Political Quotes

“I rise today to talk about one of our greatest treasures in this country: our public lands. Growing up in Butte, MT, I woke up every day under the morning shadow of the Continental Divide, part of the Deerlodge National Forest. When I was a kid, my dad would take me fishing on the Big Hole River. On the living room wall in my parents' home, there were pictures of three people: a picture of Jesus, a picture of JFK, and a picture of George Meany. I have carried the values my parents instilled in me to this day. I grew up in a Catholic home similar to Montana writer Norman Maclean, who wrote in his famous book ``A River Runs Through It'' that his father, a Presbyterian minister, ``told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen, and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.'' As an adult serving in the Montana National Guard, I would ride my mountain bike almost daily all over trails in the Helena National Forest that connect our streets in the capital city of Helena. One day my granddaughter Kennedy will fish and bike these same lands and waters. These places all have one thing in common beyond being gorgeous and being in Montana; they belong to you and me. We all own them. They are part of what makes living in Montana and in America so special. Other countries and other States have lost this heritage but not in Montana.…”