April 2017 brings flowers, poetry and demonstrations -- snow, too

It's snowing. April comes in like a lion...

Those cruel bastards that make up the Republican Party will get more wake-up calls in April with demos by concerned Americans who've had it up to here with the likes of these people.

First up in April, though, is National Poetry Month. In the past, it has been an occasion for cordial celebratory readings of poetry, past and present. This year, poetry takes on new meaning and a new urgency. Words matter. Expression matters. Heart and soul matter.

To get things off on the right note, here is a spring poem I like. It's Noma Dumezweni reading Wordsworth's "Daffodils" on BBC Radio 4. Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio

William Wordsworth seemed to me a stuffy old Brit before I took an undergrad English course at the University of Florida on "The Early Romantic Poets." Wordsworth, Coleridge and Blake were early, calendar-wise. The late Romantics, which I took the following semester, covered Keats, Shelley and Byron. An amazing group of poets. From The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to Ozymandias. Wordsworth noting the beauty of spring daffodils in the lake country to Byron dying for Green independence at a young age. Blake's mysticism and otherworldly drawings.

Think poetry as you attend any of these other activities celebrating free expression.

Wyoming is the site for three March for Science events on April 22. The largest one will be in Laramie. There also is Pinedale and Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. To RSVP to your local March for Science, go to https://www.marchforscience.com/rsvp.

Why March for Science? If you were paying attention the past three months, Trump and the Republicans have marched out one anti-science bill after another. It's a horror show. So we march.

Many of us in Cheyenne will carpool to Laramie. Marchers meet outside of the UW Classroom Building (the lawn on 9th and Ivinson) at noon and from there march downtown for an Earth Day rally with music, info booths and speakers. Probably food and beverages. If you are interested in being part of a Laramie citywide clean-up, meet at Coal Creek Coffee at 10 a.m.

But before the March for Science comes the Tax March on Saturday, April 15, 10 a.m., at the Cheyenne IRS HQ, 5353 Yellowstone Rd. We will be making clever signs on Friday evening. These sign-making sessions have been dubbed Wines and Signs or, you prefer, Whine and Signs. Keep posted on the Tax March Facebook page.at https://www.facebook.com/events/1256681387753289/.

And time to plan ahead for Monday, May 1. The May Day March to Keep Families Together is sponsored by Juntos Wyoming and convenes at Cheyenne Depot Plaza from 2-5 p.m. While at the march, check out the art exhibit in the Depot Building. FMI: https://www.facebook.com/events/223220958143613/

And for those who like meetings (and who doesn't?) the Laramie County Democrats monthly meeting takes place at the IBEW HQ in Cheyenne, 6:30 p/m/-whenever. Lots of newbies been showing up as they are upset with all things Trump and we don't blame them.

If you like to drink and complain about the Trump regime, please come to Laramie County Drinking Liberally on 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 20, at the Albany Bar downtown.

And don't forget the Laramie County Town Hall Meeting with Rep. Jim Byrd at 6 p.m., April 4, in the Laramie County Public Library's Cottonwood Room.

More events are planned. Check out the Prairie Progressives calendar at http://prairieprogressives.com/calendar/

Wyofile's Studio Wyoming Review features my take on Wimmer exhibit

Studio Wyoming Review is the section Wyofile devotes to art in Wyoming, specifically the visual arts. I am one of the writers providing reviews for the Review. Spearheaded by my former Wyoming Arts Council colleague, Camellia El-Antably, SWR fills a gap in arts coverage formerly addressed by some of the state's larger newspapers, if at all. Camellia is an artist who co-owns a Cheyenne gallery, Clay Paper Scissors. It's housed in a renovated downtown building and features work by contemporary regional artists, most of them from Wyoming.

My first contribution to SWR appeared today in WyoFile with the headline: "Wimmer collages draw on past, touch on today's politics" Feel free to read it and tell me what you think.

And keep reading Wyofile. It's a welcome addition to the Wyoming media scene. Not new, really, although some of you may be noticing it for the first time.

Keep reading.

P.S.: Attention artists.  Mystery Print Gallery in Pinedale and Clay Paper Scissors are co-sponsoring "Rendezvous: A Juried Exhibit of Wyoming Artists." Enter your work via Submittable through April 14.

During spring cleaning, the bell tolls for booklovers

What do I keep? What do I recycle? What do I throw away?

The questions of spring cleaning.

Over the weekend, I vowed to clean up my writing room. Spring cleaning fever hit us on Saturday as we helped our daughter move to a new place in Fort Collins. We tackled her room first, which she hadn't lived in for 18 months. Because it was vacant, I used it as a storage room for the stuff overflowing from my office. The jig was up. She's at home, searching for stuff for the move. So I had to comb through the boxes of receipts and old checkbooks and manuscripts and books.

I tackled the books first. The difficulty is that I want to read parts of a book to decide if it's a keeper. Got stuck on a Brad Leithauser poem, "The Odd Last Thing She Did" by his collection of the same title. It's about a suicidal young woman who disappears after leaving her car running on a cliff overlooking the ocean. "The car/Is Empty. A Friday, the first week/Of June. Nineteen fifty-three." A mystery is at the heart of this poem. Could be the setting for a 250-page hard-boiled mystery novel, a case for Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe. But it's a four-page poem, long for a poem, short for a novel. The summer night is lovely with "the stars easing through the blue,/Engine and ocean breathing together." She could have been abducted, but that's not what the poem implies. She threw herself off the cliff. A suicide. A pretty, 23-year-old, and one with a car. But she didn't want to live.

"What are you doing?" Chris asks

I look up. "Reading," I say.

"That's not spring cleaning."

"Yes, but..." I want to say that this poem is wonderful and filled with mystery. It's why we read. But realize that I have been caught in the act.

Now my daughter is looking at me. She writes poetry. "C'mon, Dad," she says, hauling another box of rejected books out to the car trunk. She will take three boxes of books to the library today.

Caught in the act. I close Brad's book and put it into a box labeled "Mike books." Our rooms and basement have many such boxes as the bookshelves are full. In some circles, I would be labeled a hoarder. But among booklovers? Also in the box is "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy, which I keep pledging to finally read; "The Voice of America," stories by Rick DeMarinis, which doesn't have my fave DeMarinis story ("Under the Wheat") but does have "The Voice of America" and "Aliens;" and a 1968 Fawcett Crest Book edition of Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" or, if you prefer the German, "Im Westen Nichts Neues." I have been tempted lately to reread the latter book as I am working on a novel set in the years after The Great War. But I have other research to do and may never get to it.

Therein lies the bookie's dilemma. What to keep, what to send to the library? I cannot bear to throw away a book as it seems too much like burning a book. Someone, somewhere wants to read the book that I don't want. Just as I want to read a book that someone else doesn't want, which is why I stop at garage sales.

I am 66 with grown children who are both readers. What will I make of all of this when I am gone? My accountant father painstakingly put the division of his library in his will. He read history and presidential biographies and autobiographies. I got everything from Lincoln to Kennedy, including a beat-up 1885 edition of the "Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, Volume 1." Not sure which of my four brothers got the other volumes, if there were any. But I also got a trade paperback of the Grant memoirs which is comprehensive but not nearly as compelling as the original.

Technology is changing reading and collecting habits. Old books fall apart. Indie bookstores die along with their proprietors and aging customers. Good news, though -- it appears that this trend may be reversing. Our kids read books but spend a lot of time on Kindle and online reading.

I am tempted to bring up all these issues with my family. But I am in a losing battle against time. Nobody will care for these books as I do. Some will be claimed by my heirs but most will end up in library second-hand sales or in paperback bookstores or on the curb in garage sales. I will get rid of those that I can now and let time take its toll on the rest. John Donne said it well, and I don't have a single Donne book, not even holdovers from my undergrad and grad school English courses.

Here's the quote, which you may recognize:

"... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Before those bells start tolling, I need to tackle these books. Wish me luck.

Call for artists: Juntos Wyoming May 1 exhibit

Here's a call for entries for a May 1 exhibit in Cheyenne that's part of the May Day March to Keep Families Together sponsored by Juntos Wyoming:

ATTENTION! Calling all Artists from all walks of life...painters, writers, poets, photographers, graphic designers, sculptors and dancers to join us May 1. We are want to have an artist exhibit showcasing the struggles immigrants endure, sacrifices and successes through artwork and literature. 

Any artist interested in participating and showcasing their work please contact: adriennevetter@gmail.com with info by April 19. Please include:
-artist name
-name of artwork
-medium of artwork
-is art for sale.

Artists need to arrive with their work and setup between 9-11 a.m. So it can be displayed for the duration of the day. Thank you.

En Espanol:

Nos gustaría invitarles a todos a nuestra marcha anual! Este año, es especialmente importante que se presente y se mantenga firme en contra de aquellos que harían daño a nuestras comunidades de inmigrantes. 

Únase a nosotros mientras luchamos para mantener a las familias juntas, en Wyoming.
¡Póngase en contacto con nosotros para ver cómo puede ser voluntario para ayudar!  

Juntos (Together).

P.S. If you have some lightweight display walls you can lend Juntos for this exhibit, please comment below or message me on Facebook.

Trump and his minions jeopardize 50 years of arts progress in Wyoming

I missed The Idea of Trump postcard tsunami on March 15 since I was out of town. But did pick up some postcards from Ernie November and sent them on their way yesterday to Congressional delegation. Thanks to Melanie Shovelski for the postcards, yours free for the asking at Ernie November in downtown Cheyenne. The local group 307 Craftivists are fully engaged in The Resistance.

Dear Americans :

Trump's proposed 2018 budget stinks.

It cuts or eliminates all of the programs that I care about, programs used by my family members and neighbors in Wyoming. Eliminate Meals on Wheels? Come on, what kind of heartless bastards are these people? School lunches? The Arts Endowment (NEA)? The Humanities Endowment (NEH)? NPR? The list is endless. The Trumpies are following Grover Norquist's admonition to make the federal government so small you can drown it in a bathtub. Except for the Department of Defense budget -- that grows like Trump's ass. We can see Trump and his minions following the script of the strongman. Impoverish the citizenry, take away their rights and voices, and wage endless war.

Eliminating the NEA cuts me to the quick. The National Endowment for the Arts turned 50 in 2015. It began as one of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs. Johnson left a fantastic legacy, except for a little skirmish called the Vietnam War. The NEA thrived under Nixon, Ford, Carter, even Reagan, for God's sake. Bush 1, and then came Clinton and the Republican culture wars. The NEA was devastated due to Newt & Co. cuts. Rebounded under Dubya and Obama. And now, we have Dufus in the White House and he doesn't read books and others in his cabinet have only read Ayn Rand, over and over again. I read Rand too, back when I was a teen and didn't know any better.

I worked at the NEA for two years and the Wyoming Arts Council for 23. We did great work during that time. The WAC, which was spawned by the NEA and turns 50 this year, gets about 40 percent of its budget from the NEA. If that funding disappears, and state government continues to get cut due to lack of foresight among state legislators, Wyoming will be in trouble.

As an arts supporter, I received this dispatch from the Wyoming Arts Council -- you can also find it on the WAC web site. It cautions Wyomingites and arts orgs to please remain calm and keep doing the good work that you do. The work is important. Civic engagement is yuge. Without it -- sad.

Here's the letter:

On March 16, 2017, the White House released a budget blueprint for Fiscal Year 2018. This proposal calls for reductions to a range of government programs, including the elimination of federal support for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  

It is important to remember that the legislative branch ultimately decides how to allocate federal funds. This is not the final word; this is the beginning of a conversation. The budget process will likely last well into late summer/early fall.  

As a state agency, the Wyoming Arts Council does not design or coordinate advocacy efforts. However, part of the Arts Council’s mission is to ensure that constituents are informed about the impact of the arts in every community across the state. We invite you to look to us as a resource for information and continue to engage us as a connector. Please feel free to visit our website for information about the value of the arts and the reach of both state and federal funding of the arts.

Should you be interested in advocacy efforts at the state and national level, we suggest you connect with the Wyoming Arts Alliance, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and Americans for the Arts.  

Please continue to apply for open grant applications from the National Endowment for the Arts, Wyoming Arts Council, and the Western States Arts Federation. The proposed budget will not influence any open application deadlines.  

We invite you to welcome this situation as an opportunity to articulate the impact the arts have had on your life and in your community.  

We encourage you to actively engage in this process by which our nation proclaims its values and vision. 

During this time, please know that the Arts Council staff will continue our work to ensure the arts are a driving force in building a stronger Wyoming. Thank you for all you do to support the arts in Wyoming.

Sincerely,
Michael Lange
Executive Director
Wyoming Arts Council

Trumpcare is a huge issue as we prepare for Children's Mental Health Awareness Week in May

Republicans are trying to sell us Trumpcare or, if you prefer, Wealthcare -- I also like Tryancare.

Everyone deserves quality, affordable mental health care. The system we have now is not so much a system as a scattershot approach that includes mental health professionals, emergency rooms, state hospitals, and treatment centers. Obamacare has helped insure millions and parity laws passed under both Democratic and Republican administrations have helped put mental illness treatment on par with other illnesses. Some mentally ill have found coverage with Medicaid Expansion (we didn't get it in Wyoming, thanks to the troglodytes in the legislature) or through disability clauses under SSI and SSDI. Negotiating the maze of local, state and federal coverage options can be a nightmare for someone who understands bureaucracy as I do. For a schizophrenic or bipolar person -- not so easy.

This announcement comes from the National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health:

As national events continue to illuminate the critical need for mental health care reform in this country, we must increase our efforts to educate the nation about the importance of prevention and early identification of mental health challenges. We must also highlight the fact that children are an integral part of a family unit and create an understanding amongst policy leaders and practitioners that healthy families are better equipped to support resilient children. Legislation, policies, and practices must fully endorse the undisputed importance of full family engagement and participation in the care and treatment of their children. Further, we must advocate for a holistic approach to children's mental health that includes the provision of supports that strengthen the family as they nurture resiliency. 

Please join us as we create a national dialogue about the importance of finding help, finding hope.  FFCMH is tracking events for Children's Mental Health Week, May 1-7. 

Send them your activities. Here's more info:

What are you doing for Children's Mental Health Awareness Week?  Please share the activities that your organization or group is planning for National Children's Mental Health Awareness Week with us. We would also like to see any photos of your event after the week has concluded. Please fill in the event submission form with information about the events and activities you will be holding in your community for Children's Mental Health Awareness Week.

I don't know of any events in Cheyenne planned for May 1-7. If I find one, I will post here.

Oklahoma artist Jack Fowler releases Woody Guthrie image to activists

Your message here: Oklahoma artist Jack Fowler released his image of Woody Guthrie to the rest of us, hoping we will make art and possibly political messages with it. Fowler projected this image on the Oklahoma State Capitol along with his own customized message, "How Did It Come To This" as a protest against the wingnuts in the Oklahoma State Legislature, which may even be worse as the Wyoming State Legislature, which is hard to believe. Fowler told Hyperallergic: “I released the blank image so people could write in their own statements. I have no more plans for ‘Woody’s Guitar’ except for encouraging and fanning the flames of the positive, tangible things that have started to result from it.” The authorities were not pleased, telling Fowler that next time he does any projecting of images on the state capitol, he faces a fine and/or seizure of property. I guess Oklahoma authorities are only proud of Woody's folk hero status when it suits them. FMI: http://hyperallergic.com/364138/this-projection-art-kills-fascists/

List for St. Patrick's Day: Top ten traits of Irish-Americans

What does it mean to be Irish-American?

Skin cancer, for one thing. We are light-skinned, except for the Black Irish who are not so much black as black-haired and dark-eyed. My mother was Black Irish, as was her father who came over from County Roscommon. Her brother John -- my uncle -- was often mistaken for a dweller of the Mediterranean, Italian or Spanish or even Basque, or possibly French like the Norman invaders. The Basques sailed the Atlantic and visited Ireland, maybe even made landfall in North America before other Europeans. Irish DNA maps are similar to those of Spain and Portugal and Normandy. You can look it up.

My initial question is important because we are in the midst of March and St. Patrick's Day arrives next week. It's the same week that March Madness begins and gives us two good reasons for day drinking. We also take a page from Mardi Gras in New Orleans and try to celebrate the entire month, or at least for a week or two leading up to The Big Day. Many St. Patrick's Day parades will be held this weekend, including the one in Denver which I will be attending. I was birthed in Denver, surrounded by Irish Sisters of Mercy, and my Irish grandfather is buried there. That gives me some claim to Irish-Americanism, Mile High City-style.

Did I mention that I have never traveled to Ireland to look up my ancestors? This is supposed to be on every Irish-American's wish list. I have gone 66 years without checking this off on mine. What's holding me back? Nothing, especially that I am now retired. I want to experience Bloomsday in Dublin, June 16. This is on my list because I can't seem to finish Joyce's 265,000-word masterpiece, Ulysses, hard as I try. I read Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Can't finish Ulysses. This makes me a member of a large club of people who have not finished Ulysses. I decided that a trip to Joyce's Dublin will help me with this task. And I will get to drink many pints of good beer in the process. I will get to hear Irish brogues and good music for a few days. That's enough.

I will make a list of "top ten traits of every Irish-American." Online top-ten lists are the bee's knees right now. A list will be instructional for us all, me included.

Ten traits of every Irish-American:
1. We are a freckle-faced, light-skinned people except when we are not.
2. At least one of our ancestors comes from Ireland. It's helpful if all of your ancestors came from Ireland, but not everyone is perfect.
3. We are Catholic, except when we are Lutheran or Episcopalian or Buddhist or Zoroastrian or Coptic or atheist or transcendentalist or.... Maybe that should be: We were raised Catholic but came to our senses once we were adults.
4. At least one of our ancestors fled the potato famine of the 1840s. When I lived in Boston, everyone's relatives seemed to have arrived on the Mayflower. That must have been one wicked big ship. And the potato famine? It was terrible, but we can't all use this as an excuse to blog about our Irish ancestors who almost died in the famine and then crossed the ocean in a leaky ship to be told "Irish need not apply" for jobs when they arrived in the U.S.
5. We all tell tales about our Irish ancestors who almost died in the famine and then crossed the ocean in a leaky ship to be told "Irish need not apply" for jobs when they arrived in the U.S.
6. We attended Catholic school. This may be a generational thing. I attended Catholic school as did  most of my eight brothers and sisters, for a little while, at least. We have stories of berserk nuns and cruel priests. Rulers across knuckles. After-school detentions where nuns smote us with cat-o'-nine-tails as we labored in the nunnery's vineyards. Our children and grandchildren think we are making up these stories because they all went to public schools.
7. We have big families. We did until some godforsaken Protestant told us about birth control. In the old days, we weren't allowed to consort with Protestants. The sixties changed all that.
8. We all have Irish names. My name is Michael Thomas Martin Shay. My wife is Christine Marie. My son is Kevin Michael Patrick. My daughter is Anne Marie. Yet, I have a nephew named Sean Martinez. America!
9. We celebrate St. Patrick's Day. It's almost mandatory to drink a green beer or a pint on March 17. We march in St. Patrick's Day parades unless we are LGBT veterans or twelve-steppers or disgruntled about the state of American politics. Everybody is Irish on  this day except when they are not.
10. We are inconsistent and stubborn. Except when we are not.

That's my top ten. Perhaps you have another list?

BTW, Erin go bragh, whatever that means. And slainte -- I know what that means. I plan to use it often on St. Patrick's Day.

Poetry matters in a time when words are devalued

When words are devalued, poetry matters.

It hit me on Monday night at the Poetry Out Loud state competition at the LCCC Theatre in Cheyenne.

Students traveled from high schools in Riverton, Jackson, Sundance, Worland, Buffalo and Moorcroft to recite poems. Prizes are involved, including a trip to Washington, D.C., for the winner where he or she might win a college scholarship. Still, Wyoming offers its best and brightest Hathaway scholarships and a host of financial aid packages to its lone four-year state university and seven community colleges. It may be that these students like poetry, or like the way it sounds. Some are theatre people who know how to memorize. Some are speech-and-debaters who know the tactics of presenting in public.

On this night, they and their chaperones had braved blizzard conditions to drive hours to Cheyenne.Some didn't make it as roads closed.

My role was prompter. I provide lines when the student got stuck. If they did, which they didn't. So I listened closely. I knew some of the poems. I can still recite Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade." The nuns made me memorize it during detention at St. Francis School in Wichita. That was detention in 1963 -- memorize a poem and recite it before you depart. The nuns had corporal punishment at their disposal.

Catholic school student: A nun hit me today at school.
Catholic school parent: That's nice, dear. Go wash up for dinner.

They could have made us memorize the Book of Exodus. In Latin. They chose poetry.

Last night, as I listened to Tennyson's poem, I realized that it was about a suicide mission during the Crimean War. Six hundred British cavalry rode into a Russian barrage and many never came back. The poem was meant to rally the Brits against the Russians or any foreigners who threatened John Bull. On the other side was Leo Tolstoy, recording the war from his P.O.V. The Crimean War was nasty and brutish, as are most wars. Listening to "Charge" now, I couldn't help but think of World War I and Korea and Vietnam.

Vietnam. Two of the students recited Bill Ehrhart's "Beautiful Wreckage." Ehrhart is a Vietnam combat veteran. He knows a few things about war.

In Vietnamese, Con Thien means
place of angels. What if it really was
instead of the place of rotting sandbags,
incoming heavy artillery, rats and mud. 

Ehrhart's words coming from the mouth of a 16-year-old holds a poignancy that only an older person can understand. Ehrhart went to war right out of high school so he wasn't much older than these students when he was in Con Thien with the rats and mud. In Trump's America, are we looking at the next generation of young people about to be transformed into warriors for a nebulous cause?

One poem that surprised me was Mina Loy's "Lunar Baedeker." The poet and the poem were new to me. The British poet was a Paris bohemian, mother, and artist. Her warfare was gender-based. A few lines from "Lunar Baedeker:"

A Silver Lucifer
serves
cocaine in cornucopia

Loy was a futurist, a member of the avant-garde who specialized in word play. My question: how come this is the first time I heard any of her poems?

Today is International Woman's Day and, in the U.S., #ADayWithoutWomen. Makes me curious about women poets such as Loy, Emily Bronte, Mary Cornish, Sara Teasdale, Brenda Cardena, Adelaide Crapsey, and Robyn Schiff. These were some of the poets the students decided to memorize and recite. They choose different subjects than male poets. No "Charge of the Light Brigade" from Loy. Instead, she wrote "Human Cylinders:"

Simplifications of men
In the enervating dusk;
Your indistinctness
Serves me the core of the kernel of you

Or, from "Parturition:"

Rises from the subconscious
Impression of a cat
With blind kittens
Among her legs
Same undulating life-stir
I am that cat

Avant-garde poets were not easily understood. But more erudition exists in these poems than the daily natterings of our current president.

Probably goes without saying. But there it is.

Get more info about Poetry Out Loud at the Wyoming Arts Council web site.

March for Science Wyoming steps off in Laramie on Earth Day 2017

Official logo of the March for Science Wyoming, set for Laramie on April 22. T-shirts are for sale with this design. All of the proceeds go to March for Science Wyoming. Go to  https://www.bonfire.com/mfs-wyoming/

March for Science 2017, Wyoming version, will be held on Saturday, April 22, in Laramie. This is one of the 300-plus satellite sites to the main march in Washington, D.C. Cheyenne residents will be bused in, returning the favor by Laramie folks who carpooled and rode the bus to Cheyenne on Jan. 21 for the Women's March.

April 22 is Earth Day, a good day to cut air pollution by pooling our resources. Also a great day for a march in Laramie, which is home to the state's only four-year university and a vibrant batch of science-oriented academics and researchers. An artistic bunch, too. The head of the UW Creative Writing Program is Jeff Lockwood, a writer and noted entomologist. J Shogren is a Nobel Prize-winning environmental economist and professor who leads the "pulp Americana" band J Shogren Shanghai'd.

Students come from all over the world, studying water hydrology, geology, computer science and many other majors. UW international students have additional worries under Trump's most recent batch of anti-immigrant policies. One wonders what effects these travel bans will have on international athletes. In a January 2017 article, Fox Sports reported this:

According to a study done by Rukkus Blog on 2016-2017 rosters, 11 percent of college basketball players are born outside of the United States. The total number of foreign-born prospects on college rosters is up 40 percent in the last 10 years.

Wonder if those well-heeled athletic supporters will lobby their man Trump to keep the overseas pipelines open. They will, if Gonzaga and Kentucky and Duke start losing. Face it, Trump responds to muscle, especially when it comes from rich white guys. We gotta have our March Madness!

Meanwhile, we march for scientists and researchers and women and immigrants and writers and artists and all the other targets of Trump and his authoritarian policies.

CRMC sponsors first Culture Fest Promoting Health and Justice April 29 at LCCC

This comes from a press release:

Culture Fest sponsored by Cheyenne Regional Medical Center

The first Culture Fest Promoting Health and Justice will take place in Cheyenne on Saturday, April 29. The goal of this festival is to celebrate the various cultures represented in our Wyoming community and address social determinants of health that often contribute to health disparities of minority groups. During the festival, there will be opportunity to display your cultural arts and educate community members. There is also opportunity for performance on the “big stage. 

The main event will take place on Saturday, April 29, at Laramie County Community College’s Pathfinder Building, 1400 E. College Drive, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Check out the Participant Letter and and the Market Registration Form2. 

FMI: Monica Jennings at 307-432-3640 or monica.jennings@crmcwy.org

A line in the participant letter caught my attention:

We sincerely appreciate your willingness to devote your time and share your expertise with the multicultural communities in our state. Your commitment to the well-being of others does not go unnoticed.

Sounds as if this might be a good event to talk about the ACA, Medicare, Medicaid expansion, and any number of timely topics. Wyoming has many health challenges, not least of which is mental health care. I've written often about the challenges my daughter faced in getting the appropriate mental health treatment in Wyoming. She finally found resources in Aurora and Denver. The feds played a role, too. Which raises concerns about the Trump administration's proposed gutting of health and mental health agencies. If Trump continues to wage endless wars, veterans will continue to have mental health challenges. No aircraft carrier task force or joint strike fighter jet can effectively challenge a stubborn case of PTSD.

U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera speaks about poetry and migration April 21 in Jackson

This news just came in from the Wyoming Arts Council Literary News e-mail blast: 

Presenting U.S. Poet Laureate: Juan Felipe Herrera 

Friday, April 21, 7–9 p.m.  

Center for the Arts, 265 S Cache St, Jackson, WY 83001  

The first Mexican-American U.S. Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera, presents “Because We Come from Everything: Poetry and Migration.” In 2015, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington appointed Herrera the 21st U.S. Poet Laureate. Herrera grew up in California as the son to migrant farmers, which shapes much of his work. A Washington Post article tells the story that “As a child, Herrera learned to love poetry by singing about the Mexican Revolution with his mother, a migrant farmworker in California. Inspired by her spirit, he has spent his life crossing borders, erasing boundaries and expanding the American chorus.”  

Tickets available APRIL 3. 

FMI: http://jhcenterforthearts.org/. Box office: 307-733-4900.

Newspaper ad asks Enzi, Barrasso and Cheney: Why Are You Hiding?

This ad was funded by a GoFundMe campaign by "just people" in Wyoming. You can still contribute -- I did -- at  https://www.gofundme.com/uu43mk-newspaper-ad (thank you, Emily Siegel). The copy is hard to read here but if I make it any bigger on my site, it will crowd the sidebars. You can save the image as a jpg, open MS Word, insert it into a template and it should appear in its original size. If not, you can enlarge it. Then you can print out copies and give to all of your friends and family members who voted for Trump and his gang. One of the things I like about this is the plug for the National Endowment for the Arts toward the end. You may not know this, but Wyoming's own Sen. Enzi is a member of the U.S. Senate's arts caucus and a long-time supporter of the Wyoming Arts Council, which receives almost half of its funding from taxpayer funds provided by the NEA. Sen. Enzi had a working relationship with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, back when those sorts of things were allowed in Congress. Sen. Enzi reads books, unlike the current president who is giving marching orders to Enzi, Barrasso and Cheney. Would you blindly takes orders from a boss who didn't read? 

Healthcare march and forum set for Feb. 25 in Cheyenne

How many marches, rallies and rabble-rousing events can one be expected to attend before collapsing in a heap?

That's what people are asking themselves. In normal times, exhaustion already would have settled in. But these are abnormal times. Protests seem to have a bigger impact than just getting on the phone to your elected reps or mailing them a postcard. Trump got to the White House via the adulation of crowds. He will be ushered out of the White House the same way. So, here are a few more ways for concerned citizens to gather together to stump Trumpism which is a mean-spirited, destructive philosophy that will ruin our country.

Healthcare march on Saturday, Feb. 25, 10 a.m., Depot Plaza in downtown Cheyenne, 16th St. and Capitol Ave. Free. Bring a sign. FMI: https://www.facebook.com/events/1348316418561808/

Save the Affordable Care Act forum on Saturday, Feb. 25, 3-6 p.m., at the Laramie County Public Library, 2200 Warren Ave., downtown Cheyenne. Free. FMI: https://www.facebook.com/events/1861553744059620/

Here's a short description:

Do you want to know what is included in the Affordable Care Act? Are you worried about having health insurance for you or your family? Would you like more information about the Affordable Care Act? Are you wondering what "pre-existing conditions" means? Do you have children covered on your health insurance who are young adults? Come and find out these details & more!

Refreshments will be served.

Lots of activities for liberal activists this week in Cheyenne

Sixty people attended last night's Laramie County Democratic Party's monthly meeting in Cheyenne.

That may not seem like a lot to you, dear readers in more populous places. But here, that's a good crowd.

Why so many people, and newcomers, at that?

Donald Trump -- he's making our Dem meetings great again.

New Faces. New energy. Groups represented that didn't exist this time last year, groups such as Indivisible Cheyenne. Juntos has been around for awhile but their mission helping immigrants has gone from necessary to critical. "People are in danger of losing everything," said Juntos leader A.J. What he means, of course, are the people who are being rounded up in ICE raids. They can be snatched, Gestapo-like, in the middle of the night and spirited away to camps and then back to their countries of origin. These raids are a byproduct of Trump's immigrant ban, announced a few weeks ago in a fever and promptly shut down by the courts. Trump doesn't have his multi-billion-dollar wall yet, so the ICE raids will have to do for now. Juntos needs volunteers. If you can help, go to the Juntos Facebook page. Juntos hasn't had a chance to work with local faith communities interested in becoming sanctuary churches. Kathleen Petersen announced at the meeting that the Unitarian Universalist Church has taken steps along this path. The congregation held a "community conversation of becoming a sanctuary church" on Feb. 5. Other churches will follow. UUCC is always a leader in social justice issues.

Attendees elected ten new precinct committeemen and women. Anyone signed up by the close of last night's meeting now can vote for county party officers at the March 20 meeting. Many of these precinct people were newbies and one was a Republicans this time last year. The precinct is the trenches of the political wars, one we haven't fought very well. We know that grassroots organizing is the way to get people elected. But it's hard work and you have to actually talk to people, engage them on a one-to-one basis. People -- you know how annoying they are! But without them, well, look what happens. Take a look at our current legislative session. More extremist legislation this year as a result of the Republican juggernaut. Mary Throne was House minority leader from Laramie County but was beat by a clodhopper on Nov. 8. She spoke about the horrors of this session. As is the case with many of us, her kids are out (or almost out) of the local K-12 system. "If I had kids in the K-12 system now, I'd be really worried," she said, noting that we are looking at the "potential destruction" of our education system, recently ranked as one of the top ten in the country. A scary thought. But that's the Republican plan nationally, now that we have the anti-education Education Secretary Betsy DeVos at the helm. The Wyoming Republicans have their marching orders -- scorched earth for public education.

Wyoming Republican senators spend their days bashing educators when they are not busy waging war on women, gays, wolves, Mother Earth, wind power, etc.

Mary Throne summed it up this way: “No family is going to want to move here, no business will want to move here, without a great education system.”

So much for diversifying the state's economy.

This sums up the attitude of Republicans in Wyoming: “Let’s make Wyoming worse than it is now.” Some wags have called Trump’s ascendancy “the Alabamafication of America.” You know those polls that always show Alabama dead last in education, children’s health, income levels and almost everything else? Well, the folks who gave you Alabama now give you America which includes Wyoming last time I looked.

The Dems argued a bit last night, as is their wont. We should be arguing after our piss-poor showing in November. There is energy in the discontent. That must be turned into action.

Wonder what you can do?

Attend the Laramie County Democratic legislative reception on Thursday, Feb. 23, 6-10 p.m., at The Suite Bistro, 1901 Central Ave., in downtown Cheyenne. Admission is $15, which includes a free drink and cool jazz by the Jane Robinette Trio. Also schmoozing with Dem legislators and other local liberals. A chance to get acquainted.

If coffee or tea is your bag, attend the letter-writing party on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 5:30-7:30 p..m., at the Paramount Café, 1607 Capitol Ave. Materials and letter-writing experts will be available to help with ways to write the most convincing dispatch to your legislator. Helpful hint: no cussing.

If you were part of the Trump post-inauguration Women’s & Allies March in Cheyenne, and you’d like to participate in upcoming marches, including the March for Science and The Tax Day Rally, come to the Laramie County Public Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave., at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 26. This energetic group gathered more than 1,000 people on a cold day in January to register our disgust with Trump and Trumpism. Fed them all, too.

I am at our local library right now using the public wi-fi because my home wi-fi is not working correctly. If you are looking for a place to blog surrounded by books that our president doesn’t read, this is the place. Support your local library in any way you can!

Indivisible Cheyenne also is planning events. You can find a link to its site on the right sidebar.

Just how do we get this alien life force off of our starship?

Sitting in my blogging chair since 2005....

I am not a member of the press. I do not represent the mainstream media in any way.

I am a blogger. A progressive blogger, prog-blogger to those who still use the term. An attendee of Netroots Nation. A sometimes blogger on Daily Kos. An embedded blogger (courtesy of the Dean brothers) to the 2008 Dem convention when we thought we entered a new and glorious era of truth, justice and the American way.

I am a Liberal in almost every way.

When it comes to telling the truth, I am s staunch conservative. Truth must be proven. It must be based on facts.

How do I talk about the post-truth Trump administration? A very good question. Fortunately, I do not have to experience press gatherings in Washington, D.C. How would I discern Trump's very strange press conference this past week? It's easy to call him an idiot, a fool, a madman. None of that seems to put a dent in Trump. He just keeps babbling on, no matter what sort of verbal ammunition you use on him.

Trump seems to be an alien life form who feeds on the fear and confusion of his enemies. Remember that Star Trek episode when a shimmering alien life force pits humans against Klingons? The force stokes the fears of both sides and then feeds off of that fear. The only way to get the alien force off the Enterprise is to declare peace and laugh it off. Go see "The Day of the Dove," season three, episode 11.

Scorn and satire doesn't work with Trump. He feeds off of the name-calling. He doesn't get the satire. You have to have a knowledge base to get it upended by satire and irony. Trump doesn't read books. He makes deals. He's using fear and anger against us. And he doesn't get any of our jokes.

Just how in the heck do we get this alien off of our ship?

No easy answer, especially to those of us who pride ourselves in being decent artistic types who pride ourselves in not ranting and raving at the drop off a hat. Will that be our downfall?

Nothing stopped Hitler except brute force. He cheated and lied and schemed to take over his country and then tried to take over the world. No wonder we can't let go of World War II. It was a titanic struggle. The forces of good triumphed over evil. The forces of good used horribly violent means to do so. We never quite got over the rush. Some say that Trump's U.S. looks like like Nazi Germany with the swastika, imperial Rome with to the togas, and Il Duce without the pouting Mussolini. We have the pouting Trump. America First!

Sabrina Tavernise writes today in the New York Times, Are Liberals Helping Trump? In it, Ms. Tavernise posits that the wise-ass and snarky and condescending attitudes of the liberals are driving away moderate Republicans. Where else do they have to go?

She wants to compare the current strife to the late 60s and early 70s, when every public discourse erupted into a fight about Vietnam, civil rights, or how long you could wear your hair. But her prime example goes all the way back to the Civil War years. That's scary.

Liberals are angry at themselves, too, that we didn't prevent this. We just took for granted that the intelligent liberal candidate would win. We didn't treat seriously those big rallies of Trump's. Yes, some of those people were unhinged but many more were just angry at the state of the nation. They turned out to vote on Nov. 8. I helped Dem voters get to the polling stations, visited many around Cheyenne, and long lines were the rule rather than the exception. They were Trump voters. Even worse, they were people who usually didn't vote but by God were going to vote for Trump this time. They were former Bill Clinton and Barack Obama voters who couldn't stomach a liberal woman lawyer in the White House after watching Fox News blather against Obama for eight years. Fuck you, they said to liberals. And now we're returning the fuck yous.

That's as far as my political punditry goes. The Republicans are going to dismantle everything that I care about: Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR, NEA, NEH, ACA, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public transportation, clean air, clean water, public lands -- the list goes on and on. There's nothing to hinder this process but a few judges and possible outrage from the citizenry. But a lot of the citizenry love Trump's attacks on liberals and media. And we only have the satisfaction of our witty social media posts,

We will all be stuck in the coming Dark Ages together. Maybe then we can find common ground.

Here are some tips to avoid those typo gremlins

Nobody in the Trump administration asked me for help, but I am offering it anyway.

First of all, a bit of history about typographical errors. They have been with us since the advent of the printing press. And spelling errors, well, they have been with us since humankind began sketching out a language on mud tablets or papyrus or cave walls, whatever was handy.

Humans are fallible. When  you combine that with high visibility, it's an invitation for trouble. I know this from almost 40 years as a writer and editor.

#45's first poster featured either a spelling error or a typo. SCSOE Betsy DeVos's office misspelled African-American activist's W.E.B. Dubois's name on a press release for Black History Month and compounded the problem by apologizing with the wrong form of apology.

We know that these people have the advantage of higher education. In other words, they're not uneducated. Gross negligence is another problem. Impulsivity, maybe, as we know that POTUS is impulsive on Twitter at 5 a.m.

I offer some tips on avoiding these little gremlins in your written documents, whether they appear only on social media or on thousands of posters, one of which will end up in the National Archives. The term "gremlins" is a good description for these little devils. It comes from British pilots in the 1920s, who needed something (rather than somone) to blame for the failings of their rickety aircraft. It really caught on during WWII, when pilots in the Battle of Britain referred to gremlins as the thing that gummed up the throttle, caused fuel leaks and generally ran amok over the whole works. Gremlins persist, which may be the cause of constant dysfunction at the Trump White House.

 One more thing. Do not treat Spell Check as the last word on your document. Apology, apologies and apologize(s) are all correct. Too and to are both words. Their use depends on context. Can you say context?

Some recent examples:

1. Michael Flynn, former National Security Advisor, wasn't too careful when he talked to two (or maybe two-and-twenty) Russian sources about U.S. national secrets.

You can see how to, too and two are used. Two-and-twenty is antiquated, best relegated to nursery rhyme and blogs. Besides, it could have been two million for all we will ever know.

2. Betsy DeVos offered no apology for giving money to all of the Republicans who voted for her nomination as Secretary of Education. She does apologize that it wasn't more, but that will be taken care of shortly.

Apology is a noun and is used here correctly. Apologize is a verb and it is also used correctly here. One of these days, all of these hacks will apologize to the American people but we won't hold our breath.

3. White House spokesman Stephen Miller msaid out loud that we shouldn't dare question POTUS's decision, whether it by on national security or Ivanka's clothing line. We can only conclude that he speaks with great precision, but obviously is batshit crazy.

That's all for today, language nerds. Your humble narrator signs off until I am needed again, which will be soon.

In memoriam: John Clark Pratt

I called him Dr. Pratt because it seemed appropriate. John Clark Pratt possessed a deep voice, military bearing, steely gaze. No surprise after 20 years in the Air Force, some of those in Vietnam (and neighboring countries), and then a stint teaching at the Air Force Academy.

At Colorado State University, he taught creative writing. He was the only writing prof hanging around the Eddy Building as I prowled around on a summer day in 1988. I dropped in. He gave me some of his time and, when I left, thought I had found the right place to get my M.F.A.

I was right. Dr. Pratt conducted one of my first writing workshops. He helped me fine-tune a sci-fi story that he thought was pretty good. You don't read too many sci-fi pieces in writing workshop. It's mostly dysfunctional family minimalism (DFM). No surprise, since most of the students are in their 20s and fresh out of their undergraduate experience and not too far away from their tormented youth. I was older, late 30s, fresh from a corporate PR gig and before that, years as a journalist and then a free-lance writer. If I had a tormented youth, it was way behind me.

I wasn't a better writer than my younger peers. I just wrote different stuff. I was used to being edited and revised and wasn't upset when others took a hand to it. So I published and kept writing, going through critiques, stopping to chat with Dr. Pratt along the way. He had published two great books about the Vietnam War, The Laotian Fragments and Vietnam Voices. In the latter book, he put together a pastiche of poets and writers, veterans and peaceniks. He had helped start the CSU Library's Vietnam War special collection. Nosing around in that collection, partitioned like a bunker in the basement of the old library, which in the late 1980s still had its card catalog and a new but rudimentary computerized system. While hanging out in the bunker, I discovered its future wars section. My first novel manuscript rests in that collection. It's the only way you can read it, if you're interested.

Dr. Pratt passed away Jan. 2 in Fort Collins after a long and gallant battle with cancer. We'd been in touch a few years ago when he was looking for a publisher for his new novel. Still writing, even as he battled the Big C. He wondered if my Denver publisher might be interested in the book. I asked. They were, but I don't think it worked out as the press vanished shortly thereafter. It felt good to do him this small favor. Then two weeks ago, I found out from a writer friend that Dr. Pratt had passed away.

Last week, I received a call from a woman whose club was preparing Dr. Pratt's household for an estate sale. She said she found in Dr. Pratt's library my business card and letter in a copy of my short story collection. She invited me to FoCo for a preview of the estate sale. I went.

It's too bad I no longer am accumulating books. My shelves are full, I have many boxes of books in the basement and I am retired. But I thought it might be a way to help in some way, maybe use it as a way to say farewell to Dr. Pratt.

My friend John met me there. He taught with Dr. Pratt and he too is retired. Linda showed us into the room containing Pratt's research books. The director of the Vietnam War collection had already been out to sort through the material. John and I found some collectible books that hadn't been priced as well as well as some wonderful early editions, especially of books from the 1960s. A row of Joseph Heller's books, including early hardcovers of Catch-22. John Updike, Ken Kesey, Kenn Babbs, Timothy Leary. Pratt knew them all, and was interested in all of the voices of the sixties. I thought, "Wouldn't it be great to have books that a mentor cared enough to keep?" The answer was yes. But I resisted. John and I found excellent copies of 1984 and Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here, both of which we turned over to Linda for pricing. I found a first edition of James Burke's first novel,The Lost Get-Back Boogie. It was an LSU Press original and back before the author became Best-Selling NYT-Author James Lee Burke. English majors would like the fact that an excerpt of the book was first published in CutBank, University of Montana's excellent litmag. I found a big box of Vietnam War research material, including a Look Magazine cover with the header, "We're Winning in Vietnam." It was fall of 1967, just a few months before Tet.

I attended Dr. Pratt's funeral at Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church. His adult children recounted their memories and we had a few laughs. The Poudre River Irregulars, minus its banjo player, played a few tunes, closing out with "When Those Saints Go Marching in."

I am thankful that I had Dr. Pratt as a mentor. He saw things in my writing that I did not. He encouraged me when I needed encouraging. You never know what kind of impact people will have on you. It's important that you give them a chance and see what happens.

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness a great read

Imagine it's 2009 and you're a 24-year-old newspaper reporter living and working in New York City. An exciting life, sprinting all over town for stories and interviews. At night, hanging out in bars with your main squeeze and young friends. One day, you wake up with bites on your arm and imagine that your body and tiny apartment are infected with bedbugs. Then you start to hallucinate. Paranoia grips you and you are convinced that your boyfriend is cheating. You have trouble speaking and then erupt in epileptic convulsions.

I'm going crazy. That's your first thought but it's wrong. You are in the beginning stages of autoimmune encephalitis. Your brain is on fire. Your immune system is attacking your brain. Seizures, convulsions, hallucinations are part of it. You speak in tongues, as it says in the Bible, and if you lived in medieval England, your contortions and babbling might be mistaken for demonic possession. If you lived in 2009 America, your loved ones might think you were in the grip of schizophrenia or some other mental illness. You might end up in an institution for the rest of your life, which could be short if you contract the illness in its most lethal form.

Susannah Cahalan was lucky. She found the right neurologist and became the poster child for the disease which, before her, had only been diagnosed 217 times. She recovered and, being a dedicated journalist, wrote a book, Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness. It's now a movie.

It's scary reading. Compelling. My daughter Annie gave me her copy. She is bipolar and devours books on mental illness or supposed mental illness. She intends to become a music therapist once she and her therapists get a handle on her illness. She will be a good one, too, as she has experienced a good decade of struggles within the mental health system. It's not really a system. It pretends to be but not enough attention or time is devoted to it. We tend to warehouse those with mental illness, especially those who have the more challenging schizophrenia or schizo-effective disorder or are bipolar, which used to be known as manic-depression.  These people are challenged every day. They can be treated but it takes so much time and attention and money which could be spent on more important things,, such as a billion-dollar aircraft carrier to fight Islamic terrorists lurking in an alley in Mosul. Or more tax cuts to the ridiculously rich. Heaven help the needy amongst us now that Trump is running things.

I just finished reading Brain on Fire. It's well-written and, as I already mentioned, scary, especially for those of us who struggle with mental illness -- or have loved ones who do. Highly recommended. Not sure about the movie -- haven't got around to watching it. It screened in September at the Toronto International Film Festival and received lukewarm reviews. Read the Hollywood Reporter review here. Read the book instead. A 2012 New York Times review by Michael Greenberg offers insight.

Is corporate America really our enemy?

I watched the entire Super Bowl, from its hope-filled opening to its bitter end. I saw an hour of the pre-game show but didn't watch the post-mortem, when Trump's boy, Tom Brady, celebrated in style. Or I assume that he did.

Funny how this football game became a forum to challenge #45. Big corporations paid big money to air their inclusive views on race, immigration, history. Budweiser told the story of its German immigrant founder, including a scene at the docks where nativist Know Nothings harass him and other "foreigners." 84 Lumber aired the story of a Latin American mother and her young daughter and their trek to the U.S., to reunite with the father. Unfortunately, the imagined Trump wall almost got in their way. Air B&B addressed intolerance by exhibiting the many faces of our neighbors. All of the ads featured Americans of varying colors and creeds and statuses. The America that exists now, not the fear-plagued, hateful nation summoned by Trump. Creative people imagined these ads, wrote them, shot them, acted in them, edited them. Creativity is one of our greatest strengths. It can reveal, in creative ways, the xenophobic ways of the fascist, who hates creativity and humor and the First Amendment.

At the end of last night's game, I wondered: Will it be the corporations that save us from Trump? You must be a huge entity to afford Super Bowl ads. To be a huge entity, you need to appeal to the largest possible audience. For years, Coke and Bud and McD's have featured a rainbow of talent in their commercials. Look at ads from your childhood in the 50s-70s. White people. Look at commercial TV now and you see America as it actually exists. We have African-Americans and Latinos, Somalis and Salvadorans. We have hearing-impaired people signing a language that it as foreign to most of us as Urdu. We have people in wheelchairs.

This apparently irritates Trump supporters, who tend to be rural and white. They look around their small town and see people like them. They watch cable TV and see a changed America, one that is foreign and scary. It's mainly urban and young. They go to Denver and Salt Lake City and Albuquerque and see this America in living color. It's intimidating. Almost like a foreign country.

Many of my city friends laugh when I say that I'm a city boy. I say I live in a capital city, the largest one in my state, one of only two Metropolitan Statistical Areas. If asked, I say that the population is 68,000, the size of some suburbs in their state. They think I'm funny.

Back to corporations. Many liberals see them as the enemy. They are trying to take over the world, make everybody live in a cookie-cutter world. They are the enemies of craft brewers and locavores and indie bands.

But corporations employ smart people and see what's going on. Corporate brewers buy up craft brewers and try to duplicate their appeal. Fast-food giants try to be like the mom-and-pop neighborhood bistro, offering artisan this and handmade that. They know things are changing. But we sneer at them, superior beings that we are. Meanwhile, they hire people of color who are dependable and smart. These companies understand that Trump's prejudices will kill their businesses.

Look around you. See who works at your favorite restaurant and coffee shop. Investigate their politics. See who they are connected to in public. You can hate Starbuck's if you want, but it is an open-minded company, one that challenges the Trumpsters. Buy a coffee there and one at your locally-owned coffee shop. Thing is, your local shop may be owned by rabid Republicans just following a proven business model. Maybe Starbuck's is more attuned to your beliefs.

Some wingnuts are calling for a Budweiser boycott. Last summer, Bud changed its flagship beer's name to "America." I didn't drink any America. I thought it was silly, and that only bikers and cowboys would fall for it. But now I will drink a Bud for every Fat Tire or 90 Shilling I drink. Not sure if my heart can take too many fast-food meals, but there must be something I can eat at Wendy's. It's important to support those companies who dared to challenge a despot on the biggest sporting event of the year