Gun totin' in schools, El Rancho Avalancho and red state energy bound for blue state

Some things that irked and/or entertained me this past week:

The state legislature is in session. Opening day included the Gov's State of the State speech, a "legalize pot" march by Wyoming NORML and performances in the House chambers by WY Poet Laureate Echo Roy Klaproth and the UW Collegiate Chorale. The week was filled with debates over Medicaid expansion, gun-totin' in schools, minimum wage increases, early childhood education, more guns, Common Core, increases to hunting and fishing licenses, a decrease in coal taxes and, of course, more gun-totin'. Most bills were killed early so the Housers and Senators can get on to the issue at hand, the budget. Only three weeks left to do so. The big surprise is that Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie) fashioned a bipartisan bill on Medicaid expansion that still is in the mix. Way to go, Sen. R! This is a miracle in this Obamacare-bashing state.

From the library shelves: "This Land was Made for You and Me (But Mostly Me)" by Bruce McCall and David Letterman. Yes, that's the same David Letterman as seen on late-night TV. And illustrator Bruce McCall was one of the Scots-Irish geniuses behind the rise of National Lampoon, the others being Michael O'Donoghue and P.J. O'Rourke. Letterman is a millionaire with a Rocky Mountain getaway in Montana. I'm not sure about McCall's portfolio, but it's intriguing that Dave and Bruce would turn their comedic sights on the super-rich and their favorite playgrounds in the West, places like Jackson Hole. This from the book's intro:

It all began a decade and a half ago or so in the far American West, in Montana and Wyoming and those other states that appropriated and misspelled the Native American words for "Big Empty Space" and "Much Bigger Empty Space"; there, a few daring pioneers from the pharaonically wealthy top crust embarked on a spree, powered by lust, inspired by a vision only they could see.

Because it takes more than money, privilege and cronies in high places to ransack nature's bounty for the private pleasure of a privileged few, in what poets might call acts of sublime idiocy (as if anyone would ask poets their opinion!), in other words, obliterating what always was, and making out of it what never existed before, then flanking it with armed guards and electric fences and Rottweilers.

The writer/illustrator duo go on to explore "the only Montana hunting lodge with its own indoor airport,"  El Rancho Avalancho in Idaho -- the world's first skiable mansion, and "the biggest goddamn bison in Wyoming." During the legislature's first week, it was good to once again laugh at the humor of wretched excess.

Speaking of wretched excess.... A Los Angeles Times story excerpted in my local paper today is about the largest wind ranch in creation, coming soon to Carbon County. Big enough to fit all of L.A. inside of it, the 500-sqare-mile ranch -- owned by gazillionaire Philip Anschutz -- will be home to 1,000 wind turbines and the starting point for a transmission line to carry all the energy to California. Cali needs clean energy and Wyoming breaks wind incessantly -- a match made in heaven. The irony in all of this is that the the most blue of blue states, with more enviros per square mile than anywhere else on earth, will be getting its energy from the most red of red states, a place that keeps its energy rates the lowest in the nation by burning coal, the dirtiest energy-creating substance there is.

California has until 2020 to ensure that one-third of its energy comes from renewable resources. Meanwhile, its cities are clouded in a haze that travels from pollution generated by coal-burning plants in China. Some of that coal comes from Wyoming's Powder River Basin. Wyoming currently is working with officials in Washington to build new ports to ship more coal to China.

The world is indeed an odd place.

ISLE Journal issues a "call to writers" on behalf of climate change

Saw this call for entries on the Facebook page of author and environmental activist Terry Tempest Williams. Terry divides her time among Utah, Wyoming and assorted worldwide destinations. She will be the closing keynote speaker at the Wyoming Arts Conference in Jackson Oct. 12-14. I'm really looking forward to her talk, as are many others. Register for the conference here. 

This "Call to Writers" on behalf of climate change by Kathleen Moore and Scott Slovic for the ISLE (Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature and the Environment) Journal.

A Call to Writers

As the true fury of global warming begins to kick in — forests flash to ashes, storms tear away coastal villages, cities swelter in record-breaking heat, drought singes the Southwest, the Arctic melts — we come face to face with the full meaning of the environmental emergency: If climate change continues unchecked, scientists tell us, the world’s life-support systems will be irretrievably damaged by the time our children reach middle-age. The need for action is urgent and unprecedented.

We here issue a call to writers, who have been given the gift of powerful voices that can change the world. For the sake of all the plants and animals on the planet, for the sake of intergenerational justice, for the sake of the children, we call on writers to set aside their ordinary work and step up to do the work of the moment, which is to stop the reckless and profligate fossil fuel economy that is causing climate chaos.

That work may be outside the academy, in the streets, in the halls of politics and power, in the new street theaters of creative disruption, all aimed at stopping industry from continuing to make huge profits by bringing down the systems that sustain life on Earth. These activist efforts need the voices of writers, the genius of thought-leaders, the energy of words.

But there is essential work to be done also in our roles as academics and writers, empowered by creative imagination, moral clarity, and the strength of true witness. Write as if your reader were dying, Annie Dillard advised. “What would you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality?” Now we must write as if the planet were dying. What would you say to a planet in a spasm of extinction?[2] What would you say to those who are paying the costs of climate change in the currency of death? Surely in a world dangerously slipping away, we need courageously and honestly to ask again the questions every author asks, Who is my audience—now, today, in this world? What is my purpose? 

Some kinds of writing are morally impossible in a state of emergency: Anything written solely for tenure. Anything written solely for promotion. Any shamelessly solipsistic project. Anything, in short, that isn’t the most significant use of a writer’s life and talents. Otherwise, how could it ever be forgiven by the ones who follow us, who will expect us finally to have escaped the narrow self-interest of our economy and our age?

Some kinds of writing will be essential. We here invite creative thought about new or renewed forms our writing can take. Perhaps some of these:

The drum-head pamphlet. Like Thomas Paine, writing on the head of a Revolutionary War drum, lay it out. Lay out the reasons why extractive cultures must change their ways. Lay out the reasons that inspire the activists. Lay out the reasons that shame the politicians. Lay out the reasons that are a template for decision-makers.

The “broken-hearted hallelujah.” Like Leonard Cohen, singing of loss and love, make clear the beauty of what we stand to lose or what we have already destroyed. Celebrate the microscopic sea-angels. Celebrate the children who live in the cold doorways and shanty camps. Celebrate the swamp at the end of the road. Leave no doubt of the magnitude of their value and the enormity of the crime, to let them pass away unnoticed. These are elegies, these are praise songs, these are love stories.

The witness. Like Cassandra howling at the gates of Troy, bear witness to what you know to be true. Tell the truths that have been bent by skilled advertising. Tell the truths that have been concealed by adroit regulations. Tell the truths that have been denied by fear or complacency. Go to the tarfields, go to the broken pipelines. Tell that story. Be the noisy gong and clanging cymbals, and be the love.

The narrative of the moral imagination. With stories and novels and poems, take the reader inside the minds and hearts of those who live the consequences of global warming. Who are they? How do they live? What consoles them? Powerful stories teach empathy, build the power to imagine oneself into another’s place, to feel others’ sorrow, and so take readers outside the self-absorption that allows the destruction to continue.

The radical imaginary. Re-imagine the world. Push out the boundaries of the human imagination, too long hog-tied by mass media, to create the open space where new ideas can flourish. Maybe it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism or fossil fuels or terminal selfishness. But this is the work that calls us—to imagine new life-ways into existence. Writers may not be able to save the old world, but they can help create the new one.

The indictment. Like Jefferson listing the repeated injuries and usurpations, let facts be submitted to a candid world. This is the literature of outrage. How did we come to embrace an economic system that would wreck the world? What iniquity allows it to continue?

The apologia. Finally this: Write to the future. Try to explain how we could allow the devastation of the world, how we could leave those who follow us only an impoverished, stripped, and dangerously unstable time. Ask their forgiveness. This is the literature of prayer. Is it possible to write on your knees, weeping?

And a Specific Invitation

In the case of global climate change—or, to put it directly, global warming—the importance of this call to the world’s most eloquent voices and most powerful imaginations cannot be overstated. The virtue of applying literary—and more broadly humanistic—voices to this issue is, in part, the fundamental pluralism of such voices. Our goal is not to ask for a single, unified perspective, but to draw forth a chorus of diverse responses to global warming. At this time, we urge our colleagues to apply their talents and their wisdom to the phenomenon that is altering the inhabitability of this planet more profoundly than any other anthropogenic impact. What do you have to say on the subject of global warming? How might your poetic, narrative, philosophical, teacherly, or scholarly voice make a difference?

Are you a poet or a storyteller? A philosopher or an ecocritic? A journalist or a script writer for film? Perhaps a literary essayist who weaves together many different modes of expression? Or is your medium the letter to the editor or the course syllabus? Recognizing the diverse forms of writing employed by writers throughout the world—and perhaps the need to invent or reinvent forms of writing equal to the emergency of global warming—we call upon you not only to feel the heat we all feel in this warming world, but to think about the heat and to find find le mot juste to match this unparalleled environmental and social challenge.

We have previously published climate-related articles and literary work in the pages of ISLE, but there has never been a focused cluster devoted to this essential topic. Now, with a short turn-round time that reflects the unprecedented urgency of this challenge, we invite readers of ISLE to send us scholarly and creative work for a global-warming cluster that will appear in the Winter 2014 issue of the journal. We can consider work received by September 30. Please contact us if you have any questions (kmoore@oregonstate.edu and slovic@uidaho.edu).

We also wish to encourage our students and colleagues throughout the world to devote their efforts to this pressing issue with an eye toward publishing in future issues of ISLE; in other scholarly, creative, or popular forums; and through untraditional and even non-public media, such as behind-the-scenes letters to elected officials or corporate leaders.

Your voice is needed. We call upon you to put your mind to the meaning of climate change. Do you have something better to do?

Kathleen Dean Moore and Scott Slovic

A long drive made short -- on the road with the "Blue Heaven" audiobook

Yesterday, Cheyenne writer Karen Cotton's blog featured a Q&A with best-selling writer C.J. Box that included news about the upcoming film of "Blue Heaven." It made me think about the long drive across Wyoming last summer that was made shorter (and much more fun) with the accompaniment of the "Blue Heaven" audiobook.

A long drive made short. That may be the best way to describe the effects of a great audiobook. "Blue Heaven" is that kind of experience. This was Chuck's (that's how most Wyomingites know C.J.) first stand-alone novel, the first outside of his best-selling Joe Pickett series. It came out in 2008 and was a big hit. It was selected by the American Library Association as a 2008 Reading List award winner in the category "Adrenaline." The action is intense as 12-year-old Annie and her younger brother William witness a murder in the Idaho woods and now have to escape pursuit by a group of retired L.A. cops who have big secrets to hide. Some unexpected heroes help them, but readers are kept guessing all the way to the end.

One of Chuck's gifts is his ability to portray "us," those of us who live and work in the Rocky Mountain West. He's adept at showing the clashes between Old West and New West. In "Blue Heaven," rancher Jess Rawlins, one of the main characters, is beset by realtors and bankers and clueless newcomers from "The Coast." While the setting is northern Idaho, this could be Anywhere, Wyoming, those places Chuck knows so well -- Rawlins, Cheyenne, Sheridan, Encampment, even the mythical Saddlestring, Game Warden Joe Pickett's home base. This authenticity has earned the author many fans who aren't necessarily big readers. His book signings features teen boys, retirees, ranchers, bikers, teachers, and diehard Baby Boomer book-buyers like me. His audience is broad and deep. They like him in Germany, France, Japan, the U.K. and 20-some other countries, too.

My preferred delivery system for a good story is the actual book that I can read on a summer afternoon under the shade of a high plains cottonwood. Reading and long-distance driving (especially when you're the driver) aren't a good mix, which led to the invention of audiobooks. Last summer, I listened to the Laramie County Public Library's copy of "Blue Heaven." They may now have multiple copies, or soon will, and copies of the book. Read or listen to it now, before the film comes out and there's a big rush to see what the fuss is all about.

Defying the odds, Occupy movements take to the streets in Red State Wyoming

Indie  journalist Arun Gupta has been traveling the country with videographer Michele Fawcett interviewing Occupy protesters and attending rallies. He interviewed eight Occupy Cheyenne members on Nov. 28. I was one of them. I’m included in the following story from Salon. Let me just pause here to say that the Occupy Cheyenne members I’ve met are a brave and dedicated bunch.  They care for the cause and they care for each other. They have spent countless hours demonstrating peacefully in freezing temps. They sing songs and carry signs, as the song says, and many say hurray for our side – the 99%. They have spent many hours drafting a declaration that you can read it here. I also salute those Occupy Laramie folks interviewed for this story. I know some of them, notably Nancy Sindelar, a military veteran who’s been on that same downtown street corner for a decade protesting needless wars.

Read the following story and think about where you’d like to be on Saturday, Dec. 10. I’ll be at the State Capitol at noon. Which side are you on? The 99%? Or the 1%?

We are the 99%!

Here’s the Wyoming segment of “Fear and Occupation in Red State America” on Salon:

Occupy Cheyenne supporters say fierce winds and bitter cold have prevented them from camping outside so we caught up with eight of them on a weekday at the sleek new Laramie County Public Library. Beth Buczynski, a rapid-talking freelance editor and writer, said the Occupy movement made her “hopeful for the first time in a long time” because now “there are millions of people … all speaking together.” 

In addition to standing on street corners protesting wealth and power inequalities, the group has twice presented a workshop called “how the 1 percent crashed the economy.” Buczynski said one advantage of the workshop is that “people can hear things and talk about things without having to take a public stand.” 

Leah Zegan, a coffee-shop manager who is active in a local Unitarian Universalist Church, said education was important because of the various responses to their demonstrations. 

“People would come up and talk to us about it but they knew nothing about it,” she said. “Or if they knew about the Occupy movement they had no idea something like this was happening in Cheyenne.” Or they were unsure if “it would be safe for them to come because of the way that Wyoming is.” 

Mike Shay, a father of two college-age children and anti-Vietnam War protester as a youth, takes the hostility in stride. “I’m a veteran of enough protests to realize you’re going to get flipped off. You’re going to get yelled at. We all know how to handle that as nonviolent protesters.” 

What did surprise Shay is “how much interest there has been,” plus the fact that the movement is “nonviolent, is thoughtful, and comes from an organic place. When Occupy Cheyenne appeared it was sort of out of the ground. I said … ‘This is great, now who are these people?’” 

About 100 people attended the first protest on Oct. 15, which everyone said “was a lot for Cheyenne.” As elsewhere, the economy is a core concern as the country’s economic crisis has arrived on many people’s doorsteps. 

Robert Crawford, an unemployed 44-year-old photographer, says healthcare is a big issue because “I’m a diabetic, my 7-year-old son has already had back surgery, and he has multiple health issues.” Erin Madson says she can’t find a job despite having a master’s in biology, and both she and her sister are disabled and unable to receive proper healthcare. Ed Waddell said while people in Cheyenne are “fed up and upset” about the suffering, the problem is “they don’t understand what’s happening. They don’t know what’s being done to them.” 

Blame that on the media, say occupiers. Zegan says, “People just don’t know what’s going on or they just hear about it from Fox News.” 

Larry Struempf grew up on his parents’ cattle ranch near Laramie, which is infamous as the site of the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard in 1998. The 41-year-old Struempf describes his parents as “extreme GOP members.” Of his six siblings, he says, those “who went to college became liberal. The ones who didn’t remained conservative.” He says “many, many people in the community are extremely against the Occupy Movement.” The press, especially Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, portrays occupiers “as all unemployed, people who want to mooch off society, that are trying to just have the wealthy people give the poor people their money.” 

In Laramie, Struempf explains, “It’s so much easier, even if you do support [the Occupy movement], to just be quiet.” He adds, “It’s scary.  Times are hard, even though Wyoming is doing well. If you lose your job, you lose your house, you go live on the streets, and it’s not a forgiving environment.” 

A 12-year resident of Laramie, Lindy Murphy was laid off recently from the U.S. Postal Service. She says her co-workers would bad-mouth the union. 

“Nobody seemed to understand that the union was what gave them these great jobs,” she said. “They played Rush Limbaugh over the radio at the post office when we were sorting mail. When you got into the mail vehicle the radio was tuned to Rush Limbaugh. It was very much part of the culture.” 

Murphy, who owned a bar and restaurant in Texas for 18 years prior to being a mail carrier, says the post office let her go after a three-year stint as a “transitional employee” rather than make her a union member as required. 

Despite being unemployed for 10 months at the age of 56, Murphy said, “The Occupy movement is the most amazing thing that has ever happened in my lifetime and I would never believe it would happen. I have some disdain for Americans … We’re the ones who just go plunder other countries so we can have more.  And it’s like, oh, people have been paying attention!  People do know what’s going on!” She adds that she is “disappointed that more people aren’t standing up” in Laramie, but she is excited by the broader movements, including the Arab Spring. 

While Laramie’s Facebook page has just 68 members and eight occupiers joined the Christmas parade with signs encouraging people to “buy local, pay cash,” it does provide a sense of community to people who previously felt isolated. Mandi Leigh, who is earning a master’s in natural science education at the University of Wyoming, says, “It’s easier to stand up and get over your fear when you have that support and when you have community.” 

The fear is real. Nancy Sindelar, who served 21 years in the Wyoming National Guard and has been conducting a weekly peace vigil in Laramie for more than 10 years, says of the last person who tried to attack her, “I don’t want to brag, but I was still holding my flag and my sign in one hand and he was on the pavement.” A member of Veterans for Peace, Sindelar says that before the first Occupy event, held at the Laramie Peace House, she told a reporter for the Laramie Boomerang, “Absolutely do not put the address of the Peace House in the paper.” She says there have been many “vicious” comments on articles about the Occupy movement. 

The occupations in Wyoming benefit from a spillover effect from other occupations. Leigh says after participating in an Occupy Denver march of some 3,000 people, “I was really inspired, so I got involved with these guys,” in Laramie. 

Sindelar says the first Occupy event she attended with a few other people was in Casper, Wyo. “The next week it was in Cheyenne and I said, we’re Laramie, we gotta do something, so we called one here, and had it in the plaza.” 

Beth Buczynski says she happened to be in Austin, Texas, on the day the occupation began and “just completely felt that something I was waiting for was happening, so when I got back here and found an Occupy Cheyenne page I was thrilled and surprised and decided to meet these folks and do whatever I could to help out.”

JH Weekly: Wyoming downwinders nervous (again) after two incidents at Idaho facility

Jake Nichols reports about two separate incidents at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) nuke facility across the border in Idaho. Read all about it here

Daily Kos: A New Literary Movement from the Mountain West (And Why it Matters)

Posted yesterday by nonnyidaho at Daily Kos was this intriguing piece about a new artistic movement taking root in eastern Idaho and northeren Utah. Using the name "Parkwood Kind" after "Parkwood Acres" near Rigby, Idaho, these young people are abandoning their LDS upbringings to explore Buddhism and Liberal politics. Their explorations come in the form of poetry and music.

...by using the medium of art, and by appealing to the humanity (not the ideology) of those willing to listen to them. The Parkwood Kind is relevant today because their approach to this polarized political atmosphere could teach all of America a lesson. They are preaching a revolutionary concept: following our own consciences, despite the political or ideological repercussions.  And their consciences, as expressed in their works, are most often proponents of a progressive, environmentally friendly society where individualism, sustainability, and equality are supreme.

Haven't read or listened to the work yet so can't speak to that. But it's always good to spread the word about something positive coming out of the usual depressing dreck that issues from the Tea Party-influenced neighborhood of ID/UT/WY. My neighborhood.

Go to: Unlikely Generation: A New Literary Movement from the Mountain West (And Why it Matters)

Ganesha, remover of obstacles, please remove Kootenai Constitution Party from my sight

"Ganesha" by sculptor Rick Davis. Kathy Plonka photo. The Spokesman-Review. 

Today’s Wyoming Tribune-Eagle’s religion section features an article about a protest in Coeur d’Alene about a new public art display. I am always interested in protests against art displays because I work in the arts and it’s always intriguing to see what kind of art upsets which kind of people.

On Friday afternoon in Coeur d’Alene, the Kootenai County Constitution Party staged a protest at a statue entitled “Ganesha.” The statue, by Spokane metal artist Rick Davis, is one of 15 dedicated Friday as part of the city’s new “ArtCurrents” public art program

Artists own the sculptures, which remain in place for a year and are offered for sale. The city receives 25 percent of the proceeds of any sales. The sculptures are by artists in Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Montana and Nebraska. Proposals were solicited from artists, and a citizens committee selected about half of the submissions. The artists received $500 stipends.

The program is based on one that has been in place in Sheridan, Wyo., for eight years. The Sheridan program has been wildly successful, with a variety of sculptures on downtown street corners. They bring ambience to an already lively downtown. The project adds money to the city coffers. The art also draws people downtown and they stay longer to see the artwork.

Davis’s Coeur d’Alene statue is of Hinduism’s Lord Ganesha, an elephant-headed, human-bodied “god of wisdom and remover of obstacles and that is often invoked before the beginning of any major undertaking,” according to a June 11 ANI article.

Any project that involves both government and the arts should welcome a god who is a remover of obstacles. Rajan Zed, president of Universal Society of Hinduism, was quoted in the ANI article: “What could be more auspicious for Coeur d'Alene than having a Ganesha statue in its downtown?”

Instead, the county’s Constitution Party sees it as an “abomination.”

The best coverage of this has been in the Irregular Times blog where jclifford asks this question:

Now, guess which statue from the 2011-2012 ArtCurrents Coeur D’Alene Public Art installation the group claims is unconstitutional. 

It’s not the statue of Rachel, a character from the Old Testament. 

It’s not the statue of St. Francis of Assisi, a figure of Christian devotion. 

No, the only religious statue that the Kootenai County Constitution Party rejects is the statue of Ganesha, a hindu deity. Isn’t that curious?

I join jclifford in finding it ironic that Rick Davis sculpted Ganesha and the statue of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the Catholicism’s major saints. The Prayer of St. Francis was one of the first I learned. My father, a major Catholic parent, coached my brother and me for hours and hours, drilling the prayer into our dense little heads. I am now writing this from memory:

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace

Where there is doubt, let me sow faith

Where there is darkness, light

Where there is sadness, joy

Ours is not to be consoled as to console

Something, something.

Amen.

That’s all I recall. My memory is a sieve.

I could jog my brain cells if I was in downtown Coeur d’Alene, looking at the St. Francis statue. At the same time, if Constitution Party knuckleheads were on the scene, I might also pray to Ganesha to remove annoying human-like obstacles to my enjoyment of beautiful public art.

Here is the prayer in its current permutation (from http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/pray0027.htm):

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Are those predator wolves or trophy wolves flying jets over Wyoming?

"Wolves Flying Jets" is a song by Greenhorse. Are these predator wolves or trophy wolves? And can they be hunted while flying jets over Wyoming or Montana or Idaho?

Ask Greenhorse when the group (with Wyoming origins) performs tonight at the WYO Theater in Sheridan.

The song --



Wolves Flying Jets by Greenhorse

National Geo Geotourism Map worth a look

Atlantic City Mercantile, Dark Horse Books and 7D Dude Ranch all part of the National Geographic's Yellowstone Region Geotourism Map at http://www.yellowstonegeotourism.org/map.php.


The region emcompasses quite a distance, further than most of us in Wyoming consider the Yellowstone ecosystem. For instance, the Little Bighorn Battlefield on Montana's Crow Reservation is on the map. It's worthy, no doubt, but so far away from the old Yellowstone caldera at around 150 road miles.


Entirely possible that National Geo knows more than I do.

Mcjoan explains new student loan bill

Mcjoan (Joan McCarter), Idaho native and one of the Big Kahuna Kossacks at Daily Kos, can take a complicated subject and make it sensible. Saturday on Kos, mcjoan explained the new student loan legislation. For all of it, go to http://mcjoan.dailykos.com.

What will the new student loan bill do for you?

If you're already paying student loans, probably not a lot. But if you're either soon needing to get loans, or to send your kids to college, it's good news. The government takeover of the federal student loan program is brilliant in it's simplicity. Thus far loan programs have been both direct loans, and federally-guaranteed loans from private lenders. The federally-guaranteed program means that the feds (us, the taxpayers) guaranteed loans made by private lenders, so the taxpayer has all the risk, and the bank makes all the profits. Now, all federal loans will be direct (the majority, 88% already are). The interest on those loans goes back to the federal government, and not to banks. All that extra money taking the remaining 12% of loans into the direct program will and not subsidizing the middle man banks goes into making college more affordable.

Geotourism center to address "social and natural" character of Yellowstone region

This sounds like a promising trend for the region.

Ben Cannon wrote this for Planet Jackson Hole:

The Greater Yellowstone Geotourism Center in Driggs, Idaho, believed to be the first of its kind, will be one part visitor center, one part interpretive facility, said Teton Valley Chamber of Commerce president Reid Rogers, who is heading up the initiative.

So called “geotourism” differs from ecotourism, or travel to pristine natural environs, in that the former incorporates historic and cultural aspects of a destination. Ecotourism also promotes sustaining, or even enhancing, a place’s character – social and natural.

The term was coined by a National Geographic editor, and the organization will lend its insignia, and some prime display items, to the new center in Driggs.“We’re tying to build an institution that represents the entire Yellowstone area,” Rogers said.

The concept evolved about five years ago, when National Geographic identified the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as one of the world’s important geographical areas, a place where communities grew amongst great natural character. Last March, National Geographic, working with a task force with representatives from Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, began publishing a map guide area. An online version of the map, available at http://www.yellowstonegeotourism.org/, allows for more comprehensive listings.

Rogers said the geotourism initiative happened to dovetail with plans to build a visitor’s center in Driggs. “I went to National Geographic and asked them if anyone has turned their theory of geotourism in a physical institution, a physical location to experience what it is you’re talking about,” Rogers said. “They said it was almost a perfect extension of what a community could do.”

There are probably some in the Yellowstone region cringing at this idea. National Geographic, of course, is a "Coaster" organization, with sprawling headquarters in Maryland. "Outside the Beltway," but close enough to the heart of federal gubment to be dangerous. It's also an international org, which may raise questions of outside influence by Euro-do-gooders in places like France and Luxembourg. You think the French are bad, wait until you meet up with cheese-eating enviro Luxies.

Wonder how this center will interpret to social and natural characteristics of the area. A tall order. The heart of the area's natural character is in the national park. But social? So many different kids of human habitations in the region. Jackson itself is such a study in contrasts. You got your punk snowboarders, aging Baby Boomer Liberals, Cheneyite Repubs, cyber-communing bankers, Cowboy wannabes, non-Indian Indian spiritualists, federal wildlife biologists, wolf-haters, slacker trust-fund babies, Hispanic resort workers, transient artists, not to mention the million tourists from around the world who troupe through town each year. Jackson fiction writer Tim Sandlin has spent his career writing about these conflicting social elements. But how to do them justice in an interpretive center?

And what about the other communities in the Yellowstone region: Cody, Dubois, Hoback Junction, Red Lodge, Alta, Driggs, Victor, West Yellowstone, etc.? Old-timers conflict with newcomers and -- fast as lightning -- newcomers become old-timers and grouse about the good old days.

Wyoming's future: from Equality State to Land of the Dumb & Sick

Digby recounts a Chris Matthews interview with Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour talking about how Mississippi has all the answers to our health care woes. An excerpt:

Barbour: ...candidly, a lot of Republicans, including me, believe it would be much better to let the states do some things like we've done in Mississippi where we've had serious tort reform and our medical liability reform has brought down insurance premiums by 60 percent in four years, we have reformed Medicaid so that we are saving the taxpayers money. We think let the states go for a while, see what works see what doesn't and then come together with a rational bill at the federal level is a better approach.

Mississippi rates 51 (out of 50 states plus DC) in health care ranking.

In the same ranking by The Commonwealth Fund, Wyoming ranks right in the middle at number 25 [http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Charts-and-Maps/State-Scorecard-2009/DataByState/State.aspx?state=WY].

Not great but not terrible. Our adjoining Rocky Mountain and High Plains states do a little better, with Montana at 18th, Utah at 19th, Colorado at 24th, Nebraska at 13 and South Dakota at 12. Wyoming's only neighbor that ranks lower is Idaho at 29.

I wonder how many Nebraskans and Montanans would trade their health care for that enjoyed by the lucky people of Mississippi? If Republicans ruled the world of health care reform, we could say "We’re all Mississippians now!" If we were still alive to do so.

This could be especially bad in Republican-controlled states such as Wyoming and Idaho if health care were left up to the states.

The South always ranks at the bottom in those categories that count, such as health care and education. They tend to send Republicans to D.C. to illuminate the rest of us on education and health care reform, not to mention the inerrancy of the Bible. If Wyoming’s delegation keeps voting with their Deep South counterparts, we too could be the land of the dumb and the sick. And we’d be praying like hell for something different.

A very short story set in the Old West to wrap up ADHD Awareness Week

"The pursuit of the big sky and the attitude of 'Don't fence me in' may be one of the reasons why Idaho leads the nation in per capita prescriptions of Ritalin for school-age children."
--From "Answers to Distraction" by Edwin M. Hallowell, M.D./John J. Ratey, M.D.

How the West Was Won

Idaho lies just over those mountains. Soon it will become a territory, and someday a state where potatoes will share the soil with concrete burrows of nuclear missiles. Ritalin will serve as handmaiden to its many children.

Our wagons stir the land, cause dust devils to rise. Black serpent cyclones rip the ridgelines. Native nomads, bison, tumbleweeds cross the purple prairie. Movement is religion. We are not destined for one place, but many; many mansions, as The Book says, many wagons filled with children, the amputated pasts of émigré nations.

My father farmed the same rock-chunked patch of County Roscommon land as his father before him, as his father before him, and all the fathers to back before the bastard Cromwell. Miserable sons of the sod. My father cursed the sick soil, dug the withered potatoes until only stone mingled with stone. The Great Hunger set us free and filled the coffin ships. Now our wagons prowl the prairies past forts and pox-plagued Indians, past Independence Rock, that granite lump like the devil's own hunched back, past grasslands that have no more sense than to act as carpets to the long horizon, to Idaho, and on to Oregon and the sea.

Our plan all along was Oregon, my brothers and I, but we grew distracted with the shades of Mormon children who whirl above our campfires. They can't get warm enough, can't move fast enough to escape last October's blizzard; it swallowed the Willie's Handcart party, froze 100 Latter Day Saints in mid-stride. Mormon youth are always on the move! One day, you will see them on bicycles from Beijing to Boise and Ritalin will be popular in Salt Lake City, Vernal, Provo. The Great Cities of Utah will vie with The Great Cities of Idaho and all the big-sky states for the coveted title of Ritalin Capital of the Nation.

At night, as the campfire dances in the constant wind, I stand within the circle of wagons and watch the stars wheel overhead. The comets are out there, weaving mists through the constellations; a shooting star streaks the firmament. In the hyperactive future, the lights of airplanes will always be visible, no matter how deep you push into the territory. Movement will still be religion, but my great-great-grandchildren in Pocatello will swallow a pill to give them pause and to muffle the nerve-twitching urge to move, that itch to be somewhere, anywhere but here.

Michael Shay, April 21, 2005
Originally published 2005 in High Plains Register

In Boise but not in Cheyenne: first-hand reports of 9/12 teabaggery

Nathaniel Hoffman waded into a horde of 9/12 teabaggers in a Boise park and found that "Tea Party inspired by racial fears." Read his Boise Weekly story (and see more photos) at http://tinyurl.com/qq7fxd

Also, read untamedshrew's 9/12 blog about the Boise rally on 43rd state blues. Here's an excerpt:

I saw three different men armed with pistols. I wanted to get a photo to post here, but I only had my phone camera and didn’t feel comfortable getting close to these dangerous morons. One reportedly threatened another of my fellow demonstrators, telling her, “Just give me a reason.” Scary. SCARY. What on earth were those legislators who voted for the open carry law thinking? Allowing hostile people to carry pistols into a heated situation like that? It boggles my mind.

Boise is no better or worse than any Wyoming city -- just bigger. I went looking for the "9/12 Project Rally" in Cheyenne on Saturday but couldn't find it. I had seen a blurb in the Casper Star-Trib about the Casper rally no naturally assumed there would be one in the Capital City. I left the Fox News coverage of the D.C. rally and went downtown -- but no rally. I explored the Ribfest and Farmer's Market at Depot Square Plaza. Over at the corn truck, one big guy looked askance at my "SEIU for Obama" T-shirt -- but no gun threats. I was disappointed because local teabaggers had staged protests on April 15 with scads of cool signs. They held another patritoic rally on July 4. There was another recent one which I documented on my blog.

But none on 9/12. Perhaps the Cheyenne teabaggers traveled to Boise? Please tell them to come home. We miss them.

In the Rockies, better blue than red

I live in the libertarian-minded Rocky Mountain West. I'm a resident of Wyoming, the second-most conservative state in the nation. Utah (not surprisingly) is numero uno, followed by our Cowboy/Equality/Coal State and then Idaho. We make up a red ultra-conservative misshapen Balkan province among a region that's trending blue. This according to the latest Gallup Poll.

Blame my liberalism on shallow Wyoming roots. I moved my family here in 1991 from Fort Collins, Colo. Before that we were a decade in Denver, now reliably blue. In fact, the entire state of Colorado now leans Democratic. Kind of amazing, when you consider that the eastern plains and the Western Slope are very conservative. But even Colorado Springs showed some gains in Democratic Party registration last year. You know all about the Springs: Focus on the Family, Ted Haggard, born-again indoctrination at the Air Force Academy. A heavy military presence, with booming Ft. Carson, NORAD and Peterson AFB.

I've lived in two solidly Democratic states: Massachusetts and Maryland. I spent most of my formative years in Florida, now in the "Leaning Democratic" fold after the 2008 elections. It's an odd place. Talk about your Balkanization. The reliably blue south (even younger Cubans are coming over to the Dems) and the Redneck panhandle, more 'Bama and Mississippi that beachtown Florida. Central Florida is a toss-up, but a very vocal group of born-agains bumping up against Yuppies emigrating from the Rust Belt.

I love Florida, for all those reasons and others too numerous to mention. Odd thing is, my eight brothers and sisters, all Floridians, are almost all diehard Republicans. The most liberal is my nurse sister in Tallahassee; the most conservative my retiree entrepreneur surfer brother in Daytona. Sometimes the others vote Dem, sometimes Repub. They either register Repub or Independent. None of them are like me -- a lifelong Dem. I did register as an Indie during college in the 1970s, but still voted for Jimmy Carter.

So why don't I just try to fit in here in Wyoming? No fun. It's also against my religion -- Catholic Socialist. That's not really a religion, just a fun label I hang on myself. In Wyoming, you can use those Repub buzzwords to get people fired up. You know, socialist, community organizer, liberal (the "L" word), even plain old "Democrat." It's fun.

But my beliefs are serious. I could never register Repub because it's the only game in town. Some of my friends admit this. Nobody to vote for in the Democratic primaries! The Wyoming Democratic Party is pathetic! You guys don't know how to party! O.K., I've never heard the last excuse, but it's probably true.

When you're in mixed company in Wyoming, the likely assumption is that you're all in the same conservative club. Doesn't take long for the Obama cracks to start. Best way to nip them in the bud is to raise your pointy little head and declare your support of Obama and your belief in "Hope" and health care and alternative energy and possibly socialism. Most Wyomingites are low key. Most of the time the conversation will go in a new direction. "How about them Pokes," referring to the Wyoming Cowboy football or basketball teams. There hasn't been much to admire in the past few seasons, but it can get things moving in a new direction.

I did get in a few dust-ups prior to the 2008 elections. And most people seem to know me well enough now that they steer clear of sensitive topics. Even my family has taken to cloaking their anti-Obama public comments on Facebook.

But this won't last. We're in the midst of a huge battle over major topics. This August recess is already off to a wild start, with Know Nothing corporate stooges interrupting town hall meetings by their Reps and Sens. This probably won't happen in the second most conservative state in the U.S. Our three-person Congressional delegation is reliably red. Obama today did mention Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi as one of the few Senate Repubs willing to talk turkey about health care reform.

But one never knows about the future. Former conservative stalwart Montana has moved into the "competitive" camp, according to Gallup. That's due to new immigrants from blue states. And Montana Democratic politicians are a lot like Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal. Some coaster liberals call them Dems in Name Only (DINO). I prefer pragmatic and cagy. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Sen. Jon Tester are also in this category.

But Wyoming Democrats have made some gains, mostly in the state's few urban areas, such as Cheyenne and Casper, and resort areas such as Jackson.

Jake Nichols, writing in this week's Planet Jackson Hole, talked about some dangerous blue trends.

“People are starting to vote the right way [in Teton County],” said Bill Luckett, executive director of the Wyoming Democratic Party. To Luckett, the RIGHT way is a left-leaning voter core begat in liberal Teton County and trending through the state.

A Houston TV station took notice of this red state’s blues. “Wyoming has turned into an unexpected — and nagging — headache for the national GOP, which now finds itself forced to commit scarce resources to the lone House seat in one of the reddest states on the map,” KHOU-TV reported. The news piece attributed Democratic gains in part to Wyoming’s fierce independent streak – witness two-term gubernatorial incumbent Dave Freudenthal’s popularity – but conservatives are still worried.

Last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee announced it was adding Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) to its Patriot program — a watch list of the party’s most vulnerable incumbents.

One thing I know after 18 years in Wyoming: there's no "left-leaning voter core begat in Teton County and trending through the state." Liberals begat in Teton County don't move to other parts of the state. They move there from another place, and either stay put through pluck and good luck and trust funds, or move back to the coasts -- or to Taos or Aspen. The blue trend I see in Laramie County, on the opposite corner of the state from Jackson, is home grown. Dem voters here may be from other states. But they didn't pass through Jackson to get indoctrinated into the true Dem faith. Cheyenne Dems have a tendency to view their Teton County brothers and sisters with a jaundiced eye. It's often said by conservatives and liberals alike that Jackson is not a part of this state. An alternate reality, I suppose, where everyone can afford season ski passes and Volvos.

But the trend is clear. Urban areas are trending blue. Resort areas are trending blue. Cities and towns with a more educated citizenry are trending blue. The West is trending blue. And finally, the Rockies are trending blue. If you live in a state that includes some sliver of the magnificent Rocky Mountains, your future lies with the Dems.

For the entire Gallup Poll article, go to http://www.gallup.com/poll/122003/Political-Party-Affiliation-States-Blue-Red-Far.aspx?CSTS=addthis

DNC Western Caucus gathers in northern Idaho Aug. 7-9

Good news: Senate passes credit card reform. Bad news: All credit card holders must wear loaded guns

New credit card bill passed 90-5 today in the U.S. Senate. It includes some much-needed restrictions on credit card companies.

Anne Flaherty reports this in an AP story:

If enacted into law as expected, the credit card industry would have nine months to change the way it does business: Lenders would have to post their credit card agreements on the Internet and let customers pay their bills online or by phone without an added fee. They'd also have to give consumers a chance to spare themselves from over-the-limit fees and provide 45 days notice and an explanation before interest rates are increased. Some of these changes are already on track to take effect in July 2010, under new rules being imposed by the Federal Reserve. But the Senate bill would put the changes into law and go further in restricting the types of bank fees and who can get a card. For example, the Senate bill requires those under 21 who seek a credit card to prove first that they can repay the money or that a parent or guardian is willing to pay off their debt if they default.... Under the bill, a cardholder would have to opt to be allowed to go over a credit limit. If customers don't agree and the bank authorizes a charge that would push them over their limit, the lender couldn't levy an over-limit fee. Another boon for consumers is limiting a practice known as "universal default," when a lender sharply increases a cardholder's interest rate on an existing balance because the customer is late paying that bill or other, unrelated bills. Under the new legislation, a customer would have to be more than 60 days behind on a payment before seeing a rate increase on an existing balance. Even then, the credit card company would be required to restore the previous, lower rate after six months if the cardholder pays the minimum balance on time.

This is good news for all of us who've been gouged by credit card companies, which probably includes 99.9 percent of all Americans.

One odd things about the bill, though. A provision was added at the last minute that allows people to carry loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges. The purpose of the amendment listed in the U.S. Senate's official record is this: "To protect innocent Americans from violent crime in national parks and refuges." Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn proposed the gun measure as an amendment and it passed, 67-29.

What does this have to do with credit card companies? Some of us, even peaceniks, have been driven apoplectic by the credit card companies and their obscure rules. I do admit that it's a far cry from apoplexy to gunplay, but the latter has been contemplated.

So, if all this becomes law, expect to see lots of gun-toting westerners this summer in Yellowstone and Grand Teton and Devils Tower and Fossil Butte and Mount Rushmore and Dinosaur N.M. and Rocky Mountain N.P. and the wildlife refuge near you. A perfect time for threats of random gunplay in parks which have been reporting a downturn in visitors by Internet-absorbed Americans and by those strapped for cash by the economic downturn.

While this "gun-toting act" could backfire, it might add to the tourism numbers. Let's face it, tourists, especially the foreign variety, have become jaded by fake Old West gun fights in places such as Jackson and Cheyenne. They are looking for a more genuine experience. So what could be better than a real gunfight breaking out amongst two gun-toting citizens jockeying over the same RV hook-up? Better yet, two fellows decked out in Wranglers, Tony Lamas and Glocks get into a scrape over a woman at the Yellowstone Lake Lodge. They're told to take it outside and they do, much to the delight of a busload of tourists from Kyoto. They get it all on film and it's on YouTube within seconds.

That may be fine for tourists from overseas. For me, this makes a staycation look better and better.

Cheyenne's C.J. Box writes intro for new mapguide of Yellowstone region

Any publication that features an introduction by a mystery writer demands my attention. That's why I perked up when I saw the new "Yellowstone and Beyond" mapguide from National Geographic. Cheyenne author C.J. Box, nominated this year for an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, wrote the intro to the guide. It mixes a bit of first-person narrative with history and local color. I was waiting for C.J.'s protagonist, Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett, to make an appearance. Alas, he did not (you have to buy the books).

Read the intro --and download (or order) a copy of the mapguide -- at http://www.yellowstonegeotourism.org/. The site also features an interactive map of the region.
National Geographic's Center for Sustainable Destinations has published an entire series of these publications devoted to Geotourism: "The kind of travel that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place — its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents."

Others have attempted to treat this area as a region that happens to span three states. But this one seems to get the job done. Travel/tourism bureaus from Wyoming, Montana and Idaho all pitched in to fund the project. Good use of taxpayer funds, I'd say, as all three states mightily depend on tourism income. Yes, we're all energy-producing states, especially Wyoming and Montana. But tourism and the extractive industries overlap geographically and politically. Just take a look at the recent vote in D.C. to protect the Wyoming range, which is part of the Yellowstone region. Both of our senators voted for protection; Rep. Cynthia Lummis did not. Rep. Lummis is rapidly becoming a member in good standing of the Republican "N-O means No" Chorus.

Sen. John Barrasso made protection of the Wyoming Range a campaign promise. So I'm glad that he came through on this issue.

So, take a look at C.J.'s National Geographic's map. Get a copy for your summer travels.

Dems: remember your Red State roots

Julie Fanselow started Idaho's Red State Rebels blog in 2003, way before most of us knew what a blog was. It's a great site, and I urge you to check it out on a regular basis.

Julie's post "Red State Expats -- Please Send Money Home" appeared Dec. 19 in the a Huffington Post. She proposes that all those expatriate Idahoans that have moved to more progressive places take the money they might give to candidates in safely Democratic areas (San Francisco, for instance) and send it home to turn their home states a lighter shade of red.

Here are some excerpts:

I thought about the neighborhoods in San Francisco and how they fall silent at the holidays as many city dwellers briefly return to their parents' homes in Provo, Pocatello or Paducah. I thought about similar scenes that will unfold over the next two weeks in New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle, as young urbanites visit their hometowns, and then leave utterly thankful that they have found more progressive places to live....

With Howard Dean leaving the DNC, the fate of the 50-state strategy is somewhat uncertain. All the DNC's State Partnership Plan employees were furloughed after the election, pending the formulation of a new program. But even if the new DNC chair fully funds a new SPP, state parties will remain bare-bones operations where your small-dollar contributions can make a huge difference for field operations, activist training, technology, candidate recruitment and communications in 2010 and beyond.

We all need to come together to advance Obama's progressive agenda, but we can't forget about the grassroots community organizing work that needs to happen in states like mine. Democrats are making progress in the red states: 36 percent of Idahoans voted for Obama, up from just 30 percent who voted for John Kerry, for example, and every Idaho county but one voted more Democratic in 2008 than in 2004. With your help -- and that, we hope, of the DNC -- we can continue moving light-red counties into the purple-and-blue tapestry that is slowly but surely filling up the map of our great nation.

Wyoming, as we discovered during the most recent election, has a lot of work to do to get out of The Red Zone. Gary Trauner got hammered by Cynthia Lummis for the state's lone U.S. House seat when Republicans voted the party line. Enzi and Barrasso easily defeated their Democratic opponents in the U.S. Senate races. McCain/Palin won handily. We need more registered Democrats to even the odds. But we can't import in numbers large enough to blunt the Repub advantage.

Remember the Great Libertarian Scare earlier this century, in which Libertarians were urged to move to Wyoming and transform it into an Ayn Rand Utopia? A few made the move, but no word yet on when the Exodus will begin in earnest. Some old-timers may remember a similar scare 40 years ago, when hippies were urged to move to Wyoming, take over local governments, and transform The Cowboy State into a Tie-Dyed Nirvana. That movement may have been nipped in the bud by the infamous incident in which some overzealous cowboys in Cheyenne took sheep shears to a wayward hippie's locks. Not sure why cowpunchers were using sheep shears, but that's the story. It may be a rural legend.

One thing's clear -- we need to work harder getting out the Dem message. We need better candidate recruitment -- and training for activists. We also need to keep our hair short.

During the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, Cheyenne fills up with kids and grandkids and assorted relatives who have moved away from their spawning grounds. This short-term migration also occurs during Cheyenne Frontier Days each summer. Many of these people have found great jobs and new lives down the road in Colorado, which voted blue in a big way in 2008. Others are spread all over the nation. Not all are progressives or Dems or believers in the audacity of hope. But some are. I have a message for them: Help!

Mountain West still a frontier for doctors

Joan McCarter blogs from Boise about issues in the Rocky Mountain West. Her posts appear regularly in New West and (as mcjoan) on Daily Kos. Leading up to the election, she was guest blogger on the Denver Post’s election site.

She’s written widely about health care issues in the rural West. A year ago in New West, she rolled out some shocking statistics. They won’t be a shock for residents of Lusk, Wyo., Montpelier, Idaho, or Glasgow, Mont. These small rural towns are hours from any major medical facility and sometimes have no doctor of their own.

The situation isn’t much better in the West’s small cities, such as my town of Cheyenne and Pocatello and Bozeman and so on. Here’s info that McCarter detailed in a 2007 New West post:

Yup, Idaho is dead last when it comes to the doctor to patient ratio, around 140 for every 100,000 residents.

It’s actually not much better for the rest of the region. None is in the top half of states when it comes provider access: Nevada comes in at number 48 (not counting D.C.), Wyoming at 47, Utah at 44, Arizona at 37, Montana at 35, New Mexico at 32.

The health care debate in the country and the region has largely been focused around insurance--a valid concern, since some 47 million Americans are uninsured, about 16 percent of the total U.S. population....

Of course, having health insurance is small comfort if it takes you four or five or even six months to get an appointment with a regular family doctor.

In a Friday, Dec. 12, post on New West, she goes on to write about hoped-for changes with Obama at the helm and former S.D. Sen. Tom Daschle as new chief of Health and Human Services. Read the entire article at http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/our_broken_health_system_its_not_just_about_insurance/C530/L37/

According to McCarter’s above figures, each doctor has 700-some patients. No wonder it’s tough to find someone to look after your infected toe or broken arm. Not sure how many nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants there are in the West. It’s possible they take up some of the slack, but they’re obligated to practice under physician supervision. So, no doctor, no physician’s assistant or nurse practitioner.

During my 17 years in Cheyenne, I’ve been relatively healthy. Only a few visits to Dr. B’s office during that time. Once for bronchitis, once for a sinus infection and once for gastroenteritis caused by drinking some bad water up in the Snowy Range. Also, two complete physicals. Each of those times, I saw a C.N.P. or physician’s assistant. They were good, they fixed me up but they were extensions of Dr. B. They wouldn't have been there without his credentials.

McCarter's focus is on general practitioner, docs who can serve an entire small community. We use to call them family doctors. Small- to mid-sized towns are lucky if they have one. Specialists are rare to nonexistent. That's why people in Goshen County have to travel to Cheyenne or Scottsbluff or Casper. Or, in some cases, have to go all the way to Denver or Billings. There are allergists and orthopedic doctors in Cheyenne who dedicate some of their work days to satellite offices in Wheatland and Scottsbluff. A well-known orthopedic clinic even has a plane for its physicians, allowing them to see patients all around the state.

But, as with all things in Wyoming, some specialists are nonexistent. Pediatric psychiatrists and neurologists, to name two. You have to travel across borders for that level of care. We have made the trip to Fort Collins and Denver many times to see specialists. Neurologists in Denver; psychiatruists in Fort Collins and Denver; my wife's endocrinologist in Fort Collins.

Yes, as McCarter says, it's great to have health insurance. Without it, we never could have afforded the right kind of health care. It also would make a big difference if there were more general practitioners to serve this high, wide and lonesome (and rapidly aging) state. Perhaps Mr. Daschle can help us get there.