Dear Editor: Do Your Own Digging

Dear Editor,

Another fine piece from Jon Goff at Montana Decides (The Long Green Mile, 10-19-22.)

I was struck by this line: “benefits (or lack thereof) are rarely considered or challenged due to the assumption that all public expenditures are always worthy without question.”

Why might this be the case?

To my eye, we have lived our entire lives in an ever-more-corrupted system. We’re collectively sitting on top of generations if not centuries of political malfeasance, corporate and financial shenanigans, a two-tiered justice system, mainstream media mayhem, a cultural collapse of meaning, purpose, ethics, and values, and a great deal of family-level abuse, exploitation, violence, addiction, and the like. This has never been more clear than it is now, especially as one looks up the ladder to the national and international arenas. All of this corruption and pain has likely left many of us traumatized, distrusting, disconnected, disempowered, and despairing on the one hand, and longing for smart, honest, hard-working, caring, and wise leaders on the other.

Here in small-town Montana, it makes sense that people act out of that deep desire to have people in charge whom they can simply trust to make smart and financially-sound decisions for the betterment of all. We so deeply want the “good leaders” we wish we’d had all along that it’s a bit frightening to look too closely, for fear that the corrupted way of doing things has arrived even here.

It seems to me that facing into the true depth and extent of the corruption which has infiltrated virtually every aspect of our society, and then admitting how thoroughly that corruption has shaped our own thinking, feeling, and especially our longing, are two key first steps to take as a nation, and here in Jefferson Country, should we decide we’re up for reclaiming and revitalizing the Representative Republic our founders bestowed upon us in their wisdom and foresight.

I’m up for doing that work of unraveling and exposing the false narratives and unwarranted certainties I was born into, and inside of which I was raised. Who’s with me?

Tim Bennett

Non-Traditional Anthropologist

Whitehall, Montana