EVENT CANCELED due to weather and COVID-19 Diagnoses in Montana
Kalispell Together: Community Over Conflict
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED. Please email info@loveliveshereflathead with questions.
Stay home and stay safe!
It's always a good time to bring the community together, and Love Lives Here has put together another amazing event on Saturday, March 14!
Some of you alerted Love Lives Here to the fact that Charlie Kirk is coming to speak in Kalispell on March 14 -- and you wanted to know what we were going to do about it. Well-known speakers who try to build their following using misinformation and animosity and have come to the Flathead before, and we have responded.
In March of 2018, Dinesh D'Souza came to promote his book filled with false claims that have been debunked by reputable historians. A few months later, Ammon Bundy came to spread his dangerous anti-government agenda that destroyed public property and divided communities in Nevada and Oregon.
Now, Charlie Kirk comes to sow discord and promote an agenda of discrimination against immigrants, Muslims, women's health care, the LGBTQ community, people of color, and anyone he labels a "socialist." We already have seen the harmful consequences of this kind of rhetoric in Montana. Our primary concern is the possibility that vulnerable people in the Flathead Valley might be attacked by someone who turns to violence after hearing his message.
In response, Love Lives Here has created Kalispell Together: Community Over Conflict, a peaceful, community-building event, to give all of us a chance to come together and learn how we can be a stronger, engaged community on several issues.
Love Lives Here does not recommend any sort of protest at the Charlie Kirk event. Personalities like his thrive on attention and the narrative that people are attacking them or threatening their First Amendment rights. (Several local officials made this claim at the Dinesh D'Souza event two years ago even though no protesters were at the event.)
We don't want to fall into their trap. But we're not going to ignore their agenda, either.
Kalispell Together: Community Over Conflict is a two-part event. Part one is a panel discussion featuring several organizations that are doing great work in the state and the valley. Part two will be an in-depth discussion or training with representatives from these organizations.
Here are the featured speakers:
Ella Smith from Montana Women Vote, speaking on local elections and community power. You'll learn about locally elected positions, their responsibilities, and how you can create change in our community.
Danielle Vazquez from the Indigenous Organizing Collective, speaking on issues about tribal sovereignty such as water rights, voting rights, the impact of oil companies in Indian Country, and the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Kedryn McElderry from Love Lives Here, offering information on how people can be better allies to the LGBTQ community.
A representative from Montana Women Vote, training volunteers to help with local voter registration efforts. It's easy, and Love Lives Here wants to have voter registration available at all of our events this year!
This event is free and open to the public! We are also asking people to bring a donation of a hat, gloves, socks, or a pillow for the Flathead Warming Shelter. If you can, please bring a snack to share (non-messy finger food, please)!
Join us next Saturday to learn how to be an active part of the Flathead Valley community! (Apologies that we didn't call this event "Flathead Together," but we already had stickers, which you can purchase on Saturday!)