Concerned Citizens 3/12 Meeting Recap

Whitehall's Concerned Citizens group has grown, and at the last meeting, held Wednesday, March 12, in the Whitehall Community Library, a total of 15 people attended and contributed to the discussion. Should the group exceed 20 people, a new location will be needed - but the group is very pleased to see so many new faces and welcomes all to attend.

The group opened with a "Real or Fake" AI quiz and discussed types of media bias. We generally agree on the bias placement from right to left for major news outlets. Types of bias range from inflammatory language to omission of topics to outright falsehoods. All are tracked on sliding scales by several organizations. Our evaluation of media sources is ongoing. The changing American role in the world order is a grave concern, and the lack of adherence to past promises and agreements is cause for alarm.

Department of Education cuts were brought up, and although the Dept of Ed only provides 10% to most public K-12 schools' overall funding, crippling the organization that disperses those funds will impact schools from pre-K to post-high school across the country. Head Start programs (pre-K) receive most of their funding from the federal government. Removing the department does not change the law about what must be funded. The laws must be changed to change the funding.

At state and federal levels, determining where money comes from and where it goes is a challenge. Our current budget stumper at the state is "Special Revenue Account #2," and at the federal level, since DOGE chainsaws through agencies willy-nilly, tracking the savings is not possible. The latest round of reported federal cuts includes no details about funding sources, and the DOGE website, touting transparency, is anything but. https://doge.gov/savings

Concern about public land, its management, and employees is a unifying theme for us all. 30% of Montana is federal land, and 5.6% is state-owned (see map). Recreational use of public lands continues to increase (Yellowstone NP visitation has increased 20% in 10 years). Wildfire season, fire intensity, and fire size have increased. The Trump administration wants to increase timber harvest and oil and gas production from public lands. USFS and BLM have cut staffing in recent years, and now the Trump administration is making further cuts, while the state legislature considers allocating public lands funding elsewhere (SB307), further reducing funding.

Our group is morphing as it grows. We are planning events beyond the weekly meetings and testing the inclusion of more direct action during the meetings themselves. Our group has been in contact with other grassroots groups in neighboring counties, and we intend to issue a joint invitation to our US delegation for a Town Hall in late April.

The group meets from 6-7 PM at the Whitehall Community Library, and everyone is invited. This is a nonpartisan group that believes that if everyone pays attention and uses their voice, the country will be better off. We hope to see you.