Opinion
Editor, Several years ago, I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washinton DC. Upon exiting the museum there was a poem on the wall that brought me to tears. I want to share that poem with you. But first let me tell you about the man who wrote that poem. Martin Niemoller, the author of the poem was a Lutheran Pastor in Germany in the 1920s and 30s. He openly supported the Nazi party and sympathized with many Nazi ideas and supported radical right wing political movements. He welcomed Hitler’s accession to power in 1933. He had been complicit through his silence with the early Nazi persecution and imprisonment of communists and political opponents of the regime. Only until H...
President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is a tremendous win for Montana. It will spur economic growth, strengthen border security as well as expand Montana’s energy sector and provide much-needed funding for our military. And thanks to the diligent work of the entire Montana congressional delegation...
I write to inform Montanans about the real impact of House Bill 231, the property tax bill that recently became law. While marketed as “property tax relief,” this legislation creates a massive tax shift that will significantly increase the burden on our agricultural community. During legislati...
Gaza is being starved – deliberately, with cruel intention and shocking inhumanity. The photos of skeletal children haunt me. At night when I close my eyes. At dawn when I rise. They should haunt us all – along with the unfathomable suffering the families of Gaza have endured over nearly two y...
WASHINGTON — With unprecedented record-breaking heat waves hitting earlier and earlier for Montana residents, many folks have debilitating heat, wildfires, drought, and soaring energy costs on their minds. For Kalispell residents Jaden Woeppel and Mady Rigg (Miss Montana USA 2023) there’s an o...
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) passed by Congress and signed by President Trump is a game changer that will benefit middle-income, working-class Montanans. Yet Montana Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers (Montana’s top Democrat) said “I just think it is a betrayal of working Monta...
Editor, If you are a customer of Mission Valley Power (MVP) you have no doubt noticed a huge increase in your electric bills the last two years, and another increase is coming in 2026. You have also noticed there is a 3-tier rate system, where the more you use the higher the per KWH rate is. My fami...
I grew up poor, that is, American poor. I fantasized about food at night–mashed potatoes, buttery dinner rolls, raspberry cheesecake. I would wake up and imagine a breakfast–strawberry waffles with whipped cream, cold orange juice–then, talk myself toward accepting what I knew was there&nda...
Over the last four-plus years I’ve given a lot of time thinking about emotions - joy, bliss, sorrow, anger and everything in-between. I’ve struggled. I’ve failed. I’ve crawled out of the rubble. I’ve found glimmers of sunlight. I’ve had moments of success, amidst the...
Editor, Two acres of landscaping was too much for my mom to handle, so she hired a gardener. A high schooler, I had never seen anyone work so hard; planting, weeding and raking. My mom took him iced tea mid-morning and homemade cookies at lunchtime. The sweat on his brow glistened as I practiced my Spanis...
