A letter I wrote and sent Wednesday via USPS to Wyoming Sen. Michael Enzi:
Dear
Sen Enzi:
I hope this letter finds you well and excited about your looming retirement from the U.S. Senate. I hope that your legacy of working across the aisle lives on. I know you as a member of the Senate Arts Caucus and someone who worked with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Democrat. That collegial atmosphere has disappeared and we are all the worse for it.
Our paths crossed several times during your national service. The Wyoming Center for the Book was holding its first book festival in Cheyenne in October 2001. We invited you, as a dedicated reader, to come to the festival. We didn’t know if it was possible but your staff was always easy to talk to and quick with responses.
Circumstances intervened in a strange way. You had to abandon your Senate offices due to the anthrax threat and were coming to Cheyenne for the funeral of a local soldier, one of the first to be killed in the Afghanistan war in a tragic helicopter crash. You and several staffers attended our opening evening event, a reading by four poets laureate from the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska and Utah. It was held at the old Hitching Post Inn, a local landmark that tragically was destroyed by arson. You addressed the sizeable crowd. It was a strange time. Terrorists had destroyed the Twin Towers a month before. We all were still in mourning. The country was on edge. Your presence at our festival buoyed the audience and was very much appreciated.
On another occasion, we met during the state fair in Douglas. I had worked with the Wyoming Arts Council and the Tourism Division to hold an author’s day at the fair. I believe you were at the fair to celebrate centennial ranchers. You bought a lot of books that day, several from Glendo-based High Plains Press. You talked to some of the writers and had them sign your purchases. Again, it was great to have our U.S. Senator there amongst Wyoming writers, publishers and readers. Education, I know, is one of your main interests and we could see that you took it seriously with your passion for reading.
I bring up these events because they stand in sharp contrast to the vitriol that is breaking our country apart. It was especially evident last night as America watched the first presidential debate. President Trump, whom you support, behaved like a schoolyard bully. He attacked Vice President Biden and moderator Chris Wallace while adding nothing of substance to the debate.
I was awaiting the Wyoming Republican delegation’s response to Trump’s abhorrent behavior but I saw nothing today in the news. This has been the case during Trump’s presidency. He says or does something outrageous and Republicans are silent. Why is that? At this very moment, scores of books are being written about this dangerous time in American history. Our children and grandchildren will want to know how we let a monster claim the most powerful position in the world. He has no respect for democratic norms. He has spurned our democratic allies and cozied up to international bullies such as Putin.
The future will want to know why. The future will want to know who resisted and who stood numbly by while a narcissistic autocrat shattered our democratic republic. Do you want your legacy to be that you were one of Trump’s silent enablers? When you return to public life in Wyoming, will it be as one of the brave ones who spoke out or one who did not? Yes, our state is a Republican-controlled one, but also one in which its residents respect bravery and honesty, all the tenets of the Cowboy Code.
Congratulations on your upcoming retirement. You will have lots of time to read and I hope you make the best of it.
Sincerely,
Michael Shay
Cheyenne, WY
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