In Wheatland, they're tired of banner-talk

Wheatland residents are tired as hell and they're not going to take it any more.

Michael Van Cassell writes in today's Casper Star-Tribune:

In doughnut shops, breakfast joints and at the local high school, everyone knows about "the banner."

It's the talk of the town, and they're ready for it to end.

Readers of Wyoming newspapers and blogs (and listeners on KOCA-FM in Laramie) know all about the banning of the "No Place for Hate" banners in Wheatland.

Platte County Schools Superintendent Stuart Nelson is tired as hell about the whole fooferaw over the banner. He apparently has talked to every single person in Wheatland (all 3,300 of them) and every one of them supports the banning of the banners.

...the only negative comments he has heard about the board's decision are from out-of-towners, special-interest groups and former residents.

He said all the local parents he's spoken with have supported the board's decision.

Outside agitators!

Nelson told the school's principal to take down the "No Place for Hate" banners after he received calls from five parents. That's five parents out of how many? Apparently the Christian Right rules the roost in Wheatland.

Give credit to the students who continue to post "No Place for Hate" signs on their lockers and are lobbying the school board to reconsider their decision. One of the students interviewed in the CST article was wearing a "No Place for Hate" button.

What did Nelson learn from all this?

The board had not approved the banner. Nelson said he believes the board will filter programs more now.

What filter will the board be using? Four out of seven school board members used the anti-gay filter the last time around. I'll bet that filter still has plenty of good use in it.

Musicians without health care tell their stories

The Musicians Project is making a film about the dreadful lack of health care for musicians. FMI: http://www.musiciansproject.com

Here's some info about the project. If you want to tell your story, go to the web site.

We might shock and surprise you.

• Did you know that the latest Harvard Medical School study shows that more than 44,789 excess deaths occur each year, because people do not have medical insurance?
• Did you know that if you enter a hospital emergency room with a life threatening condition, and you do not have health insurance, you can be turned away?
• Did you know that in 2009 alone, 2,200 veterans died from a lack of health insurance?
• Did you know that every day, 2,500 Americans are forced into bankruptcy by medical costs, the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States?
  
  We are the musicians project. We are an independent group of musicians, film makers and health care advocates who are making a film about a very special segment of the American population – your favorite Musician.
  
  For many of us, music fills our every day lives, whether it is the dulcet tones of our favorite symphony, the hard rocking beat of our favorite metal band, or the heart breaking revelations of our favorite folk musician.
  
  Music is important to us. We pick songs to enhance our wedding day. We sing to our favorite tunes to pass the time on a long car ride. We remember the first concert we ever went to. Some of us even get tattoos of our favorite musicians and bands immortalized on our flesh. We create fan clubs, we load up our MP-3 players, and we follow our favorite bands on tour.
  
  Music, and the musicians that create it, are interwoven into the fabric of our lives.
  They are a segment of the population of the U.S., dying preventable deaths due to lack of health care.
  
  Please watch, as we give them a voice. These are their words, their tales, their reality.

More wailing and gnashing of teeth over Wyoming's wolves

Jeremy Pelzer wrote about the ongoing wolf delisting controversy in today's Casper Star-Tribune:

Lawyers for the state told a federal judge today that Wyoming should be given control over wolves in the state, calling the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's rejection of Wyoming's wolf management plan "arbitrary and capricious."

Federal attorneys responded that Wyoming's plan would put the state's wolf population at risk because it would allow the animals to be killed anywhere in the state besides national park lands.

Attorneys for Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Department of Justice faced off with lawyers from the state and Park County during oral arguments before U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson. Both sides now await a ruling from Johnson, which could take anywhere from a few days to several months to be released.

This is a big issue in Wyoming. It's not unusual to see bumper stickers advocating wolf hunting and even wolf elimination. Some Republican media stars have advocated hunting wolves from helicopters.

On my way to work this morning, I happened across a "Delist the wolf" rally on the State Capitol steps. About 30 people in attendance, some holding signs advocating delisting. One said "Delist the terrorists."

Wolves as terrorists? That's a new one. One speaker said that 96,000 elk could be killed by wolves in the next five years. I have no idea if this is true. But the man at the podium said so many wolf kills would take food out of the mouths of Wyomingites and cause hunters not to come to the state and spend tourist dollars.

It is a fact that a number of out-of-state hunters come to Wyoming in the fall. It's also true that there are many hunters in Wyoming who bring the meat home to their families. Some of those families depend on this as part of the yearly food budget. But not all.

Tourists come from all over the world to view Yellowstone wolves in their natural habitat. If you compared number of out-of-state hunters with number of out-of-state wolf peepers -- which would be the larger number? You'd obviously want to know how much money each type of tourist spends in the state. We already know that lodging numbers in 2009 are down quite a bit from 2008, even though visitation to national parks increased dramatically. But who spends more money -- hunters or tourists?

Something else I have to research...

Come on down to Meg's Cognitive Dissonance to comment on banner issue

From Meg Lanker of Laramie:

My name is Meg Lanker and I've met some of you before. I am currently hosting a radio show called Cognitive Dissonance from 10 p.m. to midnight every Friday night on 93.5 KOCA FM in Laramie. This Friday, Jan. 29, I am opening my show to public comment on the Platte County School District #1 tearing down the "No Hate" banners from the Anti-Defamation League due to the banners containing the Gay and Lesbian Fund of Colorado as a sponsor.

School board members have commented that Wheatland is not ready for a pro-gay agenda and is "ultraconservative." I believe this is a slap in the face to anyone who cares about tolerance and diversity in schools.

So, how do you comment? Well, you show up to the studio, I turn on the mic, and you say what you want to say. I will be recording the show and each school board member will get a CD copy next week.

Here's the who and when and all that jazz: (pasted from the event on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=274390997172&ref=mf).

If you're on Facebook, please visit the event to RSVP.

Start Time: Friday, January 29, 2010 at 10:00 p.m.
End Time: Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 12:30am
Location: KOCA Studios
Street: 365 W. Grand
City/Town: West Laramie, WY

New Repub tactic for luring physicians to Wyoming -- ban same-sex marriage

Several Sundays ago, local right-winger Richard Wall surprised me with some common sense in a Wyoming Tribune-Eagle guest column.

He urged increased efforts to recruit more physicians in sub-specialties to move to Wyoming. He was especially insistent that we don't have enough pediatricians who address the medical and mental health needs of children and teens.

That's a bandwagon I've been riding for awhile. More than once I've pointed out that Wyoming lacks child psychiatrists. When I say "lacks," I mean that literally -- there is not one child psychiatrist in the entire state.

Huzzah for Mr. Wall! Now we have common cause on a very important issue.

But my joyfullness was short-lived. In the very same column, Mr. Wall leaped on his favorite bandwagon -- the evils of homosexuality. He wants the Wyoming Legislature to legislate against same-sex marriage. It's not same-sex marriage that irks him. It's the fact that married gays and lesbians can move into Wyoming and expect the Equality State to live up to its name.

During two of the past three legislative sessions, bills were introduced to ban approval of same-sex marriages performed in other states. Both times, the legislation was killed by outspoken Republicans who obviously take seriously our "Equality State" motto. Since our Legislature is heavily Republican, it's easy to pass any bill if all Repubs hop on board. If some hop off, well...

Read details about last year's anti-gay bill at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2009/01/wyoming-legislators-confront-same-sex.html. At the time, I noticed that one of the bill's backers was the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, the same equality-minded entity that brings you today's Super Bowl ad that aims to demonize every woman who's had an abortion -- or even thought about it.

Also find info about the 2007 bill at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2007/03/zwonitzer-takes-stand-for-basic.html

As I look at this year's docket on the Legislature's web site, I find nothing about gay marriage. That's not unusual, as this is a 20-day budget session and consideration of new bills is limited (although you wouldn't know it after looking at the long list).

Maybe by the time 2011 rolls around, the legislative loonies who sponsor these bills will have given up. By then, "Don't Ask Don't Tell" will be a thing of the past in the U.S. military and Wheatland, Wyoming, will have re-installed the "No Place for Hate" banners.

There is a dark cloud on the horizon, equality-wise. In his column, Mr. Wall pledged his support to the 2010 gubernatorial campaign of right-winger Repub Ron Micheli. Mr. Micheli is a rancher from Fort Bridger who spent most of his 16 years in the state legislature towing the fundie line on abortion and gay rights. He's also on the 10th amendment bandwagon (so many bandwagons these days) which puts him in the same category as the Tea Partiers who were whooping it up with Sarah Palin last night in Nashville. Of course, this emphasis on the 10th amendment, which most of us never paid attention to until recently, is also a newly-discovered cause of our Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal.

Let me get back to Mr. Wall. I still support his call for more and better-educated physicians in Wyoming. I just wonder how that recruitment will go when our Equality State slogan has been so tarnished by the likes of the hate-filled wingnuts among us. Yes, some young physicians are conservatives and will prefer the ambience of high plains small towns such as Wheatland.

But most physicians come from cities (even the majority of Westerners now live in statistical metropolitan areas) and are educated in cities and go to school with ethnic minorities and might even be minorities themselves. They may even be LGBT! Specialists in particular seem to gravitate to city life. Cities boast an array of schools and soccer fields and music classes and theatres and shopping. Pay is better, especially for docs.

Rural living is a hard sell anyway. Add to that an unwelcoming attitude toward people who may be a little different -- you really have a problem.

Philip Gourevitch reads in Cheyenne

I attended the Philip Gourevitch talk this evening at the Laramie County Public Library in Cheyenne.

He writes about what happens when human nature is tested under harsh conditions such as war and genocidal rampages.

Humans don't always come down on the side of the angels.

No news for those of us who see the world in shades of color and shadows instead of black-and-white. But do enlightened liberals really know what they'll do when the killing begins? I don't.

I've already started reading his 2008 book, "Standard Operating Procedure," which Gourevitch co-wrote with documentary filmmaker Errol Morris. It starts with a chilling scene from October 2002. Saddam releases thousands of prisoners from Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad. Six months before the U.S. invasion. Cut to the next chapter, where corrections officials from Utah are driving around Iraq in August 2003 looking for someone to make bunk beds for imprisoned Iraqis. Things get a little out of control after that.

The author read sections from his three books that fall under the heading of "confessions."

First up was a Hutu killer from the Rwandan genocides as told in the award-winning book, "We Wish to Inform You that We Will be Killed with our Families." Then we heard from the professional killer in "A Cold Case." Last but not least -- Lyndie England's story from the Abu Ghraib Prison.

Goureveitch writes beautifully. Corporal England is revealed frame by frame, as in a film. In the book's final interview with her following her release from jail, England is taking antidepressants and says "I don't think about anything." She seems to have no real remorse. But basically she was a prop, a young soldier, unsupervised, at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"The political order you are living under makes a big difference," says Goureveitch. "There's no evidence to show that these people would have done this outside of this political order.

"In a well-run army, girlfriends don't hang out in the prison during the night shift with their boyfriends. This was a systems' problem."

"This is the kind of breakdown you have when you allow torture," he concluded.

The government oversaw the Rwandan slaughter. "This wasn't chaos," says Gourevitch. "The genocide was very well planned. Great organization is required to do such a thing."

In the Q&A session, the author was asked if he had learned any lessons about human nature during research for his books.

According to Gourevietch: "We like to think that there is a categorical difference between those who will do a thing and those who won't. Then come circumstances that put people to the test. Some resist but..."

But others can't and don't. They take their machetes and go next door to hack the neighbors to pieces.

Time to get back to my book...

Wheatland students react to school board's decision to remove "No Place for Hate" banners

Wheaterville doing a great job as center of activity for the "Don't Ban the Banner" campaign.

As faithful readers may recall, the Platte County School Board in Wheatland voted 4-3 to take down the "No Place for Hate" banners at Wheatland H.S. and West Elementary. The banner campaign is sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League. That wasn't the problem. A few town busybodies noticed that a co-sponsor of the banners is the Gay & Lesbian Fund of Colorado. They complained to the school board and the board voted to take those banners down.

Some former students wrote this:

LETTER TO Superintendent Nelson and Board of Trustees
Melody Wilhelm Brooks (class of 1986)

Dear Superintendent Nelson and Board of Trustees:

We were shocked and dismayed to read about the school board’s decision against the “No Place for Hate” banners. As graduates of Wheatland High School, we have always been proud of the excellent education we received. However, after this short-sighted decision by the school board, we have serious doubts about the elected leadership of PCSD #1.

Let us say that Wheatland is full of decent, fair-minded people. They need to stand up to intolerance, because nothing positive will come about until they do. This is not about liberal vs. conservative or Republican vs. Democrat. This is a fair vs. unfair and right vs. wrong issue.

The four members of the school board who voted against the banners are not promoting the district’s vision of “Empowerment through learning so students can be successful now and in the future.” Nor are they “Preparing children for the 21st Century”, as noted on the district’s website. In fact, they are actively working against and discouraging both.

The letter is signed by 50 former WHS students.

Read the entire letter (and many comments, most supportive) at Wheaterville.

Dear Dr. John: Thanks but no thanks

Sen./Dr./media star John Barrasso, Republican from Casper, is telling Pres. Obama that it's not too late to sit down and talk -- really talk -- about health care reform.

When you stop laughing, we can proceed.

Andrew Schenkel, Cowboy State Free Press Washington Correspondent, reported this on Tuesday:

“We need health care reform and to get costs down. I am willing to work with President Obama to improve health care and bring down costs,” Barrasso said.

If healthcare is to rise from the dead it will need some sort of Republican cooperation. Barrasso says its will be an incremental process. “Our goal is to get quality and affordable coverage by using a step by step process with each step accomplishing a number of things,” he said.

Barrasso said he is no fan of President Obama’s methods during healthcare debate thus far. “Americans have been locked out of the discussion and decisions,” said Barasso on what he has heard from constituents in recent meetings in Thermopolis and Sheridan.

As for Obama, Barasso says he hasn’t been willing to work across the aisle.

“His approach so far has been ‘my way or the highway.’ Senator Coburn and I have offered to go to the White House and go over the bill page-by-page and offer our perspective as doctors,” Barasso said. “He has refused to take us up on the offer.”

Barrasso and Coburn, a wacko right-wing Oklahoma Republican and member of the C Street Family, are the only doctors in the U.S. Senate.

That's scary enough. After all the Republican obstruction on health care, it's also laughable.

Now here's a quote that I can sink my teeth into:

“I like preventative care, there’s a little in the current bill but not enough. I like addressing mental health issues but there’s only a little in the bill. And none of it takes affect until 2018,” he said. “To me that’s too little too late. That bill is for totally government-centered healthcare not patient-centered.”

What we have now is insurance company-centered healthcare. Patient-centered? In a pig's eye.

More scary talk about global warming, water, Wyoming and the West

Batches of thoughtful people in the West are tackling the issue of climate change (see previous post). In Wyoming, the UW Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) just issued a 28-page report, "Assessing the Future of Wyoming's Water Resources: Adding Climate Change to the Equation."

First of all, the title says "Climate Change." That's pretty good for our very conservative state. Climatechangeclimatechangeclimatechange.

The report itself mentions "global warming," even saying that man has played a role in it. The report stops short of labeling the situation as man-made global warming or, as befitting the Equality State, human-caused global warming.

It's an easy read, chock full of facts, charts, graphs, pretty color photos and scary text. Here's an example of the latter:

"This report covers what we know and what we wish we knew about Wyoming and the West's changing climate and the various impacts on water resources," says Wyoming State Climatologist Steve Gray, the lead author and director of the Water Resources Data System at UW. "What we do know is that Wyoming's water resources are highly sensitive to climate change. This is because Wyoming is a relatively dry state, a headwaters state, and because we are so reliant on mountain snow, the main source of surface water for the entire year."

Gray explains that downstream states are somewhat buffered from the types of drought seen in the historical record: Dryness in one area can often be offset by wet conditions in another. In many cases, through compacts and decrees, water is stored upstream for these states.

Will there come a time when we throw these moldy old 19th-century water pacts out the window and just decide to keep our snowmelt? In the West, that would be tantamount to a declaration of war. I can see the headline now:

Wyomingites dam North Platte; Cornhuskers steamed

CHEYENNE -- Activists from Protect Our Wyoming Water (POWW) finished damming the North Platte on Tuesday where the river crosses into Nebraska southeast of Torrington.

"We threw all the Democrats we could find into the narrows," said POWW leader Bob Huntley. "Some water was still getting through, so we had to round up some Independents and even a few Libertarians. We got 'er done."

Speaking at a press conference in Lincoln, Nebraska Governor Jim Johnson fired a warning shot over Wyoming's bow. He actually fired a warning shot from his deer
rifle. It fell a few hundred miles short of the border.

He went on: "This will not stand. Tear down this dam, Mr. Huntley. Tear it down. And don't forget to administer CPR to the Libertarians."

Then all hell breaks loose. Imagine the chaos. The big question is: would Cheyenne use its nukes?

Perhaps it will never come to this.

But it looks grim.

The UW report concludes that "there is mounting evidence that the Earth is experiencing a warming trend," and, as a result, "any increase in temperature will increase the impact of drought just as population growth and other factors have greatly increased the West's vulnerability to water shortages."

Graphs and figures in the report illustrate datasets on past climates, including tree-ring studies in which scientists look at the widths of annual growth rings in trees to reconstruct a detailed history of ancient droughts. Based on these and other data, scientists can then create scenarios that enable them to examine how future climate change might influence water resources.

"If the dry periods of the 1700s were to return, there would be substantial consequences, and this makes climate change of any type a key factor to consider
as we plan for the future of Wyoming's water resources," Gray says.

"When it comes to our western water resources, there is no slack in the system," says Gray. "Managing for the combined effects of drought and warmer temperatures will be a key challenge in the future."

We're screwed. More severe drought, less snow, shrinking mountain glaciers, hordes of hungry pine beetles, and the traditional Republican-controlled legislature and the all-Republican Congressional delegation.

We're really screwed.

How the West Was Warmed --in lurid detail

Haven't read this book yet, but was drawn to the cover, which shows the devastation caused by the pine bark beetle. Scene on the cover looks like Colorado's Lake Granby. Also, one of the contributors is the very fine writer Laura Pritchett from Fort Collins.

See more at http://www.howthewestwaswarmed.com

Wheatland -- put those banners back up!

"Don't Ban NO PLACE FOR HATE banner" petition now up at http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/NoBanningTheBanner

Get more info about the drive to get the banners back up at Wheatland High School and Wheatland's West Elementary at Wheaterville.

See previous posts about the controversy below...

BoDeans release new CD April 6

This is great news for us BoDeans fans

Dems celebrate diversity at NTR banquet

Democrats will gather in Cheyenne on Saturday, Feb. 27, for the 2010 Nellie Tayloe Ross Banquet. Hear from Democratic Party leaders, the annual NTR Award winner, and special guest speakers to be named soon. Come rally with other Democrats as we celebrate diversity in politics during the Legislature's budget session.

Click here to register or to see more details. Festivities begin at 5:45 p.m. at the historic Plains Hotel in Cheyenne with a cocktail reception, followed by dinner at 7 p.m. Buy a table so you can sit with your friends, or come as you are and enjoy the evening with Democrats from every corner of Wyoming.

You can buy your tickets online at http://www.wyomingdemocrats.com/ or you can call WyoDems HQ at 1-800-SAY-DEMS to make reservations.

Letter from ADL yanks" No Place for Hate" campaign from Wheatland schools

Update to hummingbirdminds 1/22 post...

Found the text of this letter on the Boulderpride blog (thanks Boulder bloggers):

In a letter today to Platte County School Board members, Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Mountain States Regional Director Bruce H. DeBoskey said:

We write to express our outrage and dismay that your School Board voted to ban the display of No Place for Hate® banners at West Elementary School and Wheatland High School because they include the logo of the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado, a major sponsor of this free program. As a result of your decision, we are compelled to withdraw the No Place for Hate® program from the schools in
your District.

The No Place for Hate program is designed to teach young people the values of respect and inclusion for everyone in the school community, and we cannot continue to offer the program in your District if you will not permit the display of a banner (hard-earned by many dedicated students, teachers, and community members) that includes the words “gay and lesbian.” To continue our program in light of your decision would be the height of hypocrisy, turning a blind eye to intolerance and repudiating the principles of inclusivity and respect that our program teaches.

The No Place for Hate® program has been embraced by dozens of schools in Colorado and Wyoming as a successful way to make schools safer and more inclusive, by providing anti- bullying training and promoting respect for all students. At schools where this program has been implemented, attendance is up and disciplinary actions are down. Students have reported that they feel safer and more welcome at school because the students, teachers and community have worked together to make their schools respectful, and inclusive. The safer schools are, the more students will attend, and the more opportunities they will have to learn. It is a shame that your decision will impede the important progress that has already been made on these important issues.

As you heard at the School Board meeting on January 18, this program has been in effect for over a year at one of your schools and for several months at the other school. The Wheatland students who have participated have enthusiastically supported it, believe they have benefited from it, and want it to continue. It saddens us greatly that your decision will send a message to these students that adults in Platte County openly endorse bigotry against the gay and lesbian members of your community.

If you should change your position at any time and permit the banner to be displayed as designed, we would be happy to return our program to your schools.

Unless and until your position changes, however, we must reluctantly and immediately end the No Place for Hate® program at West Elementary and Wheatland High School.

UPDATE: Get more on the story at the excellent Wheaterville blog

ANOTHER UPDATE: Read the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle story and the very educational and entertaining comments (114 thus far) at http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2010/01/22/news/19local_01-22-10.txt

No place for "No Place for Hate" campaign in Wheatland

Everything was going along swimmingly in Wheatland. Both West Elementary and Wheatland H.S. had signed up for the "No Place for Hate" campaign, sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League. Posters like the one above were hung on the chimneys with care. Jews and Gentiles were engaging in peaceful coexistence. Lions were lying down with lambs, and dogs and cats were living together. Even the off-white citizens were getting along with the egg-shell white and slightly freckled denizens of Wheaterville.

Then something terrible happened. A concerned citizen noticed that one of the program's sponsors is (close your eyes) The Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado.

Uh oh. The program's goal "to organize schools to work together and develop projects that enhance the appreciation of diversity and foster harmony amongst diverse groups" was in jeopardy. The campaign also proposes "to empower schools to promote respect for individual and group differences while challenging prejudice and bigotry."

Here's what happened next, according to an AP article in the Billings Gazette:

Platte County School District 1 trustees voted 4-3 this week to reject a request to keep the Anti-Defamation League’s “No Place for Hate” banners at Wheatland High and West Elementary. District administrators removed the signs after parents and school board members raised concern because the banners list the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado as a sponsor. Some students requested that the banners be replaced, but the board refused.

Wheatland, a southeast Wyoming town of about 3,300 residents, is "an ultraconservative community,” said school board member Lee Dunham.

“If this is the way one chooses, then they can lead this particular lifestyle, but I don’t believe it needs to be publicly displayed in a school,” Dunham said.

School board member Joe Fabian said he believes the Anti-Defamation League is pushing an “agenda that is pro-gay marriage” and that the community of Wheatland is not supportive of that.

“They wouldn’t want the organization, the Anti-Defamation League, dictating to their children that an alternate lifestyle is a normal lifestyle,” he said.

First of all, good job to the students who requested that the banners stay on the walls. They actually read the banners and absorbed the message. The school board gets an F for tolerance and diversity, but receives an "I" for irony.

Now for the rest of the story:

The district intended to allow the anti-discrimination campaign to continue, Superintendent Stuart Nelson said. But the Anti-Defamation League won’t allow the Wheatland schools to participate without the presence of the banners, said Bruce DeBoskey, mountain states regional director for the group.

The Anti-Defamation League “will no longer allow the program if it’s not being honored and used in its fullest intent,” he said.

DeBoskey said there are many Wheatland residents who support the anti-discrimination campaign, and he urged them to speak up.

“The (league) is extremely concerned that this whole program — which is designed to teach young people to respect the differences among us — has been derailed by people who appear to have biases,” he said.

Linda Burt of the Wyoming chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union also criticized the board’s decision, saying it’s “extraordinarily unfortunate and extraordinarily shortsighted.”

“Does that mean this is a place for hate?” she asked. “Does that mean this is a place for discrimination?”

Good questions, Linda.

West Elementary and Wheatland H.S. were two of the 25 schools participating in the 2009-2010 "No Place for Hate" campaign. The only other participating Wyoming school is Whiting H.S. in Laramie. No word yet whether the posters are still up over there.

Jam Haiti benefit Saturday in Denver

From the Flobots web site -- a rockin' Haiti benefit that goes all night.

Legislature to address "cottage foods"

The Casper Star-Tribune featured an article by Joan Barron this week about a little-known issue that will undoubtedly bubble to the surface during the legislative session.

It's all about something called "cottage foods." Those are foods prepared in a cottage (or even a house) and sold at the local farmer's market or community bazaar. These could be potentially hazardous dishes, such as Uncle Joe's chili or Aunt Sue's lasagna. Selling stuff such as veggies and fruits and jams and bread and honey is already O.K.

That's where this gets a little sticky.

This will be the third legislative session the council has addressed problems raised in bills sponsored by Rep. Sue Wallis, R-Recluse.

The first year the bill to exempt so-called cottage foods -- those prepared in home kitchens -- from regulation failed to get through the Legislature.

Last year a modified version did pass. As of July 1 it allows sales of home-produced foods such as jams, cookies and bread at farmers markets and roadside stands without inspection or licensing.

Wallis plans to introduce a bill for the budget session that opens Feb. 8 to expand the cottage food exemption.

Although they have not seen the bill, the council members said they expect it to be the same as the original bills introduced by Wallis before they were modified.

"It would make it wide open," said the council's chairman, Robert Harrington, director of the Casper-Natrona County Health Department.

God forbid we make anything "wide open" here in the libertarian great wide open. What happens when the local foods movement runs up against government food inspectors? We must have safe food. That's a given. But cottage businesses are local businesses making local delicacies. The money stays in the community, unlike the dough you spend in the Wal-Mart grocery section. How will these small businesses, the politician's favorite kind of business, thrive?

I'm glad the legislature will be considering Wallis's bill. Maybe it can help to define ways that local food purveyors can bring real food back to our tables.

I've got those globalized food blues

I've written often on the subject of local food and local art and local politics.

I have a "local" fixation.

But why not? What has globalization wrought? Banks too big to fail that do. Corporations that have been granted the same rights as citizens. Bought-off members of Congress. Far-flung wars fought at the behest of oil companies and foreign oil suppliers. Tasteless food in corporate grocery chains. Publishing conglomerates that publish only sure-fire blockbusters by celebs posing as authors (Sarah Palin, etc.).

All that and more.

I'm just jumping on a bandwagon that has its roots in the farms and villages of our grandfathers. A movement that looks to alternative energy and backyard gardens and the neighborhood quilter and the farmers' market. Nothing big -- and that's the point. Big is bad. Big is too big.

So I keep observing local ideas taking root. In Cheyenne, we have two outdoor farmers' markets and a winter market just getting started. We have at least two organic/sustainable growers in northern Colorado -- Wolf Moon Farms and Grant Farms -- promoting their "Community Shares" program in southeast Wyoming. The Northern Colorado Food Incubator provides a focus for all the growers in the CO/WY nexus. Backyard gardens are sprouting all over, including in my backyard. I'm not the farmer my grandfather was, but I don't face feast or famine as he did in Iowa. I can grow some of my own fruits and veggies, and get the rest through farmers' markets and on trips to Albertson's or Safeway. Were I able to grow my own coffee, I would. I can at least buy the fair trade variety at the store.

This would all seem like so much aging Baby Boomer/naive Gen-X nonsense if it weren't for the many people engaged in local sustainability. I never talk politics with the guy from Brush, Colorado, who sells sweet corn out of his truck bed on September Saturdays. But we do talk sweet corn, and we agree on that. Small-scale tomato growers speak a common language. We speak tomato. Not tow-mah-tow. It's ta-may-tow, or maybe ta-may-ter or, simply, may-ter. I listen to other tomato growers because they most know more than I ever will.

We do have a common enemy in this country's corporate food system. It's making us sick. Not literally, unless you count the occasional tainted spinach or bad beef outbreaks. But it's short-changing our precious bodily fluids through processed foods. That food is also shipped long distances to our stores, burning fossil fuels and polluting the air and contributing to global warming.

Today, in Cheyenne, I saw cantaloupe on sale. August and September are cantaloupe months. That's when Rocky Ford varieties from southern Colorado come our way. I'll eat other High Plains cantaloupe. But in January, Albertson's features cantaloupe from Chile. It's summer in Chile. Chileans are whooping it up at the beach and eating cantaloupe. But how much did it costs to bring the fruit to Cheyenne, where the only beach we're frequenting in January is in our memories?

I received word today that a group of artists are getting together to talk about putting studios in the abandoned Hynds Building downtown. The building on the city's main drag has been sitting vacant for years. Various businesses, including one hotel conglomerate, have talked about buying and renovating the place. But then the economy tanked. If we can get artists in there in the meantime, all the better. Artists creating and providing some after-hours life to downtown. If you're interested in this downtown project, contact Rebecca Barrett at rebecca.barrett3@mac.com.

None of this is going to happen overnight. We only at the beginning of the (dare I say it?) surge.

But, to get this globalization monkey off our backs, we have to start somewhere.

After today's SCOTUS ruling -- SAVE DEMOCRACY!

Go to Save Democracy and sign this petition:

Dear Friend,

This morning, five Supreme Court Justices stabbed at the heart of democracy, our electoral system.

They overturned over 100 years of statute and precedent, and declared that corporations can spend all the money that they want to buy elections. In fact, these five men in robes declared, they have a constitutional right to do so.

Now, we have to fight.

That’s why I just signed Rep. Alan Grayson's petition to support his "Save Our Democracy" legislative package, because we cannot have a government that is bought and paid for by huge multinational corporations. We need a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

I hope you'll join me.

For they are brown and without belief -- or WWJD?

We salute Jesus' General -- he is always on the job:

For they are brown and without belief