[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 74 (Friday, May 5, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6223-S6224]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           MONTANA MEAN TIME

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, Senator Max Baucus and I were 
elected to the House of Representatives the same year, 1974, and 
through the years, I have been impressed by Max Baucus' consistent and 
thoughtful leadership.
  His stand and statement in behalf of the balanced budget amendment 
this year, in my opinion, was one of the high points of our debate.
  But no action he has taken has shown more courage and more common 
sense than his op-ed piece in the New York Times titled, ``Montana Mean 
Time.''
  It is a candid discussion of what is happening in his State.
  It is easy for those of us in public life to duck these things. To 
Max Baucus credit, he has not ducked.
  I am proud to have him as a colleague, and I ask that his statement 
be printed in the Record.
  The statement follows:

                 [From the New York Times, May 1, 1995]

                           Montana Mean Time

                            (By Max Baucus)

       Since the Oklahoma City bombing, public attention has 
     focused on private militias. I claim no great expertise on 
     the movement as a whole, but I have watched it grow in my 
     state. And as an example of the national phenomenon, the 
     Montana militias deserve a close look.
       We Montanans take pride in our low crime rate, and believe 
     honest people can disagree without being disagreeable. Maybe 
     extremist groups believe they can find a home in Montana 
     because of our easygoing ways. The so-called Militia of 
     Montana is one such group. At least one of its founders is 
     associated with the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations. It says it exists 
     so that ``if the Government uses its [[Page S6224]] force 
     against the citizens, the people can respond with a superior 
     amount of arms.''
       The Militia of Montana frequently uses anti-Semitic code 
     words like ``shadow government'' and ``banking elites.'' Its 
     director, Bob Fletcher, defends this rhetoric this way: ``If 
     the bulk of the banking elite are Jewish, is that anti-
     Semitic? The people who are doing this are the international 
     banking elite, and if they are all Jews, so be it, but that's 
     not the case. I don't care if they're Arabs or monkeys.''
       Associated with the Militia of Montana is the more extreme 
     Freemen movement. The Militia warns of tyranny to come; the 
     Freemen say it exists today. A Freeman leader offers the 
     following ``proof'': ``A Social Security card/number, 
     marriage licenses, driver's licenses, insurance, vehicle 
     registration, welfare from the corporations, electrical 
     inspections, permits to build your private home, income 
     taxes, property taxes.''
       Look at the Freemen's racial theories. The same fellow who 
     says marriage licenses are tyranny believes people who are 
     not white are ``beasts.'' Only whites go to heaven; Jews are 
     children of Satan.
       The rhetoric of these groups embraces a range of enemies, 
     from the Federal Government to ``the New World Order.'' Their 
     real target, however, is local law enforcement. Nick Murnion, 
     the Garfield County Attorney, recalls threats the Freemen 
     made against him last year. ``They told me they weren't going 
     to bother building a gallows. They were just going to let me 
     swing from the bridge,'' he says.
       A month ago, armed members of yet a third group, the North 
     American Volunteer Militia, threatened the marshal in the 
     town of Darby. He had pulled over a car whose license plates 
     expired in 1992, and later describes what followed: ``They 
     had weapons and they were shaking them at us and yelling that 
     they were going to kill us. We backed off a little bit and 
     then left because we could see that it could turn into a 
     blood-bath.''
       The good news is that ringleaders of the hate groups are 
     few. Nick Murnion believes there are no more than 30 around 
     Montana. Most refuse to pay taxes and obey the laws. They 
     should be arrested, tried and jailed. Otherwise, the 
     situation may worsen. As one prosecutor, County Attorney John 
     Bohlman, says: ``The more the Federal and local law 
     enforcement agencies behave with a hands-off attitude, the 
     more bold and daring these groups become.''
       But law enforcement is only part of it. Casual adherents of 
     militias statewide are not criminals. And a united community 
     can deal with them by taking a stand against hate.
       Americans have the right to say what they believe. But with 
     that right comes the responsibility to respect our neighbors, 
     respect law enforcement and obey the laws.
       In November 1993, a group of skinheads threw a bottle 
     through the glass door of a Jewish family's in Billings. A 
     few days later, they put a brick through a window of another 
     Jewish household; a 5-year-old boy was in the room at the 
     time.
       In response, Billings rallied behind the Jewish community. 
     The Billings Gazette printed a full-page drawing of a 
     menorah, and people all over town pasted them in their 
     windows. We held our biggest Martin Luther King Day march 
     ever in February. And the skinheads fled.
       The same treatment will work this time. Americans 
     everywhere must speak out. We all must make hatemongers 
     unwelcome in our towns and communities. And we must stand by 
     the heroes in this struggle, the police and county 
     prosecutors who stand up to the extremists.
       It is that simple. And after Oklahoma City, it is about 
     time.

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