Fighting for Montana

by Terri Lackey, Stevensville

This is in response to Ed Sperry’s letter titled “Wow, A Letter from Helena.” There have been a lot of accusations of unethical practices being spewed at one of our highly respected state senators. Apparently, Senator Manzella, having taken her oath to uphold the constitutions, does not have the same right to free speech as We the People. In a letter to many of her supporters, she was explaining why she endorsed one primary candidate over another through a constitutional vetting process. 

This is something I am learning has been missing for quite some time, which is why we are in the state of chaos that we are in. As a native of Montana, I want ALL candidates vetted through the Constitution so we elect people who will fight for her!

Heartbroken and angry are two adjectives that define how I feel about how my beautiful state is being prostituted to the federal government.

Mr. Sperry, you have clearly defined your candidate of choice’s platform, that we are at the mercy of big government and that states are helpless to defend their citizens. You clearly point out that you and your candidate do not have a correct understanding of the Constitution, the right of the states to keep the federal government in check, and the right to nullify those bad laws you and your candidate say we must obey.

Have you looked at the gas pumps lately? Federal law doesn’t affect us here in Montana? Cutting off our energy? Causing chaos and confusion in our schools? Teaching children an immoral way of life? Taking away parental rights? So you are saying that we just have to live with that?

Your candidate is going to go to Helena and do what? Stick with the status quo and ignore the chaos that is eroding our way of life? Not fight for our rights here in Montana and not tell the federal government to take a flying leap because he has stated several times that he is NOT for states’ rights. To me that means he is just going to be another politician and a not a servant of the people.

I have heard your candidate state that liberty is in proportion to the law. Does that mean my liberty is bound by any unconstitutional federal law? He also has stated that liberty is a domestic animal, not a wild creature. Who do you think, Mr. Sperry, gets to domesticate liberty? And whose laws create the proportion of liberty we get to enjoy?

I take offense to you and your candidate taking the stance that I don’t have any say in my freedoms and liberties outside of the federal government. That I am a domestic creature? Have you never heard this: “We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights… and to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”?

Your candidate keeps standing on the fact that he has lived here for 30 years. So what? That makes him the right person for the job? He claims to be a multi-generational Montanan; so is Jon Tester! How has that worked out for us? And isn’t your candidate actually from New Mexico?

The Constitution is the filter that all laws should pass through, not an opinion legislated from the bench.

Fight to the death for Montana!