Columns

“Guess what?!” A 12-year-old Pittsburgh school boy spoke excitedly with his teacher one morning last fall. “My mommy and daddy were having a fight last night, and I asked them if we could have a peace circle! We sat and talked, and they’re not fighting anymore!” The boy had been involved in a program to introduce peace circles to schools – moments in the school day when a class sits together and shares their thoughts and feelings around a certain topic. Like other school systems, Pittsburgh had begun this program to help reduce violence by giving students tools for better communication. Happily for this boy and his family, what happened in the classroo...

Like many others, I wept watching Vice-President candidate Tim Walz’s son Gus express his sheer admiration of his dad during the Democratic National Convention. Gus had tears in his eyes and as expression of pure joy when he pointed his index finger at his dad during his speech and said, “I love ...

We all have our views and viewpoints. It’s easy to expand on those views with quips and comments that sound inventive, innovative and downright clever. It’s amazing, actually, how easy it is to come out against something or someone, especially when you don’t agree with their viewpoints, pol...

  Property taxes aren’t red/blue or political; the State writes the rules on property taxes, counties follow the rules. And everyone—no matter what your political stripe—pays.  It’s no secret that Missoula County and Beaverhead County are opposite in terms of politics, bu...

As you know by now, Montana boasts a unique and expansive constitutional guarantee to public information. But Montana law allows agencies to charge Montanans a fee for completing Right to Know requests, if the agency chooses to do so. Understanding why different fees are being assessed in different circum...

How can it be? Summer has flown by and here we are getting ready to celebrate the end of our Summer Reading Program with a big block party on Thursday, Aug. 15 from 5 to 8 p.m. We’ll have live music, food and drinks available for purchase, another Paper Pie book sale, our prize drawings and of course, ...

We all started out in the same way. As babies. But what would it be like to go back? Imagine being a baby. I’ve thought about this a few times, while watching my grands navigate their way through this world. I imagine myself in their tiny tottering shoes - or bodies, so to speak. And I realize...

We are the Area IV Governing Board and Advisory Council, which oversees older adult services in Broadwater, Gallatin, Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, Meagher, and Park Counties. We write to implore Governor Gianforte’s administration to prioritize improved resources to deliver Older Americans Act services ...

We are all broken. Some have just a dent in the fender; others need a whole new transmission.  We are dinged, bent, damaged, hurt, cracked, confused, crushed and cut to the quick. Because life will sometimes do that to you - to me - to all of us.  It changes us. It challenges us. It tosses...

When my kids were little, they often came to me with “what ifs.” What if the school bus starts to fly? What if we ate dessert first? What if God never invented rabbits? Or ice cream? Or trees? Or bikes? Or the rain? What if my hair turned into spaghetti noodles? What if all the gra...