Stay positive

As the New Year begins and another Montana legislative session gets under way, I would like to encourage positive citizen participation. Each of our elected representatives have accepted a huge responsibility, and will be working long hours to try and craft legislation which will serve Montana well. In order to be sure that they are truly representing the concerns of the people who sent them to Helena, they must continually hear from those voters, as well as other citizens who live and work in the districts being represented.

I would venture to say that more "positive" results can be produced by our representatives if they will leave their "political" stripes at home and aggressively work with each other to find the best answers to the many challenges being faced by our State. Quality education, equitable property taxes, clean air and water, accessible health care, and a viable economy were all included as concerns in nearly everyone's political campaign literature, so it shouldn't be too difficult to pass legislation which provides answers to these issues.

Unfortunately, there are those cynical nay sayers amongst us who try to cast aspersions on our system by saying such things as, "No man's life or money is safe while the legislature is in session.", or "They're all the same, it doesn't matter who is in charge.", or "They're all a bunch of crooks, vote them all out." Frankly, I can't see how such talk adds anything helpful to the process. If we are going to live in a country where government is "of the People, by the People, and for the People", we must accept the responsibility of providing substance to those whom we have elected to be our "voice". In my mind, this is best demonstrated through positive participation.

Edd Blackler

Bigfork