Losing our Freedom, one rule at a time
Thanks to the media the public has been alerted that professional and occupational boards under the Montana Department of Labor and Industry can be unreasonable and inflexible. The Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists adopted an administrative rule in 2004 that made the use of a barber pole or any likeness thereof by anyone other than a licensed barber unprofessional conduct and punishable by suspension of license and/or fines. No consideration was given to Melissa Franklin, owner of the Clip Joint, who used the barber pole for 9 years before the rule was adopted, nor was she given an opportunity to challenge the barber test without attending a barber college.
Boards are granted authority to adopt rules for unprofessional conduct under Montana law (37-1-318 MCA) for behaviors that constitute a threat to public health, safety or welfare and are inappropriate to the practice of the profession or occupation.
Freedom is the main issue at stake at the Clip Joint in Whitefish. The barber pole is a traditional symbol for a place to get a hair cut. Barbers and Cosmetologists are both trained to cut hair. Barbering is broadly defined in State Law. Public health, safety or welfare is not compromised. The rule goes beyond the purpose as stated in law. This rule is an undue restriction on the freedom of Melissa Franklin to continue to advertise her business in a traditional manner. I will likely carry a bill to correct this injustice.
Some people may say, it is much to do about nothing, but George Washington reminded us long ago: "government is like a fire: a dangerous servant and a fearful master, that to be useful, it must be strictly controlled for safety against getting out of hand and doing great harm."
Verdell Jackson
Senator, District 5
Kalispell
Gun control worries
As our community continues to grow at a rapid pace due to more "Newcomers" moving in from large cities around the country, the contentious issue of gun control will rear its ugly head.
People from large cities contended with high crime rates that involved guns: Armed robberies, gang shootings, domestic violence, bar fights, sexual assaults, work place disputes, school massacres, etc., …not to mention home accidents. They are moving to our rural valley, with their justified prejudice against guns, where the local ownership of guns is commonplace for legal game hunting purposes. The two different cultures are necessarily going to clash over control of gun ownership.
The Newcomers bring their fear of guns into a community where hunting is a right granted by the Montana State Constitution. The heritage of gun ownership has become an undeniable right of passage to the Locals. How to resolve the impending clash of wills?
Perhaps the answer is to refocus our attention on the U.S. Constitution's 2nd Amendment Right to Bear Arms and what its intended purposes were:
1. Allowing the citizenry to bear arms prevents us from becoming a Police State, where unarmed citizens would be at the mercy of our own government taking over as a renegade dictatorship. Our founding forefathers certainly did not want that to happen, and neither do we today. There are many atrocities occurring in other countries around the world where the unarmed people suffer genocide at the hands of their own armed government militia. Fortunately, it cannot happen here.
2. Allowing the citizenry to bear arms prevents us from becoming conquered by a foreign government in the event our government ever surrenders to them as a result of a war. We are 300 million people in America with an average of 8 guns per household and can never be occupied by a foreign army on our soil.
3. Everyone is entitled to defend themselves, their family, their home, and their property as a right of citizenship in America.
We unfortunately do suffer unacceptable loss of human life due to crimes committed with guns in our society, and my beloved wildlife do get hunted, but the alternative of not having guns to defend ourselves is a far worse scenario to live with. It could mean the loss of all of our freedoms we cherish above all else.
Bill Baum
Kalispell