The FarmerThis poem is currently published in Beautiful Wreckage, New & Selected Poems, Adastra Press, 1999 Copyright © 1984 by W. D. Ehrhart, The Outer Banks, Adastra Press, 1984
Each day I go into the fields
to see what is growing
and what remains to be done.
It is always the same thing: nothing
is growing; everything needs to be done.
Plow, harrow, disc, water, pray
till my bones ache and hands rub
blood-raw with honest labor—
all that grows is the slow
intransigent intensity of need.
I have sown my seed on soil
guaranteed by poverty to fail.
But I don't complain—except
to passersby who ask me why
I work such barren earth.
They would not understand me
if I stooped to lift a rock
and hold it like a child, or laughed,
or told them it is their poverty
I labor to relieve. For them,
I complain. A farmer of dreams
knows how to pretend. A farmer of dreams
knows what it means to be patient.
Each day I go into the fields.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
W.D. Ehrhart's "The Farmer" from Working Words
Poem by W.D. Ehrhart, Vietnam veteran, writer and high school teacher. This is included in "Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams" from Coffee House Press.
You can still volunteer for Wyoming Democrats
From Linda Stowers, Laranmie County Democrats:
We still have much todo tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday. We are asking for volunteers to do some phone calls tomorrow and Monday. If you can make any calls for the Get out the Vote campaign, please stop by the headquarters at 408 W. 23rd St. in Cheyenne tomorrow (Monday) between 12-2:30 p.m. I will be at the office to give you some calls. These will be Democrat calls to remind people to vote.
In addition, if you don't have anything to do on Monday we are going to do some walking for Mike Massie. Please come to the headquarters office anytime you have free on Monday to receive some walking areas. Thanks for your help.
We still have much todo tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday. We are asking for volunteers to do some phone calls tomorrow and Monday. If you can make any calls for the Get out the Vote campaign, please stop by the headquarters at 408 W. 23rd St. in Cheyenne tomorrow (Monday) between 12-2:30 p.m. I will be at the office to give you some calls. These will be Democrat calls to remind people to vote.
In addition, if you don't have anything to do on Monday we are going to do some walking for Mike Massie. Please come to the headquarters office anytime you have free on Monday to receive some walking areas. Thanks for your help.
Cheyenne statue project should include all those people (and creatures) who influenced Cheyenne
Interesting front page article in today's Halloween edition of the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle.
Local gallery owner Harvey Deselms is promoting a project to put bronze statues on every corner of Capitol Avenue between the Historic Depot and the Capitol Building. That's eight blocks times four corners equals 32 statues.
A cowboy is next up, which is no surprise. There are no shortage of cowboy and/or cowboy with bucking bronco statues in Cheyenne. Sure, I guess there's room for a few more cowboys along the street. But this represents only a small part of Cheyenne's heritage.
I like the two new statues proposed for Depot Square. A young woman "dressed in 19th-century garb" leaving the train station and a cowboy on his way into the train station. The titles are, respectively, "A New Beginning" and "Hard to Leave."
But why cowboy-era cowboy and woman? Why not have a World War II G.I. emerging from the station to be greeted by his family? Wonder how many soldiers and sailors and marines and airmen traveled in and out of the depot during the war? Our entire region, from Colorado Springs to Cheyenne and up to Casper, were hugely influenced by war industries. It's often said that many young men who trained in Denver and Cheyenne and Colorado Springs returned here to live after the war. They were drawn by the wide-open spaces and mountains and climate. The Tenth Mountain Division soldiers returned from the war to create the modern ski industry.
I'd love to see oilfield roughnecks and miners and Basque sheepherders represented on the streets of Cheyenne. Native Americans, of course. It is pleasing to note that the renovation plan for the Capitol Building complex will include Esther Hobart Morris and Chief Washakie flanking each other in front of the historic building. We have a Buffalo Soldier in the pocket park outside of F.E. Warren AFB. But we need one on the city's downtown main street.
This is suggested only partly in jest -- what about a guy in a suit carrying a briefcase? Cheyenne is a government town, after all, and government employees outnumber agricultural workers (a.k.a. cowboys) any day of the week. Wyoming soon will add a statue of Governor Stan Hathaway next month to the front of the Hathaway Building. A governor is a bureaucrat -- probably the state's chief bureaucrat -- so it would be appropriate for the Gov statue to be surrounded by his aides and assistants and all the people who make the state work. This is not myth. This is reality.
We should consult the Cheyenne and Arapaho and Lakota tribes who used to inhabit the region before the railroad and horse soldiers arrived. While Wyoming's Chief Washakie is a great addition to the Capitol Complex, he was a Shoshone, a mountain tribe. As far as I know, we have no representation of the many Native American horsemen who inhabited these lands.
Speaking of the railroads... Irishmen? Scotsmen? Chinese? Local visionary (and fine writer) Lou Madison has proposed a number of sculptures for the city. I especially like his idea of a monumental sculpture for the Cheyenne rail yards which would show workers building the rails that led to the founding of Cheyenne. The city would just be a bump in the road if not for the railroad.
And the highways that bisect our city limits. They are works of art unto themselves. Downtown Cheyenne offers some historic markers dedicated to the Lincoln Highway, and we have a huge Lincoln head at the top of the pass that marks the thoroughfare. But thousands of trucks and cars travel down I-80 and I-25 every day. How about a monument to a trucker on one of the downtown corners? How much money do truckers spend each day at the county's truck stops and restaurants and motels? Perhaps we could commemorate a trucker stopped by a blizzard that closes the Summit? Trucker sits in a booth at a truckstop while waitress serves him coffee and a slice of apple pie. Could call the sculpture: "Long haul trucker parks his ass." Something like that. Maybe "Night owls at the diner?" I think that's already been used.
My father built ICBM missile silos from Kansas to Colorado to Washington State. We should have a representation of that bit of history along Capitol Avenue. In many ways, nukes made Cheyenne. We could have a statue of a missileer at his/her station, or a down-sized version of an MX.
We can't forget our geological history. Cheyenne was once on the fringe of an inland sea. Wouldn't it be great to have a huge ancient crocodile rising from the concrete, trying to snatch its prey? The tourists would love that. Lots of photo opportunities. You could actually put a dinosaur bronze or one of a prehistoric mammal (woolly mammoths, sloths, etc.) on each downtown corner.
Cowboys are wonderful. That's apart of Cheyenne's heritage. But that's not all there is. Delve into the history and let's come up with a sequence of statues that speak to Cheyenne's interesting and sometimes strange history.
Local gallery owner Harvey Deselms is promoting a project to put bronze statues on every corner of Capitol Avenue between the Historic Depot and the Capitol Building. That's eight blocks times four corners equals 32 statues.
A cowboy is next up, which is no surprise. There are no shortage of cowboy and/or cowboy with bucking bronco statues in Cheyenne. Sure, I guess there's room for a few more cowboys along the street. But this represents only a small part of Cheyenne's heritage.
I like the two new statues proposed for Depot Square. A young woman "dressed in 19th-century garb" leaving the train station and a cowboy on his way into the train station. The titles are, respectively, "A New Beginning" and "Hard to Leave."
But why cowboy-era cowboy and woman? Why not have a World War II G.I. emerging from the station to be greeted by his family? Wonder how many soldiers and sailors and marines and airmen traveled in and out of the depot during the war? Our entire region, from Colorado Springs to Cheyenne and up to Casper, were hugely influenced by war industries. It's often said that many young men who trained in Denver and Cheyenne and Colorado Springs returned here to live after the war. They were drawn by the wide-open spaces and mountains and climate. The Tenth Mountain Division soldiers returned from the war to create the modern ski industry.
I'd love to see oilfield roughnecks and miners and Basque sheepherders represented on the streets of Cheyenne. Native Americans, of course. It is pleasing to note that the renovation plan for the Capitol Building complex will include Esther Hobart Morris and Chief Washakie flanking each other in front of the historic building. We have a Buffalo Soldier in the pocket park outside of F.E. Warren AFB. But we need one on the city's downtown main street.
This is suggested only partly in jest -- what about a guy in a suit carrying a briefcase? Cheyenne is a government town, after all, and government employees outnumber agricultural workers (a.k.a. cowboys) any day of the week. Wyoming soon will add a statue of Governor Stan Hathaway next month to the front of the Hathaway Building. A governor is a bureaucrat -- probably the state's chief bureaucrat -- so it would be appropriate for the Gov statue to be surrounded by his aides and assistants and all the people who make the state work. This is not myth. This is reality.
We should consult the Cheyenne and Arapaho and Lakota tribes who used to inhabit the region before the railroad and horse soldiers arrived. While Wyoming's Chief Washakie is a great addition to the Capitol Complex, he was a Shoshone, a mountain tribe. As far as I know, we have no representation of the many Native American horsemen who inhabited these lands.
Speaking of the railroads... Irishmen? Scotsmen? Chinese? Local visionary (and fine writer) Lou Madison has proposed a number of sculptures for the city. I especially like his idea of a monumental sculpture for the Cheyenne rail yards which would show workers building the rails that led to the founding of Cheyenne. The city would just be a bump in the road if not for the railroad.
And the highways that bisect our city limits. They are works of art unto themselves. Downtown Cheyenne offers some historic markers dedicated to the Lincoln Highway, and we have a huge Lincoln head at the top of the pass that marks the thoroughfare. But thousands of trucks and cars travel down I-80 and I-25 every day. How about a monument to a trucker on one of the downtown corners? How much money do truckers spend each day at the county's truck stops and restaurants and motels? Perhaps we could commemorate a trucker stopped by a blizzard that closes the Summit? Trucker sits in a booth at a truckstop while waitress serves him coffee and a slice of apple pie. Could call the sculpture: "Long haul trucker parks his ass." Something like that. Maybe "Night owls at the diner?" I think that's already been used.
My father built ICBM missile silos from Kansas to Colorado to Washington State. We should have a representation of that bit of history along Capitol Avenue. In many ways, nukes made Cheyenne. We could have a statue of a missileer at his/her station, or a down-sized version of an MX.
We can't forget our geological history. Cheyenne was once on the fringe of an inland sea. Wouldn't it be great to have a huge ancient crocodile rising from the concrete, trying to snatch its prey? The tourists would love that. Lots of photo opportunities. You could actually put a dinosaur bronze or one of a prehistoric mammal (woolly mammoths, sloths, etc.) on each downtown corner.
Cowboys are wonderful. That's apart of Cheyenne's heritage. But that's not all there is. Delve into the history and let's come up with a sequence of statues that speak to Cheyenne's interesting and sometimes strange history.
Friday, October 29, 2010
You can't stomp on 75,000 fired-up Democrats
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Right-Wingers Using Public Employees as 21st-Century Welfare Queens
From Alternet on those damn gubment employees welfare queens: Right-Wingers Using Public Employees as 21st-Century Welfare Queens
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
UPLIFT holds 20th anniversary reception Nov. 16
It's been my privilege to serve on the board of UPLIFT since 1998. UPLIFT is the Wyoming affiliate of the National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health. I'll be representing the board at the National Federation's 21st annual conference in Atlanta next week.
UPLIFT's mission:
As a board member, I invite you to the 20th anniversary reception on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 5-7 p.m., at the Cole Elementary School Gym, 615 W. 9th St., Cheyenne. Enjoy food and beverages and learn about UPLIFT's services. This event is free and open to the public. It's a chance for us to thank those who have supported the organization since its inception in 1990.
As is the case with so many non-profit social services agencies, the UPLIFT budget is tight these days. Most of the funding comes from federal and state sources. Private funding, or unrestricted government funds, are hard to come by. So UPLIFT is embarking on a campaign to raise its profile and raise money -- all at the same time.
Go to the spiffy updated UPLIFT web site for more info.
And join us on Nov. 16.
UPLIFT's mission:
Encouraging success and stability for children and youth with or at risk of emotional, behavioral, learning, developmental, or physical disorders at home, school, and in the community.UPLIFT staffers accompany families to school I.E.P. meetings and guide them through the mazes of state paperwork for extended treatment for mental health issues.
As a board member, I invite you to the 20th anniversary reception on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 5-7 p.m., at the Cole Elementary School Gym, 615 W. 9th St., Cheyenne. Enjoy food and beverages and learn about UPLIFT's services. This event is free and open to the public. It's a chance for us to thank those who have supported the organization since its inception in 1990.
As is the case with so many non-profit social services agencies, the UPLIFT budget is tight these days. Most of the funding comes from federal and state sources. Private funding, or unrestricted government funds, are hard to come by. So UPLIFT is embarking on a campaign to raise its profile and raise money -- all at the same time.
Go to the spiffy updated UPLIFT web site for more info.
And join us on Nov. 16.
Washington Monthly: On the edge of the next real estate boom -- and Utah shows the way
So many things to like in this Washington Monthly piece about the The Next Real Estate Boom. Western cities such as Salt Lake City, Denver and Portland are leading the way towards close-in walkable communities. But it's not about big chunks of federal money dropped on big projects. It's about private-sector funding and streetcars and affordable houses and zoning law changes and energy-saving construction. Local collaborative efforts. Democrats and Republicans and Independents and Libertarians and Greenies and Tea Partiers working together for the common good.
Dogs and cats, living together...
Just go read it.
Dogs and cats, living together...
Just go read it.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
The B.A. degree divide in the West
Top ten rural counties in the U.S. with highest B.A. degree levels are all in the Intermountain West, with two in Wyoming. Those two counties, Teton and Laramie, are blue on the map and also more blue as far as number of Democratic Party voters. Teton County (Jackson, Wilson, etc.) has also been rated by the Western States Arts Federation Creative Vitality Index (CVI) as one of the top arts counties in the U.S.
Of the top ten rural counties with the fewest B.A. degree-holders, only two are in the West (Alaska and S.D.), one in the Midwest (Ill.) and the rest are in the South.
Read more at The B.A. Divide on Daily Yonder
Montana and Wyoming fiction writers give freaks a pass
“Giving freaks a pass is the oldest tradition in Montana. And you, my friend, are a blue-ribbon, bull-goose freak.”
That’s a line from Thomas McGuane’s new novel, “Driving on the Rim,” Maile Meloy reviewed the novel (mostly favorably) and referred to those lines as her favorites. I like them too.
I haven’t read a McGuane novel since “92 in the Shade.” And that was decades ago. More recently I’ve read McGuane’s essay collection, “A Sporting Chance.” Practically everything I know about cutting horses I know from this fine book. McGuane raises and trains cutting horses in Montana. As a youth, I was chronically allergic to horse hair and hay and weeds and almost everything else you can find on a ranch. Fortunately, I was a city boy and not a farmer’s son out on the prairie.
I have since been on horseback five or six times without collapsing with an asthma attack. But my sensibilities are totally non-horse and horses know it.
Maybe that’s why I’m so taken with McGuane’s facility with horses. Horses and language. As Meloy points out in the NYT review, McGuane’s novels are a little baggy while his essays are succinct works of art. She also points out some factual inconsistencies regarding some of the book’s characters.
But she’s willing to give McGuane a pass on this. Just as the attorney in the book in willing to give a Montana-style pass to the main character. Meloy gives McGuane a pass because he’s such a damn fine writer and he’s written a good book.
I sometimes get a bit suspicious when a fictional character’s freakishness is called out. It’s almost as if the author, who’s spent thousands of words portraying his character’s quirkiness, must now actually say the word “freak!” Just in case you missed all the clues.
But there’s something a bit deeper here. Have the quirky characters of the Rocky Mountain West become a bit of a stereotype? Quirky people live here, denizens of the Great Wide Open. They often have fled the more settled places of the East and South and Coastal West. They are tough individualists drawn to the live-and-let-live Code of the West. It’s not a code, exactly, more like guidelines. But you know what I mean.
Used to be all the freaky characters came from the minds of writers of the South – William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Larry Brown, Kaye Gibbons, Barry Hannah, Harry Crews, etc. Along came Annie Proulx, Lee K. Abbott, John Nichols, Rick DeMaranis, Ron Carlson, Alyson Hagy, etc. These writers of the West wrote great stories and novels about freakish people driven by a search for solitude or personal freedom or some undefined crucial core value. Southern characters, on he other hand, were driven more by ghosts of the so-called glorious past and the constraints of their old-time religion.
I love freaky characters. I often try to invent some for my stories. But just because you live in a freakish place, such as Montana or Wyoming, that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook when it comes to creating believable characters.
Name the freakiest place you know. If you’re a button-down Midwesterner, Boulder, Colorado’s Pearl Street Mall might test your sensibilities. If you’re a hipster from Boulder, a trip to Sun City, Ariz., might cause you to come unglued.
Wyoming is pretty freaky, I must admit. Bill Sniffin’s Sunday newspaper column was devoted to the antics of the former Miss Wyoming-World, Joyce McKinney. McKinney is the focus of Errol Morris’s latest documentary, “Tabloid.” In 1977 in London, she kidnapped a former boyfriend, a young LDS missionary, and forced him to have sex for three days. The British tabloids had a field day with this woman who committed rape on a man. That’s the focus of Morris’s film.
Sniffin of Lander also recalled that McKinney surfaced a few years in Tennessee, paying a man to burglarize a house “to pay for an artificial leg for a three-legged horse.”
As Playlist says about Morris’s story: “Intoxicatingly entertaining and outrageously wild, Hollywood’s top writers could never have dreamed this up.”
Hollywood writers? No. But Mountain West writers – of course.
That’s a line from Thomas McGuane’s new novel, “Driving on the Rim,” Maile Meloy reviewed the novel (mostly favorably) and referred to those lines as her favorites. I like them too.
I haven’t read a McGuane novel since “92 in the Shade.” And that was decades ago. More recently I’ve read McGuane’s essay collection, “A Sporting Chance.” Practically everything I know about cutting horses I know from this fine book. McGuane raises and trains cutting horses in Montana. As a youth, I was chronically allergic to horse hair and hay and weeds and almost everything else you can find on a ranch. Fortunately, I was a city boy and not a farmer’s son out on the prairie.
I have since been on horseback five or six times without collapsing with an asthma attack. But my sensibilities are totally non-horse and horses know it.
Maybe that’s why I’m so taken with McGuane’s facility with horses. Horses and language. As Meloy points out in the NYT review, McGuane’s novels are a little baggy while his essays are succinct works of art. She also points out some factual inconsistencies regarding some of the book’s characters.
But she’s willing to give McGuane a pass on this. Just as the attorney in the book in willing to give a Montana-style pass to the main character. Meloy gives McGuane a pass because he’s such a damn fine writer and he’s written a good book.
I sometimes get a bit suspicious when a fictional character’s freakishness is called out. It’s almost as if the author, who’s spent thousands of words portraying his character’s quirkiness, must now actually say the word “freak!” Just in case you missed all the clues.
But there’s something a bit deeper here. Have the quirky characters of the Rocky Mountain West become a bit of a stereotype? Quirky people live here, denizens of the Great Wide Open. They often have fled the more settled places of the East and South and Coastal West. They are tough individualists drawn to the live-and-let-live Code of the West. It’s not a code, exactly, more like guidelines. But you know what I mean.
Used to be all the freaky characters came from the minds of writers of the South – William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Larry Brown, Kaye Gibbons, Barry Hannah, Harry Crews, etc. Along came Annie Proulx, Lee K. Abbott, John Nichols, Rick DeMaranis, Ron Carlson, Alyson Hagy, etc. These writers of the West wrote great stories and novels about freakish people driven by a search for solitude or personal freedom or some undefined crucial core value. Southern characters, on he other hand, were driven more by ghosts of the so-called glorious past and the constraints of their old-time religion.
I love freaky characters. I often try to invent some for my stories. But just because you live in a freakish place, such as Montana or Wyoming, that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook when it comes to creating believable characters.
Name the freakiest place you know. If you’re a button-down Midwesterner, Boulder, Colorado’s Pearl Street Mall might test your sensibilities. If you’re a hipster from Boulder, a trip to Sun City, Ariz., might cause you to come unglued.
Wyoming is pretty freaky, I must admit. Bill Sniffin’s Sunday newspaper column was devoted to the antics of the former Miss Wyoming-World, Joyce McKinney. McKinney is the focus of Errol Morris’s latest documentary, “Tabloid.” In 1977 in London, she kidnapped a former boyfriend, a young LDS missionary, and forced him to have sex for three days. The British tabloids had a field day with this woman who committed rape on a man. That’s the focus of Morris’s film.
Sniffin of Lander also recalled that McKinney surfaced a few years in Tennessee, paying a man to burglarize a house “to pay for an artificial leg for a three-legged horse.”
As Playlist says about Morris’s story: “Intoxicatingly entertaining and outrageously wild, Hollywood’s top writers could never have dreamed this up.”
Hollywood writers? No. But Mountain West writers – of course.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Democrats plan phone bank for Oct. 25
Dem press release:
The Laramie County Democrats regular monthly meeting scheduled for Monday, October 25, will not be held. Instead of the meeting we would request members walk for their preferred candidate or join us at the headquarters at 408 W. 23rd Street in Cheyenne to phone bank.
We will conduct a phone bank Monday-Thursday from 6-8 October 25th through October 28th and again on November 1st. The phone banking will be to Get Out The Vote.
Thank you in advance for your support in this mid-term election. Vote Democrat!!
Linda Stowers, chair of Laramie County Democrats
Thursday, October 21, 2010
"It is our labor that keeps this whole world together"
Lines from M.L. Liebler's poem "Making it Right" in Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams from Coffee House Press:
For my Detroit readers: Get thee to the Working Words reading at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 22, at the Walter Reuther Labor Library, Cass Avenue at Kirby, Wayne State University, Detroit.
For my Wyoming readers: M.L. will be in Cheyenne in late February for a reading and performance with musician and Moby Grape founder Peter Lewis. Stay tuned for details.
We dream that, maybe, prosperityRead a favorable post on this anthology on Daily Kos at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/10/19/911857/-What-about-the-working-class. Also a great review in the Detroit News at http://www.detnews.com/article/20101020/ENT01/10200311/M.L.-Liebler%E2%80%99s-new-anthology-an-ode-to-the-labor-movement
Is really just around the corner. So we
get up every morning with hope, and
We return each night to the broken houses
Of our lives, seldom realizing that it is our
Labor that keeps this whole world together.
For my Detroit readers: Get thee to the Working Words reading at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 22, at the Walter Reuther Labor Library, Cass Avenue at Kirby, Wayne State University, Detroit.
For my Wyoming readers: M.L. will be in Cheyenne in late February for a reading and performance with musician and Moby Grape founder Peter Lewis. Stay tuned for details.
More on Dem canvassing -- Ken McCauley's schedule
Ken McCauley is running for Wyoming House District 8. He is a good man. You can tell because I have one of his signs in my yard. And he's a Democrat in Wyoming. This makes you tough.
Details for the Ken McCauley canvass the Saturday, Oct. 30. Meet at 9 a.m. at 3612 Moore for breakfast. If you can't make this event you can call Mike Bell for other times to walk for Ken. Mike's number is 307-631-7641.
Details for the Ken McCauley canvass the Saturday, Oct. 30. Meet at 9 a.m. at 3612 Moore for breakfast. If you can't make this event you can call Mike Bell for other times to walk for Ken. Mike's number is 307-631-7641.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Democratic candidates' canvassing schedule for final two weekends
Partial list of canvassing activities for Democrats in Laramie County:
Wendy Soto: October 23, 24, 29 and 30 at 9 am and 1 pm. Meet at her house at 3429 Essex Road. Also canvassing on October 31 at 9 a.m. Food will be provided.
Robert Aylward: October 23 & 24 at 1 p.m. Meet at the parking lot of the Holiday Inn.
Ken McCauley: October 30th, 1 hour (details will follow).
Tim Thorson: October 23 in Western Hills -- meet in the parking lot of the Yellowstone McDonald's at 9:30 and/or 2 p.m. October 24 in the Avenues -- meet at our house, 2915 Carey, at 1 pm.
Wendy Soto: October 23, 24, 29 and 30 at 9 am and 1 pm. Meet at her house at 3429 Essex Road. Also canvassing on October 31 at 9 a.m. Food will be provided.
Robert Aylward: October 23 & 24 at 1 p.m. Meet at the parking lot of the Holiday Inn.
Ken McCauley: October 30th, 1 hour (details will follow).
Tim Thorson: October 23 in Western Hills -- meet in the parking lot of the Yellowstone McDonald's at 9:30 and/or 2 p.m. October 24 in the Avenues -- meet at our house, 2915 Carey, at 1 pm.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Thomas Lux: "Times are hard"
From "The Deadhouse at the Workhouse" by Thomas Lux, included in the new Coffee House Press anthology, "Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams," edited by M.L.Liebler:
You get sent to the workhouse because you worked
and worked
yourself so deep in debt
you took a loan to pay the debt,
then another to pay the interest on the loan
(all the while working, day labor,
night labor, and thumping
a bowl of porridge on the table each noon
for the kids and wife) and then
you make a deal with the local loanshark
who's happy to help you out
but breaks your knees the following week
when the bank won't remortgage your house
so you can pay his vig. Times
are hard.....
Colorado billboard comes down, but hatred remains
Free speech is one thing. Flat-out hatred is another. This billboard (Grand Junction Sentinel photo) was along I-70 in Grand Junction, Colo. On Friday, it was taken down by the sign company. It shows the president as (from left to right) terrorist, gangster, Mexican bandit and a gay man. Vultures perch overhead and rats scramble underneath. Are those bullet holes in the sign? Or were they placed there by the “artist” to implant bad ideas into right-wing nitwits?
Seemingly rational people hate Barack Obama, the duly-elected 44th president of the United States of America. Only on the surface are these people normal. Within them beat hearts of hate. That sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it – a heart that hates? If you “have a heart,” you feel something positive about someone or something. Supposed to, anyway. All these people seem to have is a “hearty” hatred for our president. So many of them are well-off, too. You can’t rule our racism. But you know that they are bummed that Pres. Obama wants to end the sweetheart tax cuts doled out by their Repub pal George W. Bush. “Have a heart,” Pres. Obama, “and don’t take my tax cut away?” They would never beg. They think they own the country and it should all be their way of the highway.
Republicans in Wyoming think they own the state -- which they do. In public gatherings, they utter coded hate-filled things about “ObamaLand” or “ObamaCare,” and they expect everyone in attendance to nod like bobble-head dolls. “Wait until Nov. 2” they say gleefully. To them, 11/02/10 has taken on some magic glow, as did 11/04/08 did for Dems lo these many years ago. Now that I think of it, these really aren't coded messages. There are just some ultra-conservatives who have an irrational hatred of our president. For more on his topic, see Frank Rich's column in today's New York Times.
These people think that Republicans and their Corporate Overlords should rule the roost. No room for Dems or non-believers. Sick.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Repub candidates sighted in neighborhood
I was home this afternoon when Jack Nicholas came to call.
No, not Jack Nicklaus. He's golfing somewhere, especially on a nice day like this.
Jack Nicholas is father to Bob Nicholas, running for Wyoming House District Eight. Jack, who once served in the state legislature, and Bob are both Republicans. However, there is nothing on his brochure that says "Republican." There is one tiny little "(R)" on his logo. But that's it. Not sure if that means much. Laramie County does have a fair share of Dems. Most importantly, in this district, Republicans have a slight edge over Democrats, registration-wise. And it has sent a Dem (Lori Millin) to the legislature during the past two elections.
Last week on these pages, I said I had not seen any Republicans campaigning in my general neighborhood. No Repub flyers, either. Today, I had a nice chat with Jack. I like a guy whose Dad hits the bricks to electioneer. He pointed at my array of Democratic candidate signs and said, "I guess I'm walking into the lion's den." I said that wasn't the case, that I was always ready to listen. I did admit that I'd been campaigning for Bob's rival, Ken McCauley. I told him that I liked Ken's platform and would probably vote for him. I also said I would read the brochure.
Nicholas's brochure is brown and prairie gold -- UW's school colors. Many Candidates use the Cowpokes' colors. It's the only four-year university in the state. He's also a Casper College and UW grad, and worked as an instructor at Central Wyoming Community College. I do like community college people. I'm one myself.
I can't see any part of his platform to disagree with. What about his web site?
Couldn't find one. It was only a 10-minute Google search. But the candidate's site should have been one of the first links. I Googled Ken McCauley and his site came up third on the list. Good site with lots of info. Go to http://www.mccauleyforhouse.com/
I like Ken's material, in print on online. I'll need more on Nicholas.
Stat tuned...
UPDATE 10/17: I just realized how kind I was being to a Republican candidate. If I ever get a chance to talk to him, I should ask this: "Will you renounce the Republican Party's politics of hate?" Makes me think of the question the priest asks your godparents when you are baptized: "Do you renounce Satan?"
Maybe that's a better way to put it...
No, not Jack Nicklaus. He's golfing somewhere, especially on a nice day like this.
Jack Nicholas is father to Bob Nicholas, running for Wyoming House District Eight. Jack, who once served in the state legislature, and Bob are both Republicans. However, there is nothing on his brochure that says "Republican." There is one tiny little "(R)" on his logo. But that's it. Not sure if that means much. Laramie County does have a fair share of Dems. Most importantly, in this district, Republicans have a slight edge over Democrats, registration-wise. And it has sent a Dem (Lori Millin) to the legislature during the past two elections.
Last week on these pages, I said I had not seen any Republicans campaigning in my general neighborhood. No Repub flyers, either. Today, I had a nice chat with Jack. I like a guy whose Dad hits the bricks to electioneer. He pointed at my array of Democratic candidate signs and said, "I guess I'm walking into the lion's den." I said that wasn't the case, that I was always ready to listen. I did admit that I'd been campaigning for Bob's rival, Ken McCauley. I told him that I liked Ken's platform and would probably vote for him. I also said I would read the brochure.
Nicholas's brochure is brown and prairie gold -- UW's school colors. Many Candidates use the Cowpokes' colors. It's the only four-year university in the state. He's also a Casper College and UW grad, and worked as an instructor at Central Wyoming Community College. I do like community college people. I'm one myself.
I can't see any part of his platform to disagree with. What about his web site?
Couldn't find one. It was only a 10-minute Google search. But the candidate's site should have been one of the first links. I Googled Ken McCauley and his site came up third on the list. Good site with lots of info. Go to http://www.mccauleyforhouse.com/
I like Ken's material, in print on online. I'll need more on Nicholas.
Stat tuned...
UPDATE 10/17: I just realized how kind I was being to a Republican candidate. If I ever get a chance to talk to him, I should ask this: "Will you renounce the Republican Party's politics of hate?" Makes me think of the question the priest asks your godparents when you are baptized: "Do you renounce Satan?"
Maybe that's a better way to put it...
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wyoming Public Radio candidate debates' audio
Listen to candidates' debates aired on Wyoming Public Radio:
WPR: Wyoming Public Radio and the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming held two debates (2010-10-13)
Listened to some of the Massie-Hill debate yesterday. Now sure that Massie is the one.
WPR: Wyoming Public Radio and the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming held two debates (2010-10-13)
Listened to some of the Massie-Hill debate yesterday. Now sure that Massie is the one.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Writers of West and South "immersed in loss"
"Westerners are immersed hourly in loss."
So said Rick Bass, Southern-born and now a citizen of the Rocky Mountain West. He was one of the guest writers Oct. 8 at the annual Literary Connection at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne.
It’s an old script. Extractive industries remove our timber, coal, trona, gold, copper, uranium and oil. Access roads criss-cross our wild lands, leading to loss of animal habitat.
When each stake is played out, or expenses and regulations outdo profits, "the industries withdraw, blaming environmentalists, but never taking responsibility for their actions," Rick says.
The jobs leave with the industries. Anger and loss follow.
Rick bemoans the “trashing of our wild gardens” in the West. He doesn’t just “bemoan.” He writes angrily about the loss. He works vigorously to defend the wild places, notably his own Yaak Valley in western Montana. He has served on the board of the Yaak Valley Forest Council and Round River Conservation Studies.
“The biota of the Yaak is the ecological equivalent of a Russian novel,” he says. “Not one species in the Yaak has gone extinct since the Ice Age. Maybe it’s the only valley you can say that about.”
His life as a writer and hunter suits the Yaak. He describes how the predator-prey relationship speaks to the conflict inherent in a short story or novel.
“In the Yaak, everything eats meat and is searching for it,” he says. “What is the hunt but story in pursuit of story?”
The predator may move through the landscape, he adds, but it is “the prey which directs the hunter’s movements.” Both are moving through a landscape which is both horizontal and vertical and filled with impediments.
“The hunted shapes the hunter – the dramatic tension between them is story.”
The hunting culture is vastly different from the farming culture down on the prairie. “Corn is not trying to elude you,” he says. “When you step into the woods, there’s nothing in you but imagination.”
I am not a hunter but I can imagine the hunt. Not the same thing as actually doing it. I know that there is a huge difference between stalking the frozen “fecal-drenched chicken” (Rick’s term) to the pursuit of a wild deer in the wild woods.
But thinking metaphorically, I can relate to the act of stepping into the woods of a story. Writer in pursuit of a story, moving through a complicated landscape. I start the pursuit but often the “prey” takes me on a wild ride that I didn’t anticipate when I started.
Rick is convinced that “there is a river of spirit that flows shifting and winding between me and the land.” This is some sort of “third spirit – a spark that ignites between us and the landscape.”
So the landscape is crucial to Rick Bass the writer and the hunter. So is the sense of loss that occurs when that landscape is plundered.
“The narrative is in full crisis now,” he says. There’s also a strange diminishment of time and space evident now. Is this sense of loss going away?
“I still can imagine a happy ending.”
Rick’s stories, of course, don’t necessarily have happy endings. He read sections of several – “Her First Elk;” “The Hermit’s Story;” “The Cave.”
He read the full text of “The Canoeist,” a story told mostly in the conditional tense – “would.” That’s a rarity. Very short – and a love story, too.
After the reading, emcee and fiction writer Laura Pritchett of Colorado said that she likes Rick’s “really funky odd love stories.”
Many of his stories are “funky odd,” going back to the stories set in the South in “The Watch.”
Stories riven with loss and dark humor. Two traits of writers I admire, whether they be West or South. As a passport-carrying member of both places, I know.
So said Rick Bass, Southern-born and now a citizen of the Rocky Mountain West. He was one of the guest writers Oct. 8 at the annual Literary Connection at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne.
It’s an old script. Extractive industries remove our timber, coal, trona, gold, copper, uranium and oil. Access roads criss-cross our wild lands, leading to loss of animal habitat.
When each stake is played out, or expenses and regulations outdo profits, "the industries withdraw, blaming environmentalists, but never taking responsibility for their actions," Rick says.
The jobs leave with the industries. Anger and loss follow.
Rick bemoans the “trashing of our wild gardens” in the West. He doesn’t just “bemoan.” He writes angrily about the loss. He works vigorously to defend the wild places, notably his own Yaak Valley in western Montana. He has served on the board of the Yaak Valley Forest Council and Round River Conservation Studies.
“The biota of the Yaak is the ecological equivalent of a Russian novel,” he says. “Not one species in the Yaak has gone extinct since the Ice Age. Maybe it’s the only valley you can say that about.”
His life as a writer and hunter suits the Yaak. He describes how the predator-prey relationship speaks to the conflict inherent in a short story or novel.
“In the Yaak, everything eats meat and is searching for it,” he says. “What is the hunt but story in pursuit of story?”
The predator may move through the landscape, he adds, but it is “the prey which directs the hunter’s movements.” Both are moving through a landscape which is both horizontal and vertical and filled with impediments.
“The hunted shapes the hunter – the dramatic tension between them is story.”
The hunting culture is vastly different from the farming culture down on the prairie. “Corn is not trying to elude you,” he says. “When you step into the woods, there’s nothing in you but imagination.”
I am not a hunter but I can imagine the hunt. Not the same thing as actually doing it. I know that there is a huge difference between stalking the frozen “fecal-drenched chicken” (Rick’s term) to the pursuit of a wild deer in the wild woods.
But thinking metaphorically, I can relate to the act of stepping into the woods of a story. Writer in pursuit of a story, moving through a complicated landscape. I start the pursuit but often the “prey” takes me on a wild ride that I didn’t anticipate when I started.
Rick is convinced that “there is a river of spirit that flows shifting and winding between me and the land.” This is some sort of “third spirit – a spark that ignites between us and the landscape.”
So the landscape is crucial to Rick Bass the writer and the hunter. So is the sense of loss that occurs when that landscape is plundered.
“The narrative is in full crisis now,” he says. There’s also a strange diminishment of time and space evident now. Is this sense of loss going away?
“I still can imagine a happy ending.”
Rick’s stories, of course, don’t necessarily have happy endings. He read sections of several – “Her First Elk;” “The Hermit’s Story;” “The Cave.”
He read the full text of “The Canoeist,” a story told mostly in the conditional tense – “would.” That’s a rarity. Very short – and a love story, too.
After the reading, emcee and fiction writer Laura Pritchett of Colorado said that she likes Rick’s “really funky odd love stories.”
Many of his stories are “funky odd,” going back to the stories set in the South in “The Watch.”
Stories riven with loss and dark humor. Two traits of writers I admire, whether they be West or South. As a passport-carrying member of both places, I know.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Torrington conference gives boost to locally-based ag economies
Sheridan's Sam Western writes for The Economist, WyoFile and an assortment of other publications on issues important to Wyoming and the high and dry West. His latest piece for WyoFile is about agriculture. Sam's not an aggie, and neither am I, but we both know that corporate large-scale ag has proven destructive to the High Plains. Not only on the landscape but on the human culture.
The "localvore" movement may have a partial solution. A recent ag summit was held in Torrington. The local Table Mountain Winery participated, as did Meadow Maid Farms out of Yoder which offers an increasingly popular CSA program.
But Sam's article tells it better in today's Wyofile story:
The "localvore" movement may have a partial solution. A recent ag summit was held in Torrington. The local Table Mountain Winery participated, as did Meadow Maid Farms out of Yoder which offers an increasingly popular CSA program.
But Sam's article tells it better in today's Wyofile story:
"Wyoming agriculture is beginning to plant new seeds, and poor counties, known for monoculture, lead the way," reports WyoFile correspondent Sam Western. Sam found himself very pleasantly surprised in late summer when a conference in Torrington featured delicious meals from local producers. He went on to examine what the local food movement, and what new ventures in agriculture might mean to the traditionally agricultural, and poor, counties in southeast Wyoming. As a small supplement to the economic changes that recent oil industry interest in the Niobrara formation may bring, that is.
The problem in modern agriculture, declared Torrington conference speaker Joel Salatin, "is creating holistic, complementary systems to create salaries for the next generation. The average age of the American farmer is 60 years old. Farmers hit retirement age and then give it to the kids. That’s too late. The time to pick up that youthful enthusiasm is when they are 16-18 years old. We need to build enough income into farms to hire ourselves and our children and next generation."
Some of these topics will be discussed at a state-sponsored conference on AgriFuture, starting tomorrow, Oct. 13, in Evanston. And meanwhile the legislature may be weighing in on issues regarding sales of home-made food from local products: a bill to exempt such sales from safety regulation got a committee endorsement in Buffalo earlier this month, despite serious objections from food safety experts.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Live-stream Obama House Parties and local candidate forum Oct. 12 in Cheyenne
Cheyenne Democrat Lori Brand sends this:
Connie Filopovitch and I are hosting one of the Live-Stream Obama House Parties along with a candidate forum on Tuesday, Oct. 12.
At 5 p.m. will be the live webcast with other Organizing for America House Parties across the country.
At 6:30 p.m. we will have a candidates' forum. If you are a candidate in or a supporter of a candidate, this would be the time to give a short presentation. I have invited Sandy Shanor who is running for the LCSD#1 School Board.
See you on Tuesday at 629 Oakhurst in Cheyenne.
FMI: Connie Filipovitch-Sarmiento, 307-421-7492
Democrat Gaining Momentum in Wyoming
This was posted Oct. 3 on Daily Kos. Better late than never.
Democrat Wendt Gaining Momentum in Republican Wyoming
Democrat Wendt Gaining Momentum in Republican Wyoming
After the election, Democrats will make great pets
You learn lots of things while walking Cheyenne neighborhoods for your favorite Democratic Party candidates.
I did that on Saturday as I dropped off door hangers for Senate District 5 candidate Lori Millin and flyers for District Court Clerk candidate Wendy Soto.
About those door hangers… A steady northwest wind blew on Saturday. Cooled things off, and also made it difficult to hang a door hanger so it wouldn’t blow away. Forget all of the west- and –north-facing homes – about half of my assigned territory. It’s so easy to smack the top of the hanger against the door knob and watch it magically attach. There’s a technique that I’ve learned over the years. Grab the lower end of the hanger and BAP it on the tiny part of the knob. It’s all in the wrist. This also works on screen door knobs and fancier knobs that have the latch you work with your thumb.
But the wind calls for different methods. First, you can’t get a good wind-up as the wind snatches the hanger in mid-motion. If you then use old-fashioned manual attachment techniques, the raging wind will snag the hanger from its perch and send it to Nebraska. This leaves lots of wind litter. It’s also a waste of precious campaign dollars, especially this year when Democrats are holding bake sales and maxing out credit cards to get cash. It’s also unseemly to see Dems running down the street after skittering door hangers and flyers. I can just see those Republicans now, sitting on their verandas, sipping mint juleps, lighting cigars with 20-dollar bills, watching us run. “Those Democrats are so entertaining,” they might say. “After the election, they will make great pets."
Speaking of Republicans, I didn’t see a single Repub candidate out on the hustings. I kept my eyes and ears open as I slipped campaign material through screen doors or rolled it up to slip between door knob and door jamb. I saw no Repub material, either. A curious overnight with only a few weeks left to go. The Repubs must feel confident. Wyoming is a one-party state, after all, and never more so than this year when its Repub Gov candidate leads the Dem candidate by a huge 30-point margin.
Still, we persevere. On one street, I ran into the Democrats' Laramie County Clerk candidate Tim Thorson and his wife Elizabeth. Tim was placing another yard sign. Tim has been very aggressive in the sign department. He also has four billboards placed around the county. A hard-working Dem politician.
And not the only one. I also spotted Dem House District 8 candidate Ken McCauley knocking on townhouse doors along Lawrence Ave. He leaves flyers in doors when he gets no answer. When he does get an answer, he asks for a few minutes to talk about the issues. According to Ken, people get a bit cantankerous when they discover his party affiliation. They often change their mind after discovering Ken is a U.S. Air Force combat veteran and has solid ideas for the district. One 90-something voter (also a military veteran) spouted the Fox News repertoire of Death Panels and cutting big gubment and those damn commies and socialists. Ken said, “I’m a combat veteran and have been fighting socialists all my life.” The man changed his tune and shook Ken’s hand.
Now, a socialist commie pinko peacenik such as me might take umbrage at this. Let me take a short-time out for some umbrage.
Ah, that’s better.
How do you fight this sort of Tea Party crap, where people get into your face and spew a barrage of nonsense?
Shoot back. Humor’s good, too, but it’s often wasted on the brainwashed. Ken is a combat veteran and a Democrat and a smart guy with great ideas. Should he not make use of all of his credentials? I’ve voted for Democrats with impressive military combat credentials? Remember John Kerry? JFK? George McGovern? They were the best candidates for the job. JFK was elected, while Republicans Swift-boated Kerry and did something similar to McGovern back in 1972. Although the Dems basically sunk themselves during both of those elections. And who can forget Al Gore’s 2000 popular-vote victory over George W. Bush? The guy who served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam in a non-combat role vs. the Texas Air National Guard pilot who skipped maneuvers stateside?
I’ve also voted for many candidates who never served in the military. In fact, if I had voted the straight Wyoming Republican Party slate for U.S. House and U.S. Senate in 2008, I would have voted for three candidates who never served in the military. All three, however, support both of our ongoing wars and the continuing bloated defense budget.
And so it goes.
I encountered one gentleman who asked me point-blank if Lori Millin voted for Obama. I said that I supposed so as she was a Democrat. He then asked if she supported charter schools. I said that she supported education although I didn’t know about her position on charter schools. He then said that that was the problem with us doorhanging people, we didn’t know what our candidates stood for. He was a Republican and active in politics. I asked if he wanted me to retrieve the door hanger if he didn’t want to read it. He said he would read it. I asked if he voted the straight party line and he said he didn’t. I said that I was a Democrat and I didn’t support the straight party line which is very difficult to do in Wyoming anyway.
He then added that he had called Mike Massie’s office multiple times and hadn’t received a response. Mike is the Democratic Party candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction. I said that that was very odd as Mike was big on returning calls and he’d spent lots of time talking about education all across the state. The man said, “I’d like to talk to him."
We left it at that. The best conversation I’ve had with a Republican in a long time. I got in my car and found Lori in an adjacent neighborhood. I told her about my talk and she got in her car and went over to talk to the man. She spoke to the man and his wife. They were big supporters of charter schools. Lori supports them as long as the rules are followed. Republicans insist on charter-school support from local school districts but don’t want to be bound by rules of the district or the Wyoming Department of Education. She sees that as a problem. Her kids attend Laramie County schools.
I also see this as a problem.
What I like is that Lori went to the man’s house to talk to him about his concerns. That’s not easy. It takes courage. You don’t have to be in the military to appreciate courage.
I did that on Saturday as I dropped off door hangers for Senate District 5 candidate Lori Millin and flyers for District Court Clerk candidate Wendy Soto.
About those door hangers… A steady northwest wind blew on Saturday. Cooled things off, and also made it difficult to hang a door hanger so it wouldn’t blow away. Forget all of the west- and –north-facing homes – about half of my assigned territory. It’s so easy to smack the top of the hanger against the door knob and watch it magically attach. There’s a technique that I’ve learned over the years. Grab the lower end of the hanger and BAP it on the tiny part of the knob. It’s all in the wrist. This also works on screen door knobs and fancier knobs that have the latch you work with your thumb.
But the wind calls for different methods. First, you can’t get a good wind-up as the wind snatches the hanger in mid-motion. If you then use old-fashioned manual attachment techniques, the raging wind will snag the hanger from its perch and send it to Nebraska. This leaves lots of wind litter. It’s also a waste of precious campaign dollars, especially this year when Democrats are holding bake sales and maxing out credit cards to get cash. It’s also unseemly to see Dems running down the street after skittering door hangers and flyers. I can just see those Republicans now, sitting on their verandas, sipping mint juleps, lighting cigars with 20-dollar bills, watching us run. “Those Democrats are so entertaining,” they might say. “After the election, they will make great pets."
Speaking of Republicans, I didn’t see a single Repub candidate out on the hustings. I kept my eyes and ears open as I slipped campaign material through screen doors or rolled it up to slip between door knob and door jamb. I saw no Repub material, either. A curious overnight with only a few weeks left to go. The Repubs must feel confident. Wyoming is a one-party state, after all, and never more so than this year when its Repub Gov candidate leads the Dem candidate by a huge 30-point margin.
Still, we persevere. On one street, I ran into the Democrats' Laramie County Clerk candidate Tim Thorson and his wife Elizabeth. Tim was placing another yard sign. Tim has been very aggressive in the sign department. He also has four billboards placed around the county. A hard-working Dem politician.
And not the only one. I also spotted Dem House District 8 candidate Ken McCauley knocking on townhouse doors along Lawrence Ave. He leaves flyers in doors when he gets no answer. When he does get an answer, he asks for a few minutes to talk about the issues. According to Ken, people get a bit cantankerous when they discover his party affiliation. They often change their mind after discovering Ken is a U.S. Air Force combat veteran and has solid ideas for the district. One 90-something voter (also a military veteran) spouted the Fox News repertoire of Death Panels and cutting big gubment and those damn commies and socialists. Ken said, “I’m a combat veteran and have been fighting socialists all my life.” The man changed his tune and shook Ken’s hand.
Now, a socialist commie pinko peacenik such as me might take umbrage at this. Let me take a short-time out for some umbrage.
Ah, that’s better.
How do you fight this sort of Tea Party crap, where people get into your face and spew a barrage of nonsense?
Shoot back. Humor’s good, too, but it’s often wasted on the brainwashed. Ken is a combat veteran and a Democrat and a smart guy with great ideas. Should he not make use of all of his credentials? I’ve voted for Democrats with impressive military combat credentials? Remember John Kerry? JFK? George McGovern? They were the best candidates for the job. JFK was elected, while Republicans Swift-boated Kerry and did something similar to McGovern back in 1972. Although the Dems basically sunk themselves during both of those elections. And who can forget Al Gore’s 2000 popular-vote victory over George W. Bush? The guy who served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam in a non-combat role vs. the Texas Air National Guard pilot who skipped maneuvers stateside?
I’ve also voted for many candidates who never served in the military. In fact, if I had voted the straight Wyoming Republican Party slate for U.S. House and U.S. Senate in 2008, I would have voted for three candidates who never served in the military. All three, however, support both of our ongoing wars and the continuing bloated defense budget.
And so it goes.
I encountered one gentleman who asked me point-blank if Lori Millin voted for Obama. I said that I supposed so as she was a Democrat. He then asked if she supported charter schools. I said that she supported education although I didn’t know about her position on charter schools. He then said that that was the problem with us doorhanging people, we didn’t know what our candidates stood for. He was a Republican and active in politics. I asked if he wanted me to retrieve the door hanger if he didn’t want to read it. He said he would read it. I asked if he voted the straight party line and he said he didn’t. I said that I was a Democrat and I didn’t support the straight party line which is very difficult to do in Wyoming anyway.
He then added that he had called Mike Massie’s office multiple times and hadn’t received a response. Mike is the Democratic Party candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction. I said that that was very odd as Mike was big on returning calls and he’d spent lots of time talking about education all across the state. The man said, “I’d like to talk to him."
We left it at that. The best conversation I’ve had with a Republican in a long time. I got in my car and found Lori in an adjacent neighborhood. I told her about my talk and she got in her car and went over to talk to the man. She spoke to the man and his wife. They were big supporters of charter schools. Lori supports them as long as the rules are followed. Republicans insist on charter-school support from local school districts but don’t want to be bound by rules of the district or the Wyoming Department of Education. She sees that as a problem. Her kids attend Laramie County schools.
I also see this as a problem.
What I like is that Lori went to the man’s house to talk to him about his concerns. That’s not easy. It takes courage. You don’t have to be in the military to appreciate courage.
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Sometimes it takes an artist to interpret war's horror
Design Boom recently featured this simple but incredibly powerful installation by Brooklyn-based artist Sebastian Errazuriz. Using the wall outside his studio, he's created a simple tally of some sobering numbers: military combat deaths in Iraq in 2009, and military suicides in 2009From Design Boom:
'When I first found the overall statistics that summed the 304 suicides by US soldiers during 2009, I was shocked. I tried to find a number to compare that statistic. To my surprise the suicide statistic doubled the total of 149 US soldiers that had died in the Iraq war during 2009 and equaled the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan.'
Errazuriz's first instinct was to post the statistic on facebook—dumbfounded by the lack of response and interest, he bought can of black paint and decided to 'post' the news in the real world on his own wall outside his studio in Brooklyn. Equipped with a ladder, he marked a black strip for every dead soldier, until both the suicide rates and war rates occupied the entire wall and were registered as a single image.
The sign is back
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Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Tea Partier lurking behind every Wyoming sagebrush
On Sunday, Rasmussen Reports released a telephone survey of “Likely Voters” in Wyoming.
No surprise:
And, finally, we get to the crux of the matter (also no surprise):
So, Republican Matt Mead will be our next governor. The majority of Tea Partiers will vote for Mead, as will some Democrats. Dems will vote for Mead because he is a moderate in the tradition of many Wyoming politicians. Repubs don’t have to be moderate, but let’s just say it’s a tradition. Democrats, such as Gov. Dave Freudenthal, have no choice – wearing the cloak of Republicanism is crucial to victory. He ran against Republican loonies in two races and won both times. Will Mead stay moderate? Or will he have to kowtow to the very loud Tea Party.
A look at his web site shows a few Tea Party planks slipping in. Here’s one on his “Health Care and Quality of Life page,” which is also a priority of the Republican Party:
However, on the same page, he says this:
Some disconnect here. Can’t have great health care without health care reform. Many thousands of Wyoming families depend on Medicaid. To curtail the teenage pregnancy rate, will he engage in education or the Republicans usual weapon of choice – fear?
Four weeks left to election day. In Wyoming, you can vote early. Do it now or later – but vote!
The Tea Party is counting on you to stay home.
No surprise:
Republican Matt Mead leads Democrat Leslie Peterson, 61%to 25%. This is pretty close to the majority held by registered Republicans over registered Democrats.No surprise:
Mead, a former U.S. attorney, is favored by 84% of membersin his own party.But all of this is scary and weird:
Twenty-six percent (26%) of Wyoming voters consider themselves membersof the Tea Party movement, much higher than the national average.
Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Tea Partiers in Wyoming favor Mead. Only 38% of non-Tea Party members support the Democrat, while a majority(51%) favors the Republican.
Fifty-eight percent (58%) of all voters in the state say the Tea Party movement is good for the country.
And, finally, we get to the crux of the matter (also no surprise):
John McCain carried Wyoming over Barack Obama by a 65% to 33% margin in November 2008. Now just 32% of Wyoming voters approve of the job Obama is doing as president. Sixty-seven percent (67%) disapprove of his job performance. This is considerably higher disapproval that is found nationally in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.
So, Republican Matt Mead will be our next governor. The majority of Tea Partiers will vote for Mead, as will some Democrats. Dems will vote for Mead because he is a moderate in the tradition of many Wyoming politicians. Repubs don’t have to be moderate, but let’s just say it’s a tradition. Democrats, such as Gov. Dave Freudenthal, have no choice – wearing the cloak of Republicanism is crucial to victory. He ran against Republican loonies in two races and won both times. Will Mead stay moderate? Or will he have to kowtow to the very loud Tea Party.
A look at his web site shows a few Tea Party planks slipping in. Here’s one on his “Health Care and Quality of Life page,” which is also a priority of the Republican Party:
Wyoming should join with other states in the ongoing legal challenge against the recently passed federal health care law. In my view the law is unconstitutional and infringes on individual liberties. Our state’s voice should be heard. Under the new federal law, the Federal government is meddling in one sixth of our national economy. The law will kill jobs, distress small businesses, and hurt future growth. The expansion of Medicaid, the mandate for individuals to purchase health insurance or be penalized – these and other aspects ofthe federal law are not good for Wyoming or our citizens. This is not the time for our State to remain silent.
However, on the same page, he says this:
As Governor, I will tackle the tough issues that affect quality of life, like unemployment, health care, treatment of juveniles, domestic violence, services for persons with disabilities, teenage pregnancy, and the elderly. I want the best for Wyoming families now and in the future. We want safe, friendly communities and the ability to enjoy our great outdoors.
Some disconnect here. Can’t have great health care without health care reform. Many thousands of Wyoming families depend on Medicaid. To curtail the teenage pregnancy rate, will he engage in education or the Republicans usual weapon of choice – fear?
Four weeks left to election day. In Wyoming, you can vote early. Do it now or later – but vote!
The Tea Party is counting on you to stay home.
Sunday, October 03, 2010
M.L. Liebler in DFP: New Book salutes "uniqueness of working-class culture"
Detroit Press Press Pop Culture Reporter Julie Hinds penned an article about poet and poetry activist M.L. Liebler. M.L. edited the recent anthology "Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams" from Coffee House Press. One of my short stories is in the anthology.
Here's an excerpt:
Read the DFP piece at http://www.freep.com/article/20101003/FEATURES05/10030324/M-L-Liebler-wants-to-make-poetry-accessible-to-everyone
Here's an excerpt:
It includes a powerful, eclectic assortment of writings, from poetry and short fiction to memoirs and nonfiction. And, of course, there are rock lyrics -- a reflection of the artistry of the genre and the impact that music has always had on Liebler, who considers the Beatles among his earliest teachers.
The lyrics to "Lose Yourself" by Eminem and "The Big Three Killed My Baby" by Jack White, two working-class heroes from the Motor City region, are featured in "Working Words." So are songs by one of America's greatest music icons, Bob Dylan.
At 500-plus pages, the anthology also contains works by old-school greats like Willa Cather, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, contemporary writers like Amiri Baraka and Andrei Codrescu and many writers with Michigan ties, including Philip Levine, Michael Moore, Bonnie Jo Campbell and Liebler himself.
In an introduction to the book, Liebler, who lives in his hometown of St. Clair Shores and is the poet laureate there, describes how he had two goals for the project: to let American writers tell stories of work and to pay homage "in the most inclusive and diverse way to the uniqueness of working-class cultures" and his own roots.
Read the DFP piece at http://www.freep.com/article/20101003/FEATURES05/10030324/M-L-Liebler-wants-to-make-poetry-accessible-to-everyone
Denver developer/preservationist Dana Crawford to address "Partnerships for Preservation" conference
Just in the past year, many exciting things have been happening to renew Cheyenne's downtown. The Depot and its outdoor plaza have brought life to downtown on summer weekends with concerts, a farmer's market and various events inside the Depot. Just recently, local organizers launched the Lights On! project to turn the main floor of the Hynds Building into an arts center. City planners are still pondering downtown's big hole, hoping that inspiration will strike.
Here's another event, geared mainly toward preservation of historic areas (including downtown):
FMI: http://www.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Agenda.aspx?e=abc3372d-1d90-4e17-a236-af305b712d88
Here's another event, geared mainly toward preservation of historic areas (including downtown):
"Buildings, Business & Bankers - Partnerships for Preservation"RSVP by Oct. 6.
Buildings, Businesses, and Bankers - these are the keys to achieving our collective vision for historic areas in our communities. The mission of this conference is to bring together the best from each of these realms to advance momentum for community development and preservation.
Featuring award-winning preservationist Dana Crawford and community marketing and branding specialist Ben Muldrow.
Join us and be part of the movement!
Wednesday, October 13, 4:30 p.m., through Friday, October 15, 2 p.m., at the Historic Plains Hotel, 1600 Central Avenue, Cheyenne.
FMI: http://www.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Agenda.aspx?e=abc3372d-1d90-4e17-a236-af305b712d88
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