Troop 17 visits Helena Capitol

“Politics is like spectators at a

football game. The farther people are from the center of the field,

the louder they yell. I don’t listen to them as much as I listen to

the majority of the people who are closer to the middle, closest to

the 50-yard line.”

So began Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s

question-and-answer session with 15 Whitefish Troop 17 Boy Scouts

spending a day in Helena to learn about state government.

As guests of Sen. Ryan Zinke on April

11, the Scouts managed a full schedule of meetings with

legislators, the governor and a Supreme Court justice. Zinke showed

them onto the senate floor where they learned about how citizens

communicate with their legislators, and how legislators bring bills

through the committee process and on to final passage.

From there, the Scouts toured the

Capitol building, pausing at the statues of Mike and Maureen

Mansfield, Jeannette Rankin, and other leaders who have represented

Montana.

While in the senate gallery, the Scouts

watched Zinke debate a vehicle registration tax, and stood as he

introduced them to his senate colleagues.

They next walked over to the Montana

Justice building and attended a lecture conducted by Associate

Justice Beth Baker in the Supreme Court hearing room. Judge Baker

said the most interesting case she is working on at present

concerns whether the manufacturer of an aluminum baseball bat is

responsible for the death of a pitcher who was struck in the head

by a batted ball at a tournament in Helena.

Then it was on to the governor’s

reception room, a large office with a fireplace on the east end of

the Capitol building. Schweitzer introduced his border collie, Jag,

who performed a few tricks. Then it was business time.

“What is the most important lesson you

have learned as governor?” “How do you decide whether to approve a

bill or to veto it?” “What do you consider your most significant

accomplishment as governor?” “What issues do you think will be most

important for us as Montana citizens 20 or 30 years from now?”

The Governor gave lively, entertaining,

responses to each question. Montana government, he explained,

spends most of its money “educating, medicating, and

incarcerating.” But unlike nearly all other states, it is not

overspending its income. He spoke critically of the federal

government’s failure to control its spending, but assured the

Scouts that the federal government could clean up its deficits “in

a New York minute” if it paid only what other countries paid for

prescription drugs and medical procedures.

The Scouts asked about his biggest

disappointment — it was his inability to change the way classroom

education worked.

“We need to get the best subject-matter

teachers from around the world into a database of videos to help

our classroom teachers to instruct their students,” Schweitzer

said. “Every student needs to be equipped with a computer to tap

into those videos.”

After nearly an hour, Schweitzer

excused himself and the Scouts returned home with a memorable

first-hand experience of all three branches of state government at

work.