Democracy suffers at the hands of thugs

Letter from the editor

Since arriving in the Flathead, I have been regaled with stories about the olden days when sheriff’s deputies had to stand guard at government meetings because of the threats of violence. I have responded with disbelief and silent thanks that those brutish days were behind us.

Sadly, they are not.

On Monday night a pair of sheriff’s deputies had to come to Somers Middle School because the conduct of some of those in attendance had become so unruly — before the meeting about the proposed Somers Neighborhood Plan even started — that the situation was in danger of getting out of control.

While the scene didn’t escalate into physical violence, it wasn’t far from it. Opponents of the plan, in what amounts to a terrifying — and stupefying — rage, hurled profanity-laced diatribes at county staff and supporters that reached such an intensity that the Flathead County Planning Director was reduced to calling law enforcement.

This behavior is a nauseating display of thuggery that cripples the democratic process. Who in their right mind would ever show up to a meeting to support something with the constant threat of being verbally abused? It amounts to small-scale terrorism, with pro-planning supporters literally afraid to come to public meetings for fear of the wrath they will incur.

There is unlikely to be any group of people in this Valley who take more verbal abuse than the planning and zoning staff, especially Jeff Harris. They are not without fault, and their missteps have been well-chronicled by both the property rights lobby and the media. But some radical anti-planning extremists in this Valley treat them like sub-humans and it is inexcusable.

The worst part of this asinine behavior is that it destroys the public process and keeps reasonable people from having a thought-provoking debate on the merits and drawbacks of planning in the Flathead Valley.

The general public — and to be sure, this thuggish behavior exists only in a tiny, but outspoken, minority — should be appalled that the discourse on important issues is being hijacked by a few goons who are bent on intimidation to get their way.

Government — democracy itself — is compromise. Surely the ideological gulf is not so wide that the only way to communicate across it is with R-rated screaming.

—Alex Strickland