By PAT WILLIAMS

During the year-long celebration of Glacier National Park’s centennial, it might serve us well to recall the tortured legislative beginnings of that soaring, sparkling place.

Glacier suffered many birth pangs during that tortured legislative route toward designation as a national park.  Twenty-eight years earlier its cousin to the south, Yellowstone, had received recognition and status but even that magical geological wonder had to overcome public derision and political opposition prior to its designation by the U.S. Congress.

Here in the Rockies, the passage of laws to protect the landscape has always been difficult.  Lines on a map are hard drawn.  Fences, intended to create neighborliness, foster initial resentment.  Signs that beckon “Welcome” too often read “No Trespass” on the reverse side.

Westerners, some that is, have always been suspicious of surveyors, land dealers, real estate lawyers.  Perhaps our caution is understandable.  Out this way land is not an abstraction, a graph of a beautiful place, a scenic calendar photo, rather the land is reality upon which we work, live, and play.

Most often, however, our concerns about the act of legislative protection of place have been misplaced, selfish, and overwrought.

When, in December of 1907, Montana's U.S. Senator Thomas Carter introduced legislation to authorize Glacier as a national park, there was an outcry of objection from many Montanans — notably from those living closest to the proposed park.  Turn-of-the-century mining and timber companies and many of their workers saw Glacier's mountains and valleys as a grab bag for development.  The local newspapers — the Interlake, the Kalispell Journal, the Whitefish Pilot and the Kalispell Bee — were opposed to the legislation.  They opposed it mostly on economic grounds:  loss of timber and mining jobs.   The Interlake editorialized, "There may

be some local people who favor the park plan, but we have observed only two."  The winds of economic passions always blow hard and are difficult to withstand.

Montana Senator Joe Dixon valiantly managed the park's legislation on its way through the U.S. Senate:  adjusting boundaries, settling mining claims and permitting existing summer cottage leases.  The bill passed the Senate and was taken up by the House amid continued opposition from many Montanans.  The Interlake editorialized its concerns about "throngs of wandering tourists."  Although the nearby Great Falls Tribune supported the national park designation, a blizzard of opposing letters from Montanans slowed and, at times, stopped the legislation's progress.  The Tribune, persisted, urging the bill's progress with these words, "…the country belongs to all the people…citizenship should dictate a policy that would make the country accessible and available to the most people.  A national park would undoubtedly serve that end."

Following tortured legislative routes and with the courageous leadership of Montana Congressman Charles Pray, the legislation designating the park was signed into law on May 11, 1910.

It could not have been easy, that century ago, for our Montana Congressman and Senators to withstand the fierce local opposition and see the legislation into law.  Nor has it been easy since.

Be it proposals to designate wilderness, approve national monuments, or create Wild and Scenic River status, some, usually a minority, can be counted on to protest.

Nothing comes easy in Glacier: not summer; not the dangerous plowing of America's most scenic roadway, the recently rebuilt 52-mile long Going-to-the-Sun highway; and certainly not the courageous political leadership which created that grand national park.

Pat Williams is a former Montana congressman.

By JIM MCGARVEY

Remnants of the Bush administration threaten to leave the security of Montana airports in danger, as well as good Montana jobs. A little-known provision established in the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 called Screening Partnership Program allows airports to “opt out” of using federal transportation security officers (TSOs) and replace those positions with employees of out-of-state, private contractors.

In Montana, seven airports have recently contracted with an out-of-state contractor to provide these services. The total contract award value exceeds $10 million and the initial term ends in August 2014. The airports affected include Lewistown, Glendive, Miles City, Havre, Sydney, Glasgow and Wolf Point.

Several additional airports are being courted by big, out-of-state corporations to “opt out” as well. These additional airports are the real travel hubs in Montana: Kalispell, Missoula, Butte, Helena, Great Falls, Bozeman and Billings. This is a frightening trend of which every Montana resident should be made aware.

These contractors are not required to maintain the same staffing levels/schedules, which may mean longer lines at the screening station, fewer screening stations with less advanced equipment, more pressure from hurried travelers at baggage screening points leading to more mistakes, and a greater threat of danger to a community.

In airports that have not “opted out,” the TSOs are federal officers with all of the authority of any federal officer including penalties for persons who would disrespect that authority. For example, if a terrorist were to strike a TSO in an attempt to escape an arrest the consequences would be severe.

In turn, if a terrorist were to strike the employee of a private contractor, there are no deterrents, federal penalties, or authority inherent in that position or that offense. 

This lowers the level of esteem at which airport security is regarded and increases the likelihood of threats within that airport and its community.

Also, federal TSOs are managed by the Transportation Security Administration, which operates solely for the purpose of public safety with no profit margins. Our taxpayer dollars fund airport security. Information indicates that private corporations interested in contracting this work will maintain the same budget level, but will do so for the purpose of turning a profit, which means fewer employees, less training and reduced employee benefit programs like pensions and healthcare coverage. These cost-cutting measures will allow the contractor to send big profits out of state and reduce the income that circulates in each Montana community.

Each airport authority has to welcome this condition into their community by requesting to “opt out.” According to reports, the board members of the airport authorities in Kalispell and Butte have already requested this status, though the status has not yet been formally awarded.

It is imperative that residents and community leaders speak out right away to demand better security and better jobs for Kalispell, Missoula, Butte, Helena, Great Falls, Bozeman, Billings and every Montana community and every Montana worker. The members serving on airport authorities within Montana have a duty to add value to a community, not strip its value for the profits of out-of-state corporations at the cost of the citizen taxpayer.

Jim McGarvey is executive secretary of the Montana AFL-CIO.