I am writing in response to the overlong and polarizing attempt at extended metaphor that you published by Greg DeVries. Entitled “My take on the 66th Montana State Legislature,” it was not the measured, professional and bipartisan response one would expect from someone elected to Montana’s House of Representatives. Instead, its tone of mockery, violence and sanctimoniousness is offensive to those of us who believe in shared governance. Why did the Boulder Monitor give such a platform to someone with so little respect for the lawmaking process?
I will leave it to other readers to decide the quality of his analogy of freedom as a garden we must tend. My main objections are twofold. First, his smug aggression against Republicans who are working to pass, instead of obstruct, bipartisan legislation is unproductive. He thinks it is funny that the group of legislators he affiliates with is called the “38 special,” a name that, in his words, is “a poke in the eye of the anti-gun crowd, always a happy bonus.” To reduce the serious issue of school safety, and those coalitions who are working to address it, including Helena High School students, to “the anti-gun crowd” is disrespectful. He calls the Department of Health and Human Services a “hornets nest” which his colleagues want to whack “with a big stick.” These are our neighbors who work for and depend on these services. He makes fun of Medicaid Expansion, calling the bill that will continue Medicaid for 96,000 Montanans, and which was the work of intense and lengthy compromise from both parties, “Medishame Expansion.” He says that it is “funny to see the timorous look in the Dem’s eyes when we spray too close to ‘the budget.’” Spray too close? Are Democrats his enemy then? This sounds like the posturing of a juvenile delinquent, not an adult and not certainly someone who claims, as DeVries has, to represent our values.
My second objection is to what he envisions his role to be as an elected official. DeVries gloats that “he’s resisted being the sort of representative who focuses on constituent services.” Excuse me? Isn’t this what we elect representatives for, i.e. to represent the interests of those in Jefferson County? He says that instead his job is to vote our values. DeVries is using his position as a bully pulpit to jam his own values — as well as his disdain for others — down everyone’s throats. As far as I know, no one elected him to be our pastor or moral authority. It is insulting that he should think so.
I have heard that the Boulder Monitor has plans to offer DeVries a regular column. I would like to ask the editor to reconsider this and stick to interviewing him in regard to his continuing work as a legislator. At a time when we are becoming aware of the influence of all forms of media in propagating violence and discord in our country and our communities, I feel this is the wrong approach. – Melissa Kwasny, Jefferson City
Editor’s note: The Boulder Monitor invited Rep. Greg DeVries to write a monthly column for our “Surveying the Views” op-ed page in hopes of encouraging constructive conversation and debate not only between him and his constituents but among all residents of Jefferson County. We will continue to report on him in our news pages. As with any item that appears in “Surveying the Views,” publication does not imply the Monitor’s endorsement of any particular person or idea.
