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When Gellman called to interview me for his article--I did not know its title--he began asking me questions about my membership in Oath Keepers, a group dedicated to fulfilling their oath to the U.S. Constitution. This led to questions about my campaign for sheriff in Montana. I did not make the statements attributed to me in the article. He asked if I really thought I could "stop the federal government" if I "did not like what they were doing." I corrected him that it was a matter not of whether I liked what they were doing but of whether what they were doing was lawful. Gellman took his example to an extreme scenario, and I commented that, no matter who was violating the law, as sheriff, I would respond to that violation as a crime in progress just as deputies do every day. If people violate a citizen's civil rights, they should be held accountable. Would you like your chief law-enforcement officer to be committed to stopping the violation of your rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? That I am serious about my oath of office should cause no honest citizen fear; it is a commentary on society that it is newsworthy.

Steve Kendley, POLSON, MONT.

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