{"id":1945,"date":"2011-03-19T18:17:45","date_gmt":"2011-03-20T01:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/?p=1945"},"modified":"2011-03-19T18:17:45","modified_gmt":"2011-03-20T01:17:45","slug":"thats-not-who-we-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/?p=1945","title":{"rendered":"That’s Not Who We Are"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There has been much criticism of the 2011 Montana legislature and I have tried very hard to defend them against the slings and arrows, knowing that they are dealing with very contentious issues and very passionate supporters and opponents. It’s a tough job and our 150 senators and representatives are definitely overworked and underpaid. So I really, really do try to give them the benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n

But at the end of the day, it comes down to the fact that every single one of those legislators not only volunteered for the job, but spent a great deal of time, effort, and money to get the job – so it is unacceptable when they refuse to do the job. How proudly those campaign signs proclaimed that the candidate would “fight for you” and “represent you”. And only the terminally naive would believe that that means 100% of the time, on every bill, would your representatives vote the same way you would. <\/p>\n

But the one thing they can all do is listen to those who take the time to come to the Capitol and share their points of view with those that have been elected to represent them.<\/p>\n

The first time I testified as a witness in a legislative hearing was 1969, when I supported a constitutional amendment to reduce the age of majority. I was a college freshman and, like all 19 year-olds, I felt that I had all the perspective and wisdom necessary to advise my elders as to public policy. But God bless them – every single member of the committee sat and listened as I and many, many of my peers passionately pled for our right to vote. And oh – yeah – drink – two years sooner than the current law allowed.<\/p>\n

Since then I have invoked the privilege to participate in the legislative process on all sorts of issues – some noteworthy, some not. Sometimes the votes went my way, sometimes not. One thing that was common to every committee that I ever appeared before was the simple respect and courtesy that was shown to every proponent and opponent by the legislators, regardless of the eloquence or logic of their presentation. <\/p>\n

Such is not the case this year. Statewide newspapers have carried story after story about how citizens have been denied their right to speak their piece on the issues of the day. I tended to discount the stories, giving the benefit of the doubt to the legislators. The hearings that I personally had participated in were exactly as I had always experienced – professional and friendly.<\/p>\n

Until last Wednesday. <\/p>\n

I can honestly say that I have never been so ashamed to call myself a Republican in my life. The chairman of the committee was way beyond rude. He unreasonably cut off two witnesses, an elderly couple who had traveled from Butte and a lady who had taken time off from work and come in from Livingston, flustering and frustrating all three of them. An expert witness who was invited by the opponents of the bill flew in from California at his company’s expense to provide factual evidence to counter the opinions of the bill’s sponsor and supporters. He was virtually told to sit down and shut up because the committee had four more bills to hear and each side could only have 10 minutes for their testimony and his time was up. <\/p>\n

Admittedly, the bill isn’t one of the headline-grabbers, and in all likelihood it would probably go unnoticed by the vast majority of the people of Montana. In its own way, however, it does have the potential to negatively impact the lives, property, and financial well-being of many people. The people who do know and understand what this bill can do sincerely oppose it and the people who support it are equally sincere. They all deserve to have their elected representatives make an informed decision one way or the other after a full and fair hearing. As it stands now, that won’t happen.<\/p>\n

As I sat there watching and listening to the unforgivable behavior of the chairman, I was in turn flabbergasted and then appalled. Montanans are nice people. We welcome those who are guests in our homes and in our public buildings. We do not shut our guests up because we disagree with them; we do not ignore their right to speak because we have other things to do; we do not treat them as nuisances when they wish to participate in their government. <\/p>\n

They are “We the People” and our legislators owe them – us – their deepest and fullest respect. Always. That’s who we are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been much criticism of the 2011 Montana legislature and I have tried very hard to defend them against the slings and arrows, knowing that they are dealing with very contentious issues and very passionate supporters and opponents. It’s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Xq4i-vn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1945"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1948,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945\/revisions\/1948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}