Democratic US House candidates: Melinda Gopher

Sometimes, (0.00 / 0)

you must vote for the person that you believe to be the most qualified regardless of their chances.  I will  vote for Melinda Gopher for this reason.  She truly is the most qualified person to represent my values.

Melinda's father was a friend of mine. We worked together for a number of years fighting tooth and nail the mining industry in Montana. Therefore, I know quite well the values that she was raised with.  I can tell you that this video above is the absolute truth.  There is no phoniness there.  This is who Melinda is.  I have never in my life met such caring, devoted, dedicated people as the Gophers.  They have raised altruism to an art form.  But then, this is the Native American way.

I hope that Melinda doesn't mind, but I would like to tell a story about her father, the late Robert Gopher.  One very hot summer day, I was riding my motorcyle by Robert's house, and with nothing better to do I decided to stop in and say hello.  The temperature was really scorching that day, probably approaching one hundred degrees outside.  I knocked on the screen door to Robert's apartment and saw him lying on the floor on his back. I was kind of suprised. He looked tired but he got up and answered the door and greeted me warmly.  I entered and we started talking.  

Robert enjoyed nothing more than talking about protecting the land and the water essential to life, and how we were doing in our fight against the heap leach gold mines. He had seen the awful destruction of Zortman/Landusky and was terribly distressed by it. You see, Robert had gone on a vision quest in the Sweet Grass Hills one time, and part of the vision he had was the sanctity of water. He shared that vision with everyone. Water was the essence of life, and  since it was under such an extreme threat from the mining industry, the most important task at hand for Robert was to protect  it for future generations.

Eventually I asked him  about why he was lying on the floor.  Well, it turns out that he had a close friend who was seriously ill in the hospital, and Robert had done a sweat on Hill 57 to pray for his friend.....IN ONE HUNDRED DEGREE HEAT!  And understand that Robert was in his late sixties at the time, and he too had had heart problems previously! But this did not stop him from trying to help his friend. This is who Robert Gopher was,  a very, very spiritual man who never stopped giving of himself or fighting for just causes.  Sure he probably endangered his  own health to do what he did, but that was of no consequence to Robert.

Robert was  also instrumental in stopping construction of the visitor center atop the Ulm Pishkun.  Originally, the BLM had planned the visitor center building to be at the top of the buffalo jump itself, a very, very sacred site to Native Americans who used that site for thousands of years.  Robert convinced them to put the building down below which was a much more appropriate location.  If you ever get to the Ulm Pishkun and view it from above, you'll understand why this was so important.  And you'll also understand that Robert did an extremely important thing by having that site preserved.  It's still used for sweats today.

Unfortunately, Robert died before the passage of I-137.  Sadly, after all the battles he fought, he didn't live long enough to see the final victory over the gold mining industry.  At least he didn't see if  from this earth anyway.  But I know and am firmly convinced that he's aware of its passage and enjoyed it immensely.  His spirit lives on, and his spirit lives in his daughter, Melinda.  This is why I will vote for Melinda Gopher.  Change can happen.  For  over one hundred years Montana had never said no to the mining industry. And suddenly, I-137 changed all that.  If we can defeat the mining industry, we can elect outstanding people of character to bring about the other changes we need in this country.   I encourage you to vote for also and do the impossible one more time.  

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by: Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers! @ Thu Jun 03, 2010 at 03:26:51 AM UTC

except, her writing has gone a little...off the deep end (0.00 / 0)

more lately than before.  I used to agree with the above, but as this goes on, something seems off

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by: Kyle42 @ Thu Jun 03, 2010 at 20:36:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Can you provide an example? (0.00 / 0)

I haven't seen what you're refering to.  Maybe you can paraphrase a deepend comment so that we can judge for ourselves.

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by: Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers! @ Fri Jun 04, 2010 at 00:36:12 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

here's one... (0.00 / 0)

...her tirade against EMILY's List was a little too...spirited, especially given the fact it's a primary, she jumped in at the last minute, and has done little traditional campaigning.

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by: Jay Stevens @ Fri Jun 04, 2010 at 01:49:56 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

yeah, it seems like if you want an endorsement (0.00 / 0)

that making a bunch of threats is the wrong way to go.  it's odd actually.  I wanted to like this candidate, but these rants are off-putting, to say the least.

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by: Montana Cowgirl @ Sat Jun 05, 2010 at 21:48:01 PM UTC

[ Parent ]