Sister Cities
Our friend over at Motto has a post up about a Missoulian editorial concerning the possible loss of some of Malmstrom's missles. I am not writing about the loss of the missles; you can agree or disagree on that one. I am writing about the self-centeredness of some of our sister cities. (If they're sisters, they remind me of the Cinderella variety.)
You see, the Missoulian editorial writer doesn't care much about the economic hit we might take. And if you speak with folks in Missoula, Kalispell, Bozeman or Billings, you will no doubt find some (many?) who don't care much about Great Falls at all.
The 'beautiful people' in the booming cities think dismissively of the rest of us. And, unfortunately, that mindset has even taken over some who live here.
The whole thing reminds me of a story I heard once about a country club. It was primarily a golf club, but it had tennis courts, a pool, and a restaurant too. The pool committee was trying to obtain money from the membership to upgrade the pool. To support their request, committee members circulated a survey to all the members about the pool and its usage.
About 25% of the respondents said they joined because of the pool in whole or large part. The other 75% were golfers, and most spoke derisively about the pool and the members who used it. "Who needs a pool?" "All the noise makes it difficult to putt." And so on.
Eventually, the manager pointed out that the members who used the pool were actually subsidizing the golf course for the golfing members. The manager pointed out that fixed costs would not go away and, if all of the pool users simply quit, the rest of the members would actually have to pay more to simply continue doing what they were doing.
Likewise, I'm sure. The world does not revolve around Missoula, or Bozeman, or Kalispell. We come to your towns, spend money and enjoy ourselves. We pay taxes too. Taxes that support the Universities. Do you really want to tell those of us in Great Falls, Butte, Glendive, Havre, Miles City, etc., to just go to hell?
Aren't we a state?
2 comments:
The missiles need to go. The command and control system for them is outdated and expensive to maintain.
As far as the booming areas in Montana... look at who is moving there. I'd wager almost all of the influx from other states (especially those from the land of fruits and nuts) is moving to those areas. And most of them are the ones with the "enlightened" viewpoint about Havre, Miles City, Butte and Great Falls. You gotta love Californians. They screw up their state, and then move somewhere else to screw that up too.
the missile situation is really nothing for civilians to worry about- the USAF will do as they please & we will have to adjust.
I used to like to visit places like Missoula but the last visit I spent more time in the hospital than having fun so I will not go back. I like GF just fine. I would rather visit places like Dillon, Ennis, Livingston and White Sulfur Springs where people seem to be more welcoming.
But YES we are a state & we should act like we are friendly to all our neighbors & visitors.
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