Jeffrey Stiffarm: Fueling the fires of racism — Montana deserves much better

Lately, a visitor view by Tammi Fisher posted within the Unbiased Report on Sept. 15 expressed the writer’s disdain of feedback made by a former Montana legislator and present developer of a scorecard that the Montana GOP adopted to rank and touch upon Montana legislators. Such scorecards will not be for the aim of figuring out finest illustration for Montana constituents, however to advance the agenda of the GOP machine. We thank Ms. Fisher for bringing to mild the newest racist feedback and views which proceed to plague our nation.

Mr. Butcher’s feedback are a mirrored image upon himself, his household, his group and the GOP. I’m nonetheless making an attempt to determine how he can decide the intelligence of Native People. He absolutely can’t use himself as a body of reference. His feedback do deliver up assessments corresponding to “not being the brightest bulb within the pack” or being “one sandwich in need of a picnic” or “not having each oars within the water.” One thing tells me that he has heard these assessments throughout his lifetime.

If the GOP has eliminated their acknowledgement of Native American constitutional rights, as Ms. Fisher said in her Sept. 15 visitor view, for an Indigenous group that was right here earlier than Montana statehood and even earlier than this new period of out-of-state migrants who really feel they know what’s finest for the folks of Montana, then it’s their loss. And a loss for the folks of Montana. For Native People have been academics in American political methods, in farming, in sustaining the land, in warfare technique and in residing respectfully on this Earth.

It comes as no shock that there are nonetheless fundamental racists inside Montana, as in any state within the union. What’s all the time stunning and disappointing is when sure ill-advised and ill-spoken people show their miscreant habits centered on a person group of individuals, most of whom he has by no means met. Most of whom he won’t ever meet. And we’re higher off for that.

Mr. Butcher’s having to create a platform as a result of he’s now not within the Montana Legislature, reveals his frustration and want for consideration. Bullying propensities present when the person is feeling uncontrolled or a have to put somebody right down to really feel higher about themselves.

There’s an previous adage “higher to be silent and be thought a idiot, then to talk and take away all doubt.” If somebody can discover a third grader to clarify that to Ed Butcher, perhaps he’ll perceive that operating down somebody or a bunch of individuals doesn’t make him a greater or extra educated individual. As an alternative, it continues to spotlight his ignorance, worry and hatred.