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What in the world?
I first set foot (tires?) in Montana more than 50 years ago, after an ROTC summer camp at Fairchild AFB in Spokane. I still remember, after driving across the Idaho panhandle, there was a long rise and at the crest, a sign saying, "Welcome to Big Sky Country." Over the crest, it looked like the entire west was laid out before me. Later, some time at Malmstrom AFB was great, even if a lot of it was underground in a missile control center.
Time went on. The romance never died. In 2014, my wife and I made a trip along the old US 66 to Chicago and back to LA through Colorado and up to Yellowstone. No time to explore Montana, although there were a lot of places there I wanted her to see and also see myself for the first time. She wanted extra time in Yellowstone.
I have been hesitant to plan another trip, even though we had been talking about it with some friends for a long time. The idea was a circle trip from Vancouver east in Canada and then down into Montana. But since 2016, the mood in the US has turned ugly toward foreigners; my wife is Korean. Reading recent reporting about the heritage area and the campaigns over child-sex rings and other issues that this mindset links with anti-foreign feeling makes me nervous about exposing them to possible harassment.
I worked for Mike Mansfield in Tokyo and admired him greatly. What's become of his state?
