Shadow Government and the Bridge to Nowhere

Lately the local government, obviously looking to please the Rich and Powerful set of folks that essentially form a sort of "shadow government" for Butte; and the lame-duck Governor of the state; have been trying to push an idea along to the public. That idea is to spend 15-20 million dollars of monies at least primarily supposed to be used for repair of the horrendous damages done to the natural resources of both the immediate Butte area and the surrounding region, on building some mega-museum of the history of mining and the history and ongoing efforts at reclamation of the mess left behind by the old Anaconda Copper Mining Company and others.

A local government fellow who considers himself a high-potentate and mover-shaker, wrote two articles about it for the local newspaper. Friends, to read it you would first think local government actually supports Historic Preservation. Then the reality of their records sets in and you know he is trying to hood-wink you once again. The articles are long on politicians platitudes and way, way short on details. Thing is of course, he could not put in those details really, since the shadow government does not want the public to know what they are really all about. It's one of those situations where the Rich and Powerful are convinced that because they are that way, they know best for the rest of us in the community. Yeah, right boys.

The public however, has been pretty much opposed to the idea of spending that much of this money on a museum proposal that originated with one of those rich and powerful people, who in his time here, made his money and up and left us with some of the same mess as ACM had previously done. He proposed the idea originally, then the economy of late 2008 caught up with him and he could not afford it. So now, his buds in the shadow government want to revive it and pay the lion's share for it. There are reports of folks waiting in the wings to file suit against these folks if this money is actually awarded.

Now a group of other local, regular citizens is proposing that if the money can be spent for these kinds of thing, then it needs also to be spent on some pretty basic effort at preservation of historic buildings and structures and to expand existing museums in the community that are struggling daily to preserve the heritage of the real people of Butte, not just that of the Rich and Famous. Oh brother, that has got the boys in the shadow government in not so good a mood, and has put the one local government ding-dong in tween a rock and a hard place. Reason for that is you see is how he's been out pontificatin' with high-op-a-lorum and low-pop-a-hirum (with thanks to Huey Long) for the shadow government, while the very organization he believes he controls, has been putting together this expanded plan to include the regular folks in the community as well. Oops! Some of us are hoping that this old boy ends up going to the woodshed with the shadow government folks for this one. We'll see.

While talking bout this snake oil salesman, he is also the one that was pushing to spend 1.5 million dollars on Butte's own version of the Bridge to Nowhere (BoN). That BoN is a pedestrian bridge over one of the busiest streets in town, to connect two walking trails without having to use sidewalks and cross at the light. The thing is, there is no trail now on one side of where the BoN would go and the public is about ready to tar and feather him. So he has made the excuse now that the proposal is on hold. Yeah, I just bet it is!

Stayed tuned and tight lines