{"id":13108,"date":"2016-07-11T07:58:52","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T13:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=13108"},"modified":"2016-07-11T07:58:52","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T13:58:52","slug":"montana-ethic-project-our-constitution-and-right-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/07\/montana-ethic-project-our-constitution-and-right-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Ethic Project: Our constitution and right to know"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Eck\"<\/a>

Joey and Libby Early<\/p>

Former state Sen. Dorothy Eck, a delegate to the 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention, talks about the importance of the “right to know” provision in the constitution.<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the 19th\u00a0chapter of the 32-part video series \u201cThe Montana Ethic Project.\u201d This chapter features Dorothy Eck, a delegate to the Montana Constitutional Convention in 1972 and later a state senator for 20 years, speaking on \u201cThe Right to Know and the Montana Constitution.”\u00a0You can watch the whole video below. Here is how it begins:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“My political life in Montana really started in the late ’40s when my husband was hired to teach\u00a0architecture at the University in Bozeman. We had come from Washington with two small children and\u00a0absolutely loved Montana. We loved the mountains and the rivers and we liked to fish and go camping\u00a0and we found that the schools were wonderful and it was a good place to be a part of the university\u00a0community.<\/p>\n

“But as soon as a political campaign started, I found Montana really did have a problem. We were known\u00a0as the state that wore the Copper Collar. We were controlled by the Anaconda Company.”<\/p>\n

Here is another, edited excerpt from Eck’s\u00a0presentation<\/em>:<\/p>\n

“Additionally we put up with the newspapers, which were mostly all controlled by the Anaconda\u00a0Company. I can remember in the middle of campaign season the front page of the newspaper would\u00a0have great pictures and stories about who was running for prom queen, but almost nothing about who\u00a0was running for the Legislature or other public offices.<\/p>\n

“I countered this in a way and joined the League of Women Voters. The League at that time chose\u00a0political issues to study. Yet it really wasn\u2019t easy getting information on our chosen issues. In those days\u00a0the bills came running off the mimeograph machine and you would have to pick up a pile of bills, skim\u00a0through them, see which of them were relevant to the League\u2019s positions, and then decide to act\u00a0accordingly. We also found that we could show up at committee hearings and members would listen to\u00a0us. However the Executive Committee meetings of the various committees were all closed, no public\u00a0allowed. No minutes were taken. There was no idea of who voted for or against the bills you were\u00a0interested in.<\/p>\n

“That was a problem.”<\/p>\n