I’m no historian but Taylor Sheridan’s “1883” seems bona fide

At the urging of one of my sisters (her first name starts with M), I tuned in to "1883" last night and was up to all hours. My favorite line thus far comes from Sam Elliott, the grizzled veteran of the trails. He hates all of their delays and warns Dutton that it puts the wagon train at South Pass in October. South Pass in October can be nice from a car window in 2023. It can also be the other thing -- a white-out nightmare. Imagine yourself on horseback or in a wagon or on foot, still miles to go until Oregon.

I stayed away from Taylor Sheridan’s “Yellowstone” series because its biggest fans also seemed to be FOX viewers. I didn’t want to watch another  “Dallas of the Tetons” or a color version of “Wagon Train.” I didn’t want to see all the old tropes from a John Ford movie. The early part of his career, until “The Searchers” brought some reality to the genre. I loved the old “Wagon Train” and “Rawhide.” I loved all those TV westerns. I was a kid and looking for heroes. I got ‘em by the wagon-load. They’ve channeled my behavior ever since. My politics are a combination of Rowdy Yates and Sister Norbert. They were both enforcers who rode for the brand. Moral and fair. A bit rough around the edges.

I like “1883” thus far. It is cold-blooded in its portrayal of the migration to the West. Cheyenne at this point was 17 years old. It might have been a bit more civilized than Fort Worth, not nearly as crazy as Deadwood. Fortunately for streaming services, Frederick Jackson Turner would not declare the frontier “gone” for another decade. The Duttons will have settled in Montana or Wyoming or a version of Wyotana filmed in Canada. Wyoming would become a state in 1890 and was fairly civilized until MAGA Republicans took over the state legislature. Now all is lost.

But back to “Yellowstone.” I am watching the entire series to keep me occupied until “The Last of Us” returns with Season Two. It’s an odd coincidence but episodes 7 & 8 of “The Last of Us” take place in the winter wilderness of Wyoming and Colorado. The characters ride horses and hunt for their own meat. There are bandits and cultists and killers everywhere. And don’t forget the fungi zombies although they’ve been scarce the last two episodes. The protagonists are killers, as both Sheriff Jim Courtright (Billy Bob Thornton) and Trail Boss Shea Brennan (Elliott) call themselves in “1883.” Ellie proved to be a very capable killer in TLOU Episode 8 and Joel long ago proved he can eliminate those who threaten him or his young charge.

I am thankful when the depiction of killing is put in able hands. My wife keeps asking if we can watch something civilized such as “The Sound of Music” (she is not a “Yellowstone” fan). I say just wait as I’m standing by for the latest body count. That would be “Yellowjackets,” season 2 coming March 24 on Showtime.

"Sailor off the Bremen" shows that punching Nazis is nothing new

It's only a movie -- or is it? Indiana Jones punches a Nazi in "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

USA Today offered its summary of the past weekend: "Analysis: One weekend, two Americas. Are we falling apart?" It examines this past weekend in the U.S., in which Trump was inaugurated as president and concerned citizens protested millions-strong around the the U.S. and the world.  

The article leaves us with chilling words from pollster Frank Luntz:

"We've never had as many people who don't trust the media, don't trust the politicians, don't trust economics, don't trust business," Republican political consultant Frank Luntz said on CBS' Face the Nation. "I think we're going to remember this weekend for a long time to come as not the end, not the campaign being over, but this is the beginning of the most tempestuous ... awful conflict between left and right, between men and women, between young and old." 

He warned, "I think we are breaking apart."  

Luntz works for Republicans. As a pollster, he interviewed scores of potential voters leading up to the election. I watched many of those segments on CBS This Morning, back when I was watching TV news. They were illuminating and scary. Give credit to Luntz for showing us the inklings of the cataclysm that was to come. 

What's next?

Punching Nazis. U.S. Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer was punched in the face Saturday during D.C. inauguration activities. It was filmed, and the vid went viral. The #punchingnazis hashtag became a sensation.  Facebookers posted old cartoon panels of Superman punching Nazis during WWII. Hitler memes were big. 

Liberals had a big laugh. Conservatives were silent. Nobody wants to be on the side of the Nazis, even though we thought that this abbreviation for German's National Socialist Party had been consigned to the dustbin of history. Now we call these people alt-right or purveyors of white pride or white identity or white nationalists. They shouted "Hail Trump" at their post-election rally. 

So why not punch Nazis? Because Trump will use public violence as an excuse to clamp down on public protest. One of the reasons we peacefully gathered out in the streets this weekend is that we fear that very thing. Vice President Pence has already stated that it is time to curtail protests. We knew this was coming. 

Punching Nazis is nothing knew. One of Irwin Shaw's best short stories is ":Sailor Off the Bremen." In it, Nazi sailors off the ship Bremen attack anti-fascist demonstrators on the New York docks. One demonstrator is so injured that some of his compatriots decide to punch Nazis.

Shaw has always been one of my favorite short story writers. He lived during the golden age of short story writing and publishing. Yes, short story writers got paid to write in the 1930s. Shaw was featured in some of the best mags of the era. He wrote for radio. He went off to war and kept writing. Many of his novels became best-sellers. One was made into a Brando movie, The Young Lions. Two were made into blockbuster TV miniseries, Rich Man, Poor Man and Beggerman, Thief. Shaw lived in Paris. For the most part, he is not studied in M.F.A. writing programs due to his potboiler novels. A shame, really. Many of us could learn storytelling skills from this master.

"Sailor off the Bremen" serves up a pre-war cast of Nazis, communists and tough guys. Nobody really comes off as a hero. A young communist activist gets beat up at a protest against the Nazi-flag-flying Bremen. He loses his eye. His football-playing brother avenges the crime by beating a Nazi almost to death on the streets of New York. Nothing gets solved. The war will begin in September. The beatings and killings will commence on a global scale.

A white nationalist gets punched in the face in D.C. We cheer. White nationalists in Whitefish, Mont., target the Jews in their community. How do we respond to that? Peaceful protest may be the answer. Until it's not.

Lawrence Block included "Sailor off the Bremen" in the 2008 anthology he edited for Akashic Books, Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics. It's a good thing. Shaw's stories are hard to find these days. 

I leave you with a quote by James Fallows from the latest issue of Atlantic Magazine Online. Fallows recently spoke at a conference in Cheyenne. In the Atlantic article, he mentioned Laramie as one of the many places where local citizens are transforming their communities. At the same time, they hold a jaundiced view of national politics.

Fallows wrote this:

And now we have Donald Trump. We have small-town inland America—the culture I think of myself as being from—being credited or blamed for making a man like this the 45th in a sequence that includes Washington, Lincoln, and FDR. I view Trump’s election as the most grievous blow that the American idea has suffered in my lifetime. The Kennedy and King assassinations and the 9/11 attacks were crimes and tragedies. The wars in Vietnam and Iraq were disastrous mistakes. But the country recovered. For a democratic process to elevate a man expressing total disregard for democratic norms and institutions is worse. The American republic is based on rules but has always depended for its survival on norms—standards of behavior, conduct toward fellow citizens and especially critics and opponents that is decent beyond what the letter of the law dictates. Trump disdains them all. The American leaders I revere are sure enough of themselves to be modest, strong enough to entertain self-doubt. When I think of Republican Party civic virtues, I think of Eisenhower. But voters, or enough of them, have chosen Trump.

How many of our fellow citizens do we have to punch to make this right? If you punch, are you prepared to be punched back? Or worse?

Welcome to the West's wet years

This is one of those wet years that our great-grandfathers told us about. You know, "rain follows the plow" so why not plow up 320 acres of high plains prairie and just sit back and watch the heavens unleash its nourishing rain.

It's foggy when I awake this morning. Cool. Dew on the grass and on the car window. Reminds me of a central Florida July morning. Air so filled with moisture it's like walking through a cloud. Can still smell last night's rain. My plants, shredded in a June hailstorm, are roaring back. They're sucking in that moisture like there's no tomorrow because there may not be.

One-hundred years ago, settlers to the semi-arid West found awoke to similar mornings. "Dang, ol' Charles Dana Wilber sure was right about rain following the plow. Bumper crop this year!

And maybe the following year and the one after that. But, inevitably, nature's reality came calling in the form of the Dirty Thirties. The episode was beautifully told by Jonathan Raban in his book, Bad Land: An American Romance. Abandoned farms and ranches can still be found throughout the eastern expanses of MT, WY and CO. Ruined dreams live on in bitter memories that link giant corporations (railroads) and government with broken promises.

WY Gov. Matt Mead recently used the old excuse in blocking Medicaid expansion. We can't trust the federal government to pick up its share of the bill. Can't trust the gubment! Scientists say that global warming will increase the severity of droughts and of seasonal storms -- more blizzards and worse droughts. But 100 years ago, didn't scientists say that rain would follow the plow? Climatologists and meteorologists did say that very thing. So why should we trust them now?

History's a bitch. In 1914, German and Brit and French 18-year-olds were told that honor required them to confront barbed wire and poison gas and machine guns. Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori. The lost generation -- literally and metaphorically. My generation is still haunted by Vietnam. Our government wanted to kill us all pursuing a doomed policy. The "big lie" lived on during the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

How do you overcome perceptions lodged in our DNA?

Meanwhile, the rain falls and the fog rolls in. That semi-arid prairie is as green as the Irish countryside.

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.

Good company: Cheyenne, Billings and Loveland

Cheyenne is 15 years behind Billings.

It's playing catch-up with Loveland.

At least we're in good company.

On Wednesday evening, I attended a public meeting featuring staffers from Artspace in Minneapolis. Artspace describes itself as "America’s leader in artist-led community transformation."

At the meeting, Billings, Mont., was represented by Jack Nickels, the tall-drink-of-water cowboy who's point man on its city's nascent Artspace project. Loveland, Colo., was represented by Felicia Harmon. She's been working for more than three years on the Artspace project at the Loveland Feed and Grain building. It breaks ground Feb. 14, which is always a red-letter day in LOVE-land. This makes it the 36th Artspace project in the country, the first in Colorado, the first in the Rocky Mountain West.

Artspace's Wendy Holmes and Stacey Mickelson answered a call from Cheyenne to come on down. Issuing the call was a committee made up[ of reps from the Cheyenne DDA, Arts Cheyenne, LCCC, and a few others. Artspace held meetings with the mayor and city council, artists and arts groups and the general public. They toured three buildings with the potential for artistic live-work spaces: the Hynds, site of the "Lights On!" project, the former Z Furniture Building and the old power plant. They all hold promise as the site for live-work spaces for practicing artists, office space for arts orgs and retail space for arts businesses.

Everyone who spoke at the public meeting was very excited about the possibilities.

But hold your horses, said North Dakota native Mickelson who now works out of the Artspace D.C. office.

The Artspace staff visit is just the first step on a long trail. Artists and arts groups need to be surveyed. Local officials need to be brought on board.

"If elected officials and bureaucrats aren't interested, we can't do it," he said.

It was good sign that the mayor and six council members attended a meeting on Wednesday morning, Mickelson said. But luncheon meetings and agreeing to work together on a long-term project aren't the same thing.

The typical project takes around four years. The quickest turnaround was three years in Buffalo, N.Y. The longest was in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. -- 12 years. While the excitement level remains high in Billings, that project is on hold. The Artspace Billings Facebook page continues to grow and generate interest, according to Nickels. Some city administrators are holding up progress. The Billings downtown is home to a thriving arts scene, including the Alberta Bair Theatre, the Yellowstone Art Museum, the Writers Voice of the YMCA, an annual book festival and a new people-friendly, energy-efficient public library. Many of our northern Wyoming neighbors travel to arts events in Billings. Billings also featured in the new Alexander Payne film Nebraska (Wyoming, too, in one short scene). Get on over and like Artspace Billings on Facebook. Loveland Feed & Grain, too.

We're all in this together.

Sort of. Loveland's on its way. Billings is on hold and Cheyenne is just beginning. It's going to take a lot of people on the ground in Chey-town to make this project a reality. It will take some aye-sayers to get things down and to blunt the bleating of the nay-sayers. You know, the "Beware of Agenda 21" crowd. They'll be having their own meeting this week. Tea Party fave and Laramie County Commissioner M. Lee Hasenauer is hosting a town hall meeting at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8, in the Cottonwood Room of the Laramie County Library. According to a flier promoting the event, the meeting will be held "to discuss the impacts of PlanCheyenne," the city and county's master plan. Hasenauer is leader of the local Tea Party, and last heard from celebrating in front of the Capitol when the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled in favor of Cindy Hill resuming her duties at the Department of Education. The Tea Party believes that every step in the name of progress is a commie plot. And you know about those commies. Russkis putting on Olympic games. Chinese buying up the Great Lakes. Viet Cong bringing their coffee to Wyoming.

What's next? Prairie hipster artists taking over Cheyenne''s old power plant and waking up downtown with a robust blend of art happenings and poetry slams and coffee shops and brewfests and all kinds of creative capitalist ventures?

You heard it here first.

Meet a Democratic U.S. Senator when Jon Tester comes to Wyoming Aug. 27

Spend an evening with farmer, former school teacher and Montana U.S. Senator Jon Tester when the Wyoming Democrats bring him to Sheridan on Aug. 27. The reception and fund-raiser will be held at Black Tooth Brewery, one of the state's best brewpubs in one of Wyoming's liveliest downtowns. Dems are all about brewpubs and the arts and fellow Dems and thriving communities and creative placemaking and shopping locally and supporting our local progressives. Tix are $75. FMI: http://www.wyodems.org/event/evening-senator-jon-tester

Wyoming coal dust a pollutant -- or not? Ask a bride...

On Saturday, I posted about Seattle and the fact that urbanites in that green bastion might have to drink their lattes with a spritz of coal dust if Wyoming and Montana and Peabody Energy get their way and send swarms of coal trains to West Coast ports. Most of the coal will be bound for energy-hungry China.

One reader told me that Powder River Basin coal companies are now spraying the tops of their coal cars with "surfactants" that adhere to the coal and prevent the dust from flying every which way. Burlington Northern Santa Fe officials said that "spraying cuts dust by 85 percent," according to a story in the Portland Oregonian.

I also found out from the same article that coal companies now load coal in a "bread loaf shape that reduces dust." Not sure how that works, but I'm willing to accept the fact that changing the aerodynamics of a train load can have a positive effect.

A war is being waged here between energy-producing red-staters and bluish greenies on the coast. Some of my fellow union members in the Pacific Northwest are in favor of the coal train shipments as it could mean up to 15,000 jobs at the ports and the railyards. Some of my fellow red-state Dems in the northern Rockies are against the coal shipments and the coal burning that will lead to more global warming. The mayor of Missoula, for instance. But you know how Missoula is. 

Yesterday the Army Corps of Engineers announced that it will not do an in-depth study of the possible pollution caused by a flurry of coal shipments to West Coast ports. The coal people saw this as a victory while the anti-coal people did not. As we all know, only part of this struggle is about scientific fact; the rest is about emotion and political clout. Repubs will shout about jobs and the free market. Dems will shout about pollution and global warming. 

But what will the brides be shouting about?

The in-laws, probably, especially the groom's drunken uncle. But they won't be complaining about coal dust ruining their dresses if they're getting married outdoors in Gillette "Coal City" Wyoming.  

I caught a short status update on Facebook today that addressed the issue. It was by Joe Lunne, PIO of the City of Gillette.  I work as a PIO when I'm not blogging, so I know that Joe is just trying to do his job in the face of overwhelming attacks from environmentalists and The Liberal Media Monolith. Coal pays the piper in Gillette and throughout the state. I thought his approach to this issue was touchingly personal, which is really what most political fights come down to. Take a look at the accompanying photo and then read the status update:

"This picture shows a stretch of the walking path around Cam-Plex park. The park is only 75 feet from Highway 14/16 and about 175 feet from the railroad tracks that carry millions of tons of coal out of the Powder River Basin every day. 

"Around a hundred weddings take place in the park each year, and that would not happen if coal were as dirty as its critics say it is. The park is clean...and so are the wedding dresses. The brides wouldn't have it any other way!"

I don't think that Joe will be called to testify at any Congressional hearings. Or any of the hundred brides that get married this year down by the railroad tracks. But who knows? Weirder things have happened. 

Gregory Hinton's "Waiting for a Chinook" explores small-town newspapers of the West

"Six Against the Blaze," 1960. Photo by G.C. "Kip" Hinton

Talked to my colleague Gregory Hinton in L.A. last week. He'll be in Laramie in July for the debut of his play, Waiting for a Chinook: A New Play About Old Newspapers.  It runs July 9-13 at the Fine Arts Studio Theatre at the University of Wyoming. Tickets are $7-$10 and available at the UW Fine Arts Box Office. Here's a short description of the play:

Waiting for a Chinook follows Vince, a disillusioned city reporter, who returns to his boyhood Western town to search for place and meaning in the writings of his late father, Cliff, a Wyoming country editor.

Greg's father, G.C. "Kip" Hinton, was the editor of small town papers, including the legendary Cody Enterprise, established by Buffalo Bill and once owned and edited by the indomitable Caroline Lockhart. Editors such as Greg's father knew every part of the business -- reporting, photography, advertising, layout, typesetting, distribution -- because they had to. Most of these papers were one-person operations, or employed just a few people. Greg's father started his career at 15 as a printer's devil and moved up from there.

Greg lives in the big city these days but he was born on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana and grew up in Wyoming and Colorado. He has a fondness for small-town western life that, frankly, I don't share. I like the West all right -- I've lived here most of my life -- but I prefer cities as do most contemporary Westerners. Wyoming has two cities, as defined by a metropolitan statistical area: Cheyenne (pop. 61,000-plus) and Casper (pop. 57,000-plus). If you're feeling generous, you might throw in the state's micropolitan statistical areas: Sheridan, Gillette, Riverton, Evanston, Laramie, Jackson and Rock Springs.

When Greg began his research, he discovered that community newspapers have been able to weather the storm that has closed their big-city rivals. You know the story. Technology and the 2008 economic downturn closed a slew of newspapers and caused others to move entirely online, with mixed results. At least one daily -- the Chicago Tribune -- fired all of their photographers and told their reporters to use smart phones for photos to accompany their stories. Now they will all get the chance to experience life as a small-town reporter.

Another problem -- bloggers like me think they know everything and readers listen to us even when they should be turning to real news reports. I was trained as a journalist and I've worked as a newspaper reporter and editor. But Hummingbirdminds ain't no newspaper and doesn't pretend to be.

I try to be accurate. But actual newspapers have to report what happens at the city council meeting and at the Friday night high school football game. It has to spell correctly the head of the local Rotary and the garden club. It has to support itself with ads from Joe's Garage and Jean's Bake Shop. Sometimes editors write columns blasting a county commissioner. They know that soon they will run into that commissioner at the bank or on the street corner. It's a small town, after all. 

Back in the 1950s and 60s, Cody was smaller than it is now. Greg's father was called away from family events to report on car crashes and storms and fires. He shot a famous photo (see attached) of a tanker explosion. Not only was he covering the fire, he was putting out the fire as a member of the volunteer fire department. When the fire exploded, he was almost enveloped by the flames. As one of his fellow fire fighters recounted years later, he thought that Kip Hinton was a goner.

But he wasn't. He lived to report on other fires and natural disaster, rodeos and ball games, boring meetings galore.

Take some time and go over to UW July 9-13 to see Waiting for a Chinook. You'll get some insight into what makes these small-town editors tick, why they do the job they do. You will also experience the creative talent bred in the West's small towns. Some of our most talented writers, artists and musicians may be "Big City" now, but the influences of rural childhoods are still in their blood.

To read the UW press release about Waiting for a Chinook, go here. 

Henry Real Bird will conduct "Shadow of Home" writing workshop March 3 at the Laramie County Public Library

In conjunction with Wyoming's Poetry Out Loud state competition, guest judge and Native-American poet Henry Real Bird will be facilitating a public workshop on Sunday, March 3, at the Laramie County Library, from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m., in the Cottonwood Room on the main floor.

Henry's theme for the workshop, "Shadow of Home" will "take participants beyond reflection and past the stars, sending our thoughts in search of rhyme, exploring realms of dreaming in sound and tunes of a life." 

This workshop is free and open to the public.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

--clip--

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

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

Montana leads the nation in suicides; Wyoming not far behind

The darker the state, the higher the suicide rate

The Billings Gazette began a series on Sunday exploring Montana's "suicide epidemic." Montana leads the nation in the per capita suicide rate. Last year, 452 people committed suicide in the state. While Montana has been listed in the top five suicide states the past 35 years, Wyoming is not far behind in this dismal statistic. Take a look at the map and you can see that the northern Rockies are in the "dark zone." Doesn't the outline of Montana's western border look like a sad man's face? Read the series at http://www.billingsgazette.com

This just in -- health care is a commie plot

Clueless in Montana (from the Button Valley Bugle)

9th U.S. Court of Appeals reinstates Montana's campaign donation limits

Good news from Huff Post Politics:

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Montana's campaign donation limits, telling the federal judge who struck down the limits that the panel needs to see his full reasoning so it can review the case.

The court intervened late Tuesday less than a week after the judge's decision opened the door to unlimited money in state elections – during the height of election season.

Read all about it at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/10/montana-campaign-donation-limits_n_1954591.html

Interested Party blog: Bakken pipeline could mean the end for Wyoming sage grouse

Our blogging pals at Interested Party out of South Dakota had a post this morning about the Bakken Pipeline.

If completed, it would transport raw natural gas liquids (NGLs) south through easternmost Montana and Wyoming into northern Colorado, where it will connect to the existing Overland Pass Pipeline.

It may also spell the end of the threatened Wyoming sage grouse, and endanger equally tenuous (and drought-plagued) water supplies. The pipeline's projected path through Laramie County takes it west of Burns and Carpenter and east of Cheyenne. Did you know that? I didn't.

Read the rest at interested party.

Thanks IP!

Gardeners gather in Gillette to rethink the future

Gardening is in again. Rethinking Gardening in the 21st Century is the title for the Gillette Master Gardeners Conference. My fave garden blogger, David Schmetterling of Montana Wildlife Gardener, is Friday's keynote speaker. The conference will bring together authors, Master Gardeners, vendors, horticulture experts, and backyard gardeners to share enthusiasm and knowledge. To view the complete conference agenda, click here.

In "Companions in Wonder," Rick Bass writes about how fireflies can illuminate "a newness in the world"

What I'm noticing this morning: tiny clover growing at the root of my awakening strawberry plants.

I have been reading my way through the new anthology, “Companions in Wonder: Children and Adults Exploring Nature Together.” I have a short piece in it about rock climbing with my young son.

Last night read a beautiful piece by Rick Bass, “The Farm.” It is spring and he and his family are visiting Rick’s father’s Texas “brush country” farmhouse near Austin. His mom lived here for a time, but died too young. Now it’s a place for the Bass family on a spring hiatus from Montana’s snowbound Yaak Valley.

As always, Rick is lyrical in his descriptions of people in nature. He delights in his daughters’ first encounter with fireflies. “I am not sure they had even known such creatures existed.” Not many fireflies up there on the Yaak. The girls, ages 3 and 6, are bedazzled by them. The family manages to snare one and put it in a jar. Rick remembers catching whole squadrons of them as a kid.

I remember the same thing while growing up in southeastern Kansas lightning bug territory. Not all that distant from Austin. The fireflies lit up those muggy summer evenings. I remember my brother and sister and I chasing them amongst the backyard swing set which backed up against dense undergrowth. We didn’t stop until the jars were filled with bugs and grass. We came inside, punched air holes in the lids, and marveled at our catch.  

The Bass family repeats this “time-honored ritual.”

Writes Rick: “That simple, phenomenal, marvelous miracle – so easy to behold – as old familiar things left us, replaced by a newness in the world. The heck with electricity, or flashlights. Yes. This is the world my daughters deserve. This is the right world for them.”

We see the world anew through children’s eyes. That’s an old saying, isn’t it? It’s one thing to say it and other to illustrate it with stories from personal lives, told well. That’s what this book is about. It will help you as an adult take another wonder-filled look at nature. And that’s what I’m planning to do today – take another look at my rejuvenating strawberry plants and a crocus rising from winter and the buds on my maple and the deep blue sky.    

To order “Companions in Wonder,” go here. It’s a $21.95 trade paperback. ISBN-10: 0-262-51690-X; ISBN-13: 978-0-262-51690-7  

Grassroots filmmaking bringing classic novel by Montana's James Welch to the screen

"Winter in the Blood" directors Andrew and Alex Smith answer questions with documentary filmmaker Tracy Rector, left, at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival at the Wilma Theatre Saturday evening in Missoula. Rector's documentary "Visionary Insight" showed the behind-the-scenes story of the Smith brothers grass-roots film. Tribune photo by Michael Beall.

These grass-roots filmmakers in Montana show us how it’s done in the Rocky Mountain West. From a successful $67,000 Kickstarter campaign to donated food to volunteer sweat equity, the Smith Brothers found new and interesting ways to make a home-grown film based on James Welch’s classic novel, “Winter in the Blood.” Read the details in this excellent Great Falls Tribune story by Michael Beall. I read about it first on the 4&20 Blackbirds blog. Thanks for the tip, Lizard! 

Birthers rear their ugly heads (again) in Montana Legislature

Some of Montana's Republican legislators are even crazier than the ones we have in Wyoming (from Montana Cowgirl):

One of America’s top TEA Party imbeciles has called for President Obama to prove that he is eligible to be on the Montana ballot, or else have his name removed from it.

Bob Wagner, the Montana state representative who once told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that a person is ineligible to run for president unless both parents were born in America, is back at it again. Reviving Birtherism, Wagner has sent a letter to the Montana Secretary of State (she oversees elections), commanding her to

“prove that Obama is eligible to hold the office he usurped in 2008, or take him off the ballot.”

Wagner believes that Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud; and that even if the certificate were authentic, Obama would still not be a true American citizen because his father impregnated his mother while visiting America.

The biggest threat to Citizens United may come from Montana

David Sirota interviewed Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock on his radio show this past week:

Last week, while the national press corps was busy pretending the tiny Iowa caucus was the only news in America, a major ruling out of Montana paved the way for a likely U.S. Supreme Court showdown over the role of corporate money in politics. 

In the case, which was spearheaded by the state’s Democratic Attorney General Steve Bullock, Montana’s top court restored Big Sky country’s century-old law banning corporations from directly spending on political candidates or committees. Legal experts believe that upon appeal, this case will come before the nation’s highest court. While there, it could serve as the first test of the precedents in the infamous Citizens United decision that essentially allows unfettered corporate spending in campaigns.

Read the transcript of the interview here: The biggest threat to Citizens United

I'm going to root around on my favorite Montana blogs to see what else I can find on this issue. More later...

When it comes to downtown revival, we have to start thinking like farmers

An urban planner wants us to think like farmers. Crop yields, stuff like that.

A rural conservation institute with desert roots works to revive our city centers.

A city collaborates with urban and rural entities as it seeks ways to fill a gaping hole in its downtown. 

That's the odd combination of interests that gathered yesterday for "The Dollars and Sense of Downtown Development" at the Laramie County Public Library in Cheyenne. 

Urban planner Joe Minicozzi conducted the PowerPoint presentation. He's V.P. of the Asheville, N.C., Downtown Association. He was introduced by Sheridan's John Heyneman, project manager of the Northern Rockies Region/WY Program of the Sonoran Institute. He, in turn, was introduced by Matt Ashby, planning services director of the City of Cheyenne.

In the audience were downtown business owners, civic activists, government types and interested bystanders such as myself (full disclosure -- I also am a government type who works at the state arts council). My daughter Annie, too, an 18-year-old budding singer/songwriter who finds politics interesting. Not sure if there are other artists in the room, although if would behoove them to attend events such as these. The arts play a huge part in any downtown revival. Just ask Asheville, with its 30-some galleries and public art works and performing arts centers and outdoor street festivals. Go ahead, ask.

Think like a farmer. That's what Asheville's Minicozzi tells us. Think about production per acre. Think about tax policies. 

Do we have to?

Yes we do.

He's studied Cheyenne, and is here with the help of a grant from the State Historic Preservation Office, sister agency to the Wyoming Arts Council. He's looked at the numbers and Cheyenne's coffers would get a much better yield if it was planting businesses downtown instead of on Dell Range.

This appeals to the locavore in me. This appeals to the "shop locally" part in me. It appeals to the artscentric part of me.

The homegrown Laughing Seed Cafe in downtown
Asheville (from The Painted House blog) 

Another thing -- those businesses planted in any city's Central Business District (CBD) tend to be more entrepreneurial and are usually launched by local entities instead of some far-away corporation. 

He has nothing against Wal-Mart, Minicozzi said, but noted that Wal-Mart does one thing very well, and that's "getting money back to Arkansas." You could also say the same about Target (Minnesota) and all the big box stores. 

"They exploit existing tax systems," he said. He shows some funny PowerPoint visuals which illustrate that those systems are not part of our DNA and are not chiseled in stone like the Ten Commandments. Nobody even seems to know how they started. Minicozzi had a chance to talk to the Laramie County tax assessor earlier in the day during some meetings with city and county government leaders. The assessor didn't know the history of tax policy -- not unusual. 

"Development follows the path of least resistance," and that tends to be suburban and exurban development. That's where the open land is and that's where big box stores are built and the big box stores have corporate lawyers and tax experts who know how to take advantage of local policies. The city claims a victory and sees that tax revenues roll in from the big box retailer and then it's time to lure yet another one (Menard's anyone?).

But when crop yields are compared, downtown is a much better investment. But arcane tax policies punish developers who wants to rehab buildings and fill vacant upper stories with living units.  

Minicozzi had a simple message for us: "We can change tax policy."

During the past two decades, Asheville's downtown development plowed ahead despite daunting tax policies and stubborn banks. Asheville traditionally was known for "trains, tourism and tuberculosis." Trains brought tourists to this mountain community. They also brought TB sufferers escaping the vapors of low-country Carolina. TB sanitariums sprang up. The Biltmore Estate was built. Presidents and rich folks and people struggling to breathe all sang Asheville's praises.

Then came the post-war suburbs. An interstate highway ripped through the center of Asheville and "killed downtown." Minicozzi shows us photos of downtown Asheville in the 1970s and 1980s. Vacant buildings. Those that remained were covered by ugly aluminum fronts. Not a pedestrian to be seen.

A few visionaries came to town and used their own money to get things started. They had to use their own money because city leaders and banks kept saying the same thing: "that won't work downtown." A few buildings were rehabbed into small businesses and housing units. A non-profit real estate development group was formed. Classes were held for kids to learn about the history of downtown.

Still, it was an uphill battle. Some young entrepreneurs wanted to open a vegetarian restaurant. Banks told them to go away. Their attitude seemed to be: "This is western North Carolina -- where's the barbecue?" Still, they persevered and opened the Laughing Seed restaurant. It's now a mainstay in Asheville's downtown. Many other restaurants followed. Cafe too, and galleries and living spaces and craft breweries and all the rest. Tax revenue is huge. The numbers are much larger per acre than they are in outlying areas.

Minicozzi urged us to think of precision agriculture. "Why spread fertilizer in the suburbs and grow weeds when you could be doing it in the city and grow tomatoes?" 

Minicozzi had lots of local stats. He's promised to send the presentation via e-mail. I'll share that with you when it arrives. He's done similar research and presentations in Laramie and Sheridan and communities in Montana (Bozeman and Billings) and Colorado (Glenwood Springs).

When "the hole" came up, as it always does at these kinds of events, John Heyneman noted that downtown Bozeman faced a similar situation. A 2009 natural gas explosion flattened four businesses on one city block along Main Street. A young woman was killed. Everyone had different ideas about what to do with the big hole. But now it's being filled. Heyneman said that other cities have faced similar circumstances, and could serve as models for Cheyenne.

Cheyenne residents can get involved in the city's Historic Placemaking effort. For more info, you can talk to urban planner Jan Spires at 307-637-6251. You can also watch for new streetscaping surrounding the Dinneen redevelopment on 17th Street and Lincolnway. You can see details of this $956,000 public-private partnership at Dinneen Downtown.

Architect's rendering of Cheyenne's Dinneen Building looking west in Lincolnway