It’s been somewhat of an odd year indeed here in Montana, what with all of the Corona Virus in’s and out’s.
A rather mixed bag of sorts to say the least. Some counties under mandates and others not, mixed messaging and confusion over some of the simplest things made for some rather delightful conversation down at the local feed store.
Was it really as bad as people say? Well, that really depends on who you talk to I guess, but here in Cascade County things pretty much moved along as one might expect. The population of Great Falls is such that caused our county health department a bit of concern (our county mask mandate only lasted for 2 weeks), but we were no where near the panic stricken hordes that were found in other counties around the state. Missoula County for instance, even today, plans to keep it’s mask mandates into perpetuity, and in Lewis and Clark County for instance, we’ve got county health officials, to a point, actually threatening and verbally abusing shoppers at grocery stores.
According to police reports, the second-highest-ranking Lewis & Clark County health official, Eric Merchant, was removed by police from a local grocery store for making physical threats and verbally assaulting customers for not wearing masks. After his expulsion, Merchant was given an indefinite trespass order from the establishment. – Montana Daily Gazette
As a result of all of the asshattery that’s gone on over the past year, we now have the Montana State Legislature stepping in to try to cool the heels of our dear mask Nazi extremist friends.
Recently, according to KTVQ in Billings, The Montana House has endorsed a bill that would let the public ask for an election to change local health boards’ actions.
Oh, and there’s more — Besides just Senate Bill 108, there’s also other like minded legislation coming, like House Bill 121, and House Bill 257 for instance.
Many of my dear liberal friends seem to be all up in arms over these new rounds of legislation, citing Republican indifference to the health of our state citizens.
We here in Montana are a fairly independent minded bunch. Short of having un-elected officials screaming at shoppers, we manage to move through our days with relative ease.
No — We don’t have hundreds of off-cocked radical liberals roaming our city streets in Montana, but we do have a few that couldn’t seem to keep their ever loving mouths shut because they might have control issues. We now have these house bills advancing in Helena as a result. Blame the Republicans? Sure, why not. Our liberal friends might do well to understand however, that for every action, there will be an equal and opposite reaction.
All of this legislation could have been prevented if people could have just minded their muse, and with county health departments acting responsibly, without any sort of political bent.
A reminder … it is possible to be both fully aware that covid is real and deadly while still believing that many of our approaches to handling it have been absurd, ineffective, disproportionate, and immoral.
