Jason Thielman, in his column in Montana newspapers (Big Sky Voices, Aug. 6), credited and thanked Sen. Jon Tester for bringing Kamala Harris to the 2024 presidential race.
I am not sure if Mr. Thielman had anything more than opinion and subtle divisive political intention in mind. But, in any case, I would like to join Mr. Thielman in thanking Sen. Tester.
It has been a welcome relief and inspiration to watch sportsmanship and camaraderie take center stage in Paris at the 2024 Olympics. Athletes and audiences alike have demonstrated respect, pride, humility, and humanity in a world currently beset with war, hate, violence, mass migration, and natural disasters attributed to global warming and climate change.
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While I have never supported Kamala Harris in the past, I find her to possibly be the best candidate to confront the divisive, racist, misogynistic, violent, and anti-democratic messages that have come to dominate the airwaves and social media of late.
And now the Trump-Vance ticket idealizes keeping women barefoot and pregnant? Wow.
Sen. Tester, as a dryland Montana farmer, I am sure you are aware of the need to promote and nurture biological diversity — both in the soil and above ground — in order to maintain resilience, health, and productivity in the face of Montana’s challenging weather extremes.
In my travels around the world, I have likewise seen bio-cultural diversity as a critical element in nurturing and sustaining healthy, robust, and stable living systems and human environments.
Keeping women barefoot and pregnant? Telling Kamala Harris she can’t possibly embody both African Caribbean and East Indian heritage as an American woman? Wow. Yeah, just wow.
Sen. Tester, if you truly had anything to do with bringing Vice President Harris to the top of the ticket, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude in concert with Mr. Thielman. We need a campaign that focuses on unity and integration and one that inspires and honors the best in human nature — one that recognizes each person’s gifts and encourages them to reach for their dreams and then give back to the community. We need to speak and act with love and respect and hope, and we need to restore some much-needed common sense.
Together, we can address the complex issues that challenge us in Montana, in the United States, and in the world if we keep an eye on building strong relationships and networks that engender health and resilience and adaptation across systems rather than falling into simplistic binary “either-or” approaches that benefit one element or segment in a system while threatening the healthy functioning of the entire system itself.
Thank you, senator, for bringing a Montana dirt farmer’s common-sense awareness to Washington for us.
Hal Schmid is a researcher, writer, and educator who was born in Missoula and has worked as a wildland firefighter and a teamster on logging operations in Montana.
