Here are three important issues confronting our community, region, and state: the 911 and open space bonds and the 147 referendum to repeal the ban on cyanide mining.

We dial 911 when things go, or threaten to go, off the rails. It’s our link to first responders. Here are two personal examples.

On a Sunday afternoon last winter, Ramona and I were returning home from Bridger Bowl via Gooch Hill Road. We believe this is one of the finest drives anywhere. It’s paved and has just enough rollers to offer a great bike commute in the summer. Clearly we love and want to protect this route.

A car came close on our tail. I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw bottles flying into the west ditch. The car held five young males. I blocked the road with our Suburban, grabbed my cell phone, walked back to the offending car and commanded, “Pick them up.”

Here I was, a geezer with a limp on a country road, armed only with a cell phone programmed to 911, confronting five twentysomethings. After some uncouth discussion, they went into the ditch and emerged with bottles, angry and humiliated.

Clearly, I neither intimidated nor convinced them to be responsible citizens. Rather, I advised them that if they failed to immediately retrieve their trash, I would punch 911 and they would be in trouble. It worked.

And 911 worked again last April. A careless neighbor with a ridge-top house burned trash on a windy afternoon. He probably tired of waiting for a day with low wind. The wind, of course, blew over the trash barrel and a grass fire erupted, racing toward our buildings and those of our Cottonwood Road neighbors. Ramona dialed 911.

Within 12 minutes two huge all-wheel-drive fire trucks and 10 volunteers were fighting the fire. Soon there were six trucks. We lost only dead grass and a few wood fence posts on our east section line. (This response time may be unusually short for we offer a three-mile off-road practice course for volunteer fire tucks. We consider this cheap insurance indeed.)

I believe our community will be ahead if we pass the 11-mill property tax levy to fund our 911 emergency phone center with a $1.5 million appropriation. Current funding is complex, uncertain, and instable. Further, as more people use mobile phones, it is ever more important for the 911 service to have a mobile phone locator. I hope you’ll join me in supporting this bond.

Open space is another bond I strongly support. As my colleague John Downen explained last Wednesday, open space is valuable but hardly free. While some landowners can afford to donate development rights to the Gallatin Valley Land Trust or a similar organization, for others ag land is their primary asset for retirement and inheritance.

Clearly, the character of our region is dramatically enhanced by our open space. Once lost, it is rarely regained.

Our programs for federal judges attract folks from all major cities in the U.S. Nearly all comment on the beauty of our valley, especially our open space. Open vistas leading to mountains are indeed captivating. I’m confident those who follow us will be grateful if we preserve vast amounts of open space. Yes, it’s surely not free -- but I believe it well worth the price. I hope you’ll join me in voting for it.

I find Prop. 147 a slam-dunk decision. Its out-of-state supporters urge us to recognize Montana’s mining tradition. OK, it’s a history of persistent graft, corruption, dishonesty, and environmental degradation. This is an easy choice. Vote NO on 147. We’re no longer a colonial economy.

Finally, I have one overriding hope for the presidential election. I’ve never seen the country so bitterly divided. An unclear outcome, although likely, would be terribly destructive of civility and civic virtue. Hence, I pray that whoever wins, either Kerry or Bush, does so by substantial margins in both the popular and electoral votes.

Living here, in the USA, in ’04 means we’ve won the lottery of life. Let’s protect our winnings by voting YES on 911, YES on open space, and NO on cyanide, Prop. 147. And regardless of results, preserve and respect honest outcomes.