The Heart Failure Chronicles: Part I

Leonardo da Vinci heart illustration, 15th century.

I had a heart attack but didn't know it was a heart attack. It's flu season and my belly hurt. I was at work on Monday and it was almost closing time so I headed home so as not to ralph all over my workplace. You would have done the same thing. My boss Rita had the norovirus the week before. So did her husband Mike. She came home from work one evening to find Mike writing in pain on the front room floor. She took him to the emergency room where the docs looked him over and said, "Norovirus" or "stomach flu" or something like that and sent him home. He and Rita both had bodacious stomach cramps for two days, accompanied by ralphing and the other thing. Two days later, my coworker Annie and her entire family came down with the crud.

Meanwhile, I was at home with a belly ache watching crappy daytime TV. You'd think 500 channels would offer something beside Judge Judy reruns and a whole channel that shows "Frasier" 24/7. There's one for "Seinfeld" too.

On Wednesday, I went to the doctor.

"I have a bellyache," I said.

"There's a lot of norovirus going around," said the doc.

"That's what I hear. I have a bellyache."

"Any vomiting," asked the doc. They usually don't say "ralphing."

"No."

"Diarrhea?"

"No."

He looked pensive. He wore a dark suit and a stethoscope around his neck. He's an old-timey GP, with extended office hours and a staff that's seen me through sinus infections, bronchitis, assorted infections. He gave me a physical in September and pronounced me fit as a fiddle.

He never asked me about my heart. I have no history of heart trouble. My family has no history of heart trouble. My blood pressure is always 118/78. I swim every other day at the YMCA. I lost 30 pounds this year and feel fit as a fiddle most of the time.

He gave me an anti-nausea shot and sent me home. "Get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids," he said. I've heard that before. I did as ordered. The next morning, I awoke with a horrible pain in my stomach and along my left side. I called the doc. He sent me over for X-rays. He called later. "Pneumonia," he said. "We'll order some antibiotics."

Crap. Pneumonia was an ancient scourge with me. I hadn't had it much as an adult but was hospitalized several times with it during childhood. I was 10 the last time I had it and that was the last time I spent a night in the hospital as a patient.

I took my antibiotics. The pain began to subside. Ten days of antibiotics with lots of fluids. I wasn't eating much but suddenly had a hankering for egg mcmuffins. Because I was sick, Chris was willing to grant me almost anything in the way of comfort foods. This was a bad thing, as it turned out.

It was Christmas week. I was camped out on the couch. Don't remember much except somebody gve me a cast iron frying pan. Not sure why I had asked for a cast iron frying pan although I'm a pretty good cast iron cook during summer camping trips. I'm an old Scout and learned a lot back in the days when when out scoutmasters were crusty old Army guys who smoked a lot and were very bad examples that way. I suppose they also brought booze to our winter campouts in Colorado's Collegiate Range and sat around telling old war stories while we snoozed.

Turns out, I didn't have pneumonia. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. I was home for two weeks. I wasn't feeling much better but two weeks is two weeks and I had deadlines to meet. I watched a lot of football on New Year's Day. I was wearing a groove in the couch cushions. It was time to go back to work.

The next day was Jan. 2. A damn cold Tuesday. I took my daughter to school and then went to the store. Not sure what I bought but I dropped the groceries off at home I sat on my couch. I couldn't breathe. It was like an asthma attack, although I hadn't had one of those in decades. I called Chris.

"I can't breathe," I said.

"What do you mean you can't breathe?" She was at work and I could hear the hubbub in the background. I tried to think of what I would say if she called me at work and said she couldn't breathe.

"I'll be right home," she said.

I sat there alone, gasping for breath. We live at 6,200 feet. One sometimes sees athletes playing the Broncos at 5,280 feet hooked up to oxygen. I felt that I needed some oxygen. That's odd as I've been living a mile high for decades.

Chris arrived home and said, "Let's go to the hospital."

I stood. Walked to the door. And that's as far as I got. "I can't make it to the car."

I stood gasping at the bookshelf.

Chris got on the phone and called 911. I returned to the couch. Five minutes later, the EMTs were swarming around me. Two young men and a woman. They brought out some oxygen and hooked me up. That was better. Took my vitals. Guided me out to the gurney. I lay down and they covered me up and it was cold as hell. They boosted me into the back of the ambulance and hooked me up to some sort of vaporizer to help me breathe. The woman EMT told me to relax and I said I was too scared to relax. They fired up the siren and zoomed me to the ER. They put some sensors on my chest and took some sort of reading which I found out later was an EKG. By the time I got to the ER, the diagnosis was already floating around the halls. "Congestive heart failure."

I'd had a heart attack some time during the past two weeks. Maybe several heart attacks. In minutes, I had an IV in my right arm and a guy was drawing blood. They hooked me up to another breathing machine. A nurse came in and asked where the pain was.

"I have a bellyache." As I said it, I realized I was saying the same exact thing I'd been saying for two weeks.

"Where?"

I circled my stomach with my left hand. "All over."

"Hmm," she said. I'd been hearing this for two weeks.

"Any vomiting?"

"Why do people keep asking me that?"

"We've had some bad cases of stomach flu."

I felt like saying, enough with the stomach flu already -- I've been through that and pneumonia and I still have this fucking belly ache.

An orderly appeared and took me to X-ray. The X-ray tech looked familiar. She introduced herself and said she'd been the Wyoming Arts Council's Poetry Out Loud winner the first year we conducted the competition.

I remembered her name. Kamaria.

"What are you doing here?"

"Poets gotta make a living."

I thought that was pretty funny. I laughed but my lungs ached. Kamaria put me on my back, injected some sort of truth serum into me and sent me into the maws of a large machine. I couldn't breathe. She told me to take a deep breath. Don't poets have more empathy? The machine moved me out. "One more time," she said. I remembered her up on the Atlas Theatre stage, reciting Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman. I tried to remember the names of poems. "I hear America singing." Walt taking care of Civil War wounded at D.C. hospitals. His brothers was one of the wounded. Now there's some empathy for you. Maybe Kamaria was following Walt into the medical field. Wish I'd done that, once upon a time wanting to be a nurse like my mother and my grandmother.

Channeling Walt Whitman at the CRMC telemetry unit.

I was still thinking Civil War when I returned to my slot in the ER. I was happy to have a room. There were people lined up in the hallway. People coughing. A young woman with a freckled back. Doctors and nurses hovering and typing stuff into a bank of PCs. I thought of the Atlanta scene in "Gone with the Wind," all those casualties lined up, most of them dead or dying or about to be left behind as the Yankees closed in.

"Congestive heart failure." A doc I hadn't seen before looked at me. He was Indian or Pakistani or something else. A young nurse stood at his elbow. "Dr. Khan," he said. "I'm head of cardiology."

"Congestive heart failure."

Dr. Khan nodded. "You had a heart attack."

"When?"

"You tell me."

"I've been sick for two weeks."

He looked over at his nurse. She scribbled on a pad.

"Can you lie down for an hour?"

"I can't lie down for five minutes."

The nurse again took notes.

"We want to take a look at your heart," said the doc. "We have a great cath lab. We want to see your heart and open up any blockages."

This was all new to me. "Open heart surgery?"

He shook his head. The nurse took notes. "We try to get our heart patients up to the cath lab ASAP."

"What's a cath lab?"

He explained the catheterizing lab to me. Lie me flat on a table and give me some drugs to relax. Put some dye in my heart. Go through my groin and put a camera up to the heart, check out the arteries. Open to blockages with balloons and maybe install a stent if needed.

"What's a stent?"

He explained that it was a tube that the docs put in the artery to keep it open after it was clogged by plaque and cholesterol and inflammation.

This was a lot stuff to take in. "Cath lab is open 24 hours a day," he said. "We've been here since 4 a.m."

I told him that I doubted if I could lie flat for the time needed for balloons and stents and cameras. He nodded. The nurse took notes. And they disappeared.

Another nurse came. She said they might take me to the cath lab as time was of the essence. I was feeling a bit scared and would have felt more scared if I wasn't hurting so much. Some time passed. My wife was making calls, alerting the troops, calling my work to say I probably wouldn't be in today.

All told, I was in the ER for a couple hours. Not bad, when you consider all the horror stories people tell about 12-hour ER waits. The hospital's building a new ER right outside the doors. It will be three times the size of the current one which should take care of that "Gone With the Wind" congestion.

I was admitted to the hospital with congestive heart failure, heart failure or just massive heart attack. I heard other terms later. I was transported to a room on the telemetry unit where I was wired for sound along with the rest of the floor. They monitor our hearts in a bunker full of computers and computer geeks. I was glad to be so monitored, as I'd never had a heart attack before.

Thus began my first night in the hospital....

--To Be Continued--

Singing songs from "Rent" at Broadway Karaoke Night in Cheyenne

In memoriam: Gaydell Collier

Gaydell Collier and her dog Maxie

Gaydell Collier was gracious and generous. She shared her expertise in writing and publishing with anyone who asked. She was also one of those people whom writers admire unconditionally: a librarian. She knew books, but people were her specialty. Gaydell passed away January 18 at Rapid City Regional Hospital, across the border from her beloved ranch in Crook County, Wyoming. Here's the obit that appeared on the Wyoming Arts Council blog:

Gaydell came from the East Coast and as a child told people she would eventually make her home in Wyoming.

She attended the University of Wyoming, and met her then-future husband, Roy Hugh Collier. While living in Laramie and the Harmony area, Collier worked as circulation manager at the UW library, and collaborated with Eleanor Prince in producing three publications: Basic Horsemanship: English and Western; Basic Training for Horses: English and Western; and Basic Horse Care.

She and her husband purchased their Crook County Ranch in 1977. Collier took over the Crook County Library Director position and was there for 14 years, while also operating her ranch bookstore, Backpocket Books.

She was co-editor along with Nancy Curtis and Linda Hasselstrom on three anthologies: Leaning Into the Wind: Women Write from the Heart of the West in 1997; Woven on the Wind: Women Write about Friendship in the Sagebrush West, in 2001; and Crazy Woman Creek: Women Rewrite the American West in 2004.

Her publications continued in periodicals, reviews, anthologies, and magazines. Her last book was the memoir, Just Beyond Harmony, published in 2012. She received a Governor’s Arts Award in 2004. She was a charter member of Bearlodge Writers in Sundance and of the statewide writers group, Wyoming Writers, Inc., as well as a sustaining member of Women Writing the West and Western Writers of America.

Cuddly jackalopes have a dark side

Thousands of tourists buy those cuddly plush toy jackalopes every summer as they cruise through Wyoming. These cutesy-pie jack rabbit/antelope hybrids are ubiquitous in gift shops from Cheyenne to Jackson and everywhere in between. Douglas, of course, is the animal's ancestral home and the city's mascot, with a neat downtown statue and thousands of artsy jackalopes embedded in a new North Platte River Bridge.

A bill wending its way through the 62nd Wyoming Legislature would make the jackalope the state's official mythical critter. That's fine. But the animal also has a dark side, one that's been celebrated in music by Steve Earle, the Supersuckers and Wyoming's own Gary Small and the Coyote Brothers. Steve Earle's "Creepy Jackalope Eye" offers these chilling lyrics:

I got a jackalope face
I'm a jackalope guy
And I'm staring you down
Creepy jackalope eye

Is it so hard to imagine
Is it so hard to believe
Something so outrageous
Something so far fetched
Well how 'bout adam and eve?

Gary Small's "Snaggle Tooth Jackalope" deserves a little respect as it preys on unsuspecting turistas:

16 motor homes are still missing
Not a trace of human parts was ever found
Just a bloody boot and a shred of Bermuda shorts
On top of a prairie dog mound.
Tourists beware of the snaggle tooth jackalope
A cold-blooded killer...

Yikes.

Where to go for updates on bills before the 62nd Wyoming Legislature

Interested in tracking all of the bills in this legislative session? From A-Z, from the ridiculous to the sublime? Go to the Wyoming Legisweb Bill Tracker.

If you're interested in those bills affecting public employees, go to the Wyoming Public Employees Association web site.

Wyofile provides daily updates on the legislature. Go here.

The Casper Star-Tribune does the best job covering the Lege of any of the state's newspapers. OK, others do a pretty good job but the CST has the best web site.

What about bloggers? You can find info about hot issues on the WY Progressives blogroll on this blog's right sidebar. Marriage equality will be a hot topic next week. Medicaid expansion is another one. Revamping the Dept of Ed has been a big issue since the start of the session Jan. 8.

Wyoming Rep. Tim Stubson plans to punish state employees by taking away benefits

Wondering what Republicans talk about when they have time on their hands?

If you're Rep. Tim Stubson, House Majority Whip, an attorney and an independently wealthy man-about-town from Casper, you think to yourself: "Those state employees make too much money and have too many benefits. Let's take something away from them just for the hell of it."

Stubson's spouse, Susan, should know better, as she once served on the Wyoming Arts Council board. Stubson also has two sons, one of whom served as a page at the legislature. Said the Rep. Stubson to his son: "This is how we Republicans stick it to state employees, son."

Here's Stubson's big plan:

House Bill 0079 - Redefining vacation as unpaid wages: Sponsored by Representative Tim Stubson, it passed the State House last week and is awaiting introduction in the State Senate.  It would remove vacation pay as a "unpaid wage" in the case of termination from employment, effectively removing it from the worker's final paycheck.  We do NOT SUPPORT this bill in the Senate, and believe it would harm workers in this state greatly by withholding necessary income that they earned during the time they were employed.  Please contact your Senator and let them know you do NOT support this bill! Tell your senator you don't believe in punishing state employees: Just in case you didn't know....the State of Wyoming changed all of the Legislator's emails this year to a uniform email address: Firstname.Lastname@wyoleg.gov

Shame on you, Rep. Stubson.

What the heck is wrong with these stingy, right-wing politicians from Casper?

Poet and labor activist Mark Nowak is eminent-writer-in-residence at UW in February

Poet and labor activist Mark Nowak in coming to Wyoming:

For the much of the past decade, Mark Nowak has been extricating the poetry workshop from the academic classroom and re-employing it in factories, workplaces, and other labor/working-class spaces. These workshops include his early transnational "poetry dialogues" with autoworkers at Ford plants in St. Paul, Minnesota (through UAW 879) and Port Elizabeth and Pretoria, South Africa (through NUMSA, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa), another series of workshops with Muslim/Somali nurses (through Rufaidah, a Somali nurse support organization), and his current ongoing project with members of Domestic Workers United <http://www.domesticworkersunited.org/> in New York City (to be featured in the 2012 PEN World Voices Festival). 

While at the University of Wyoming, Mark hopes to work with graduate students and other community members in facilitating a Wyoming version of these creative writing workshops with workers in the area. In advance of his visit, he would like to work with interested students in identifying potential groups to work with, making initial contacts, and selecting a group of Wyoming workers with whom several creative writing workshops could be facilitated. As always, the goal is to also produce an event at the end of these workshops (and the end of Mark's residency) in which the participants read the work they produce to their family, friends, co-workers, and the larger community. 

Mark Nowak, a 2010 Guggenheim fellow, is the author of Coal Mountain Elementary (Coffee House Press, 2009) and Shut Up Shut Down (Coffee House Press, 2004). He frequently speaks about global working class policies and issues, most recently on Al Jazeera, BBC World News America, BBC Radio 3, and Pacifica Radio’s “Against the Grain.” A native of Buffalo, New York, Nowak currently works as director of the graduate creative writing program at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY. 

Mark Nowak will be on campus February 18th - March 1st.  Public workshops will be held between February 17th and February 27th and will culminate in a Reading and Celebration the Gryphon Theater on February 28th.  There will be a public reading by Mark Nowak on February 22nd at Second Story Books. 

Website

Big equality vote next week in The Equality State

Jeran Artery at Out in Wyoming writes about next week's votes for equality in The Equality State. Jeran names name and challenges us all to contact our reps on the Corporations Committee. These are good people who can be reached with persuasive, cogent arguments from constituents. However, they often represent rural conservative constituencies. This is when you see a clash between fundie anti-gay arguments and Wyoming's live-and-let-live traditions. You just never know... There will be a rally at 11 a.m. at the Capitol on Monday. Get more info here. Stay active. Use those e-mails and smartphones to make these people accountable:

We are ready to rock and roll with Marriage Equality (HB169) and Domestic Partnerships (HB168) here in Wyoming. These two bills have been assigned to the Corporations Committee in the House of Representatives.  They are going to be heard at noon on Monday, January 28th.
All of the committee member names below are linked to take you to their legislative website.  The website contains phone and email contact information. 
Here are my notes on what you can do to help:
Madam Chairwoman Rosie Berger,  Needs lobbied.  Needs emails from across the state and especially from LGBT residents and allies living in Sheridan County.  Could become friendly but is going to take some work.
Rep. Gregg Blikre  I spoke with Rep Blikre this morning and he doesn't know where he stands.  He said he wants to hear all the arguments and make a decision from there.  So please email him and ask him for support, especially if you live in Gillette or Campbell county.  Again, I think we can get his support but he needs to hear from all of us.
Rep. Dan Kirkbride  I spoke with Rep. Kirkbride this morning and he said he is a probably a no vote on both bills.  He doesn't think his constituents in Platte County are favorable. Personally I know Rep. Kirkbride and he is good man.  I expressed how important these are to me personally and he promised to keep an open mind a listen to our arguments.  He really needs to hear from LGBT members and allies in Platte County.
Rep. Jerry Paxton  I have not had a chance to visit with him yet.  I'm hearing that he is moderate and persuadable.  His district includes parts of Albany, Sweetwater, and Carbon Counties.  Emails and phone calls of support would be great.
Rep. Gerald Gay  A 100% no vote.  Don't waste your time on lobbying efforts.  This is the guy that publicly stated on the house floor that out of respect to his last name "we should call these people what they are, homosexual sodomites... not gay."
Rep. James (Jim) Byrd  100% yes vote.  Co-sponsor of both bills.
Rep. Matt Greene 100% yes vote.  Co-sponsor of Domestic Partnerships and supports marriage equality.
Rep. Ruth Ann Petroff 100% yes vote.  Also co-sponsor of both bills and an absolute delight to work with.
Rep. Dan Zwonitzer 100% yes vote. Co-sponsor of both bills and a tremendous ally.

Much more here.

Wyoming Republicans look to the future with Dick Cheney as keynote speaker

Watching the inauguration festivities on Monday in D.C. made me feel old and out of it. A wonderful African-American First Family with their two beautiful daughters and Richard Blanco reciting a poem celebrating the 21st century in America and a huge crowd of people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds and origins. This is the future and this old guy wants to be a part of it as long as possible. The Republicans, on the other hand, have proved themselves to be the political party of old ideas and old ways and selfishness. There may be hope to Repubs in the likes of Marco Rubio and Bobby Jindal and those who look ahead instead of back into the previous century. Even some of the young leaders are burdened with the hatreds and prejudices that were born in the pre-Civil Rights era, back when I was a kid growing up in the American South. Nothing says outdated and old like having a remnant of the latest Repub administration as the keynote speaker at your annual banquet. Here's news from the Wyoming Republicans:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney will be the guest speaker at a Wyoming Republican Party dinner next month.  

Cheney will speak Feb. 9 at the dinner being held at the Little America Hotel in Cheyenne. The party says the event is open to the public. 

Tickets are available by contacting the party's office in Casper at 307-234-9166.

"In the Shadow of the Buddha" author to be keynote speaker at WY Dems' Nellie Tayloe Ross banquet

Matteo Pistono will be the keynote speaker at the Wyoming Democratic Party's Nellie Tayloe Ross banquet on Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne. A cocktail reception starts at 6 p.m., followed by dinner, awards ceremony and keynote at 7. Get more info at http://wyodems.org

For more than a decade, Matteo Pistono has lived in Nepal and Tibet, and worked in the fields of human rights and religious freedom. Matteo Pistono has been heralded as "The James Bond of Tibetan Buddhism" and has worked with some of the world's greatest teachers, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Sogyal Rinpoche, and the late Khenpo Jikmé Phuntsok.

President Obama's inaugural address aimed at all of us progressives who elected him

It's worth watching again...

UW Days of Dialogue features screening of film about civil rights pioneer Bayard Rustin

The Martin Luther King, Jr., Days of Dialogue at the University of Wyoming in Laramie features a full slate of events Jan. 21-25. On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 6:30 p.m., there will be a screening of the film, "Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin." It will be followed by a reception with the Cheyenne NAACP. Location: Wyoming Union West Ballroom. FMI: http://www.mlkdod.com/

Celebrate Mardi Gras without leaving Cheyenne

The Cheyenne Little Theatre Players will raise some funds and have a great time on Feb. 2 at the Atlas Theatre downtown. Get a little taste of New Orleans at the Mardi Gras Bash.  

President Obama: “We are going to need to work on making access to mental health care as easy as access to a gun”

This is but a small part of President Obama's Plan to Protect our Children & Communities, which was announced this morning. I'm including it because mental health is one of my blog's key issues. And tackling the many gun parts of the document is too much to bear. Read more here.  

IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES 
Though the vast majority of Americans with a mental illness are not violent, we need to do more to identify mental health issues early and help individuals get the treatment they need before dangerous situations develop. As President Obama has said, “We are going to need to work on making access to mental health care as easy as access to a gun.” 
• MAKE SURE STUDENTS AND YOUNG ADULTS GET TREATMENT FOR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES: Three quarters of mental illnesses appear by the age of 24, yet less than half of children with diagnosable mental health problems receive treatment. To increase access to mental health services for young people, we should: o Provide “Mental Health First Aid” training to help teachers and staff recognize signs of mental illness in young people and refer them to treatment. o Support young adults ages 16 to 25, who have the highest rates of mental illness but are the least likely to seek help, by giving incentives to help states develop innovative approaches. o Help break the cycle of violence in schools facing pervasive violence with a new, targeted initiative to provide their students with needed services like counseling. o Train 5,000 more social workers, counselors, and psychologists, with a focus on those serving students and young adults. 
• ENSURE COVERAGE OF MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT: The Affordable Care Act is the largest step to increase access to mental health services in a generation, providing health coverage for 30 million Americans, including 6 to 10 million people with mental illness. The Administration will take executive actions to ensure that millions of newly covered Americans, and millions more who already have health insurance, get quality mental health coverage by: o Finalizing regulations to require insurance plans to cover mental health benefits like medical and surgical benefits. o Ensuring Medicaid is meeting its obligation to cover mental health equally.

Glad to be here after brush with heart failure

I began the year with heart failure.

On Jan. 2, I was rushed via ambulance to the emergency room. I couldn't breathe. Pain radiated down my sides and into my stomach. Vitals and X-rays confirmed congestive heart failure. The cardiologist wanted to take me to the cath lab but I couldn't lie flat for the procedure because my lungs were clogged. Two days later, I was in the lab getting a stent in my main trunk artery which was blocked. This is the LAD artery, sometimes melodramatically known as "The Widowmaker."

I'm lucky to be here to tell the tale. Credit goes to the the skills of Dr. Chapman and Dr. Khan and staff of the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center's cardiac unit. After a week of excellent hospital care, I went home last Wednesday wearing a LifeVest, which monitors my heart and will shock it back into rhythm, if need be. I have a sackful of medications to help my heart heal.

I have no history of heart disease. My family has no history of heart disease. I dropped 40 pounds this year by swimming three times a week at the YMCA and eating right. Annual blood tests did show high cholesterol levels, something I never paid much attention to. That may have led to the plaque build-up and blockages that almost killed me.

So glad to be here. So glad to be anywhere.

During my hospitalization, the Wyoming State Legislature lurched into session. I missed most of the fun the first week and now will be playing catch-up. It may be difficult to duplicate the zaniness of last year's session -- or will it?

Listen live tonight as Radio Meg counts down the top 25 albums of 2012

Meg's fab tunes & prog-talk now available from Boulder to Birmingham, Tehatchapi to Tonapah:

Tune into 93.5 KOCA tonight, 10 p.m.-1 a.m. and keep your dial locked for fab music + Legit Conservative + d-bag o' the week. Our special guest tonight is fellow music aficionado Cameron L. Maris, who will help us count down the Top 25 Albums of 2012! Oh, and don't forget to send The Legitimate Conservative some questions -- it IS the last show of the year! Listen online and talk to us in the live chat! Check out http://myradiostream.com/cognitivedissonance to listen at 10 PM and http://chat.myradiostream.com/FSHs11p6864/ for the chat! Taking your requests for songs, dedications & d-bag nods til 8 PM. Laramie Civic Center, rm #255

In the pink, but still a bit blue

I've been off the blog for more than a week. I do have a good excuse: pneumonia. Gave new meaning to the term "sick in bed." Racked with pain and weak as an overcooked noodle. I was going to say "weak as a kitten" but then thought of all the kittens I've ever known. They may be small but weak? I think not. It's sobering to be sick for both my 62nd birthday and Christmas. This aging road may be as rocky as they say. I've spent the last nine months losing weight, eating better and swimming laps three times a week at the Y. And one tiny no-see-um bacterium sneaks into my lungs and knocks me down. Thank God for antibiotics and health insurance and good doctors and helpful pharmacists and my loving wife and good friends and understanding coworkers.

I've watched a lot of movies, not all good. I did finally see "The King's Speech" and really enjoyed it. Geoffrey Rush was brilliant as an engaging, irreverent speech therapist to a king. I'm no friend to the British Royal Family, but I wanted to belt out a few huzzahs for Colin Firth's tongue-tied Edward VI as he made his first war speech. I watched a number of films set in wartime. "Joe and Max" was a biopic about the Joe Louis and Max Schmeling boxing matches of 1936 and 1938. Joe was America's "Brown Bomber," knocking out one white fighter after another on his way to the championship. The entire time was being ripped off by his white promoters. Schmeling's Jewish-American promoter got the fighter a match with Louis in New York. Herr Goebbels calls in Schmeling to dissuade him from the fight, wondering how it would look if a fighter from National Socialist Germany got beat by a negro. Max would have none of it; he figured he was bigger than the Nazis and could do what he wanted. In a way, he was right. He won the match by decision with the American crowd shouting "Max" instead of "Joe." He returned home a conquering hero. When the crowd yelled "Heil Hitler" and raised the Nazi salute, so did Max. He wasn't a member of the party and didn't think it mattered. That all changed two years later. To get permission to go to America, Max has to sign a manuscript, "Boxing as a Race Matter." It's a racist screed against non-white athletes. This time in New York, he'd beset by anti-Nazi protests that turn very personal. The crowd is pro-Joe this time and Joe KOs Max. Nobody's waiting at the airport for Max when he returns this time.

The two fighters both serve in the war. Joe fought bouts to sell war bonds. Max served in combat. They kept up a relationship until Joe passed away in 1981. Joe was broke from millions in IRS debts, so Max paid for the military funeral. Max was pretty well off, working for Coca Cola in Germany from the 1950s until retiring in 2000 at the age of 95. Max Schmeling says drink more coke, ya'll!

Dear Mr. President: Don't capitulate on "fiscal cliff" negotiations

Kos on Daily Kos posted tonight about President Obama's capitulation on the so-called "fiscal cliff" negotiations. There's an e-mail petition to sign if you've a mind to. I did. This is what I said, which is part DK boilerplate and part me:

Mr. President: As of today, I am three years away from retirement. I expect to find my investment in Social Security intact when that day comes.

Please don't cave in to Republican blackmail. Stop proposing cuts to Social Security.

Social Security does not contribute even $1 to the deficit, and is 100% solvent for over 20 years according to even the most pessimistic projections. It should not be a part of the fiscal showdown negotiations.

Please live up to your campaign promise of not balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class. 

"Creating science from sewage" is one benefit of new Cheyenne zero-carbon Data Plant

Science! It's a gas -- biogas, that is. The City of Cheyenne and UW and Microsoft and Fuel Cell Energy Inc. are building a pilot project east of Cheyenne to see if methane produced from sewage treatment can provide efficient zero-carbon power. A $7.5 million Microsoft Data Plant is the test case. The plant will use 200 kilowatts of energy from the fuel cell to power 200 computers. Any excess energy will go back to the Dry Creek Water Reclamation Facility to defray its electric bills. After an 18-month test period that will begin in the spring, Microsoft will give the facility back to the city and the university to use as a teaching lab. This is part of the deal, as Microsoft has to provide a "public benefit" in trade for taxpayer funding that's going to the project. Sounds like a win-win to me, a great public-private partnership. Read more about it here. 

The Western Research Institute is housed in the Bureau of Mines Building on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie. WRI CEO Don Collins was instrumental in landing the project for the state. Said Collins:

“Microsoft is developing it as the first zero-carbon Data Plant in the world, and it will be in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Even Bill Gates had a tweet about how excited he was about this project.”

When Bill Gates tweets, people pay attention. 

Collins also said that:

...CO2 that comes out of the fuel cell can be captured and used for enhanced oil recovery in the state.  Wyoming currently does not have enough CO2 for such operations, he says. A company using a fuel cell in this manner could sell its CO2 at $25-$30 per ton to oil companies and make approximately $2.25 million, Collins says. That business scenario could make it more attractive for more fuel cell use in Wyoming.

“There might really be a strategic advantage for Wyoming for all energy-intensive companies that sell CO2 to cut costs,” Collins says. “Our goal is to turn CO2 into a valuable asset rather than something that must be disposed of at a high expense.”

At a recent meeting Collins attended in San Jose, Calif., Microsoft indicated its desire to keep the Data Plant in Cheyenne “as a long-term demonstration facility,” Collins says.

Use of a demonstration facility enhances opportunities for UW and WRI to secure competitive funding from the federal government and the Wyoming Energy Conversion Technology Fund, Collins adds.

Your taxpayer dollars at work. And I'm not being snarky. This sounds like an excellent use of state and federal funds.Microsoft may eventually use this technology for its cloud computing centers that are springing up all over the U.S. The City of Cheyenne and the State of Wyoming could do worse than having Microsoft for a partner.

Equality State Policy Center offers Citizen Lobbyist Training Jan. 9 in Cheyenne

Once again, the Equality State Policy Center will offer its Citizen Lobbyist Training. It's a great opportunity to learn the inner workings of the legislature and arm yourself with some effective lobbying tools to stymie any crackpot bills that rear their ugly little heads. 

This year's Citizen Lobbyist Training will be conducted Jan. 9 starting at 8 a.m. at the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne. Participants in the training learn how a bill becomes law. Experienced lobbyists who work for ESPC member organizations outline the attributes of an effective lobbyist and teach attendees how to testify before a legislative committee. Other presentations outline how citizens can get the attention of legislators and affect their policy deliberations from home. Sitting legislators offer their perspectives on lobbying and discuss approaches that work -- and that don't work -- with them.

--clip--

The training fee is $50. The fee helps us defray the cost of lunch and snacks on site. We offer a discount to $25 for attendees affiliated with ESPC groups.

The fee is not meant to be prohibitive, however, and we offer scholarships to participants who need assistance. If you need a scholarship or have other questions about the Citizen Lobbyist Training, please contact Dan Neal at dneal@equalitystate.org or call 307-472-5939.

Regressive bills to watch out for during the 2013 Wyoming Legislature w/update

Gregory Nickerson at wyofile does a great job of outlining the possible social issue bills that will emerge during the upcoming legislative session, which begins Jan. 8. The usual players (those that survived the recent election, anyway) on the Republican side will offer up the usual regressive anti-gay and anti-woman legislation. They will try to force pregnant women to undergo invasive ultrasounds. They will attempt a demonize the LGBT community. For those of you who thought that the recent national election showed once and for all that America believes in a progressive social agenda, think again. This just about sums it up:

“Wyoming’s quite a little bit different than the rest of the country,” said Curt Meier, the longtime Republican senator from LaGrange. “You see that in the last presidential election. We’ve got a different idea about what America should be than what it is right now.”

I'm always amazed that some Republicans think that we don't live in an interconnected age, where lamebrain policies concocted in LaGrange won't end up on the national stage. We have the Internet Tubes now, Sen. Meier. When Wyoming thinks it needs an aircraft carrier or silencers on hunting rifles, it goes viral and people laugh at us from sea to shining sea. And lest you think that tourism will keep us afloat, that backwards policies won't affect the stream of visitors to gawk at the Tetons, think again. Word gets around.

There may be another way to look at this. Perhaps Wyoming, if it regresses far enough, will actually become a worldwide curiosity. People might say, "Let's go see those strange natives who live in that almost-square state sandwiched between Colorado and Montana." Wyoming already is somewhat of a oddity to urban dwellers on the coasts. That could end up being a big draw as the rest of American moves forward and we keep lurching backward.

One of the best things about Greg's article -- he names all the possible players on these issues. Wyoming Equality, led by Jeran Artery, is a force to be reckoned with on LGBT legislation, notably marriage equality. My wife Chris and I are Wyoming Equality members and plan to get behind the organization 110 percent during the legislative session. The org has 650 members and can be very persuasive when energized. To borrow a phrase from Anonymous -- Expect us!

UPDATE: Just received my Wyoming Equality United Voice newsletter in the mail. WE plans to expand its lobbying force for the upcoming legislature. If you're interested, get more info at the Wyoming Equality Web site.

Newtown, Conn., may be the next location for "Angel Actions"

As funerals begin for those murdered in Newtown, Conn., words comes that Fred Phelps and his Band of Weirdos from Westboro "Church" are planning to spew their venom against first-graders and their families. On Facebook, people were posting about ways to protect mourners should this occur. Military veterans have already figured this out, with a motorcycle honor guard that provides a buffer between the WBC and funeral-goers. Before that, it was the LGBT community who had a fine answer with "Angel Actions."

The first Angel Action against Fred Phelps and the WBC took place in Laramie, Wyoming, at memorial services (and subsequent trials) for murdered gay UW student Matthew Shepard in 1998. WBC had also protested at Shepard's funeral in Casper nine days after the murder. In Laramie, LGBT activist Romaine Patterson, a Wyoming native and friend of Matthew's, came up with the idea of dressing as angels to protect mourners from WBC's hatred. Similar actions have taken place whenever Fred and his crew show up to protest showings of "The Laramie Project," a play (and later a movie) by Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project. There was an Angel Action in Tucson in January 2011 when the WBC threatened to show up (but didn't) at the funerals of those killed in the shooting that wounded Gabrielle Giffords. It appears that an Angel Action may next be required in Connecticut.

While it's easy to get angry and Phelps and his crew, it's hard to come up with peaceful ways to blunt the hate.

This post has been updated.  

Meditations on cloudy December afternoon

Odd and ends on a cloudy December Sunday (as the Broncos lead the Ravens 34-17 in Baltimore):

The always interesting Larry Kurtz at Interested Party offers more info on Menards and its right-wing owner. The Cheyenne store isn't open yet, but it's not too early to plan not to shop there.

All 31 pro-gun U.S. Senators refuse to appear on Meet the Press. Funny, but our Sen. Barrasso usually isn't camera-shy. Go here to see how much he and Cynthia Lummis received from the NRA during their 2012 reelection campaigns.

Senate Dems plan to introduce assault weapons ban in the new year. 

SNL opens last night's show with a "Silent Night" sung by a children's choir.

My beautiful daughter sings in the LCCC Choir's Christmas concert, "Unto Us a Child is Born."

"Misguided austerity policies" by conservatives lead to people falling through the cracks

I've written before about how right-wing ideology in Wyoming is driving budget cuts for mental health care. After another senseless massacre, we need to take a serious look about the lack of funding and services for those diagnosed with some form of mental illness. States have cut $4.35 billion in public mental health spending from 2009 to 2012, according to the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD). Wyoming will join their ranks in 2013.

We recently had a case in Casper, Wyoming, where a young man murdered his father and his father's girlfriend and then committed suicide. No guns were involved; lethal weapons in this case where a compound bow and a hunting knife. The young man drove all the way from Connecticut to Casper to do this deed. That takes planning. The deed itself takes rage and focus and something else that we can't name.

What's at stake? Lynn Parramore writes in Alternet:

Thanks to the misguided austerity policies embraced by conservatives, more people are falling through the cracks. There are not enough psychiatric beds, treatment services or community support programs. Medication is expensive, and insurance companies routinely leave patients inadequately covered (the Affordable Care Act will hopefully address this problem by finally putting psychiatric illnesses on par with other health issues).

Mental healthcare workers have been laid off. Vulnerable people are neglected until their situation becomes acute – often after it’s too late. Many are incarcerated, often subjected to solitary confinement because prison officials don’t know what to do with them. Others are homeless –- as many as 45 percent of the people living on the streets suffer from mental illness.

"Misguided austerity policies" have caused the Republican-dominated Wyoming Legislature and Governor Mead to slash the state's healthcare budget. Let's hope they're prepared for the consequences.

Gallatin County, Montana, borders Yellowstone. Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin speaks about some of those budget-cutting consequences in the March 22, 2012, report to Congress by the NASMHPD:

Police forces are experiencing a significant increase in psychiatric emergencies, which is a direct result of mental health funding reductions. In Gallatin County, Montana — an area twice the size of Rhode Island, encompassing Bozeman and part of Yellowstone National Park — Sheriff Brian Gootkin oversees 48 deputies. He said his force is “experiencing a significant increase” in psychiatric emergencies, which he said was a “direct result of mental health funding reductions” and that his officers have become an involuntary component of the State of Montana’s emergency psychiatric response teams.

--clip--

He pleaded to federal lawmakers in Helena and in Congress to stop cutting funds for community-based mental health services. He reiterated that people in psychiatric crisis need to receive community-based mental health services staffed by licensed professionals — not in the back of a patrol car.

Sheriff Gootkin’s fear is that if we continue to go down this dangerous path, both public safety in Gallatin County and access to emergency medical care will be compromised. He concluded, “The result will have a huge impact, not only on people with mental illness, but the entire community.”

If Tea Party Slim had a pair of spurs, he'd wear them to the farmer's market to rattle veggie-eating Liberals

Tea Party Slim and I sip coffee and talk about progress.

“I don't want to see Cheyenne get any bigger,” he says. “It will lose its Old West character.”

I sip my latte. “Old West character?”

He nods. “You know, Cheyenne Frontier Days, rodeo, country-western music, steaks as big as my cowboy hat, Old West shootouts, horses and cattle, boots and spurs.”

I look at Slim. He was wearing a plaid shirt and jeans. His UW ball cap rested on the table. On the way in, I saw that he wore sensible shoes. “Nobody's trying to take away your boots, Slim.”

He shakes his head. “All of these people moving into Laramie County,” he said. “They'll change the place. It will lose its conservative character.”

I thought about the recent election. Wyoming's lone Republican House member and one of its Republican senators were reelected by wide margins. Democrats lost one of their 14 legislative seats (out of 90). Tea Party types were elected to the county commission. The state gave Romney his second-biggest margin (after Utah) over President Obama. Meanwhile, our southern neighbor Colorado legalizes marijuana and goes even more blue and it's one of the battleground states that hands Obama the victory.

“So you expect an invasion of Colorado Liberals any day?” I ask.

“We have a new supercomputing center west of town and Microsoft is building a data center right next door. Microsoft is also building a test site east of town to see if biogas from our waste treatment plant can power computers.”

“What's wrong with that,” I say. “Isn't that economic development? Don't you want your kids and grandkids to find good jobs in Wyoming?”

“But we give these companies millions of dollars in financial incentives. Why do the taxpayers have to foot the bill? Microsoft owns the damn planet.”

“That's Google that owns the planet, and maybe Facebook.” I smile. I know that Slim is on Facebook a lot with his pet rants. I've been tempted to unfriend him but don't want to hurt his feelings.

“And downtown? Why does the city have to subsidize downtown development. Let the free market decide what businesses go downtown.”

“The free market turned downtown into a ghost town. It wasn't until the legislature provided funding and the city matched it that we were able to save the train depot and turn it into a gathering place and a museum and that wonderful outdoor plaza. I've seen you at the downtown farmer's market.”

“You can have a farmer's market anywhere. A Wal-Mart parking lot, for instance.”

“Why isn't it at the Wal-Mart parking lot?”

“Hell if I know.”

“Maybe Wal-Mart fears the competition? Maybe it doesn't like vegans and assorted Liberals wandering around its parking lot?”

“It's no competition to Wal-Mart. They're even building another Super Wal-Mart east of town. I love shopping at Wal-Mart because I know it irritates you Lefties.”

He had me there. “What would you do about downtown, Slim? How would you deal with all of those absentee landlords who are holding on to their properties so they can maximize their investment when commercial real estates improves.”

“I have no problem with that. People should be able to do what they want with their property. We don't need the U.N. coming in a taking away our God-given right to own a building or a piece of land.”

“Even when doing so damages the livability of your town?”

Slim puts down his coffee. “Livability. There you go with some of that U.N. Agenda 21 lingo.”

“I'm just talking about making my town a nice place to live. Isn't that what you want?”

“I want to live in a place where a man's home is his castle and he can protect it any way he wants. I don't need some urban city planners coming in spouting about social justice and environmental justice, telling me I can't burn wood in my fireplace or park my RV out on the street.”

I'd read an interview in our local paper with new county commissioners M. Lee Hasenauer and Buck Holmes. They are both fixated on Agenda 21 and urban planners spouting off about social justice. They want to keep Laramie County western, whatever that means. “You're against planning for the future?”

“I'm against big city experts coming in and doing the planning,” says Slim.

“You don't want any planning?”

“Let the free market decide.”

I drain the last of my coffee. “What would you do, Slim?”

He looks pensive as he stares into his cup. “Not a thing,” he finally says. “I like this place the way it is. Conservative. Gun rights protected. Governor fights the feds. I can park my RV where I want.”

Slim has a hulking RV. It blocks out the sun when he parks it in front of my house.

“Why would the U.N. Want to tell you where to park your RV?” I ask.

“That's what they want. They want to tell us where to live and what to drive and the width of our streets and what kind of energy we can use.”

“And they want to take away our boots and spurs. Do you have boots and spurs Slim? If I remember correctly, you grew up in suburbs somewhere in Ohio.”

He shifts in his chair. “That may be, but I'm a Wyomingite now. I don't need any spurs but I have five pairs of boots and I wear them.”

“When you go shopping at Wal-Mart?”

He levels his gaze at me. “I'll wear them any damn where I please.”

“Even to the downtown farmer's market?”

“Especially the downtown farmer's market. My cowboy hat, too, and my Wranglers, and my gun because I have a concealed carry permit. If I had spurs, I'd wear those too, so you pantywaist organic-farming Liberals would hear them jingle-jangle-jingle as I walked toward you.”

“They might quiver in their Birkenstocks, Slim. Then they'll sell you some organically-grown local produce and some home-baked bread and some grass-fed bison steaks and locally roasted coffee sweetened with unpasteurized goat's milk.”

Says Slim: “Those are some Old West traditions I can get behind.”

Deadlocks and Jalan Crossland perform Dec. 21 for Save the Hoback benefit

The Deadlocks and Jalan Crossland perform a benefit for Save the Hoback on Dec. 21 at the Center for the Arts in Jackson. Money will go to a fund to stop energy exploration in the Wyoming Range south of Jackson, which is home to the Hoback headwaters. Tickets are $20 or $100 for VIP with food and cocktails. More info at jhunderground.

Shop locally for the holidays at UUCC WinterMart this weekend

Gifts made by artists, crafts people and other vendors of handmade wares can be found at the annual Unitarian Universalist Church of Cheyenne WinterMart, 3005 Thomes Avenue, December 14-15, Friday 4:30-6:30 pm, Saturday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Lunch and baked goods will be available. Proceeds benefit programs supported by UUCC. FMI: Terry at (307) 214-3932, UUCC at (307) 638-4554.

Books about vanishing glaciers and wildlife art make WY Outdoor Council''s "best of" list

Dr, Janice H. Harris is the former chair of the Women's Studies Department at the University of Wyoming. As president of the Wyoming Outdoor Council board of directors, she offers her list of best books for 2012 on the subjects of natural history and the environment. Sad to say I haven't read any of the books on her list, but plan to remedy that in 2013. 

She has high praise for an art book, Bob Kuhn: Drawing on Instinct, edited by Adam Duncan Harris (University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 978-0806143019). Dr. Harris adds the caveat that the editor is her son, a curator at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson. But there's no caveat when it comes to quality. We have this book in our office and it's a beauty. Bob Kuhn spent a long lifetime sketching and painting animals. He also served as mentor to scores of wildlife artists in Wyoming and elsewhere. The museum has a lot of Kuhn's work -- drop in and visit next time you're in The Hole.

Another of her selections with Wyoming ties is Ice: Portraits of Vanishing Glaciers, James Balog and Terry Tempest Williams (Rizzoli, ISBN 0847838862). This features photographs from the Extreme Ice Survey along with observations by noted environmental writer (and part-time Wyoming resident) Williams. This should be mandatory reading for any Wyoming global warming deniers. Williams was writer in residence at UW a few years ago and ruffled a few feathers with her enviro town meetings held at various locales around the state. 

The one I plan on reading first is Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe, Charlotte Gill, (Greystone Books, ISBN 978-1-55365-977-8). Here are Dr. Harris's reflections on the book:

One of first things you notice when you start reading Charlotte Gill is her wit. Given the title and the cover of the book, she had me initially skimming here and there to see where these dirt-eating, tree-planting folks live. I figured remote Brazil. Not at all. When not planting trees in Cascadia, from February through October in the Pacific Northwest, Gill lives in Vancouver writing award-winning short stories. It shows. I loved Eating Dirt. I now want to read Ladykillers, winner of the British Columbia Book Prize for fiction. How can a book about being wet, filthy, bitten, and exhausted be such a joy to read, such a page turner, such a rich introduction into the history and current practices of the timber industry of the northwest? This is a gem.

Gill is a fellow short story writer, and she has wit -- what's better than that?

Workers urged to share their voices in a "community-building, creative investigation of what it means to labor in Wyoming"

Today's news from Michigan shows that the Republican war on workers continues unabated. Southern Wyoming once had a strong union presence in the mines and on the railroads. But most of the railroad jobs were moved out of Rawlins and Rock Springs and the mines got all "Right-to-Work-State" on its workers.

Mark Nowak is a documentary poet, teacher and labor activist who will will serve as eminent writer-in-residence for the University of Wyoming creative writing program in February. He and I are two of the writers featured in Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking out the Jams, a 2010 anthology from Coffee House Press.

This is an excerpt about working in a steel mill from Mark's poetry series, "$00 / Line / Steel / Train," which is included in the anthology:

Because the (brake) past is used because the tearing  (past) of the (brick) form is used is used because the fence (in) of the (goddam) frame is used is used is utterly used against us and by us and upon us and for us is used is used in the present (past) future (form) we are used yet users yet used.

Every day you put your life on the line when you went into that iron house. Every day you sucked up dirt and took a chance on breaking your legs or breaking your back. And anyone who's worked in there knows what I'm talking about.

Mark sent along this info about the "Working (in Wyoming)" project he'll be conducting when he's in the state. Here it is:

Working (in Wyoming) is a community-building, creative investigation of what it means to labor in Wyoming. A series of creative writing workshops will be held in southeastern  Wyoming (Laramie and Cheyenne) in February of 2013.

These workshops will be facilitated by Wyoming writing instructors and students in the University of Wyoming's MFA program in creative writing. In these workshops, Wyoming workers of diverse backgrounds will have the opportunity to collaborate with others in the Wyoming community to create a short piece of creative writing (a poem, a parable, a short story, a piece of flash fiction/nonfiction, etc.).

Working (in Wyoming) will culminate in a large-scale yet intimate evening event in Laramie on February 28. Here working people from across the state will have the opportunity to share what it means to work in Wyoming with a presentation of pieces created in workshops. 

To get involved in the project, contact Kay Northrop at knorthrop@uwyo.edu or Brie Fleming at briennafleming5@gmail.com Read more on the project's Facebook page.

Mark's blog is filled with info about union organizing and strikes worldwide. If you think that workers in the U.S. don't have anything in common with coal miners in China or maquiladora laborers in Mexico, think again, and take a look at Mark's Coal Mountain blog.

Note to Wyoming Sens. Enzi and Barrasso and Rep. Lummis: NO CUTS!

Overpass Light Brigade posted this: From the San Diego Labor Council's candlelight event outside Sen. Dianne Feinstein's downtown office to avoid cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs; instead to pressure Congress to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans. NO CUTS!

Seeing new West Coast coal terminals as a red-state, blue-state issue

On Wyofile, San Juan Islands' resident Charlie West offers a tongue-in-cheek modest proposal: You send us your coal, we'll send you our trash.

West notes that the wide open spaces of Wyoming and Montana have plenty of big holes for the trash of the 48 million residents of Washington, Oregon and California. It's only a fair trade, right? You send us your dirty coal and we send you our dirty trash.

A batch of inland Republicans, including our very own Cynthia Lummis, is trying to browbeat Washington's coastal residents in permitting a new coal shipping facility. West reports a lively conversation at the local tavern which goes something like this:

“We’re selling taxpayer-owned coal for next to nothing, so it can be sent somewhere else, to run someone else’s factories, and employ someone else’s people while we don’t have enough jobs in this country?”

“It makes no sense, pollute the air with trains and ships to get the coal there, then they burn it and their pollution drifts back here!”

We all pay for dirty coal. Global warming is real, no matter what the Know Nothings say in my Deep Red State of Wyoming. And while Wyoming rakes in taxes from its oil and gas and coal, including almost a billion federal dollars from energy resources extracted on public land (see previous post), coastal residents pay the price with rising sea levels and whopper storms.

Forward-thinking blue states such as WA, OR and CA invest heavily in alternative energy while WY continues burning and shipping coal. The coal is shipped to China and India where it is burned, creating more CO2 in the atmosphere -- this speeds global warming. The ice sheets melt, forcing a rise in ocean levels which swamps blue-state cities, drowning Liberal, latte-drinking, mountain-bike-riding voters by the millions. Wyoming builds a big wall at its borders to keep out the riff raff. We keep mining and burning and shipping coal, secure in the knowledge that sea levels have to get pretty darn high before bitchin' waves begin to break on the beaches of Cheyenne. Besides, the wall will keep the water out. We'll call them dikes. And we can open our own ports to ship our own coal to China and India, those parts that aren't at the bottom of Davy Jones Locker.

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades. I better wear shades, what with the dissolving ozone layer and blinding sun and all.

"Carbon Sink" revisited by Cheyenne's Michaela Rife

Cheyenne's Michaela Rife penned a meditation on Chris Drury's late, lamented "Carbon Sink" sculpture at the University of Wyoming for the Nevada Museum of Arts Art + Environment site. Read the Nov. 21 piece here. Michaela is an arts writer who is in Vancouver, B.C., pursuing a master's degree at the University of British Columbia’s Critical and Curatorial Studies program.

Two holiday choral concerts on tap for Cheyenne

Some big holiday-oriented concerts on the Cheyenne schedule for the weeks before Christmas.

First up is the "Unto Us a Child is Born" performance on Monday, Dec. 10, 7 p.m., at St. Mary's Cathedral, 2107 Capitol Ave. It's an "a capella concert with the LCCC men's and women's ensembles, Cantorei and the collegiate chorale that will showcase scared choral arrangements, ancient and modern anthems, all combined to weave a magical performance with something for everyone." Admission is free, although donations will be accepted for the Comea House, Cheyenne's homeless shelter. My daughter Annie will again be a soloist. You can see a You Tube clip of the Dec. 1 LCCC choral performance at the Cheyenne Civic Center. Yes, I am a proud pops. I'm also quite impressed by the quality of music programs at our community college. I'm equally impressed by the amount of financial aid available at LCCC. This county resident will be backing any expansion plans proposed by LCCC and will gladly do battle with any Know Nothings who oppose such plans. BTW, the poster for this concert shows the silhouette of the baby Jesus in the manger with his hands raised high to heaven. When I first  saw it, I was convinced that the babe was doing the "Spirit Fingers" routine from "Bring It On." Jesus has spirit fingers -- yeah! Maybe it's "holy spirit fingers."

On Sunday, Dec. 16, 7:30 p.m., the Cheyenne Capital Chorale performs "Seasons in Song" at St. Mary's. It will feature selections from Vivaldi's "Gloria" and will be filmed by Wyoming PBS for a later broadcast. Free, but donations will be accepted at the door. Go here for more info.

Music for the holidays. A great gift for yourself.

Wyoming among top ten states in scholarships lawmakers receive to attend ALEC meetings

From Joan Barron's article in the Sunday Casper Star-Tribune:

Late last month, 17 newly elected Wyoming legislators attended a three-day meeting at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C. The event was sponsored by the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.

On Dec. 3, the nonprofit citizen-lobbyist organization Common Cause and the Center for Media and Democracy released a report that said Wyoming is among the top 10 states in the amount of corporate “scholarships” lawmakers receive to attend ALEC meetings.

Read the entire article here.

Read my earlier post about one of the ALEC model bills geared toward eliminating Wyoming state employees' defined-benefit retirement plan.

Local concert promoter shows creativity in booking heavy metal, rock and hip-hop acts

Neat article in this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle about local concert promoter Jake Byrd. At 19, Jake is already a seasoned impresario, a promoter of rock, heavy metal and hip-hop concerts at downtown's Atlas Theatre and other venues. He's brought bands such as Static-X, Alien Ant Farm and Tech N9ne to a city known more for Toby Keith than Psychostick. Not bad for someone just a few years out of high school. And he faces a lack of proper local performance spaces. The Atlas is a funky space, and the Cheyenne Little Theatre makes money from renting it out. But it's a shame there's not a dedicated concert venue in Cheyenne. Meanwhile, Jake keeps bringing in the talent. You have to buy the Sunday paper to read the article, as the WTE lacks a proper web site.

How about a WWInc membership for that writer on your gift list?

I've been attending the annual conference of Wyoming Writers, Inc., since I first came to Wyoming in 1991. I've been to June conferences in Cody (twice), Casper (many times), Cheyenne, Rock Springs, Sundance (Bear Lodge Writers home turf), Riverton (the year after the hotel caught fire) and Thermopolis (with my teen daughter). In 2013, the conference will be in Laramie for (I think) the first time. This June 7-9 conference is shaping up to be a fine one despite the fact that I am one of the presenters. You've been forewarned! I'll be talking about short stories and will be shilling my new book which, I hope, will be hot off the presses come May. I'll also address blogging and social media for writers.

Who are some of the writers, editors and agents featured at WWInc conferences? Glad you asked. Performance poet M.L. Liebler, mystery writer Margaret Coel, novelist Tim Sandlin, Graywolf Press editor Katie Dublinski, Coffee House Press publisher Chris Fishbach, Hollywood screenwriter Ben Garant, father/daughter poetry team Robert and Lee Ann Roripaugh, poet and musician David Romtvedt, western novelist Johnny Boggs, essayist Teresa Jordan, folklorist Hal Cannon, romance novelist Amanda Cabot and scores of others. 

Wyoming Writers, Inc. (WWInc) has had its ups and downs over its 38 years. Some of its founders remain active members, and one of the challenges is attracting and keeping new members. Here's one way to do this, taken from the new and improved WWInc web site:

WHAT DO YOU GIVE A WRITER? If you're looking for a special Christmas gift for your favorite writer, or perhaps there's a birthday coming up that deserves something more than another book, lunch out or a gift certificate to the same ol' place... Consider giving a membership to Wyoming Writers, Inc., the oldest statewide, multi-genre writers' organization in Wyoming! Go to the "Become a Member or Renew Your Membership" page and either fill out the form online or print and mail it, with the appropriate payment (add student ID information if needed) to: Wyoming Writers, Inc., P. O. Box 999, Sundance, WY 82729 Help us increase our membership and give a wonderful gift to a writer at the same time!

I'm a member so this is not the appropriate gift for me. A much better gift would be a Kindle or perhaps that beard trimmer I have been looking at with envy. No neckties, thank you very much! And especially no Wyoming neckties (know what I mean?)

Did I mention that WWInc is a recipient of a Wyoming Governor's Arts Award?

Anyway, it's a great group. Its members are accomplished and friendly, and always find a way to put on a smashing conference.

Give the gift of membership. You'll be glad you did.

Wyoming rakes in the federal dough for energy and mineral extraction

File this under That Darn Federal Gubment:

The Department of the Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) announced today that more than $2.1 billion was disbursed to 36 states as part of the state share of Federal revenues collected in Fiscal Year 2012 from energy and mineral production that occurred on Federal lands within their borders, and offshore on the Outer Continental Shelf. 

One state that starts with a "W" received $995,169,098, or about 47 percent of the total. No, it wasn't Washington or Wisconsin or West Virginia.

It was Wyoming.

Several other big almost-square states also got big numbers. New Mexico and Utah. All that energy and all those minerals.

Get the numbers at http://statistics.onrr.gov

Tip of the hat to South Dakota's always-alert Interested Party blog.

Message to Wyoming Republican legislators: LOWRSTFA!

LOWRSTFA!

Last year, Republican legislators tried to change the Wyoming Retirement System from a defined-benefit program to one that was based on a defined-contribution model. Because there is no logical reason to change a system that is solvent and well-managed, one must look elsewhere for explanations, musn't one? Blame the Tea Party -- that's what I usually do. True, the Tea Party hates government and government employees. But there are more insidious forces at work.

No, not Agenda 21.

A batch of Republican legislators are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC. The organization, heavily-funded by right-wing gazillionaires the Koch Brothers, drafts model legislation at national gatherings for its stooges to take home to their state legislatures. A series of these bills attempt to end defined-benefit retirement plans and replace them with IRA-style plans funded entirely with employee contributions and managed by an outside party which will rake in millions in fees from the pension fund. ALEC Exposed carries a model bill similar to the one we saw during the 2012 Wyoming Legislature. Go to Public Employees Portable Retirement Option Pro Act Exposed. 

The Wyoming Retirement System recently conducted a poll of its members. The findings were announced today and aren't surprising:

A majority of Wyoming Retirement System members indicated their pensions are an important part of their employment benefits and more than half of active members want to keep the current defined benefit plan, results from WRS’ 2012 Member Survey showed.
 
WRS sent a survey to active members and retirees that asked about demographics, attitudes and beliefs about WRS, customer service, the preferences of a defined benefit versus defined contribution plan and the usefulness of communication resources. The 2012 survey, which was conducted from mid-October through Nov. 20, was the second year WRS surveyed its members.

Regarding their pensions, the survey showed that 82.9 percent of active members indicated their pensions were “very important” or “mostly important” in keeping them in their current employment. The survey also showed that 86.2 percent of retirees indicated their pensions were “very important” or “mostly important” in keeping them in their employment.

The survey also indicated that 58.1 percent of active members said they prefer the current defined benefit plan over a defined contribution plan, and 29.9 percent said they would need more information to decide.

There were 2,338 active members and 582 retirees who responded to the surveys. The following is a summary of the responses.

Active Member Results

• Approximately three quarters of respondents were “Positive” or “Mostly Positive” regarding their attitude toward WRS, belief that WRS operates in their best interest and that WRS is financially strong.
• The customer service rating for WRS was favorable overall with 67.8 percent of respondents rating it “Excellent” or “Good.”

Retiree Survey Results:

• 7.3 percent of respondents reported having been a rehired retiree at some time compared to 11.8 percent last year.
• Retirees reported even more favorably than active members regarding their attitude toward WRS (91.1 percent positive), belief that WRS operates in their best interest (88.6 percent agreement) and that WRS is financially strong (87.7 percent agreement). 
• The customer service response was very positive, with 90.4 percent of respondents rating it “Excellent” or “Good.”

The following infographics show the complete results of the surveys:

• Active Member Survey Infographic
• Retiree Survey Infographic

CONTACT:   Aimee Inama
                      Information Officer
                      Phone: (307) 777-7776
                      Fax: (307) 777-3621; aimee.inama1@wyo.gov 

About WRS: WRS administers retirement plans for roughly 42,000 public employees in Wyoming and 23,000 retirees and has approximately $6.5 billion in assets.

LOWRSTFA?

Leave Our Wyoming Retirement System The Freak Alone. Feel free to use your own expletive in place of "freak."

More info on the battle to save the state retirement plan at the Coalition for a Healthy Retirement web site.