Laura Flanders: If Obama's SC win was a "black" thing, it's strange how it's going down in Butte.

[marmar]

from The Nation:



BLOG | Posted 01/29/2008 @ 03:42am
Obama from Butte
Laura Flanders


If Barack Obama's South Carolina win was a "black" thing, it's awfully strange how it's going down in Butte. US towns don't come much whiter or more hope-resistant than this battered old Montana mining town. And yet organizers here resonate with his call, not because they think he'll change things here, but because they believe the movement he's inspiring will help them do that work.

It was mid-morning Sunday when I finally flipped open my laptop to watch Obama's South Carolina victory speech. The only other soul in the faded foyer of the once-grand Finlen Hotel was Debbie, the receptionist. Obama's words drew blue-eyed Debbie over. What do you think? I asked. Looking at the crowd, her smile revealed more than a few missing teeth. "That looks like everybody," she said. "That's good."

The Finlen is a lonely place; a 1920s relic perched on a snow-swept slope between stone-cold, closed Victorian banks and bars and the country's biggest toxic Super Fund site. Butte was once the copper capital of the world (and the most unionized town in the US) but the swag and smut of the 1880s is long gone and Butte's as broken now as the bones of its best-known 20th century export - Evel Knievel. And even he is dead.

The exuberant crowd behind the stylish Senator Saturday was Southern, sunny, multi-racial and all revved up. The backdrop to his words in Butte was very different. Obama's pledges of "change" and "purpose" and "belief" echoed, airy, into this wintry, white, whupped, western town. This place aches for solid stuff like union jobs and productive work and there was precious little promise of either in Obama's speech.

So can Obama's magic move Butte? Before the morning was over, I was able to ask the question to a group of local activists. The Montana Human Rights Network was holding its annual"Progressive Leadership Institute" in the Finlen this weekend and two dozen local organizers gathered around to hear the speech in between workshops on running effective campaigns and running for local office.

"It's not that he would change anything in Butte," said Alan Peura, a City Commissioner in Helena. "But he's building momentum that we can use to make that change ourselves." .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15&pid=276820

[Adelante]

1. "building momentum that we can use to make that change ourselves"

That's what it's all about.

[babylonsister]

2. Wow! Thanks for this! I think it's terrific news! Obama fever is spreading! nt

[FrenchieCat]

3. That's what we've been wanting! To get a chance to change things ourselves!

Here's our agent! I ain't letting him get away! :)

Thanks for the article!

[Ediacara]

4. It should be noted that Butte votes Democratic by a huge margin in every election

So it won't be hard to find Obama supporters there...

[sandnsea]

7. Going back to the beginning

There was a map a few years ago that showed the counties that had voted Dem since their inception. There were about ten nationwide. Butte, not surprisingly, was one of them.

[Mojambo]

5. Butte was one of the most depressing places I've ever visited in my life.

But it may not have been entirely Butte's fault.

My grandfather died in a hospital there.

[Ediacara]

6. Butte is depressing

A mountain wilderness despoiled by mining, then economically destroyed by mining companies leaving town leaving behind ruin. And arsenic.

[sandnsea]

8. Yeah but it's got a fantastic history

I'm trying to work it into a novel. It's a story that hasn't really been told. It was once the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco. Butte deserves better than what she's been left with.

[Ediacara]

10. I agree it has great history

After the Berkeley Pit was closed, there was a plan to actually dismantle the whole town and relocate people elsewhere because of the pervasiveness of arsenic everywhere. The main ore they were after was a copper ore called enargite, Cu₃AsS₄.

That plan obviously didn't go anywhere. Part of me is sad that Butte has been so shafted and I cheer on the old-timers that say with all sincerity, "Butte's comin' back!" But then the rest of me sees a giant environmental disaster that needs cleaning up and is dangerous for living things, especially humans.

[kid a]

9. there are several places to see historical photos of butte

but a walk down the athletic hall of the old butte high is amazing.

the story of the rise and fall of butte's economical and political history is told by the uniforms, team sizes, and faces of the teenages from the late 1800's on up to the 1960s.

a trip to the gym toilet a few years ago lasted 2 hours as i stared into the eyes of those kids.

amazing.
=)

[VotesForWomen]

11. Clue from South Dakota: upper plains whites are not the same as southern/coastal whites.