I'm glad I came here, Butte is a beautiful place- but sad in a way. There are good people who are fighting tooth and nail to preserve this city's history and future, I hope they succeed. I hope one day the army recruiting stations (we counted four, one in our hotel) and pawn shops will be replaced by union halls and cultural centers. I hope the restoration of the old fire station the Butte Silver Bow archives calls home goes smoothly, it's there that the last days of Frank's life are preserved for future generations. If my book ever comes out, I have a lot of people to thank.
Butte is a good place and should be saved.
As an outsider, I don't know what the politics of Butte really are. It was one of the few places in Montana where they voted for Hillary over Obama, but I saw several Obama posters and none for McCain. The director of the Silver Bow Archives explained that the woman who organized the Granite Mountain Memoral and the annual services is a staunch Republican (she said with appropriate disdain) and does not invite unions to participate in the memorial to the dead miners- only the Butte Legion of Honor. Historically Butte voted for women's sufferage years before the national law. Butte Congresswoman Jeanette Rankin fought for the miners union in 1917 to get increased safety measures and fair pay- and even fought to save Frank Little when an anonymous call tipped her off that he would be targeted by a death squad. In a rather nice non-Starbucks coffee shop, I overheard a man saying how Bush has saved us from terrorist attacks and Keith Olberman is an idiot. In the same coffee shop there was an extensively signed petition at the front counter "Not In Our Town" condemning an assault against a woman "because of her skin color".
This was a very emotionally and intellectually engaging trip that will stay with me. I hope to return one day.
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