Redistribute The Tax Dollars

Hinsdale, like many other small villages and towns throughout Montana, is in a pickle. The infamous Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warranted that the water being dumped into the Milk River from Hinsdale's sewage treatment facility is unfit to be dumped into the sanitary and sterile Milk River.

The wastewater from sewage plants like Hinsdale's has been proven to be 10 times cleaner than the river it is being infused into. A person could drink the wastewater (if you didn't know from whence it came) without suffering any ill effects.

Would anyone in control of their faculties take a drink of water from the Milk River?

Summertime fun is when a group of kids and adults go down to the water in boats and inner tubes for a little floating, fishing, skiing and dunking one's little sister. I'm sure some Milk River water is being ingested accidentally and seemingly with no ill effects other than maybe a mild case of the “squirts.”

Now the EPA says they don't want Hinsdale dumping their drinkable water into the purer water of the river. Profanely wise of the EPA I would say.

So now the town of Hinsdale has to come up with $2 or $5 million bucks to build a lagoon-type sewage treatment plant. That's gonna take a whole bunch of pie auctions, car washes and benefit dances.

The same situation arises with the bridge crossing Beaver Creek north and west of Hinsdale on the Milk River Road.

The bridge was built in 1918 (the same year my dad was “built”) and certainly has seen better days. But the state and Valley County, in their incontinent wisdom keep pronouncing the bridge to be safe for traffic.

It really isn't because it's a blind approach in either direction.

But the catch 22 in this situation is this; if a person pushes the state or county too far about rebuilding or replacing this nearly 100-year-old structure, they will merely close the bridge to any traffic forcing the inhabitants on the Milk River Road to make the 8- to 13-mile trip to Hinsdale by the back way. Boy! That'd teach us citizens to be too pushy with the government, wouldn't it?

I'm told it will cost another $2 million or $5 million to replace the bridge.

More pie auctions and bake sales.

And there's the case of the four houses in Hinsdale that are slowly losing their back yards and soon their homes to the constantly eroding Milk River. A couple of them have lost over 60 feet of back yard over the 40 years they have been in existence.

My point (finally!) is this.

When a town in Kenya, Africa, needs a new sewage treatment facility, where is the first place they come seeking funds? And where do the folks in Afghanistan come to when they need to have a bridge built that will make getting to a grocery story easier for their people? And when people's homes in Dakar are in danger, who do they come to for money to relocate or rebuild?

And where do these foreign folks get the money to build these needed structures?

The United States, of course.

And do they have to pay back the money?

No.

And how much money have they paid in United States taxes?

None.

I'm sure that everyone of my 10.365 readers from different locations around the U.S. and from small towns similar to Hinsdale have similar dilemmas (or is that delemmi?) and are considering bake sales and benefit auctions to fund their projects, so here's my plan.

We TELL Congress to deduct $3 or $5 million from Israel's yearly allotment of $3.6 billion and send it to Hinsdale for the sewer plant.

We TELL Congress to stop paying Ireland $33 million for whatever reason they are paying it and send a few million or so to Hinsdale, Valley County and the State of Montana to help build the bridge. Oh, and while we're at it, why send Syria $87 million and neglect our own people's needs? Cut a couple million from their money and send it to Hinsdale to finish the bridge.

We TELL Congress to tell those people in Dakar they are going to have to do with $3 million or $5 million less because there are four families in Hinsdale, Mont., U.S.A., who need it more than they.

United States tax dollars helping Americans! Now there's a concept.

That's it for now folks. Thanks for listening.