Ordinary Fidelity

     

     Watch some of the interviews I did of fellow smokejumpers in the Facebook Group, Smokejumper Stories, https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ruaJBtGywe9VK7ta/?mibextid=K35XfP  

     Though not generally appreciated, Montana is where airborne warfare got started….fighting fires. The Airborne Battle Memorial at Fort Benning, Georgia, where I later attended Infantry Officers Basic Training, makes no mention of the fact that the founder of U.S. Airborne forces and his staff first went out to Missoula in June and July 1942 and watched the early smokejumpers make 10 practice jumps then deploy to wildland forest fires in rough terrain from low-flying aircraft. U.S.Army Major William Carey Lee then brought a bunch of their gear (parachutes and a static line) back to Georgia where he formed the 101st Airborne Division (“Screaming Eagles”) and became the father of U.S. Airborne Doctrine.

       It bothered me at first that the U.S. Forest Service Parachute Project is not listed with the small number of units, like the First Special Service Force that trained in Montana at Helena to become the predecessor of Joint Special Operations. But, then, I know it’s because smokejumpers are a necessary peaceful pursuit and I like it that way. I have huge respect for our military forces and my experiences in them, but I’m not a “militarist.” Like most Veterans I did my best at what was expected of me. 

     Trump would never make it in the Smokejumpers, the Infantry, the Airborne Infantry, or Special Operations Forces. Who would place their life in the hands of a damn fool throwing lighted matches into dry timber? We are a people of ordinary fidelity but now, if ever, is the time for all of us to fight for our country.

Time for Another Big Decision by Montanans!

      Nearly 50 years ago I was asked to collaborate with State Senators Tom Towe and Chet Blaylock in writing a voter information pamphlet advocating a Montana Constitutional Amendment to create Montana’s Coal Tax Trust Fund. Constitutional language, our arguments and Montana’s vote are below.

     What we Montanans foresaw has happened, but for reasons we could not then have comprehended. Fossil fuels are one of the main causes of humanity-induced catastrophic climate change. The end of coal mining in Montana will eventually happen. As the day we foresaw approaches what are we to do? Should we just sit on our multibillion dollar nest egg content to spend the interest?

     My thinking is that we should use a portion of our nest egg to create a replacement revenue source for the Trust Fund. That subsequent revenue source for future generations should be a tax or a disposal fee on high level nuclear waste deposited in a properly sited high level nuclear waste repository like the first one in the world expected to open this next summer in Finland. Montana is 17,000 square miles larger than Finland and we have earth scientists, underground geology and mining expertise, and water-related knowledge without peer. Once 3/4 of both houses of our legislature agree on the way to do this then they certainly will have the deep pockets to get it done.

     According to the Advanced Nuclear Technology Program at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), “At the end of 2020, 70% of the largest U.S. utilities had set targets for net-zero emissions or deep decarbonization.” According to program head, Craig Stover, “We hear from utilities that say they have committed to an ambitious carbon goal and run their models and realize they can’t meet their targets without a nuclear plant.” Contemplating a nuclear plant and enjoyment of the climate change responsive electricity based technology that plant enables, without addressing long term nuclear waste disposition is not responsible, one generation to the next.

    I hope our legislature and its legal staff will be able to devise a way to assure public trust by blending the process followed by Finland, our state’s experience permitting exploration and underground mining, and expanding the major facility siting act to include high-level nuclear wast disposal.

“AN ACT TO SUBMIT TO THE QUALIFIED ELECTORS OF MONTANA AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION TO REQUIRE THE LEGISLATURE TO DEDICATE A PORTION OF THE COAL SEVERANCE TAX TO A PERMANENT TRUST FUND.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA: Section 1. Article IX of the Montana constitution is amended by adding a new section 5 that reads as follows: Section 5. Severance tax on coal -- trust fund. The legislature shall dedicate not less than one-fourth (1/4) of the coal severance tax to a trust fund, the interest and incomes from which may be appropriated. The principal of the trust shall forever remain inviolate unless appropriated by vote of three-fourths (3/4) of the members of each house of the legislature. After December 31, 1979, at least fifty percent (50%) of the severance tax shall be dedicated to the trust fund.

For a permanent trust fund from coal taxes

Against a permanent trust fund from coal taxes

Arguments for approval and against approval.

Arguments advocating for approval and those arguing against for the proposed amendment were provided to the citizens of the state to help inform voter decision. Rebuttals to each of the arguments were also provided in the 1976 Voter Information Pamphlet.

Thomas Towe, Chet Blaylock, and John Driscoll provided an argument advocating for the approval of the amendment. In their argument, they estimated that Montana had coal reserves of 108 billion tons. This was recognized as a valuable, irreplaceable resource. They argued that Montana had previously improperly managed revenue from the State's rich Copper mining legacy and had relatively little to show for it. In addition, they argued that other areas of the country had mismanaged revenue from coal resources and also had relatively little to show for it. As a result, they proposed the development of a permanent trust fund to manage revenue from Montana's coal reserves. This was intended to create an avenue to benefit future Montana generations with revenue derived from coal mining that would be in place should the coal no longer exist or have value. They described the amendment as a forward looking proposal intended to allow future generations in Montana to share in the riches derived coal mining in the 1970s.Id. at 2.

Dan Yardley, Harold C. Nelson, and Francis Bardanouve provided an argument advocating for the rejection of the measure. In their argument they estimated that the value of the trust would exceed hundreds of millions of dollars in a relatively short period of time. They also opined that investment of funds should fall within the private sector. They portrayed concern, that due to the large value of the trust, there was potential for corruption or mismanagement of the revenues by the legislature. In addition, they suggested that the proposed trust fund would be redundant since the state had previously approved a measure in 1974 which created a resource indemnity trust funded by the gross tax of all minerals which included coal.Id. at 4.

Dan Yardley and Francis Bardanouve also provided an argument rebutting Towe, Blaylock, and Driscoll's argument advocating for approval of the measure. In their rebuttal, Yardley and Bardanouve indicated that revenue from the coal severance tax was currently being utilized to develop local areas which had sustained increased tax costs due to coal development. The revenue had been allotted to help communities that had sustained increases in expenditures resulting directly or indirectly from coal use or mining. They cited highway improvement, creating community parks, improving the public school system, and county level planning as tangible benefits being realized at the time this measure was brought forth. They argue that the wide range of uses for severance tax revenue used at the time adequately provided benefit to the citizens of the State without creating a multimillion dollar trust fund. Yardley and Bardanouve considered the amendment unnecessary at the time.Id. at 4-5.

Chet Blaylock, Thomas Towe, and John Driscoll provided an argument rebutting the argument advocating rejection of the measure. In there argument, they conceded that the constitutional amendment would establish a second trust in the State of Montana related to coal and mineral extraction, but indicated that it was needed to benefit future generations. They countered the argument that the trust fund would foster political corruption by stating that a three-quarter vote by each house of the legislature would be required to access the principal of the trust which they recognized was "extremely difficult to achieve without proving a compelling necessity."Id. at 5.

Conclusion

The citizens of the state approved the measure by a vote of 178,773 to 103,001 on the 2nd of November 1976.

Three Times Sworn

     Governor Greg Gianforte recently announced that he and 24 other Republican governors were “standing in solidarity with our fellow Governor, Greg Abbot, and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border.” Our Governor said he was leading them to “demand answers” from President Biden, and forming an “American Governors Border Strike Force” to communicate and coordinate against illegal drugs. A week later he stood behind Abbott on the border in Texas and said he’s been sending Montana troops to support the Texas Governor. As this came through my television Montana’s Republican Congressional Delegation were in Washington DC humiliating themselves by bowing to Trump’s back-channel demand they not to give our President a “win” on the southern border by passing the first bipartisan immigration legislation in years. Where was our country in all this?

On the Texas border Gianforte and 11 Governors were backed by 12 National Guard soldiers standing in formation. Were I one of the guardsmen sworn to follow the orders of the officers appointed over me, I would be wondering, “What the Hell is going on here?” National Guard personnel are sworn three times to protect and defend: once protecting and defending the Montana Constitution, once as a Reserve Soldier of the United States Armed Forces protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States, and once as a soldier of the National Guard of the United States protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States. Emergency Management Assistance Compacts have used this flexibility to evolve as a way the states and federal government assist each other during times of fire, flood, hurricanes and the current testing of federal resources at the southern border. EMAC missions happen when the President declares an emergency. I suspect our Governor bent the truth in Texas when he said he’s been sending Montana troops to support Operation Lone Star.

National Guard troops from all states for many years have been sent to the southern border, including for the counter drug program. Since 2006 the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have received support from Guard being paid as Title 32 National Guard or Title 10 Active Component personnel.

Operation Lone Star, Abbot’s huge Texas National Guard mission, is state-funded based on a state-only declaration. The first money to pay soldiers came from left-over COVID Relief Funding in 2021. Now there are internal State of Texas funding concerns. Paying, feeding, billeting and moving troops gets expensive. Soldiers’s pay is an important personal right, never satisfied with rubber checks. Gianforte should be cautious unless Texas can show Montana the money.

An additional border mission will make it harder for Montana commanders to maintain readiness for their federal mission as a combat reserve of the Army and Air Force. Recruiting and retention for the politicized Texas mission, would become the challenge it has for Texas, where State Active Duty numbers once ranging as high as 10,000 are now half. Military readiness is hard to maintain and not to be taken lightly.

I, for one, sincerely thank all those guardsmen and their families for their service and wish that all those around us these days, hell bent on acquiring power they can’t handle, will be open-minded enough to agree to a new federal legal framework that will lend more order to current efforts at managing our border to help protect immigrants from predators and allow timely processing of their applications to become our new fellow citizens.

Speak With Your Vote!

     We are now too close to ending of our way of living and we have no choice but to stand together against the challenge, however it next presents its nearly unstoppable momentum. Like so many others dedicated to public service who came before us, we all need for once to be public servants sworn to protect and defend our Constitution. It may be possible to regain a functioning Congress. I’ve concluded that it’s worth trying and possible if we send Democrats there.

   

     Like you I care about our families, our communities, and our nation. Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement has become the Republican Party and the Republican Party has become MAGA. One and the same are a fascist counter-revolution intending to reverse all the change, including the American Revolution, that has happened since the European Enlightenment. They break with reason, humanism and Christian ethics, which are the basis for our Democracy. They not only ignore the scientific pursuit of truth as a noble goal, they deny the inviolability of the human being while saying the opposite. Telling lies, big and many, is their most useful tool toward ending what they consider to be our naive and decadent Democracy. MAGA fascism sees and pursues life as unremitting struggle among tribes of peoples for bare survival. These un-Americans deride, demean and smother the sunny reasonableness and common sense that comes with our human experience of personal freedom. Their Counter Revolution has advanced easily because of their access to a vast mind-boggling flood of money as free speech from dark forces in unseen places. So far our constitutionally based legal system seems unable to impede it.

    So, as you disassociate in your heart and mind from MAGA fascism which has become the Republican Party for the time being, defend our Democracy with your individual right to free speech. Defend our Democracy with your vote for a Democrat. 

Respectfully,

John B Driscoll, Helena, Montana

Why Should We Care?

 “Why Should I Care? (https://www.helenacivictv.org/on-demand/5388) This is Billy who first learned to play “Black Angels” in the Fourth Grade at McKinley School in Butte. He has Schizophrenia and loves Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue. Caring and interacting, even when we can’t do much, reminds us that we are all human beings working our way through this life in the world together. This short film by Jean Warden and Valerie Hillerman of Helena explores the real challenges we collectively face and the services already available to help face them. I’ve concluded that regardless of how or where we find a way to house someone and/or their family, we have to organize services, discussed in the film, to be immediately available to meet their needs.

John B Driscoll for US Congress

     Chuck Johnson was sure happy when he finally got one of these Driscoll 1978 Senate Primary Campaign buttons for his political buttons collection. One of the nicest things anyone could have done for me was Maureen Powell of the Big Sky Mudflaps quietly designing, silkscreening and assembling 100 of these. The 1977 Smokejumping season was ended with no more concern about the Hatch Act. 

     Over the 46 years since then I believe I have demonstrated beyond any doubt that I am my own man.  Now my jump spot, with your help, is the US Congress.

Grampa On The Dinosaur Trail

 

     When I got the last stamp in my Montana Dinosaur Trail passport, and the t-shirt, I was as happy as can be.  Let’s face it, as my Butte buddy Ed Dobb once wrote in a book with Jack Horner, Dinosaur Lives: “Could it be that consciousness is nothing more than a cruel hoax, rendering us the first organisms to foresee our own end, to bear witness to our own destruction?”      Time to get serious.