History of Latinos and Latinas in Wyoming celebrated in new mural

This is very timely, considering what's happening in Arizona:

On Saturday, May 1, Paredes Hablando - Walls That Speak, will be unveiled by La Radio Montenesa Voz de la Gente KOCA in Laramie. The mural by Stevon Lucero commemorates Latinas and Latinos in Wyoming.

There will be an 11 a.m. luncheon followed at 1:30 p.m. by the unveiling of the mural, with an Artist's Talk by Stevon Lucero, “The Unyielding Process of Chicano Art.” All events at the Alice Hardy Stevens Center, 603 E. Ivinson Ave., Laramie. At 5 p.m., there will be a screening of a film by Yolanda Cruz, 2501 Migrantes, about a population of a town in Mexico that has been forced to leave to find work.

Info: Connie, 742-2842 cocaj58@aol.com

Volunteers needed for 54th annual Cheyenne Summer Melodrama

This e-mail bulletin was sent out today by the Cheyenne Little Theatre Players. You will note some familiar names taking the helm of melodrama volunteers. read on...

It's Melodrama Time!

Mike and Chris Shay have agreed to Co-Chair the 54th Melodrama, and they are in need of people to chair the Marketing/PR and Front-Of-House(Front of House consists of Box Office, Concessions, Bar & Wait Staff)Sub-Committees. If you are interested, please email them at melodrama@cheyennelittletheatre.org

We will also be seeking volunteers to staff our bar area during the run of the show. Anyone interested in pouring our refreshments must be 21 or over and TIPS trained. Free TIPS training sessions will be offered from 5-9:30 p.m. on:
Tuesday May 4
Tuesday June 1
Tuesday July 6

Location -- at The American Legion Post 6, 2001 East Lincolnway, Cheyenne

No need to register, just show up and they'll fit you in!

TIPS training is valid for 3 years. If you have been previously trained remember to check your TIPS card or online for the expiration date!

Information to follow soon on our annual Volunteer Round Up and Atlas Clean Up Day to be held at the Atlas Theatre in June. We will provide all of the needed information regarding our other Melodrama Volunteer Opportunities available to those age 16 and up at that time.

Matt Mead: UW should "filter" speakers

The Casper Star-Tribune interviewed three of the four announced Republican candidates for governor on Judge Downes' decision to let Bill Ayers speak on the UW campus. The fourth was quoted from a speech during a First Amendment panel discussion at UW.

Here are some excerpts:

The University of Wyoming should put some kind of "filter" in place to determine who can speak on campus, Matt Mead, Republican gubernatorial candidate and former U.S. attorney for Wyoming, said at a First Amendment panel discussion at the College of Law on Wednesday.

Ron Micheli: "The freedom of speech is one of the most important liberties of a free society. The Constitution protects the rights of individuals to say what they believe. Bill Ayers has that right, along with everyone else. My objection has always been that Mr. Ayers had been invited to speak by the University of Wyoming giving him legitimacy that the people of Wyoming do not wish to bestow. If Mr. Ayers is allowed to speak on the campus of UW, then it is only fair to demand that he and the individuals who invited him pay for 100 percent of the costs of the visit out of their own pockets. If we tax payers must suffer Bill Ayers at UW, fine, but we should not be expected to pay for it as well."

Rita Meyer: "I have been asked what I would do as governor in this situation. I believe that it is not the governor's role to say who should or should not speak at the University of Wyoming. The governor should not reach into that level of activity in the university. The governor's role is appointing the Board of Trustees who hire the president and provide broad oversight for the fiduciary management, academic policies, and general welfare of the students of the university. Clearly some at the university lost situational awareness by inviting Mr. Ayers to speak in the first place. Uninviting him has opened Pandora's box of raising freedom of speech issues in a university environment and given this man a bigger soapbox to shout from."

Colin Simpson: "I think the university did the right thing, and I wish that other types of issues like this would receive the same type of expedient hearing and ruling."

I would love to read quotes on this issue from Democratic Party Gubernatorial candidates.

But there ain't none. No candidates and no quotes.

Bill Ayers talks education and people listen

Bill Ayers speaks Wednesday at the UniWyo Sports Complex in Laramie. Photo by Meg Lanker.

Not everyone in the UniWyo Sports Complex at UW Wednesday evening ventured through a spring snowstorm to hear Dr. Bill Ayers talk about education reform. Some were just curious and wanted to see the subject of a month-long wrangle over freedom of speech. Others came to lodge a protest.

No matter. More than a thousand people heard about the state of education in the U.S. Dr. Ayers has written many books on the subject -- and is still a practicing teacher.

Some boos erupted with the cheers with Ayers was introduced by UW Dept. of Education Professor Steve Bialistock.

That didn't seem to faze Ayers. He acknowledged that the struggle over freedom of speech and academic freedom had taken precedence over the speech itself.

"Students and faculty wanted to enageg in a dialogue with me and they couldn't," he said.

But they could on Wednesday night. Ayers spoke for about 50 minutes, using a stopwatch to time himself.

He offered no magic solution to education in the U.S.A. That's just the problem -- we're stuck in a "sterile debate on education."

On the one hand are the "free-market reformers" who believe in "charter schools and punishment." Then there are the "liberal traditionalists" who think that "the status quo is just great."

He reminded the audience that during the 2008 election, Republican John McCain said "we need to get all those lazy incompetent teachers out of the classroom."

"Didn't we all nod just a little at that?"

Punishing teachers and schools is not the answer -- but neither is just doing nothing.

"We have certain boundaries and barriers of thinking we have to imagine ourselves out of," Ayers said.

He advocates a "curriculum of questioning." Remember those bumper stickers, "Question Authority?" Like that, but apply it to all things.

I grow tired of the topic. I'm taking the reporter route on this piece but others have done it far better than me.

This one I have to mull over....

Cheyenne native Daniel Junge will be honored at Cheyenne International Film Festival

The local arts scene in Cheyenne is expanding its repertoire with the first-ever Cheyenne International Film Festival May 21-23.

On its opening night on Friday, May 21, the CIFF honors Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and Cheyenne native Daniel Junge by screening three of his latest films, “No Strings”, “Come Back to Sudan” and Oscar-nominated “The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner”.

The screening and “talk-back” with the filmmaker is also a fund-raising event for the Laramie County Library Foundation. Daniel, who now lives in Denver, will be on hand to sell and autograph DVD versions of his movies with the proceeds to benefit the Library Foundation.

The Filmmakers’ Reception will be held on Saturday, May 22. Following the screening of “My Life Without Sex,” the audience will have a chance to visit with the Australian film’s director Sarah Watt live via Skype. Attendees will have a chance to meet and talk movies with film makers and producers. Also screening is the Oscar nominated live action comedic short from Sweden, “Instead of Abracadabra”.

Closing night on May 23 will be a Wyoming Showcase, "Pioneering Spirit," from two different historical perspectives. “On the Trail: Jack Kerouac in Cheyenne” features a personal appearance by John Allen Cassady (son of Beat idols Neal and Carolyn Cassady). That will be followed by the award-winning feature, “In Pursuit of a Dream” by Candy Moulton of Encampment.

John Allen Cassady will be at Phoenix Books in downtown Cheyenne signing copies of his book on Saturday May 22. Candy Moulton will be moderating a panel of women filmmakers Christine Bonn, Sarah Curry and Egija Hartmane–Salem.

The CIFF offers nine programs consisting of 33 films from around the world. The CIFF Call2Action program matches up movies with local non-profit organizations. This year, the Call2Action co-presenting groups include the YMCA youth arts and video program; The Laramie County Library Foundation; Cheyenne area veteran organizations; and the Southeast Wyoming Intertribal Powwow Association.

FMI: Wyoming Community Media at 307-509-0182.

So that's where it's all going?

Cheyenne is shipping its s*** to Colorado

Go to http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100428/NEWS01/4280340/1002/CUSTOMERSERVICE02

Perhaps "The Laramie Project" needs a sequel -- or an update?

A poem for today by Micah X Wyatt, Wyoming writer and teacher and attorney:

Bill Ayers prepares to speak
in the midst of my state, in
the same place and in the same
manner that Fred Phelps decried
America as the doomed nation
of homosexuals and debauchery.
In the same place and manner
that students perform Albee
and Shakespeare, and Kipling,
where tenured professors
speak of Nazis and Hindi, of
terrorists and patriots, of
humans and beasts as though
those things were different;
the one from the other.

Continue reading at http://www.facebook.com/notes/micah-x-wyatt/the-odd-bedfellows-of-freedom-of-speech/389332644356

Free-speech & music night in Laramie

This will be a very active night on the University of Wyoming campus. Free-speech speaking combined with free-speech music.

From 7-9 p.m., educator and 1960s antiwar radical Bill Ayers will speak on campus at the UniWyo Sports Complex. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Read more about Bill Ayers at http://billayers.wordpress.com/. This is the long-delayed talk that just got its court hearing this week. Should be a very interesting and educational event.

Speaking of interesting -- the Flobots from Denver will perform a free concert tonight at 8:30 p.m. in the University of Wyoming Union ballroom.

Not too many people outside of Denver knew of the Flobots until its first major label release, "Fighting with Tools." The song "Handlebars" became a radio hit in 2008. The group's newest CD, "Survival Story," came out last month.

As you can see in the "Handlebars" vid at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLUX0y4EptA, the Flobots are unabashedly political. Some might call it leftist or radical or maybe even anti-American. Radical it may be, but this talented multi-racial group has a vision for America and spends most of its creative energy looking forward rather than backward.

Opening the concert for The Bots will be Air Dubai, a hip hop group out of Denver. So, you can be at the speech by Mr. Ayers and still catch the music unless the ballroom is totally packed, which it may be.

FMI: 307-766-6340.

A white middle-aged Mid-America voter hitches a ride on the 2010 Obama Express

This comes from the Fox News web site:

President Obama left white, middle-age male voters in his rear-view mirror Monday in launching his first midterm election pitch, calling on "young people, African Americans, Latinos and women" to deliver for Democrats in November.

In a video to supporters, Obama urged those who helped get him elected in 2008 not to abandon Democrats in an election year that is shaping up to take a chunk out of the Democratic majority in Congress.

Every so often I go slumming at Fox News. I especially like this item because I am a white middle-aged voter in Red State Wyoming who should be watching Pres. Obama's 2010 cavalcade disappear into the distance.

But this is more generalization from Fox. Sure, CNN and MSNBC engage in it too, but you always know that Fox stands foursquare against Obama and Progressives. They like to lump white folks together, as if Tom Teabagger and Paul Prog-Blogger were all in the same club.

I worked hard for Obama in 2008. I knocked on doors and made phone calls and blogged my heart out. Am I disappointed in some things that have happened (and not happened) in the past 16 months? Damn straight I am. I wanted a public option in that health care bill. Still do. I want climate change legislation and economic reform. And there is hope that we'll get all that as long as Obama is in the White House and Dems hold some sort of majority in the House and Senate.

I can't imagine John McCain or Mitt Romney or Mike Hucakabee or (God forbid) Sarah Palin in charge. It would be more of the same stuff we saw under George W. Bush from 2001-2009. The Repubs are tired old white guys, mostly Southerners and Westerners, who are scrambling to control a nation that has outgrown them. They are the middle-aged and elderly white folks angrily shaking their fists as Young & Energetic & Ethnically Diverse America drives off into the future.

I will cast my lot with "young people, African-Americans, Latinos and women" for the forseeable future.

I can't imagine it any other way.

Day 2 of Wyoming Repub Senators siding with their Wall Street Overlords

From a WyoDems press release:

Yesterday and today, Senate Republicans voted to block critical Wall Street reforms. In response, Wyoming Democratic Party Chair Leslie Petersen issued the following statement:

“Yesterday and today, Senators Barrasso and Enzi and the Republican Party voted to block Wall Street reforms that will protect American taxpayers by holding Wall Street accountable. President Obama and Senate Democrats are working hard to pass this critical legislation that will restrict Wall Street’s risky practices and protects consumers. This is disappointing, but it’s no surprise. Once again the Republican Party is playing the role of obstructionist to meaningful change.

“For too long, lax regulations and free-wheeling Wall Street practices fattened bankers’ wallets. And when their house of cards fell apart, American taxpayers were stuck with the fallout. More than 8 million Americans lost their jobs, and American families lost trillions of dollars in savings and assets. It’s time for Republicans to stop playing political games, join Democrats, and pass this critical Wall Street reform that will bring an end to taxpayer-funded bailouts, protect consumers, and help rein in Wall Street’s risky practices”

Specifically, the reform plan before Congress would:

Ensure that Americans have the information they need to make the right financial choices for their families by putting an end to unfair and abusive lending policies and requiring banks and credit card companies to provide clear and complete information about their products.

Hold Wall Street accountable by giving shareholders and investors greater control over company decisions, like the choice of company leaders or the amount of bonuses to be awarded.

Introduce new transparency by requiring that complicated financial transactions occur out in the open – steps that will help to prevent future economic disasters.

Close the legal loopholes that allowed big banks to take big risks – endangering not only their own companies, but also the whole American economy.

Enforce tough new rules that will make sure Wall Street banks pay for their own bad decisions and take taxpayers off the hook for expensive bailouts for institutions some say are ‘too big to fail’.

This judge understands freedom of speech

William Ayers will speak Wednesday 7-9 p.m. at the University of Wyoming Sports Complex.

The ruling came down this afternoon from Federal Judge William Downes in Casper. It's an especially poignant moment for these reasons (as outlined in the Casper Star-Trib):

While William Downes was a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, William Ayers was bombing U.S. government buildings as co-founder of a militant anti-war group called the Weather Underground.

Downes, now a U.S. district judge, made special note of those contrasting backgrounds when he ruled Tuesday against the University of Wyoming's decision to ban Ayers from speaking on campus.

"This court is of age to remember the Weather Underground. When his group was bombing the U.S. Capitol in 1971, I was serving in the uniform of my country," Downes said. "Even to this day, when I hear that name, I can scarcely swallow the bile of my contempt for it. But Mr. Ayers is a citizen of the United States who wishes to speak, and he need not offer any more justification than that."

Downes delivered his ruling Tuesday afternoon in his federal courtroom in Casper, after hearing more than five hours of testimony Monday. The judge, finding that UW had violated Ayers' First Amendment rights, issued an injunction sought by Ayers and UW student Meg Lanker forcing UW to allow Ayers to speak Wednesday at the UniWyo Sports Complex on campus in Laramie.

Ayers is now scheduled to speak from 7-9 p.m. in the sports complex, Lanker said after the ruling. That speech bumps his scheduled appearance at the Laramie Civic Center from the schedule.

"I'm in shock, I'm floating, I'm on cloud nine, I'm excited," Lanker said. "This went better than I expected. I was expecting to win, but I wasn't expecting to win so well, I guess -- to win and get everything that we wanted."

A couple things to note here. The federal courthouse in Casper is named after draft dodger and war criminal Dick Cheney of Casper. While Judge Downes was a Marine fighting in Vietnam and Bill Ayers felt strongly enough about the war to do something about it, Cheney was looking out for his own self and his own political career, enjoying one of his five draft deferments.

Dick Cheney went to law school but has never been a judge. I can't imagine him making such as unbiased decision about Constitutional rights. He certainly did not when he was V.P. of these United States.

UW student and free speech advocate Meg Lanker is a Navy veteran. David Lane, rabble-rousing free-speech attorney from Denver, declared conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War. However, Craig Silverman in Denver, the guy who faced Lane in court more than once, said this about him in a 2009 Denver Post article: "Nobody that I know of goes to trial more than he does. He is a combat veteran."

Intriguing dichotomy here, eh? Young people who cared enough to get involved with their country's present and future, whether in the military or in antiwar activities or in the courtroom, are still engaged in the day-to-day workings of their country.

I hope there are protesters at UW tomorrow night. I may not agree with them, but they'll be spending their evening away from the TV set and out in the rain or snow, speaking (or maybe shouting) their deeply-held thoughts about the situation.

Bring it on...

Enzi & Barrasso abandon Main Streets in Gillette and Casper to vote for Wall Street

Sen. Mike Enzi today joined his Wyoming Republican colleague, Sen. John Barrasso, to vote against debating financial reform in the U.S. Senate.

Not surprising that Senators Enzi and Barrasso vote with the Repub pack. They do that with everything. Like toddlers, they just love to say "NO!"

Ironic to see that Sen. Enzi was one of the backers of this piece of legislation (from his web site):

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Senate passed a resolution (S. Res. 485) sponsored by Senators Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) and Michael B. Enzi (R-Wyoming) designating April as Financial Literacy Month. The resolution raises awareness about the importance of personal financial education and the serious consequences that may result from a lack of understanding about personal finances. It passed last night by a unanimous voice vote.

"Americans held $13.6 trillion in household debt last year according to the Federal Reserve," said Senator Akaka. "Increased financial and economic literacy can empower people to more effectively navigate the marketplace and make smart decisions for their families. Financial education helps people save for their homes, their children's education, and deal with financial challenges."

"In the 21st century it is essential for individuals to be financially literate. Financial literacy isn’t just about balancing a check book, it is about having all the resources and information to plan your own financial future with full understanding of the risks and rewards. The more importance financial literacy is given-- the better off this country will be," said Senator Enzi.

The bipartisan resolution is cosponsored by Senators Dodd, Crapo, Johnson, Corker, Schumer, Cochran, Menendez, Wicker, Kohl, Merkley, Inouye, Durbin, Baucus, Murray, Lincoln, Begich, Gillibrand, Feingold, Levin, Carper, Cardin, Stabenow, and Hagan.

If he thinks that rapacious Big Banks and Wall Street corporations are models of responsible finance, Sen. Enzi needs to brush up on his own financial literacy.

Lots of creative writing going on in Wyoming this summer

Micah Wyatt coordinates the Young Writers Camp each summer at the Thorne-Rider Youth Camp near Story, Wyo. The YWC was on hiatus last summer but is back on track for 2010. And now Mr. Wyatt, a YWC alumnus (as is my son Kevin) sends me news about another cool summer creative writing workshop, one that combines writing and backpacking and wilderness awareness.

Here it is:

Join Gretel Ehrlich and the Wyoming Wilderness Association in a journey into the Rock Creek recommended wilderness in the Bighorn National Forest August 6-9 for adventure, reflection, and writing.

Wyoming-based author and poet Gretel Ehrlich will lead workshops and readings during the Wilderness Writer’s Retreat. Gretel is an accomplished author of This Cold Heaven, The Solace of Open Spaces, and The Future of Ice, among other works of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Gretel Ehrlich’s essays, short stories, and poems have been included in many anthologies and publications. She has received many prestigious awards and is currently at work on a novel.

Are you a writer? All levels and varieties welcome!

Do you feel comfortable in the backcountry? We will be out for 3 nights and 4 days (with a fabulous camp cook and main camp equipment supplied).

Can you hike uphill carrying a mid-sized pack for 5 miles? The horses will carry camp in, but you’ll have to pack your personal gear.

Scholarship Information: Two full tuition scholarships are available for the 2010 Wilderness Writer's Retreat. Successful applicants will have demonstrated financial need in addition to an aptitude and vocation in the field of writing.

To apply, please submit the following to WWA, PO Box 6588, Sheridan, WY 82801 by noon on June 7, 2010:

Your name, mailing address, phone number and email contact information

Tax return receipt for 2009

One 1,000-word essay demonstrating why your participation in the Wilderness Writer's Camp will have value.

An additional sample of your work in the form of poetry or prose, at least 3 poems/pages.

Essays and writing samples will be judged for composition and development of style, and winners will be announced by noon on June 28.

Fee for the Wilderness Writer's Retreat is $700.

FMI: Contact Sara at the Wyoming Wilderness Association -- 307-672-2751; sara@wildwyo.org; 325 E Loucks St., PO Box 6588, Sheridan, WY 82801

There are two writers' conferences happening in Wyoming in June. First up is the annual Wyoming Writers, Inc., conference June 4-6 in Cody. Presenters include Max McCoy and Lee Ann Roripaugh. The Jackson Hole Writers Conference will be held June 24-27 at the Arts Center in Jackson. Presenters include Janet Fitch, Tim Cahill and Winnifred Gallagher.

Can a blog post be literary in a "narrative, narrative, narrative" sort of way?

This comes from Poets & Writers:

Inspired by a rumination on the New York Times Paper Cuts blog that asked whether a blog could ever rise to the level of literature, the literary magazine Creative Nonfiction is asking blog readers and writers to nominate "vibrant new voices with interesting, true stories to tell" for a special issue of the magazine. Specifically, the magazine is looking for entries of literary ("narrative, narrative, narrative") blog posts that were published between November 1, 2009, and March 31 of this year.

The winning essays will be published in the July 2010 issue of Creative Nonfiction and each author will receive a fifty-dollar reward for one-time reprint rights.

Can a blog post transcend the tendency of its kind toward, as Gregory Cowles of Paper Cuts puts it, being "too topical and too fleeting to count as literature"? The deadline for nominations of previously blogged essays—your own, a friend's, a stranger's—totaling no more than two thousand words each is Monday, April 26. More information is available on Creative Nonfiction's Web site.

Food is the key to being Green

Watched "Food Inc." last night on PBS.

There were the usual villains, corporate ag monsters such as Monsanto and Monfort.

Unexpected heroes in small farmers and ranchers.

It was entertaining and disgusting. Empowering, too. Three years ago I resumed my intermittent gardening career. A few container tomatoes became a backyard garden plot and then two plots and an expanded area this year. I enjoy growing things and eating them. So, my motives in the beginning were entirely selfish.

Well, not entirely. I caught on to the "Victory Garden" idea. The garden had a political sense, a way to stick it in the eye of George W. Bush and his overseas wars and rapacious oil companies and the energy inefficiency of corporate ag. My three tomato plants against the world.

I didn't discover the local food movement until I was well into the process. I live in Wyoming where food is trucked in from temperate climes. No way to be a locavore in this cold and windy place.

Or so I thought. I had to expand my idea of "local" to encompass a 100-mile radius. That brings in the many local and organic farms on undeveloped acreage along Colorado's Front Range. I had to do my homework, get out and meet people at farmers' markets and research local food producers online. I've been sharing asome of my research here. I also have sidebar links on this blog to Wolf Moon Farms and Grant Farms. There are resources in Wyoming and western Nebraska.

So, on Earth Day, there's no reason to look to the skies -- unless you're watching out for hail and snow and tornadoes. Look to the dirt. Plant something. Grow it. Eat it.

LarCoDems meet April 26 at IBEW Hall

From the LarCoDems:

The Laramie County Democratic Party will hold its monthly meeting on Monday, April 26th at 7 p.m. at the IBEW Hall, 810 Fremont Street in Cheyenne.

The meeting will include a panel discussing how to run a campaign. The panel will discuss communications, finances, activities and issues needed to run a campaign in Laramie County.

Panel members include Dave Lerner, Bobby Marcum, Mike Bell and Katherine Van Dell. All candidates, potential candidates and interested individuals are invited to attend this meeting.

For more information about the meeting, please contact Linda Stowers at 307-634-0768.

Writer Lauren Myracle speaks about "Peace, Love & Freedom"

Writer Lauren Myracle spoke about "Peace, Love & Freedom" tonight at LCCC's Bill and Marietta Dineen Writers Series.

Lauren is a best-selling author of books for tween and teen girls. A few years back, when my daughter was somewhere between tween and teen, I bought her a copy of "ttyl." It's a novel told in IM text, a foreign language to some of us Boomers but perfectly comprehensible to 12-year-olds.

Annie said she liked it. That was the last time she said anything positive about anything, as she then was sucked into the vortex of angst-ridden teenhood.

She's still there. But I went to Lauren's presentation and bought her a book, "How to be Bad," co-written by Lauren and two of her teen-writer pals. I liked the book immediately because it had a gator on the cover. A plastic one, but still a gator. Not sure about the plastic reptile's significance. Maybe Annie will fill me in later. She may text me her opinions.

Lauren Myracle has appeared high up on the American Library Association's banned books list. Major target is books in her Internet Girls series, which includes "ttyl," "ttfn" and "l8r g8r." The girl characters in the books talk about teen things. Lauren and her friend Kimberly read an excerpt. Seemed very funny and creative to me. Boys are mentioned a lot. Parties too. A tiny bit of loose language. Nothing even close to the epithets unleashed by the 11-year-old girl character in the new movie, "Kick-Ass." But alarming just the same to some parents.

"People are freaked out by female sexuality," said Lauren.

She read some letters from parents. One father named Chuck used the following words to describe Lauren and her work: "loose morals," "pedophile," crap," "no conscience," and "misguiding youth."

A woman named Leslie from Idaho wrote a letter blasting Lauren, saying she was going to complain to the school library and get the book taken off the shelves. But Lauren says that she always replied -- and tries to "kill them with kindness."

In this case, it worked. Leslie had a sense of humor and by the end of a series of letters, began to come around. She still wasn't going to let her 12-year-old daughter read Lauren's books.

Not sure I would have the patience or kindness to respond to these kind of letters. Kurt Vonnegut used to say that he welcomed book-banning, book-burning and all kinds of censorship because it boosted sales. I'm sure he also got a vicarious thrill out of laughing in the faces of the troglodytes.

Lauren drew a line in the sand over one challenge. Scholastic Book Fairs told Lauren that her book "Luv Ya Bunches" would be accepted if she removed all the references to the "two moms" of one of her characters. Lauren said no -- and her editor backed her up.

She tells stories of parents challenging her books at school and public libraries. Library copies of her books have been found in dumpsters. There have been cases of people stealing all her books from the library and disappearing.

These aren't kids doing this.

The author is a Christian and sings in her church choir. She made a point in saying that there are many types of Christians. In her church, she noted, Jesus wouldn't hate a girl that had two moms.

Lauren Myracle lives in Fort Collins with her kids and husband, poet and high school teacher Jack Martin. Her web site is www.laurenmyracle.com

The 3/50 Project promotes local businesses

Rebecca Barrett of downtown Cheyenne's Link Gallery was on Channel 5 this morning promoting The 3/50 Project. She said look it up on the Internet and since Rebecca commands respect with her Brit accent and big hair, I obeyed.

The 3/50 Project has simple goals. Go to three local businesses and spend $50. The nicely-designed web site says it this way:

What three independently owned businesses would you miss if they disappeared? Stop in. Say hello. Pick up something that brings a smile. Your purchases are what keeps this business around.

It doesn't ask you to spend all of your disposable income at local stores and restaurants. Just $50. The 3/50 project site says that "if half the population spent $50 a month locally, they would generate $42.6 billion in revenue." Such a modest goal. You'll spend $50 taking your spouse out to dinner for Mother's Day. In fact, you're pretty darn cheap if you just spend $50 at your locally-owned restaurant. May I suggest some local artwork or possibly a book written by a local author?

In Cheyenne, we're challenged by a hard fact -- most of our restaurants are chains. Mom-and-pop diners and locally-owned restaurants don't seem to go over too well in Cheyenne. We have some nice ones downtown but drive along Dell Range and all you see is a conglomeration of olivegardenapplebeeschilisihopsherrys. I eat at these places. The 3/50 Project wants to me to spend some of my money at local places. I can do that.

I've been to Laramie many times lately. Downtown are Sweet Melissa's Vegetarian Cafe, Jeffrey's Bistro, Coal Creek Coffee and the Anong's Thai Cuisine which is the second of a two-restaurant conglomerate that started in Rawlins. Downtown Laramie also has two indie bookstores. Some cool little shops to buy arts and crafts and bread and all kinds of stuff. The Big Hollow Food Co-op too.

Sure, it's a college town, and its clientele may be a bit more eclectic that Cheyenne's. I live in a government and military and railroad town, crossroads of two major interstates. City of some pretty big shoulders. Rocky Mountains shoulders -- not Sandburg's Midwestern big-city variety.

Still, no matter where they live, shoulders have to eat. And shop.

UW panel discusses Wyoming's new "Code of the West"

The University of Wyoming sometimes has its finger on the pulse of topical events.

And sometimes not.

But I'm hoping I can get to this panel discussion on Wyoming's new legislatively-mandated "Code of the West."

You might remember that I wrote a satiric column about the new code way back in February. It was reprinted on the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle's op-ed page.

The topic continues to fascinate --

Cowboy ethicist Jim Owen's "Code of the West" will be the focus of a panel discussion Tuesday, April 27, at the University of Wyoming in Laramie.

The free event, coordinated by the UW American Heritage Center's (AHC) Alan K. Simpson Institute for Western Politics and Leadership, will begin at 5 p.m. in Room 129 of the Classroom Building.

The panel will include Owen, founder of the Denver-based Center for Cowboy Ethics and Leadership and director of "Code of the West," which last month was signed into law as the official Wyoming state code; Sam Western, a Sheridan-based author; and David Wrobel, chair of the Department of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The discussion will bring varied points of view to the questions of whether the cowboy appeal and image is helpful to our region or whether it hinders economic growth and cultural development. Or does it do both?

The speakers will also discuss the historical roots of the cowboy appeal and why Owen's code has achieved such popularity, and, in some cases, criticism, by co-opting that appeal.

Peter K. Simpson, UW's Distinguished Simpson Professor in Political Science Wyoming Politics, Policy and Culture, will moderate the panel discussion.

The AHC's Alan K. Simpson Institute for Western Politics and Leadership focuses on the acquisition, preservation and research use of the papers of prominent individuals who and businesses and organizations that have provided leadership -- political, economic, social and cultural -- for Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West.

For more information, contact the AHC at (307) 766-4114 or go to the official Web site at http://ahc.uwyo.edu.

Some thoughtful people on the panel. Sam Western is at UW this semester teaching Wyoming business history. He wrote a memorably scathing book about his state, "Pushed Off the Mountain, Sold Down the River." Sam also writes for The Economist. I'm sure he'll have some interesting comments about the code.

Earth Day has come a long way -- but the journey is far from over

Earth Day 40 years ago -- and now ...

I wasn't paying too much attention to Earth Day in 1970.

But I am now.

My formerly all coal-powered blog now taps into some alternative energy generated at the Happy Jack Wind Farm west of Cheyenne.

Like WOW -- training and promoting Wyoming's art and artists

Negotiated the foggy summit between Cheyenne and Laramie yesterday. This time of year brings fog and snow and rain and hail and any number of interesting weather conditions. It also brings lots of arts events.

On Friday, Works of Wyoming (WOW) in Laramie was hosting its first-ever Starving Artists' seminars. It included sessions on "Photographing Your Work," Developing an Arts Web Site" and "Promoting Yourself as an Artist." I dropped in just in time for the latter, taught by digital artist and graphic designer Chuck Egnaczak, who once taught in the University of Wyoming art department and now is at the University of Tampa.

I was the only writer in a classroom full of artists. But every topic covered by Chuck applied to writers as well.

Some notes from my journal:

"Building a personal brand is critical."

"Self-promotion is the most important thing you can do."

"Before you put up a web site, establish its purpose. Design it as a focused strategic ad for you."

"Testimonials are the most efficient way of selling in the U.S."

"Design your own multimedia CV to promote your work."

I thought about my web presence as a writer. I have a blog that's mostly about politics. I have a web site that's moribund. I have established a fan page on Facebook but haven't activated it yet.

Time to rethink all this. Most successful writers I know have their names on their web sites and blogs. I don't, having opted for a more thematic approach in hummingbirdminds. That's in keeping with creative blog titles that match the blogger. "Left in the West" to match Montanan Matt Singer's leftie slant. "Big Square State" to denote the home of some very active Colorado prog-bloggers. "Red State" is a conservative blogger's site and comes from a red state much like my own. And so on.

Again, most successful fiction writers I know keep politics off of their sites -- or keep it to a minimum. This is mostly true of my moribund web site. It features samples of my short fiction. Also essays on a variety of topics: literary tourism, ADHD, mental health and politics. My blog, on the other hand, focuses on my stand as a progressive in a red state. It's a pretty good brand, but I really haven't used it to further my writing career.

By the way, "brand" is a common term in the West. A public walkway that connects the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens with the Old West Museum features imprints of brands from local cattle ranches. If you're a rancher, that brand covers all aspects of your life, from the ranch itself to your family's identity to the cattle you raise. Having a brand is not only important -- it's crucial.

When you say "brand" here, pardner, you better mean it.

Mr. Egnaczak spent a lot of his time on this very subject. I've been thinking about it ever since.

The WOW's Starving Artists' seminars covered three days. It drew artists from around the state. WOW's Sarah Dahlberg says that there will be others. Meanwhile, Works of Wyoming's brochure lists a full slate of activities. Next up is "Works (for and by) Fabulous Women."

Works of Wyoming is calling for artists for our Fabulous Women Show. If you make artwork for or about women (women's issues, tribute to a woman in your life, etc.) or you are a woman and make art, you are eligible to participate in our show. Work can be in any media. Applications can be found online at www.worksofwyoming.org and should be submitted to wow@uwyo.edu by Friday, April 30. There will be a $15 entry fee for works chosen.

Our show is also open to spoken-word artists and musicians if your work is for, about, or by ve minutes to perform or read a piece. Titles, lyrics or descriptions of pieces must be submitted by Friday, April 30, to be eligible.

The gallery opening will be held on Friday, May 14, 6 p.m.

Another big WOW event happening May 14 -- I'll be on hand at 3 p.m. talking about Wyoming Arts Council programs for individual artists.

I encourage my fellow writers in Cheyenne and Laramie to enter a piece for the "Fabulous Women" opening night event. I may do the same.

Not only is it important for artists and writers to get their work out into the public domain. We need to support these homegrown efforts to promote Wyoming's creative folks. WOW sells local art in its gift shop. Offices are in the old civic center building -- new uses for attractive old buildings.

Local art. Local artists. Local writers. Local business.

I pay taxes to the gubment, the gubment fixes my street (maybe)

I'm just finishing up my taxes. I have to pay this year. The payment would be a lot bigger if it wasn't for the Making Work Pay deduction. I'm thankful for that. And I'm glad I used a pencil to fill out my forms the old-fashioned way.

Now if they (the Big Gubment "THEY") could only fill the potholes on my street.

Find out more about Wyomingites and taxes at http://www.ctj.org/obamastaxcuts/wy.pdf

Carlton Davis, author of "Bipolar Bare," speaks April 20 at UW Disability Days

Bill Ayers will speak in Laramie -- townsfolk shaking in their boots

This is old news now, but Bill Ayers is coming to speak at the University of Wyoming in Laramie on April 28. This convoluted story gets more interesting all the time. Suffice to say that it took free-speech advocate Meg Lanker a few weeks to get Ayers to Laramie. He won't be speaking on campus -- that's been ruled out by the administration. But he will be speaking somewhere in Laramie.

I like this quote from UW that appeared in today's Casper Star-Tribune:

On Monday, UW General Counsel Susan Weidel told Lanker in a phone call and a two-paragraph e-mail that the university wouldn’t allow Ayers to speak anywhere on campus.

“The University of Wyoming will not be available as a venue for the event you are hosting for Mr. William Ayers,” Weidel wrote in the e-mail.

“As I mentioned in our telephone conversation, you may want to consider other large venues both public and private in both Laramie and Cheyenne,” Weidel concluded in her e-mail.

Quite nice of Ms. Weidel to suggest other venues in Wyoming towns other than Laramie. But I think she missed the point, which is having Mr. Ayers speak in Laramie.

The Star-Trib story also had this quote:

Brian Profaizer, president of the University of Wyoming conservatives, said that while he isn’t as opposed to Ayers speaking off-campus as he would have been if Ayers spoke on campus, he fears problems when Ayers finally shows up.

Profaizer said he is particularly worried that, even though Ayers won’t speak at UW, many university alumni still might stop sending donations.

“I thought that Laramie, overall, the city the university, we sent a strong message the first time,” Profaizer said.

“There were a lot of upset people the first time around, and I think that that anger is just going to be escalated.”

Empathetic Republicans are always so concerned that anger may be escalated. That's only when it comes to speeches by Liberals. Who cares when Tea Party activists threaten bodily harm against elected officials?

I thought Wyomingites were supposed to be a live-and-let-live bunch? After all, former sixties radicals Angela Davis and Bobby Seale have both spoken to UW. But the wingnuts latched onto Ayers with Pit Bull zeal during the 2008 elections. They're not going to let go easily.

And when did Wyomingites turn into such weinies? Intimidated by a little ol' leftist? People in Laramie scared? What would The Virginian say to that?

This just in -- Tea Party saboteurs unmasked

The Tea Party’s Tax Day protests are just around the corner on April 15. It may be a coincidence, but I’ve been reading a lot of wingnut posts advancing a conspiracy of major import. Some Tea Partiers contend that those protest signs that snarky progressives like to make fun of, those with misspelled words and terrible grammar, are actually designed and carried by snarky progressive saboteurs. Anyone else heard this?

Made me think. Why would a snarky progressive go out of his or her way to make signs and attend Tea Party rallies? Yes, there is the camaraderie of hanging out with a bunch of American patriots. And the stirring speeches – can’t forget those. You can sign petitions to nullify various nefarious government practices. You can get free copies of the Constitution. If it’s a nice day, you can get fresh air and a tan.

Then I received a copy of the following e-mail. Its origins are murky, but it smacks of authenticity. It made me rethink my entire belief system, or at least that part that covers tea bags, spelling and grammar.

The e-mail harkens back to those halcyon days of last April when Tea Partiers were first stirring the pot.

The e-mail:

Dear Fellow Conspirators:

Here’s an update on our effort to disrupt Tax Day 2009 protests planned by the Tea Party across the U.S.

We’ve had limited success on recruiting people for Operation Miss Spell. As of this writing, we were able to locate and recruit less than a dozen saboteurs for upcoming Tea Party rallies. The plan, of course, was brilliant in its simplicity. A bunch of snarky progressives were going to carry signs with misspelled words and bad grammar into the fray. An uproar would ensue. Lots of photos taken. Photos go viral. Tea Partiers would look bad. Ridicule would nip their grassroots revolution in the bud.

We ran into problems almost immediately. Several organizers (including yours truly) were veterans of sixties’ antiwar protests. We were ready to mix it up again, storm the ramparts, engage in street theatre. Problem was, I just had knee surgery and Jim’s allergies were acting up. Sunshine was all for donning her old hippie dresses and carrying signs, but she was invited to a chakra-cleansing retreat in Marin County so had to bow out.

We thought we’d be able to find some fellow travelers, old hippies who had taken one too many bad trips. We’d just hand them misspelled signs and point them in the right direction. They’d be thrilled to march again. We felt that they would fit right in with the clueless multitudes. But then we told them to get haircuts or shaved heads to fit in with the crewcut and balding crowd. They balked. “Gotta let my freak flag fly, man.” We dropped that idea.

We turned to the younger progressive crowd. The bloggers were no help, as they were too busy blogging their outrage to actually go out into the sunshine and feign outrage. One prog-blogger even said what we had expected all along – “I only go out at night – and that’s to the corner coffee shop with free wireless so I can blog some more.”

We tried some of the union members. Teachers’ union members (especially English teachers) said they wouldn’t be caught dead with a sign that spelled "socialism" as "socilism" and "liar" as "lier." We told them it was for a good cause, but they threatened to send us to the principal’s office. History teachers didn't like the idea of comparing an elected U.S. president with Hitler or Stalin. Teamsters wanted to get paid overtime – who were we to argue? Those in the service unions were overwhelmingly ethnic, which ruled them out immediately. We even tried actors and actresses, figuring they’d like to engage in a little street theatre. But they started to rewrite the plan. An avant-garde troupe from Chicago wanted to dress in drag and hold hands while carrying signs. We told them it would defeat the entire purpose. Nobody would believe they were Tea Partiers. And they might get their asses beat. Actors – always trying to rewrite the script.

This brought us to the plan’s major problem. Tea Partiers are white and old. Progressives tend to be non-white and young. Sure, there are a few of us aging white hippies in the mix. But not nearly enough to infiltrate all the Tea Party shindigs.

We’re recommending that Operation Miss Spell be abandoned. It’s turned out to be a gigantic hassle. We have some other ideas, such as hiding all dictionaries and disabling computer Spell Check programs with our "Brown Acid" virus. The committee will continue working on this.

In my book, every week is National Library Week

For links to a library near you, go to http://www.wyominglibraries.org/

For more about National Libraries Week, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/pio/natlibraryweek/nlw.cfm

Local community college stimulated by gubment

I am a graduate of -- and a fan of -- community colleges. They were called junior colleges back in my day due to the fact that they were considered junior partners to four-year colleges. Farm teams, if you will. The place where second- and third- and even fourth-stringers went to brush up on their math and grammar and chemistry before they could consort with their high-SAT-scores brethren and sistren.

Community colleges are now cool. Witness the cool new sitcom "Community" on NBC (with Chevy Chase, no less). Pres. Obama is almost as excited about community colleges as he is about health care reform and NCAA men's basketball bracketology.

I think he picked Kansas as national champ. He's not always dead-on.

Our local community college has received some stimulus funds from the gubment. Here's what the Associated Press reported yesterday:

Laramie County Community College officials say the Cheyenne school is receiving about $5.3 million in federal stimulus funds to contribute to its upcoming budget.

Vice President of Administration and Finance Carol Hoglund says the college will get $2.2 million in stimulus money to help with salaries and costs of enrollment growth. The school will also receive $3.15 million in stimulus money for major maintenance needs.

Glennbeckistan casts its fundie eyes on Wyoming

Why is Glenn Beck casting his crazy eyes at the southwest corner of Wyoming?

Could it be that one of the Republican Party candidates for Wyoming Governor is right-winger and potential Tea Partier Ron Micheli from Uinta County? Is it a coincidence that southwest Wyoming once was part of Utah Territory until it was taken away in punishment for LDS polygamy?

Methinks that Ron Micheli is a card-carrying member of Glennbeckistan.

For more info on this strange and amazing country, go to Chip Ward's article on truthout at http://www.truthout.org/welcome-glennbeckistan58079

Cheyenne's Art Design & Dine featured local art & local food and local friends

I had a great time during Art Design & Dine on Thursday in Cheyenne.

Eight local Cheyenne art and design venues were open for what was billed as "an evening of art, food and fun."

Agreed.

My first stop was Georgia Roswell's Artful Hand Studio and Gallery on the corner of First Avenue and House. It's across the street from the house of my first boss in Wyoming, Joy Thompson. Georgia and Dave Rowswell ventured out from Georgia to live and work in Cheyenne -- and we're glad they did. Georgia incorporates paints and old jeans and cheesecloth and okra into her work. Yes, okra. I'm not a fan of okra unless its teamed up with Andouille sausage and shrimp and tomatoes in gumbo. But Georgia has found a cool new use for this heretofore slimy vegetable.

Georgia has a great new piece showing an aerial view of the Florida Keys (in photo, "The Keys," mixed media, 7"x24"). She's spent a lot of time in Siesta Key. Not my favorite Keys' locale. But she's done a fine job incorpirating cheesecloth and paints in this piece. Made me homesick for the beach. Any beach.

Artful Hand also featured work by local artist and librarian Meghan Cochrane. Meghan spoke about her quilting technique using aerial photographs. She was able to salvage discarded black-and-white aerial photos from the 1940s. She cuts them apart and weaves them by hand and sewing machine to make intriguing photo paper quilts.

Local artist Win Ratz also had work in Artful Hand.

Georgia served up some of her delicious baked goods.

Rebecca Barrett's Link Gallery also featured art and food. The food came from 901, the hot new downtown drinking and dining establishment. Naturally, I haven't been there yet as I'm about as "with it" as black-and-white photos from the forties.

Lots of people in the Link admiring regional art and watching a performance by a local punk/spoken word band. Alan O'Hashi was on hand to announce the line-up for the Cheyenne International Film Festival.

I only managed to visit two of the evening's eight galleries before I launched into a coughing jag. I've been sick all winter, and now have a cough that won't go away. Doctor tells me to take more vitamin C and D and get more sleep. I have a feeling I need some beach time. But the closest I'm going to get for now is ogling the Florida Keys hanging on the wall of the Artful Hand.

Sustainability Summit April 12-13 at UW

UW has had some bad luck of late with speakers. First Bill Ayers gets the ax and then Vandana Shiva cancels her keynote speech at the Shepard Symposium.

But this event is coming up next week and it looks like a winner:


This Sustainability Summit is intended to provide a forum for local leaders and interested citizens to learn about environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The Wyoming Sustainability Summit will provide a venue for sharing information about challenges and successes with sustainability initiatives and how to successfully address these issues in residences, businesses, and communities. We hope this summit will stimulate conversation within and between Wyoming communities. The Summit will include panel discussions, keynote presentations, and round table discussions between community leaders and citizens.

General public registration is now closed. Walk-ins are welcome on the day(s) of the conference for $25, if seating remains. Meals/snacks will not be available for walk-ins.

Contact: Jill Lovato, Co-Chair, UW Campus Sustainability Committee, and Haub School/Ruckelshaus ENR Project Coordinator, (307) 760-4149, or mailto:jillberg@uwyo.edu?subject=Wyoming%20Sustainability%20Summit.

Speakers:

Kick-off Speaker - Taylor Haynes MD, UW Trustee, Owner/President of Thunderbasin Land Livestock & Investment Company, and member of the Ruckelshaus Institute Board. Haynes will discuss organic beef ranching and holistic resource management.

Keynote Speaker - Bob Dixson, Mayor of Greensburg, Kansas. Mayor Dixson will discuss Greensburg's GreenTown program, which is an effort to provide support, resources, and information to residents on creating a model green building community and sustainable principles for rebuilding processes.

Synthesis Speaker - Duke Castle, The Castle Group. Castle will discuss Oregon-based the Natural Step Network, a nonprofit organization that he founded in 1997 to show business and community organizers how they can move toward creating a sustainable society while maintaining a healthy economy.

Lunchtime Speaker (April 12) Brian Kuehl - Managing Partner of the law firm, The Clark Group. Kuehl will discuss how engaging the whole community contributes to sustainability. His talk will include case studies from around the United States to explain how the act of bringing together traditional adversaries is essential for sustainability.


Accommodations:
Hilton Garden Inn and other lodging (click here). Discounted rooms ($99) are available at the Hilton until March 12, on a first-come, first-serve basis. Please indicate that you are attending the "Wyoming Sustainability Summit" when you reserve your room, or contact for Breann Tolman at (307) 721-7570.

UW cancels Ayers' speech, but he still gets paid

From the AP today:

The director of a University of Wyoming center that invited a former 1960s radical to campus says he canceled the event because of safety concerns and because the event's purpose was lost.

The invitation to William Ayers to speak drew hundreds of protests.

Ayers was invited by Franciso Rios, director of the UW Social Justice Research Center.

Rios says he and other UW officials received hostile e-mails and telephone calls about Ayers' scheduled speech on Monday.

Rios says Ayers had originally been invited to speak about educational issues, but controversy over Ayers' personal history had overshawdowed that.

Rios says Ayers will be paid a $5,000 speaking fee. The money comes from the center's private endowment funds.

In praise of indie bookstores supporting local authors in Rocky Mountain states

Hummingbirdminds saw this post on the Rocky Mountain Authors at the Tattered Cover Facebook page. While it was written with Colorado authors in mind, I think it can easily be revised to reflect an interest in writers from a Big Square State other than Colorado.

Here's my revised version:

There are lots of good reasons to read work by local Rocky Mountain authors. Here are a few, and feel free to add your own good reasons to this list!

1. Buying a book by a local author from your local Tattered Cover Book Store helps to keep money in the State of ColoradoWyoming, instead of sending it off around the country where ColoradoWyoming residents can't benefit from sales taxes or business incentives. Money spent in ColoradoWyoming, ON ColoradoWyoming, STAYS in ColoradoWyoming.

2. By supporting local authors, you help diversify the knowledge that can be distributed through the written word in the Rocky Mountain region. We write lots of books here in the Rockies that can be found nowhere else on Earth (except perhaps online on the Tattered Cover website! http://www.tatteredcover.com/).

3. When you buy a local author's book, you are helping to nurture the artistic and intellectual community of ColoradoWyoming. Studies show that great cities and great communities are great not because of their technology or industry, but because of their arts and cultural offerings. Every time you buy a locally written book you add another brick to the cultural palace of the Rocky Mountains!

Other states in the Rocky Mountain West may want to do some customizing of their own. What say you Montana and New Mexico and Utah and Arizona and Idaho?

Now go investigate other regional writers at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Denver-CO/Rocky-Mountain-Authors-at-the-Tattered-Cover/351469358952?ref=nf

I noticed a very fine section of Rocky Mountain writers (past and present) during a visit last week to Lander's Book Basket on Main Street. I know that the bookstore disguised as a barn at Sweetwater Junction packs plenty of heat by local and regional writers. I didn't stop there during my recent trip due to the fact that I couldn't see the turnoff in the blizzard. I could go on and on about fantastic bookstores in unexpected places. You can find a long list at the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association page.

Check out Bill Ayers' letter on Meg's blog

Meg Lanker, Laramie rabble-rouser and radio personality, printed a letter from activist Bill Ayers on her blog, http://www.wyomingnewsunderground.com/2010/04/doublespeak-at-university-of-wyoming.html.

This was in response to his invitation and then disinvitation to speak at the University of Wyoming. It's a long letter so I won't reprint it here. But I welcome you to read it and then spread it far and wide like tumbleweeds of truth unleashed by a righteous Wyoming cyclone of social justice.

Discussion on Ayers' cancellation at UW today

The University of Wyoming is hosting a panel discussion on the recent cancellation of a speech by William Ayers. It will take place in the Wyoming Union Center Ballroom in Laramie on Tuesday (today!), 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Perhaps someone from the UW administration can explain how the cancellation of a speech by an educator and one-time sixties radical Bill Ayers can be seen as a display of academic freedom.

Just asking...

A short lesson in "Teabonics"

Prog-bloggers looking for an array of Tea Party protest signs with "creative" spelling and grammar need look no further than Flickr. Pargon has compiled a "Teabonics" sampler at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pargon/sets/72157623594187379/

More about Jim Corbett, Sanctuary co-founder and "goatwalking" guru

Fie on all writers who introduce me to new people and places and things on a quiet Sunday morning when all I want to do is sip coffee and make snarky Facebook comments.

I just spent the past hour looking up info on Jim Corbett (see previous post). I discovered his 1992 book, "Goatwalking," published by Penguin. I found out that "goatwalking" is now a part of the environmental and social justice worlds. A philosophy, too, one that challenges us to see with "desert eyes." Corbett, alas, had no easy answers. He was a Quaker and a goatwalker and a member of the National Rifle Association until cancer claimed him in 2001.

Find out much more at http://www.amazon.com/Goatwalking-Wildland-Living-Jim-Corbett/dp/0140122478/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

And now I have another book to read....

Remembering Wyoming's connection to the West's Sanctuary Movement

Cheyenne's Jack Pugh wrote a great column from Tucson for this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. It focused on the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s. Members of Sanctuary gave aid to refugees from U.S.-supported right-wing goverments in Guatemala and El Salvador. Many churches in the West were part of Sanctuary's "Underground Railroad," including mine in Denver -- the 10:30 Catholic Community.

Jack wrote about some little-known history. Jim Corbett, one of the founders of Sanctuary, was born in Casper, Wyoming. His father, George Corbett, was a lawyer and Wyoming legislator who got into deep kimchee when he defended conscientious objectors during World War II. It's dangerous to go up against conventional wisdom, but defending a CO during "The Good War" must have been more than daunting. His political career ruined, he moved his family to a ranch in southeast Arizona.

His son, Jim, became a Quaker and traveled the Arizona wilderness with his goats.

"Jim Corbett led refugees across the Sonoran Desert to safety with his goats, sustained by goat's milk and foraging."

I knew the name of Jim Corbett but had no idea of his history or his Wyoming connection. People in the Sanctuary Movement were brave, truly motivated by deeply held Christian principles. I met some of them -- and those they rescued -- at my Sanctuary Church during the 1980s.

People don't understand how tough it is to act on your beliefs. It's one thing to wave signs and shout slogans. I've done my fair share of that. It's another to live your principles, day in and day out, especially when your life and livelihood are in jeopardy.

"In 1985, the U.S. government indicted 16 Sanctuary workers in Arizona for violation of immigration laws. Eight of them were convicted and received probation."

I wish I could send you to Digital WTE to read the rest of the story. But it's not on-line -- I checked. Guess you'll just have to shell out $1.25 for the printed Sunday paper. Jack's column alone is worth the price.

Setting Sen. Enzi straight on the facts

On Friday, the Cowboy State Free Press ran a piece about the response of the Wyoming Democratic Party to some of Sen. Enzi's scarifying non-facts on health care reform and student loan legislation.

Here are some excerpts:

In a statement on Mar. 31, Sen. Enzi suggested a list of bold numbers in relation to health reform, but there are a few numbers Sen. Enzi forgot to mention, according to Wyoming Democratic Party Communications Director Brianna Jones, some of which are:

128.8% – Increase in health insurance premiums for working families in Wyoming from 2000-2007.

27.9% – Increase in Wyoming worker’s wages between 2000-2007, a difference of almost 100% from the previous figure

71,000 – The number of uninsured in Wyoming as of 2008

$40 billion – Under reform, amount of tax credits available to small businesses to help them offer coverage beginning in 2010

$40 billion – The investment which will be invested in Pell grants to help low income students attend college under the reconciliation legislation.

$2 billion – Investment in community colleges in the next four years, which today serve more than 6 million students.

Sen. Enzi’s rhetoric does not fit with reality and we see that time and time again, She said. For example:

RHETORIC: Wyoming residents will pay higher taxes.

REALITY: It is agreed by economists that by taxing the highest cost plans this provision will lead insurance companies to be more efficient and provide quality care to consumers at lower prices. [White House blog, 12/16/09; PWC, 2009; CBO 2009]

RHETORIC: Wyoming residents who have insurance will see their premiums rise.

REALITY: For a vast majority premiums would go down 14-20 percent as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Subsidies will lower costs for as much as 59 percent for 18 million people buying their own insurance, said the CBO. [Wall Street Journal Washington Wire, 2/25/10; New York Times, 12/4/09; Bloomberg, 12/1/09]

RHETORIC: Medicare enrollees will see decreased access to care because of cuts.

REALITY: Health reform strengthens Medicare by cutting wasteful spending. The doughnut hole is closed and affordable coverage will be more attainable, says AARP. [AARP letter to Sen. Harry Reid, 12/15/09; FactCheck.org, 11/3/09; CMS Report, 12/10/09]

RHETORIC: Health insurance premiums for Wyoming’s small businesses will rise.

REALITY: $40 billion worth of tax credits will be available to small businesses to help them offer coverage starting in 2010. According to a study by The Third Way Economic Program, “Over the next 15 years, American businesses would collectively spend $637 billion less on their share of health insurance premiums, and their workers would save a collective $177 billion. [Time Magazine, 2/22/10, Bending the Curve: 12 Ways Health Reform Will Tackle Runaway Costs, 1/12/10]

RHETORIC: Medicare Advantage enrollees will see their benefits reduced by half.

REALITY: Reforms to Medicare Advantage will end wasteful subsidies to health insurance companies without affecting benefits and would reduce or eliminate the difference in part by introducing a competitive bidding system to pay the plans [AP, 9/22/09; Boston Globe, 9/24/09]

RHETORIC: Wyoming will be burdened by Medicaid expansions.

REALITY: Health insurance reform will pay for 100% of Medicaid expansion for states through 2017, then 95% for 2018-2019, and then 90% for 2020 and beyond. [White House, 2/22/10]

RHETORIC: Wyoming college students will pay more on student loans to fund health care.

REALITY: Student lending reform will make higher education more achievable and will increase Pell grants, cap repayments, and invest in community colleges. Before students payed 6.8 percent on their unsubsidized federal loans and will continue to pay the same rate. [Politifact, 3/30/10; New York Times, 3/30/10; New York Times, 3/30/10; New York Times, 3/30/10]