Humans have right to survive like wildlife

To the editor,

An open letter to Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester.

Max and Jon:

Even though I am 66 years old, I plan on living to age 120 since I am very physically fit and in excellent health. However, I will need adequate social security benefits and adequate Medicare coverage to do so. I fear that will not happen. And, without any family to provide help for me in my golden years, I wonder what recourse I have to survive in this Republican-dominated, capitalistic climate I live in?

I retired to Montana, after a career that required living in major cities in America, in order to live close to Glacier National Park and The Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, inside Flathead National Forest, so I could view wildlife in their natural wilderness habitat from my own homesite. I fear that powerful real estate interests, logging and mining extraction industries, and motorized recreational vehicle access will destroy that dream of mine in'this Republican-dominated, capitalistic, Flathead County government I am subjected to.

What I want, and expect, from my elected government officials in Washington, D.C. is an inviolate defense of the Endangered Species Act, enforcement of the "Roadless Rule" in national forests, expansion of the protection of "national forests" through being re-designated as "wilderness areas," protection of water quality in rivers and lakes with the recognition that our potable water is hydrologically derived underground from these surface bodies of water, protection of air quality through emphasis of the adoption of green industries with minimal carbon footprints, and a compassion shown for the rights of survivorship for wildlife that is equal to the rights of humans since we were intended to share this Earth together.

You gentlemen call yourselves Democrats.  Will you represent my interests?

Bill Baum

Martin City