When mail-in ballots are sent to Helena residents on Oct. 19, they will include questions on two important and contentious issues that are shaping the future of our country and our community.

Two referenda will be on the ballot asking Congress to take action. One proposal urges the immediate, orderly and safe withdrawal of the U.S. military from Iraq. The other supports total, unconditional funding for U.S. military operations against terrorism worldwide.

These referenda are about related but different issues. For both, the proponents argue that the costs of doing nothing are too great. You can argue whether one or both groups are right about their solutions, but there really are costs out there, ones that only will grow greater if nothing is done.

There are dry budgetary costs for Helena: cuts in funding for low-income housing and drug use prevention. There are more personal costs to city services: street department workers and policemen called from their community to serve in Iraq. And there are deeply human costs in Helena: brothers and sons killed at the World Trade Center and in Iraq. These referenda are not about things that are far away.

So why does it matter if you cast a non-binding vote in a little town in Montana? In one sense, it doesn’t. Neither history nor the universe seems to care much about what you or I or any one person thinks. And anyway, we all have our lives, our jobs, our families to keep us busy.

But even so: if everybody’s too small to matter, then nobody matters. And that’s not right. The war in Iraq and the war on terrorism pose critical questions for our time. How we answer them individually becomes how they get answered collectively. If we shouldn’t talk about them here, in Helena, in our home, where should we talk about them?

Congress hears plenty from pollsters and lobbyists. It’s OK that Congress hears from us as well. The referenda give each individual a chance to speak for themselves and together to speak for the community. With these referenda, nobody can claim to speak in your place.

To provide Helenans with more information on both issues before they vote, the Helena International Affairs Council, a committee of city government, and Carroll College Students for a Just Society are co-sponsoring a public forum on Helena and war. The forum will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 2, from 7-9 p.m. in the Lower Commons of Carroll College.

Panelists included proponents of each of the referenda, as well as political science professor Eric Pratt, of Carroll College. The forum will be driven by audience questions and moderated by Marc Scow, a professional facilitator and Helena resident.

I have my thoughts about the use of force, public safety and civil liberties, terrorism and the war in Iraq, and I know each of you do, too. This forum gives everybody a chance to share their views, so as we vote this fall, however we vote, we’ve seen that the “other side” is actually people we know, people in our own community.

Mail-in ballots will go out Oct. 19, and must be returned by Nov. 6. Be sure to vote. And I hope you’ll join us this Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Carroll College.

Paul Cartwright is a Helena city commissioner.