If it wasn’t for Butte, we’d all be speaking German.

That is something Fritz Daily loved to say. He wasn’t being an arrogant Yankee talking down to people from England and France. Rather, Fritz was talking to all of us.

If it was not for the resources from the Mining City — those precious minerals taken out of our underground mines — the bad guys might have won World War I and World War II.

Adolf Hitler might have taken over the world if it was not for the hard-working miners and muckers from the “Richest Hill on Earth.”

That statement by Fritz, who passed away last week at the age of 80, was 100 percent true. Butte played an instrumental role in the victories of the two world wars. That is an undeniable fact.

In the aftermath of a century of mining that helped power the world, though, Butte got the shaft. It is still getting the shaft when it comes to environmental cleanup.

Fritz saw that, and he called it out. He shouted it from the mountain top that Butte and its people deserve better. It was a fight that Fritz lived and breathed. It was a fight that he literally waged until the day that he died.

Fritz called the Berkeley Pit an “ecological timebomb.” He pointed out the cruel irony of turning off the pumps on Earth Day of 1982, setting that impending disaster into motion.

He spoke out about the unfair and unconscionable acceptable lead levels. In Anaconda, cleanup was forced to get lead down to 400 parts per million. In Butte, it is left at 1,200 parts per million.

When it appeared that many of our local leaders and decision makers sold out for British Petroleum and the Atlantic Richfield Co., Fritz was there to call them out.

He called out the absurdity of cleaning up the Milltown Dam before cleaning Silver Bow Creek. He said it was like dropping a gallon of milk on the floor, and then mopping it up before you picked up the spilling container.

Along with Sister Mary Jo McDonald and Ron Davis, Fritz sued to force Butte-Silver Bow, British Petroleum and the State of Montana to clean up Silver Bow Creek, which still runs with waters more contaminated than the Pit.

They won that lawsuit, though our county and state leaders, along with the so-called Environmental Protection Agency and British Petroleum, largely ignored Judge Brad Newman’s order. They are still ignoring that court order.

When people speak out with inconvenient truths in Butte, they inevitably find their credibility attacked. They have their jobs threatened — or worse. While many still speak out, that character and professional assassination is real enough to silence many.

It never hushed Fritz. He could not be intimidated. He always spoke the truth.

“The only thing worse than bad guys doing bad things is good guys who sit by and don’t say anything and let it happen,” Fritz would say.

Fritz would never stay silent. He called out injustice to its face. It was just who he was.

They tried to tell us that Fritz was just a crazy old man. They portrayed him as if he was Grandpa Simpson yelling at the cloud. Fritz should not be listened to, they said. He should not be interviewed by news outlets.

Whatever you do, do not listen to this crazy old codger. Do not give him a platform on which to speak.

That might have worked for the agencies that wanted to keep Fritz away, but it never worked on us. We knew better the whole time. We knew that there was no more trustworthy voice when it came to Butte Superfund issues than the honest words of Fritz Daily.

When Fritz spoke, we listened because we know that Fritz loved nothing more than the people of Butte. Whether it was during his days as a seven-term Montana legislator or just a citizen not afraid to use his voice, Fritz fought for us.

“I was always my own man and stood for what I believed,” Fritz wrote in his own obituary. “I am a proud Butte, Irish, Catholic, Union, moderate Democrat. I once held a Legislative philosophy that Butte came first, Montana second and the Democratic Party came third. I recently received a correction from a former colleague that described my philosophy as Butte first, Butte second, and Butte third. I think she was correct.”

She was unquestionably correct. Fritz was all about Butte. He will long be remembered as the ultimate “Butte guy.” Nobody ever embodied that title more. He spent every day fighting for the people of Butte — past, present and future.

For so many of us, he was our go-to guy, our moral compass and our biggest supporter. He was our rock. Our inspiration to fight on.

When we lose important figures, people often wonder how to honor them and preserve their legacy. Do we name a building or stadium in his or her honor?

We do not need to do that for Fritz because fighting for Butte was his legacy. Now that he is gone, there is no better way to honor his memory than to continue his fight.

Much of that fight focused on the allowable lead levels in Butte. Fritz said those levels should be set at zero. He simply could not stomach how any bureaucrat could sit behind a desk while generations of Butte children are poisoned.

It looked like we had a victory on that front in the fall off 2024, but the EPA drug its feet and our local government focused on keeping an in-house jobs program instead of pushing for a much faster remedy offered by bringing in contractors.

Now, under a new presidential administration, the EPA appears to be backtracking a bit. We need to give the organization a reminder of what its job is supposed to be. We must hold the EPA’s feet to the fire.

If you want to honor Fritz, step up and join the fight. Step out of your comfort zone and go to a meeting. Stand up and speak at that meeting. Raise some hell with the chief executive, members of the Butte-Silver Bow Council of Commissioners, the Montana legislators and the governor.

Raise some hell with the EPA and British Petroleum.

I know I will never stop fighting for the people of Butte. I know that I will have to up my game now that the ultimate Butte guy is no longer around to lead the charge. I will always stand with fighters like Sister Mary Jo McDonald, Ron Davis, Mick Ringsak, Evan Barrett, Don “Moose” Petritz and Erik Nylund.

I will always stand with the Butte Watchdogs for Social and Environmental Justice. I will always stand with Fritz and for Fritz.

You, too, should stand up and make sure you are never that good guy who sits by, not saying anything, as bad things happen. You, too, should be a fighter like Fritz. Do it for Fritz and his legacy of 80 years fighting for the Mining City.

Let every word you speak that is not in German be your daily reminder.

— Bill Foley, who does not speak German, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.