European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 12, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                There s Slot of wide open apace in Montana Tike this Scenic area at Glacier National Park. Big sky Small population mtg Hwy comm Livion , Reid Washington Post Montana the big sky country wants you this enormous rolling sprawl of i state is bigger than Trie District of Columbia Maryland. Virginia and North Carolina combined bigger than All of new England bigger than 60 percent of Sovereign countries in the United. Nations it has a problem of acute disproportion Loo much land too Lew people. Montana is facing whal gov. Stan Stephens a Tepu Hcan Calls a terrible thought Tho Sale is dangerously close to losing one of its two seats in the . House in the National reapportionment that will follow the 1990 census. Some estimates show that Montana will have just enough people to keep two House members. But census Bureau projections say that under a complicated congressional formula the state will All about 12,000 people Short of qualifying for a second House scat even though it has 805,000 residents according so Bureau estimates. With America s Zola decennial head count scheduled to begin in a year Montana has Lihue Lime to fend Oil disaster. Slate attorney general Majc Racicot said he already is contemplating Legal action it the census numbers Are disappointing some legislators have Sugg sled in jest Well half in jest that this would to a perfect Lime for Montana families to have More children. More seriously montanans have been making Public appeals to people elsewhere recruiting them to move there by next april and beet up the census count. Stephens is nol entirety comfortable with these efforts. I gel letters from people in Texas. Alaska who knows where the amiable Plain spoken a governor said. They say they hear Montana needs people and they la come Here you know in i guarantee them a Job. Well of course i can  on the other hand Stephens said it would to wonderful if enough people would move in. Then interview he asked that readers be reminded thai they would fall in love with this place in a minute it they came Oul  Montana is not the Only state Likely to Loso a House seat. This kind of reshuffling happens after every census when the House is  each slate la i guaranteed one House member thereafter seats s1 through 435 Are allot led among the Stales on the basis of population. The Tola of 435 is fixed by Law. If Montana did lose a Seal it would join a half dozen other Stales that have Only one representative but it would become the most populous single House District by far. The average ratio of residents to House members after 1990 will be about 540,000 to .1 Montana s would be 800,000 to 1. Further the constituency is More. Scattered in Montana. While Alaska a single member state is bigger than Montana in land area the vast majority of its 400,000 people live in the narrow Anchorage Juneau corridor montanans in contrast Are spread Oul fairly evenly across the state s 150.000 Square Miles. Even More worrisome of Stephens and other total leaders n the potential lower profile Lor a state that already feels nearly invisible despite its dimensions. I South of Denver or East of  Stephens said you. Mention Montana and you can Soe their eyes Glaze Over. 1 go Back to v. Washington and they re not even sure. Where Montana 13." \ Montana is the geographic link Between the High Plains of the upper Midwest farm Bel and Tho towering limb Eilands of Tho mountainous Northwest in an increasingly Urban and suburban nation Montana remains a throwback to Small town America Billings the slate s closes approximation to an Urban Center has 00,000 people about Hafl As Many As Arlington a most people s vision of Montana is formed by photos of Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks and the rugged scenery of countless Cowboy movies. In tact Only one third of of the state lives up to its name which Means mountainous. East of the Continental Divide. Montana looks Liko a drier version of Iowa an immense Brown Tabletop of i Mccless Savanna that Rolls toward an endless horizon. Other than in the immediate Vicinity of Lead and Copper smelters. This empty country is an environmentalist s heaven largely unsullied by traffic or Industry noise or smog. At least two montanans have a personal concern about  reps. Pat Williams a Democrat from the traditionally Liberal Western end of the slate and Ron Marlone. A Republican from the conservative farm country in the East. They could meet head on Lor a single House seat in 1992, mar Feroe May forestall thai possibility though by challenging democratic sen Max Baucus in 1990, unaffected by such human distractions is the vast land itself As Montana s favorite novelist  Guthrie jr., wrote in Tho big sky the Book that gave this state a nickname. The  the country to wrote the great emptiness and age of it the feel of Western mountains and plans wide As forever and the Blue sky Flung across. What did it care about Man or his hankering or what happened Lovirn Rorm Bombeck with All the openness about set in this country to still have a major hang up no one wants to watch on a rated movie with his Mother. I Don t care How old you Are of How old she is. There  about sharing All that intimacy thai destroys the Parent child mystique this is Tho common belief that Whai Evo generation you Are in invented sex Youl birth was either divinely conceived or was a science fair project that got out of hand watching Kim Basiger on Tho screen would give your Mother disturbing dreams Tor the rest of her me you Don t want your Mother to know that you know what she knows you already know. She does t want you to new total she has known n or Ycas but did t want you to know it the first time 1 watched a film with one of my sons m which a couple hit the sheets or no Appa ent reason Page 16 the stars and stripes he leaned Over and said did dad Ever get the Pitlor. His Lawn Mower that he sent off or to whispered. No " then he said did i ick you i m taking Spanish next year t whispered goal " then he said did you want some Popcorn or anything " i could t believe it. Here was a kid who was Lucky to speak sit words a year to me and All of a sudden in a dark the Cali in  of the Mario. To had More phrases than a talking Bulck. Later when to apologized for the sex scones i said. I am not without some background Maletia Afler All i be Walch cd animals mate on pcs for  that s diff Eien he said. Unless you be seen two fruit Bais mule you Don t know Kinky " i had t thought about the incident much until recon try when my to her was visiting she suggested wednesday april 12, 19b9 we rent a movie As she never gets to a theater. My mind raced wildly How about sleeping Beau How about body heal i be Hoard so much about it it was the most stressful evening i have Ever put in whenever there was a four letter word had to be ready to cough. When heavy breathing and intimacy filled the screen i turned to her and said. So did you finish your Alghan when she did t blink i raised my voice and said have you Ever thought about gelling a dog. Mom most of the time i ended up prattling about How Tho Battery burned out in my Srpoohe alarm. Why do we do ii i Don t know but there is something rather charming about one generation struggling o Mountain an innocence. It keeps the. Mystique alive im9 Tram Bontet