Letters to the Editor

Crew helps out

From July 21 to August 5 the Montana Conservation Corps (MCC) Sunshine Crew will complete routine trail maintenance in the Priest Lake Ranger District of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. The six person crew will repair deteriorated turnpikes, and drainage, among other trail maintenance tasks.

The Montana Conservation Corps Sunshine Crew is based in Kalispell. Their work extends throughout the Flathead Valley, surrounding parks, and forests. The MCC strives to provide young people with the skills and values necessary to make beneficial, sustainable, and lasting contributions to the environment and to the community.

Zoe Zulakis

Embarassing situation

"All men are created equal" is a phrase found in the Declaration of Independence, taught to the youth in grade schools throughout America. This is one of the stronger foundations on which Democracy is built, enabling United States citizens, and immigrants alike to fulfill their dreams and pursue happiness. Montanans have a proud history of hard working families that have fought to protect and defend their constitutional rights against anyone or any government that would threaten to take them away. At the same time, these hardworking, God-fearing citizens can turn their backs on the rights of other human beings. I am troubled and saddened by the fact that throughout our history and even today, some Montanans feel that minorities, immigrants, or anyone that isn't of Anglo-Saxon decent, doesn't deserve the same personal liberties, freedoms, and Constitutional rights as those that are white.

Last weekend in Marion, two men were charged for hate crimes against migrant workers. According to local news reports, the migrant workers are of Asian decent, while the two attackers are white. The men were arrested Saturday night on suspicion of malicious intimidation or harassment relating to civil or human rights. According to the Flathead County Sheriff's Dept., two men brandished a baseball bat and a tire iron, used racial slurs and threatened migrant mushroom pickers at a Marion convenience store and several other men attacked migrant workers at a campground, reportedly hurling racial slurs and beer bottles at the migrants. Witnesses at the campground told deputies the migrants did not provoke the attackers. One white man had a rifle and fired five or six shots in the air. This type of behavior is reminiscent of the civil rights violations suffered by those of African decent in the southern part of the United States during the last several hundred years. Montanans should be embarrassed, ashamed and upset that this attitude is still around today in our back yard.

Unfortunately, this is not the first incident of racism in Montana, nor is it the first case of bigotry against Asians in Montana. We as Montanans haven't changed much since the late nineteenth century, when Asians made up a large percentage of Montana's total population and we discriminated against them with several "anti-Chinese laws." Chinese immigrants were one of the most peaceful and diligent groups in Montana, according to Professor Robert R. Swartout, of Carroll College, in his essay "The Chinese Experience in Frontier Montana." Opponents of the Chinese immigrants thought they were an economic threat to the Anglo-Saxon community, frequently referring to "unfair labor competition," which was largely exaggerated. The main reason behind the anti-Chinese sentiment in Montana, according to Swartout, was racism. A racism based on cultural stereotypes as well as skin color. Racism seems to be the motivating factor behind the attacks in Marion this weekend.

I remember when I first moved to Montana several years ago, some of the first people I met told me about the Indians on the reservation, and to do what I could to avoid them, unless of course, I wanted a new gun. I was told to just attend some kind of Indian function, and trade alcohol with them. According to my new "friends," I would get a gun, and they would be happy with booze. I of course never would think about doing something so stupid. This experience however, let me know that racism is alive and well in Montana. In this day and age, it's hard to believe that this type of behavior goes on in our own back yard. Who would have thought that so many years later, there would still be acts of violence handed down upon Chinese migrant workers. I guess it's true that if you let it, history repeats itself. We as Montanans, need to take a stand against this type of behavior, and teach our children how to behave ethically and morally, that they don't violate the personal liberties of others that we ourselves hold strong to our hearts.

Anthony Rojo