Letters to the Editor

Speaking out

I read with interest the article and editorial in the Feb. 19 paper. Generally I don't worry too much what is written in the paper since some things just make good reading and sell papers. However something happened this week that I thought I should write about. The "Village Bill" somehow managed to get a sponsor and assigned to a committee all in a 24-hour period the first of this week. It was scheduled to be heard at 3 p.m. on the 19th. So I changed my schedule and headed to Helena on Thursday instead of Friday, which was the original plan. During the hearing, Rep.Jopek did the introduction and Commissioner Brenneman spoke in favor of the bill. Of course it was presented as having been endorsed by BLUAC and the Lakeside Community Council and NOT ONE person from either of those groups was there to speak in favor of the bill. In fact, there was not even one person other than Commissioner Brenneman that indicated they were in favor of it.

There were, however, a room full of people that indicated they would like to speak against the bill and about 10 were allowed to speak before time ran out. The opposition was from all over the state and from all different groups. Each one of these people made last-minute decisions to be there. After hearing so much about this "village bill" over the last several weeks and how much support there was for it, the supporters of this bill should be ashamed for not showing up to support their Commissioner and Representative.

On Friday morning I sat in on the Executive Committee and the bill was unanimously tabled with no discussion.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that no one from BLUAC was there, since they had already discussed it and thought it should be passed, therefore our representatives in Helena should just move it along without question.

Better yet, the Governor should just sign it since BLUAC thought it was a good idea.

My point is this: Our American system allows us an awesome privilege of being involved in our government. With that privilege comes the responsibility of BEING involved. Each of us has a place to be inserted in the process and we don't belong in every part of it. That is how the checks and balances work. If you take a look at the inside pages of your growth policy you will see my name there. And you better believe that I take what is in there very seriously, and I am going to monitor how it is being used against the residents of Flathead County, and if I think that I need to speak to an issue I will.

Charles Lapp

Kalispell