by Archie L. Thomas, Corvallis
We as a nation have crossed the Rubicon. Individually and as a community we must acknowledge a new national reality. This appeal is above party or politics but rather as a long time community member appealing to the whole. The elephant in the room is the mad federal elephant ignoring the rule of law, resulting in irreversible damage to our community. Federal overreach is already here. Community can be the cure.
As a retired Montana native, former small business owner and Bitter Root resident since 1965, I have witnessed as a local militia threatened the life of a justice of the peace, a decades old threat to close Rocky Mountain Labs, county zoning/planning coming and going—twice, and recently witnessed as county commissioners silently supported pardons for Jan. 6 rioters while confirming local election integrity. The pardoned Proud Boys now work for ICE. This conservative community needs to acknowledge that federal overreach is now lawless authoritarian rule and silence never worked. We are living in different times.
“We are in a fake national emergency. My breaking point was snow.” Snow, when the head of Homeland Security justified a public killing in part due to agents being stuck in snow on a clearly snow-free street. Noem had already departed reality before the shot was fired. What would we know about this shooting if cell phone technology did not exist?
We need to face this reality as we address federal overreach across our community.
• 30-50 lost positions in the county at RML & USFS, estimated at $3 million annual payroll loss and as much as $9 million in community-wide economic losses. Further, a decades world renown research lab’s work is in shambles and our congressional, state delegation and county commissioners are AWOL or missing in action.
• Ravalli County is encompassed on three sides by a national forest watershed with a sliver of private land down the middle. Proposed Sheep Creek mine will contaminate the watershed supplying the only water to that sliver of private land. The federal government is pushing aside protections providing quick approval of the mine like sh*t through a goose. Ravalli County commissioners have opposed the mine, but they live under the misconception that federal lawlessness will not apply to them or us.
• RML/USFS payroll losses and Sheep Creek mine pending approval are Ravalli County’s equivalent to the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Unlike Minneapolis it is slower to kill people with a bad mine or lack of medical research. Environmental and immigration laws have their place, we are watching as both are abused and weaponized against public lands and citizens alike in the name of “emergency.”
What are the odds we can stop the slow federal squeeze when Minneapolis can’t stop the immediate chaos?
In summary, “community is the cure” only if individuals, the Chamber of Commerce, Bitter Root Board of Realtors, Builders Association, nonprofits, County, State and Congressional representatives confront the existing mad elephant. Vote by closing your wallet if the local business community stays silent. Peacefully resist and document illegitimate enforcement of law and order. Look for areas of agreement that build community. Community is the cure only if we defend it from lawless federal overreach, stop pay-for-play federal politics and continuous “national emergencies” resulting in our community’s loss.
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