On the early afternoon of March 21, 2025, a town hall was hosted by Indivisible Bozeman and Indivisible Park County. About 350 Montana citizens showed up, filling the Large Meeting Room of the Bozeman Public Library to capacity, with about 200 more standing in the cold and wind outside the front entrance. Brian Cassel moderated the event, introducing speakers Bruce Grubbs, a former Republican State Legislator and Bozeman School Board member; Brett Heitshuzen, a veteran from Helena, who had moderated the veterans rally at the State Capitol on March 14, 2025, (selected audio of which can be found on the KGVM website https://kgvm.org/show/veterans-rally-helena-mt-3-14-25/.) He was followed by Dr. Jerry Groggel, whose daughter & son-in-law were fired without warning from USAID and were currently stranded in Ecuador; and then former MT Republican Governor and Attorney General, Marc Racicot.

MT Senators Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy, as well as Representative Ryan Zinke, had been invited to attend and hear the concerns of their constituents. They had let it be known that they would not attend. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle quoted a spokesperson for Senator Sheehy responding “Senator Sheehy will not be attending the Indivisible event, because he does not support and does not want to be associated with Indivisible’s radical policies defunding police departments and abolishing ICE.” The Chronicle quoted a spokesperson for Senator Daines saying “Indivisible is a far-left group funded by the radical wing of the Democrat (sic) Party and does not dictate the senator’s schedule.” In any case, Daines had flown to China, arriving there Thursday evening. Representatives for Zinke did not respond to the Chronicle’s request for comment.

Anticipating their absence, the organizers had placed caricatures of the three, which were attached to chairs at the front of the room.

You can judge for yourself from the audio of the Town Hall how radical the citizens who attended actually are.

As part of a national effort, veterans and their supporters rallied at the Nation’s capitol as well as state capitols in all 50 states at noon on March 14, 2025 to stand for the protection of veterans programs, such as the Veterans Crisis Line, which are endangered as specified in Project 2025 by the current administration.
As of February 2024, the VA employed over 400,000 people, reflecting the sheer number of veterans in need of care. Many of these veterans served in Iraq and Afghanistan, wars that left long-lasting physical and psychological scars on those who fought. According to a leaked memo, the Trump administration plans to cut 83,000 jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), a move that critics say would severely impact medical care and support services for veterans.

KGVM was in Helena for the Veterans rally and recorded audio, selections of which we share with you. It was cold and very windy, with snow flurries flying and the hardware on the flag pole constantly clanging over the voices of the speakers and the crowd, amplifying the emergency nature of our national situation.

On the evening of September 20, 2023, in MSU Bozeman’s Student Union Ballroom A, The Burton K. Wheeler Center hosted historian, Marc C. Johnson as he discussed his latest book, Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate. The lecture entitled “Montana, Mansfield, and the Lost Art of Bipartisanship,” began with an introduction by Burton K. Wheeler Center Board Chair, Chuck Tooley.

Some of the many achievements of Mike Mansfield’s leadership in the US Senate include: The Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty; Civil Rights Act; Voting Rights Act; Wilderness Act; Corporation for Public Broadcasting; Medicare/Medicaid; Gun Control Act; Food Stamp Act; Clean Air Act; Freedom of Information Act; Fair Housing Act; Highway Safety Act; Head Start.

Three days after the 9/11 attacks, CA Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee cast the sole vote against war in the entire Congress. She recognized that a “rush to launch precipitous military counterattacks runs too great a risk that more innocent men, women, children will be killed.” She faced isolation and opprobrium from huge pro-war majorities in the Congress and across the country. But she stood fast, and has remained a leader in the movement to repeal of the authorizations for war that George Bush launched twenty years ago.
But despite her isolation in Congress, Barbara Lee did not stand alone. Anti-war and other progressive organizations stood by her and mobilized powerful movements that over the years succeeded in transforming public opinion into widespread opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In this Zoom event, recorded on 9-8-21, organized by The Institute for Policy Studies, Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman interviews Representative Barbara Lee, along with questions from Diane Randall, General Secretary of the Friends Committee for National Legislation, Tope Folarin new executive director the Institute for Policy Studies, and Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War. It includes her speech on the floor of Congress before casting her vote against the war.

To read this 9/10/21 article by Barbara Lee, “Why are Americans paying $32m every hour for wars since 9/11?,” click on this link: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/09/afghanistan-us-foreign-wars-congresswoman-barbara-lee

Thanks to The Institute for Policy Studies for permission to broadcast. You can find out more by going to their website, https://ips-dc.org/

The Burton K. Wheeler Center at Montana State University presented a day-long conference, “Divisiveness in Democracy: Enhancing Engagement in Montana,” about the changing political dynamics in Montana and the United States, held September 9-10, 2016. The conference explored the historical, political and social dynamics that drive divisiveness, and drew on up-and-coming politicians and political activists to identify opportunities and mechanisms to overcome divisiveness in contemporary politics.

Ted Celeste delivered the opening talk, entitled “Revive Civility: Our Democracy Depends on It.” Celeste, a former Ohio state representative, leads Next Generation, a project of the National Institute for Civil Discourse which holds workshops for state legislators called “Building Trust Through Civil Discourse”.

Conference Agenda:
Panel I. “How Did We Get Here: The Social, Political and Historical Elements of Divisiveness”
Panel II. “Finding Ways Forward: A Conversation with the Next Generation of Politicians and Activists”
Keynote Lecture: Pat Williams