by Helen Sabin, Corvallis
This is my reply to the Bitterroot Star (BS) confusing letter entitled, “A Hill to Die On,” 3/15/23 by Terri Lackey.
Terri Lackey, the organizer of the “new” Bitterroot Valley chapter of the John Birch Society, has the usual full diet of “Chicken Little Fear,” and enemies that exist only in her mind.
NOTE: If you don’t know who Chicken Little is–watch this children’s animated video on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA2XtiZdDkE
The enemy in her last op-ed were the “ignorant” members of the GOP Pachyderm Educational group, who meet in Stevensville and have speakers twice a month. She was angry that they did NOT vote for her husband, Alan, to be the HD-88 Stevensville /Florence House Representative in the legislature.
Margaret Gorski wrote a letter 5/22 in the BS that had this to say about Alan: “It’s hard not to conclude that Mr. Lackey isn’t really a Republican at all. It seems like he’s more of a John Bircher or Libertarian. Since he doesn’t believe in our form of government, why is he running for elected office?”
In this 3/15/ 23 letter, Lackey mentions so many enemies that it was difficult to find the one she hated the most. It was the 25 Marxists – i.e., legislators, who were audacious enough to vote for rule changes in the legislature.
Lackey calls them Neo-Cons and Marxists and states, “They turned on us and voted with the Democrats to change the rules to leverage the liberal influence to stifle our conservative voice.”
Two legislators have a different opinion as reported in the Montana Free Press, Jan. 4, 23: “A third of a majority caucus wanting to hear a bill is justification for each of us in this body to be able to hear and hold debate on a bill,” said Rep. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, who brought the amendment in the House Rules Committee Tuesday.
The change would make it more difficult for leadership to quash bills by assigning them to so-called kill committees.
“In the past, bills have been referred to committees for the express purpose of preventing them from reaching the House floor for debate,” said Rep. David Bedey, R-Hamilton, a vocal supporter of the rule change. “In other instances, committee chairmen have effectively killed bills by scheduling them for committee hearings too late to meet transmittal deadlines. Both practices impede the process of fair and open debate and …have been used to coerce legislators to take actions contrary to their principles or the interests of their constituents.”
Those reasons weren’t good enough for Terri Lackey as they didn’t match her thinking or agenda. Thus, we get her confusing letter that doesn’t make sense. Nonsense is more like it.
It is up to YOU readers of the BS to decide if we Montanans have lost our voice. You must decide who the Marxists and neo-con authoritarians really are. Let me know your thoughts please.