Inter Lake editorial

The attack on migrant workers in Marion last week is certainly a blot on our community, but the good news is that law enforcement authorities worked in a professional manner to track down the suspects quickly and put them behind bars.

Details of the confrontations Saturday night are still being reported, and no one should judge anyone involved before the whole story is known.

It does appear, however, that racial animus played a role in the dispute, which involved local white residents and several migrant workers of Asian background who were in the area picking valuable morel mushrooms on burned forest land.

Though we may never know the whole story, it should be obvious that good old Montana is not immune from the kind of violence that plagues urban areas. It is up to each of us to keep an eye open for potential trouble spots and defuse them or report them, as each of us sees fit.

Whether you call it a hate crime or not, violence against individuals solely on the basis of their skin color, national origin or religion is plain wrong. The vast majority of us can agree about that.

There's a birthday party of sorts going on tonight when the Flathead Lakers celebrate their 50th anniversary.

That's 50 years of protecting clean water in Flathead Lake. From its inception as a small group of locals who loved the lake, the organization has grown to a membership of 1,500.

Over the years the Lakers have been involved in a variety of water-quality campaigns, ranging from the ban on phosphate detergents to upgrading sewage treatment to managing lake levels.

Their efforts are evident in what is still a remarkable clean lake. But many pressures exist on the precious commodity of water, so the work of the Flathead Lakers is likely to be needed for the next 50 years.

We all owe a debt of appreciation to the Lakers and groups like it that are helping protect a major resource in Northwest Montana.