The Star-News in McCall recently published a memorable profile of Warren Brown who may be the person most responsible than anyone in building the mountain community into what it is today.
Brown’s father, Carl, started the Brown Tie and Lumber Company in the early 1900s and it became one of the major employers in what was then a timber town. The Brown mill stood on the east side of the lake within walking distance of downtown. It burned down twice, first in 1937 and again in 1984 and was not rebuilt.
In 1937, Warren helped create the “Little Ski Hill” on property owned by his family so kids and their parents had a place to recreate during McCall’s long, cold winters. As the Star-News wrote, Warren “loved kids, life, fishing, camping, McCall. That the Little Ski Hill would become the starting grounds for eight Olympic skiers probably wasn’t outside Brown’s expectation.”
The paper could logically draw that conclusion because Brown was a visionary and more than that a community builder. It was a sentiment that came naturally to him and is often missing in today’s highly individualistic society.
Wanting more recreational outlets for the people, Brown was one of the co-founders of the Brundage ski area in 1961. More than 1,000 skiers showed up on the ski area’s opening day and to this day Brundage is the backbone of McCall’s winter recreation economy.
“There are not too many people like Warren,” Wes Ross, a Brundage snowcat driver told The Star-News. “If someone broke down at the side of the road and Warren came by in a suit, he’d crawl under the car and fix it. He would do anything for you, just an all-around good guy.”
The profile of Brown took me back to when I was a young reporter and covered the Idaho Legislature for the first time in the 1970s. Warren Brown was still in the Senate, and I remember him as someone who stood out. He was thoughtful and carried himself with a sense of dignity that was not self-centered, but selfless.
But he was not alone among members of the Legislature who had those qualities. I also remember House Speaker William Lanting from the Magic Valley. He, too, carried himself with the kind of dignity that earned respect from his colleagues. Nothing flashy. Just good old Idaho values. Like Brown, he was a servant leader.
Brown and Lanting were so different from many of the legislators who serve in the Idaho Legislature today, especially many in leadership. For many of today’s legislative leaders and their followers it is all about them rather than the common good. It is all about cutting taxes as much as possible even if it leads to starving the greatest good of all, public education and the colleges and universities that help power our economy and educate future leaders.
Theirs is a Legislature that claims to love freedom, but at every opportunity votes to restrict the freedom of others when it doesn’t mirror their own narrow definition of morality. It is a Legislature built on fear and control rather than respect, tolerance and what serves the best interest of most Idahoans.
Most of today’s lawmakers get elected in primaries by a small percentage of eligible voters and some with no opposition at all. Meanwhile, thousands of independent voters are locked out of the democratic process, resulting in precious few Idahoans deciding the laws we all live under. That’s not democracy.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the 1965 Legislature which is considered one of the greatest – if not the greatest – in state history. It earned that reputation for the landmark legislation it passed, including adoption of the sales tax to fund public education. That decision was later ratified by Idaho’s voters who have always valued public schools.
The 1965 Legislature was filled with some of the giants of Idaho politics, including two of our state’s greatest governors – Cecil Andrus and Phil Batt – one of our greatest U.S. Senators, James McClure, one of our finest Congressmen Orval Hansen, the longest serving Secretary of State in history, Pete Cenarrusa, a future Federal District Judge Hal Ryan, Mary Brooks later head of the U.S. Mint, several future members of the Idaho Supreme Court, and William Lanting.
In every Legislature I covered over a dozen years, there were crackpots and political extremists. But they were marginalized by the Republican caucus and ignored for the most part. But today they seem to be running the show.
There is no better indication of this than the recent passage of House Bill 93, which would give $50 million to private and religious schools, while violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the Idaho Constitution. If this program is approved by the Senate and becomes law with Governor Little’s support, it will eventually grow into the most expensive government handout in state history.
One does not speak lightly of what the dead would think, but one can assume that such a government giveaway would be anathema to lawmakers like Brown, Lanting, Andrus, and especially the state’s most famous tight wad with taxpayers’ money, Governor Phil Batt. They all had an abiding commitment to public education and a deep dedication to fiscal responsibility, unlike many legislators today who give it lip service, but no serious regard.
Governor Little said in his State of the State address that he would only support a voucher bill if it was “fair, responsible, transparent, and accountable.” Yet rumor has it that he will allow House Bill 93 to become law if it reaches his desk, in return for getting his agenda approved.
Never mind that House Bill 93 is anything but fair (not to Idaho’s 314,000 public school students whose education is already underfunded or to rural communities), responsible (it’s clearly fiscally irresponsible), transparent (private/religious schools don’t have to say how the money is spent), or accountable (no academic assessments, no requirement for certified teachers, no safety background checks required).
One wonders where the giants are who will put a stop to this insanity? Where are leaders like Warren Brown, William Lanting, Phil Batt, and Cecil Andrus? One can only hope that someday Idaho voters will put a stop to the silliness at the Statehouse that each winter masquerades as serious legislating.
