It is we the people who have the power

Don’t tell me the people lack power.

“We the people” is the powerful phrase opening the U.S. Constitution. We the people have been a powerful force throughout U.S. history — and Montana’s history.

The Fraternal Order of Eagles at its 1921 national convention voted to make old-age pensions a national priority. At least 10 Eagles from Montana aeries (chapters) attended that meeting. They helped organize a state campaign for old-age pensions. Lester H. Loble of Helena sponsored the bill in the Montana House of Representatives.

Montana passed the old-age pension law in 1923, the law withstood court challenge, and Montana became the first state in the nation with a social security program. More than half the states had created social security programs before Congress passed the national Social Security Act in 1935.

Loble and other Eagles made a difference!

At a 1931 meeting at Waterton Lakes, Alberta, Canada, Rotarians from Montana and Alberta began the international peace park movement. Samuel R. Middleton of Cardston moved, Harry B. Mitchell of Great Falls seconded, and the Rotarians there assembled passed a resolution to create an international peace park by combining the American Glacier National Park and the Canadian Waterton Park.

Rotarians in both countries went to work lobbying their national legislatures in support of the peace park. As a result, in 1932, Waterton-Glacier became the world’s first international peace park.

The idea of international cooperation in conservation as a means of promoting peaceful relations took off from there. Peru and Ecuador, for example, ended a long dispute over their mutual border when in 1998 they agreed to form the Cordillera del Condor Peace Park. The World Conservation Union now lists approximately 200 international peace parks.

People make a difference!

During the 1960s the League of Women Voters and American Association of University Women provided strong support for the clean air and clean water movements. These women understood that children in particular require clean air and clean water.

League member Rita Sheehy of Billings studied the air and water issues and became chair of the state Board of Health and Environmental Sciences. Nine members of the Montana League became delegates to the state’s Constitutional Convention of 1972.

Louise Cross of Glendive was one of three AAUW members who were delegates to Con-Con, as the constitutional convention was called. She pushed “clean and healthful environment” into the state’s Bill of Rights.

The national achievements were the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Clean Water Act of 1972. The Montana accomplishments included the environmental protections in Montana’s state constitution adopted in 1972.

We the people are still powerful.

Sean Gerrity, who grew up in Great Falls and lives in Bozeman, was instrumental in organizing the American Prairie Reserve, a large wildlife preserve and grasslands park in Montana’s Great Plains. Established, funded, and growing courtesy of private philanthropy from Montanans and people around the nation, this organization is working to preserve an entire prairie ecosystem as a park open to the public.

We the people means you and me and others. We can work together toward our goal, as others work toward their goals. Voting is how our opinions get counted, but we can participate in our communities and government in many ways. First, get informed.

Jeannette Rankin was the first, second, and thus far only woman to represent Montana in Congress. She said, “It is important for people to be able to read all sides of every question; for a feeling of national unity does not come from one-sided or inadequate information, but from a sense of freedom impartially secured and of opportunity equalized by a just Government.”

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Anne Millbrooke is a historian living in Bozeman.