the notion that “no taxation without representation” is no longer a “true principle.” It is saying to owners of private fee property within the boundaries of the reservation that “you are full and equal citizens of the state for purposes of taxation and regulation; you are not full and equal citizens in regards to securing, protecting, and administering your water rights.”
“The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Rick Jore
Ronan
