Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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The Siding 45 Skatepark organization wants to thank Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital for their generous donation of $30,000 to support building a permanent, professionally designed and built concrete skatepark in our community. In my presentation to the board, I talked about the benefits of a skatepark for the mental and physical health of our young people. Investing in the wellness of our young people is the most valuable thing we can do to help our community grow and thrive. Thanks to Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament, comparable towns across Montana ha...
Here are some facts about the events in Charlottesville, Va., as they have unfolded over previous weeks: A rally, organized by known white supremacist blogger Jason Kessler, was held in Charlottesvile last week. The idea to hold the rally was sparked by the scheduled removal of a confederate statue (the statue was being moved, not demolished). Kessler told The Associated Press before the event that it was “about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do.” The crowd include...
On Saturday (May 20) I attended the political rally for Rob Quist with special guest Bernie Sanders in Butte, Mont. It began with two locals sharing their healthcare stories. A woman who had battled cancer three different times, is now facing loss of healthcare due to pre-existing conditions. While “high risk pools” are the Republicans’ answer to this problem, those pools will drive up the cost of healthcare for people in need that many will have to simply choose against enrollment. When this woman dealt with high risk pools before the ACA,...
The House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act on May 4, and began the process of implementing the American Health Care Act (AHCA). Republicans had tried to get a similar bill passed earlier this year, but the language of the bill split the party in half, with hyper-conservatives (Freedom Caucus) and moderate conservatives at odds. That bill didn’t get a vote. An amendment addressing pre-existing conditions ultimately helped pass the bill. Everyone, even our President, can admit that healthcare is a complicated beast. One major change has b...
Wheatgrass Arts and Gallery's second annual ArtSquare Auction is back! Twenty-six pieces of artwork can be seen in store windows all over town, including Soma-dis Deli and The Loaded Toad. These 6"x6" canvases can be bid on at a minimum of $25 at Wheatgrass between 10-5 until Friday, May 12, 10-2 on Saturday and at the ArtSquare Auction event. Funds raised will benefit Luke's 100, a fundraising organization for Valley View Home, as well as Wheatgrass Arts and Gallery. Local art can only survive...
If you’ve watched television lately you might have seen the attack ads against Rob Quist, the Cut Bank man who is running for Congress in the upcoming special election. I remember when I was little, campaign ads like that would come on TV and both of my parents would mutter in disgust – not at the content, but at their existence. The red screen and dark voice missed the mark. Out here we learned respect from childhood. Some men still take their cowboy hats off when they shake a lady’s hand. You don’t know when you’ll have to call someone t...
Today I visited Pass Creek School, a one-room schoolhouse north of Bozeman with eight kids. We talked about Montana artists and did an art project together. Most of them drew pictures of horses, or of moving cows, or their 4-H pigs. They were smart and polite and well-spoken. For work, I visit all kinds of schools. I’ve visited a middle school with 500 kids in Bozeman and a schoolhouse with six kids in Yaak. I’ve been to Hutterite colonies and St. Labre Indian Catholic School. My favorite, though, are the one-room country schools. The kids are...
President Trump recently signed an executive order barring citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for the next 90 days, suspending the admission of all refugees for 120 days. America has received more refugees than any other country in the world. Most Americans are proud of our heritage and can list all the places our distant relatives migrated from. Some of us are lucky, our great-grandparents came mostly of free will, for land and dreams. Many Americans came fleeing religious persecution. The current ban...
Well, 2016 has been hailed by some as the worst year, ever. While that’s plainly nearsighted (remember the Bubonic Plague? A third of Europe succumbed to that black death), it’s been tough for a lot of us. Three fabulous idols, Prince, David Bowie, and George Michael passed away, along with Leonard Cohen and Alan Rickman. Fifty people were shot and killed in an Orlando nightclub. Nice, France happened. Berlin. Aleppo. A beautiful collection of thirty-three young artists died in a warehouse fire in Oakland, Calif. About half the people in our...
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. I’m the youngest of six, so when I was growing up, Thanksgiving meant my siblings who had gone off to college came home, filling the house with the comfortable noise and familiarity I missed while they were gone. Of course there’s the food, and the good weather and the promise of Christmas vacation coming up, but the gift of Thanksgiving is the intention: family, conversation, and simply being together. Those of us who were lucky enough to experience a large family know that it isn’t alway...
At this point most people have heard of the so-called “bathroom bill” passed in North Carolina. This is a law decreeing all people must use restrooms in accordance to the gender they were born into. What the public doesn’t seem to realize is that the North Carolina General Assembly spent $42,000 to hold an emergency, closed meeting to rush through this bill that not only rules that trans people have to use the restroom assigned to their original anatomy, it also prohibited any laws passed that would illegalize discrimination of any sort again...
Wheatgrass Arts will hold the Art Square Silent Auction on Friday, May 6 from 6-8 p.m. Donations will benefit both the Northeast Montana Veterans Memorial in Fort Peck and Wheatgrass Arts and Gallery. More than twenty “Art Squares,” will be up for bid. These 6” square canvasses can currently be viewed in businesses around town, such as The Busted Knuckle, Glasgow Flower and Gift, and The Loaded Toad. As well as the Art Squares, a live “quick draw” event with local artists will take place with those finished pieces going up for bid as well by t...
Wheatgrass Arts and Gallery in downtown Glasgow will be holding a First Friday Art Exhibit of Wolf Point artist Jason Brock’s paintings this Friday evening, April 1, at 5:30. Brock was born and raised in Wolf Point, where in grade school he fell in love with doodling - an interest that became a love for art, eventually pushing him to attend Dickinson State University in pursuit of an art degree. Since returning to Wolf Point from Dickinson, however, family life superseded his art and his return to creativity has mostly been, as he says, ...
The water crisis in Flint, Mich., has been extensively covered by most, if not all, major news networks. All three of Montana’s main newspapers have covered the topic, Time ran a cover story, and the New York Times did a feature piece. In short, the bulk of the facts are public knowledge. But, when subjected to the onslaught of information, it can be hard to keep everything straight. Jacoby Collins, 21, is a Flint native who has lived in Glasgow for the last five years. We discussed the Flint water crisis at length, and his frustration with t...
I’m ordering a latte in downtown Missoula. Behind me in line a young man has a yoga mat slung over his shoulder. Behind him, a woman in a suit dress. My barista is young and cheerful; I tip my change plus a buck. The only thing wrong with this picture are the walls. They are decorated with ugly, mass produced images. Not art. Not even paintings. Purchased, boring frame filler. In Missoula, arguably the Montana city with the most local artists, this is inexcusable. There and in other cities where I’ve lived, local businesses not supporting local...
A few weeks ago I wrote about the Bundy militia takeover of a government building in Oregon. I pointed out the discrepancies between the way racial justice activists and these men have been treated by the media. Since then, 55-year-old Robert “LaVoy” Finicum has been shot by the FBI and eight others were arrested, including Ammon Bundy. It is always tragic when the FBI kills a citizen. To be clear: I am absolutely not condoning the death of anyone in this situation. Since I began writing this sporadic column, I’ve had a lot of uncom...
On Jan. 3, a group of armed extremists took hold of a government facility, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, in Oregon. They apparently want the government to hand over this public land to local ranchers, loggers, and miners. The three brothers Bundy, whose father was in the BLM standoff in Nevada in 2014 over grazing rights, are supposedly taking this action in support of the Hammond men who are serving time in prison for burning public land. Especially to the people in this area, their anger is understandable. People who...
Virgil Vaupel claims the EEOC discriminates against white men. And in fact, there have been cases in which the EEOC has ruled in favor of white men who were discriminated against. If Virgil had chosen to cite credible examples of this happening, he may have introduced a compelling argument. Instead, Virgil listed many ways in which women and people of color have proven their abilities by being hired into positions of power, including as magazine editors and as athletes. None of the examples he listed gave any credibility to his claim that the...
I'm not sure what Virgil Vaupel intended to communicate in his last article, in which he revisits Equal Opportunity. I came away with an understanding of what he meant to say, but just in case (because I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt) I'd like to revisit his “revisit.” The article seems to be his attempt to criticize the establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which was established due to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual's race, color, nat...
A is for Arrowhead by Toni Lagree isn't like any other alphabet book you have in your collection. In Lagree's book, the letters look like the words they represent. When her children were learning to read, she realized how difficult it was for a young person to grasp the abstract concept of a letter. "D is for dog," she says, "but a dog doesn't look anything like the letter D." Her solution? In A is for Arrowhead, D is for dustpan. Lagree believes strongly in the power of visual communication....
At 5:00 in the morning on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 16 Nashua High School Students met in the Bergie's parking lot to take part in the 30th Annual Red Ribbon Run. There, tribal members from Poplar smudged and prayed over the participants and gave them half of a sacred hoop to carry eastward, where it could be completed with sections from other participating teams. Then, the cold students began to run. The group streamed along the highway with a school bus and a police escort. Runners wore bright...
When I am at a community gathering, I like to admire the men around me. I am of the opinion that an adult man should be clean-shaven, wear a cowboy hat and Wranglers, and boast a belt buckle. Most of the men in this area meet these expectations very nicely. Call me old-fashioned, but nothing offends me more than when a full-grown man has the gall to grow a full mustache and cover up the face that I, as a single young woman, have a right to see and enjoy! Now, grow out your underarms, let your secret garden grow wild, but leave that sun-beaten...
The annual Saco/Hinsdale community picnic at the Bjornberg Bridge came off without a hitch on Sunday, Sept. 20. Under the shade of the cottonwoods on the north bank of the Milk River, a lasting tradition stood strong. A long table laden with dishes from every family in attendance split the grass. Beyond the spread of desserts, Mark and Mike Johnson served pork, beef and lamb with Bernie Hart. If the food and company are what draw a person to an event like this, it's the music that keeps you...
“Mankind flung its advance agents ever outward, ever outward. Eventually it flung them out into space, into the colorless, tasteless, weightless sea of outwardness without end. It flung them like stones.” ― Kurt Vonnegut As a teenager, my brother got me hooked on reading Kurt Vonnegut. Novels like Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World fixed themselves on my list of favorites. Yet, over the years I somehow forgot all about science fiction. Then I picked up Andy Weir’s novel The Martian, and I remembered what it’s like to fall into that kind of w...
