A new law compliments of the Montana Department of fish, wildlife and parks went into effect July 1,2023.Our Montana legislators and governor went along with this bill. It has been signed by Governor Gianforte.Our state is getting so many outsiders who trash and abuse our recreational areas that it is costing maga tax dollars for clean-ups after these careless visitors leave our state.Our state is changing and the majority of Montanas do not like the change. I disagree with this new law. I think it unfair to punish we Mntanans for what others do. Montana has been rediscovered by a cult who followed the popular Kevin Kostner television series,Yellowstone. Our state has been discovered before. During the late Victorian era to the 1920's many people migrated here to Montana territory and later state,to begin their dream of land ownership or starting a new family owned business. In the 1980's and early 1990's a new wave of people came.The majority of these did not stay in Montana.They left with tails between their legs saying Montana was too hard to live in. Also our eccentric winters gave them cause to leave. Life is like a river. A river means a flowing body of water. In the Book of Revelation[Rev:22:1-2] the river runs from God's very throne, from God's presence. The river represents God's life giving presence. I moved to Montana April 19,1996. Soon after arriving I knew that I should have moved here 20-25 years earlier than I did. If I could I would go back in time I would and be a homesteader after traveling to Montana in a covered wagon. In 1919 a young Presbyterian minister named John Norman Maclean had the same idea. He was a Scottish Canadian, who brought his family to live in Missoula Montana. He had two sons, Norman and Paul. Norman would become a college professor in Chicago Illinois and he wrote a series of books on his life and family here in frontier Montana. Perhaps his most well known book is, A River Runs Through It was published in 1976. The great American actor and director Robert Redford made the story into a movie. The film was released in 1992. Norman Maclean was born December 23, 1902 in Clarinda Iowa. He died August 2,1990 in Chicago Illinois. He left behind his writings that give us lessons on understanding life and its disappointments. In his book he explains life situations that make us all different, even in a tight knit family such like what he grew up in here in Montana. Norman Maclean uses the Big Blackfoot River to make several points in his book. On one level he wrote that a river represents the natural world. On another level he tells us the arc of a river symbolizes human life.At the end of his magnificent story, A River Runs Through It,we see an elderly Norman Maclean fishing the Big Blackfoot River all alone. In his thoughts he tells us, that eventually all things merge with one, and a river runs through it. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon,all experiences fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sound of the Big Blackfoot River. I am haunted by the waters. After a life of ups and downs,the good and bad eventually we all die. As for me I never want to see our state over populated nor our beautiful rivers die. I want them to go on forever. Too many bureaucrats like the Montana fish game and parks are interfering with our right to fish, swim or picnic which is part of life's simple pleasures. The human spirit needs rivers to soothe and comfort us through difficulties. We should not be banned by the lack of a piece of paper that cost $10.00 for permission by some whacko eco terrorist.
Nancy Kemler
Roundup
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