Poets give voice to the voiceless gunned down in their schools

 

Reposted from a friend's Facebook page. Introduced me to a U.S. poet with Front Range connections whose work I didn't know. It brilliantly says what I am finding so hard to put into words. Thanks to Matt Hohner who has an MFA from Naropa University in Boulder. A friendly nod to Sam Hamill who published so much wonderful work at Copper Canyon Press during his time on the planet. He also initiated Poets Against the War to protest the 2003 Iraq War. 

Artist Al Farrow repurposes the world's armaments to produce "Divine Ammunition"

From "Divine Ammunition" at the UW Art Museum: Al Farrow, Trigger Finger of Santo Guerro, guns, gun parts, bullets, shell casings, steel, glass, bone, crucifix, 19 x 16 x 16 inches, 2007. Photo: Michael Shay

Here's the opening salvo of my Dec. 19 post on Wyofile's Studio Wyoming Review:

If I was a gun guy instead of an arts guy, I might have been at the gun show at the Laramie Fairgrounds. It’s Christmas, right, and all of us deserve a Glock in our stocking. 

But I was a few miles away at the University of Wyoming Art Museum viewing “Divine Ammunition,” an exhibit of the work of California artist Al Farrow. The work was selected from private and public collections. There were guns galore in the Friends and Colorado galleries. Matching handguns serve as a cathedral’s flying buttresses. Rifles frame the door of a synagogue splashed in blood-red. The very real skull of an imaginary saint sits in a reliquary fashioned from guns and shell casings. 

Happy holidays, ya’ll.

Read the rest here. 

Satire is in the eye of the beholder

I love good satire. Problem is, readers don't often get it. Good satire is usually presented as a straightforward news article or opinion piece that can often be mistaken for your run-of-the-mill newspaper story. In satire, the subject is taken to an extreme, an exaggeration for what the writer hopes is a comic effect. Since there is so much craziness on the Internet already, it's hard to pick out satire unless it's labeled as such. This is why it is so helpful for Andy Borowitz to label his "The Borowitz Report" pieces in The New Yorker as "news satire." Here's a recent brilliant example:

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Across the United States on Wednesday, a heated national debate began on the extremely complex issue of children firing military weapons. 

“Every now and then, the nation debates an issue that is so complicated and tricky it defies easy answers,” says pollster Davis Logsdon. “Letting small children fire automatic weapons is such an issue.”

Logsdon says that the thorny controversy is reminiscent of another ongoing national debate, about whether it is a good idea to load a car with dynamite and drive it into a tree. 

“Many Americans think it’s a terrible idea, but others believe that with the correct supervision, it’s perfectly fine,” he says. “Who’s to say who’s right?” 

Similar, he says, is the national debate about using a flamethrower indoors. “There has been a long and contentious national conversation about this,” he says. “It’s another tough one.” 

Much like the long-running national debates about jumping off a roof, licking electrical sockets, and gargling with thumbtacks, the vexing question of whether children should fire military weapons does not appear headed for a swift resolution. 

“Like the issue of whether you should sneak up behind a bear and jab it with a hot poker, this won’t be settled any time soon,” he says. 

Get news satire from The Borowitz Report delivered to your inbox.

If this appeared as a standard news article in the local paper, I can easily see my neighbor, Tea Party Slim, reading it over his morning java and nodding his head in agreement. "Yes, children shooting automatic weapons is an extremely complex issue." Slim also reads loads of stuff on the Internet, as do I, where it is possible to mistake satire for another example of human weirdness -- or vice versa. Each of us carries baggage from our political POVs. I see Borowitz's piece as a terrific satire on our gun nut culture. Slim sees gun ownership and the firing of automatic weapons as a God-given right via the Constitution. He can't laugh at this because he'll be laughing at some of his own deeply-head beliefs.

Are there conservative satirists? P.J. O'Rourke comes to mind. He pokes fun at me and my fellow Liberals and I admit it gets under my skin sometimes but it is funny. Tom Wolfe made hay satirizing the hippie culture, the Black Panthers and the New Left back in the 60s and 70s. Ann Coulter is too heavy-handed to be an effective satirist, but sometimes I've found humor in her Liberal-baiting columns.

There must be some contemporary conservative satirists I haven't read because, frankly, I'd rather poke fun at the other guy. That's my God-given right under the Constitution. However, if a person can't laugh at himself, well.... that's really absurd.

Recommended reading: "Raising Adam Lanza" in the Hartford Courant

My wife Chris and I raised two kids with special needs. Our son was diagnosed at five with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Our daughter had learning disabilities and mental health challenges. They are both adults now and doing well. But Chris and I know only too well the frantic calls from school, the many meetings with teachers and counselors, the convoluted Individualized Educational Plans (I.E.P.s) and the heartache that goes along with it all.

That's one of the reasons it was so intriguing to read "Raising Adam Lanza," the first installment in a series in the Hartford Courant. It's the kind of article that newspapers used to be known for. Courant reporters interviewed friends, family, teachers and neighbors to try to get to the bottom of Adam Lanza's murderous rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Adam was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, and sensory integration disorder.

The vast majority of teens with ADHD or OCD or any of the many alphabet soup of disorders or syndromes never turn to violence. Those that do tend to make big, bold headlines. That's why it's important to learn all we can about them. In hindsight, Adam Lanza's mother made poor choices in withdrawing her son from school, and keeping him isolated at home. She also chose the wrong hobbies to help her bond with her sons: gun collecting and target shooting. And Adam spent way too much time playing violent video games. All that taken together led to the Sandy Hook shootings. There may be other reasons, too. I suggest you read the articles and/or watch the concurrent airing of the story on PBS's Frontline. This is an interesting collaboration between a daily newspaper and a PBS show. Maybe it's the wave of the future.

Read today's Courant article here.

Wyoming Legislature may need therapy for gun obsession

The Wyoming State Legislature is obsessed with guns.

Guns in the classroom. Guns at public meetings. Silencers on hunting weapons. 

And legislators don't want the federal gubment to get in the way of Wyomingites owning semi-automatic weapons and high capacity ammo clips. How many rounds does it take to kill a deer or an antelope, anyway?

Yesterday, the so-called Wyoming Firearms Protection Act advanced out of committee. It has the has drawn national media attention by proposing to ban enforcement of all federal gun regulations within the state.

So, as the feds move closer to requiring universal background checks and forbidding the type of rapid-fire weapons that killed 20 six-year-olds in Connecticut, Wyoming moves closer to the margins of Gun Cuckooland. 

Federal law trumps state and local law except in the minds of Tea Party conspiracists and their fellow travelers in the legislature. Nullification! Freedom! Second amendment! Morons!

It's true enough to say Wyoming has a strong gun culture. My neighborhood may be better armed than most Midwestern cities. I've lived here for seven years and nobody's been shot that I know of. It's entirely possible that our low crime rate and incidences of B&E may be due to criminals never know who has a gun and who does not. When I walk neighborhoods for Democratic candidates, which in itself may be a cause for suspicion, I often see stickers on doors and windows. "Protected by Smith & Wesson" is a favorite. So is "C'mon, punk, make my day" that usually comes with an illustration of a bullseye or a big Dirty Harry handgun. I have never been confronted with a drawn gun, although I was reported as a suspicious character when I canvassed a south side neighborhood last fall. I must admit to looking slightly shady. I was wearing a ballcap and a blue T-shirt and carrying around a fistful of leaflets for a Dem running for the legislature. It was an October Saturday and I wasn't at home or at a bar watching college football, suspicious in itself. Cops rousted me, although they kept their sidearms holstered and didn't frisk me. BTW, I was old enough to be their grandfather and at least their father. But you never know -- I could be a frontman for a cadre of Colorado-based break-in artists. Can't be too careful.

Home protection and hunting and collecting and gunsmsithing I can understand. Right-wing whackadoodle paranoia I can understand too, but it scares me. Seems like our legislators are only too eager to sign on with the paranoid few.

This week at the Wyoming State Legislature: Guns, gays and abortion

Monday begins an emotional week at the Wyoming State Legislature. No less than five gun-oriented House bills will be considered. These bills are over and above the gun bill that's already been a hot topic, whether to allow silencers on hunting weapons. In case you missed it, silencers are still not allowed. Game wardens testified that the sound of gunshots is what allows them to catch poachers. The bill didn't make it out of committee.

Security has been beefed up at the Capitol as these emotional gun bills enter the fray. Today's Casper Star-Tribune reports that threats have been made in the lead-up to the debate. The main threat seems to have come from someone on Facebook who threatened the family of Rep. Kendall Kroeker, the source of several of these bills. The threat said that Kroeker has the blood of children on his hands and opined that someone should shoot the Rep and his family. Other threats were reported as "uncivil" and were from gun owners who thought that the House was trying to kill all the gun bills by bundling them together.  These bills call for the arming of teachers and make it OK to bring a weapon to government meetings. HB105 allows people with concealed carry permits to have guns at schools. Utah has a similar law. The idea is that armed teachers can be an effective counter-measure to lunatics with automatic weapons. I'm not a gun guy but this bill doesn't bother me. In Wyoming, I'm surrounded by guns. I don't feel safe and I don't feel threatened. This is Wyoming.

There are some gun bills that do bother me. HB103 aims to let local governments overrule any federal gun laws. This is just wild-eyed, anti-Obama paranoia. HB104's goal is to punish federal agents if they try to enforce gun laws that ban "semi-automatic guns, limit magazine sizes or other limitations on firearms." More NRA-inspired lunacy.

I'm looking forward to the discussion around HB168 and HB169. The first allows "people in domestic relationships the same rights as a spouse." The second "defines marriage as a contract between two natural persons, not between a man and a woman." These bills have Democratic sponsors but Republican co-sponsors. Coming on the heels of the 2012 election, these bills may have more legs than they have in previous legislatures. Wyoming is conservative but not fundie conservative. Its live-and-let-live traditions may trump right-wing religious tendencies. For supporters, the ACLU of Wyoming has up-to-date into on its web site, including e-mails for the members of the Corporations committee and other info on bringing marriage equality to the Equal;ity State. Wyoming Equality in staging a rally at 11 a.m. on Monday at the Capitol in support of the bills.

As expected, there's a an anti-abortion bill in HB97. That should go down in flames as both women and men are growing weary of old guys interfering in a woman's right to choose.

President Obama: “We are going to need to work on making access to mental health care as easy as access to a gun”

This is but a small part of President Obama's Plan to Protect our Children & Communities, which was announced this morning. I'm including it because mental health is one of my blog's key issues. And tackling the many gun parts of the document is too much to bear. Read more here.  

IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES 
Though the vast majority of Americans with a mental illness are not violent, we need to do more to identify mental health issues early and help individuals get the treatment they need before dangerous situations develop. As President Obama has said, “We are going to need to work on making access to mental health care as easy as access to a gun.” 
• MAKE SURE STUDENTS AND YOUNG ADULTS GET TREATMENT FOR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES: Three quarters of mental illnesses appear by the age of 24, yet less than half of children with diagnosable mental health problems receive treatment. To increase access to mental health services for young people, we should: o Provide “Mental Health First Aid” training to help teachers and staff recognize signs of mental illness in young people and refer them to treatment. o Support young adults ages 16 to 25, who have the highest rates of mental illness but are the least likely to seek help, by giving incentives to help states develop innovative approaches. o Help break the cycle of violence in schools facing pervasive violence with a new, targeted initiative to provide their students with needed services like counseling. o Train 5,000 more social workers, counselors, and psychologists, with a focus on those serving students and young adults. 
• ENSURE COVERAGE OF MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT: The Affordable Care Act is the largest step to increase access to mental health services in a generation, providing health coverage for 30 million Americans, including 6 to 10 million people with mental illness. The Administration will take executive actions to ensure that millions of newly covered Americans, and millions more who already have health insurance, get quality mental health coverage by: o Finalizing regulations to require insurance plans to cover mental health benefits like medical and surgical benefits. o Ensuring Medicaid is meeting its obligation to cover mental health equally.

Gunshot shatters window of Obama office in Denver

Jason Payseno of EAP Glass installs plywood where a window was shot out Friday at an Obama campaign office on West Ninth Avenue near Acoma Street in Denver. (Daniel Petty, The Denver Post). Read more here

During a long weekend, veteran suicides wipe out an entire platoon

This is not right.

From an AP wire service story:

So far this year the number of suicides in the military has surged beyond expectations, given that the pace of combat deployments has begun to slow. The Defense Department closely tracks suicides throughout the military but releases its figures only once a year. The Associated Press in June obtained an internal Defense Department document that revealed that there had been 154 suicides in the first 155 days of the year, though June 3. That marked the fastest pace of active-duty military suicides in the nation's decade of war.

This is not right.

This past weekend at the Equality State Book Festival in Casper, Wyo., we heard from a panel of veterans who also are writers. Brian Turner served seven years in the U.S. Army, with deployments in Bosnia-Herzegovinia (1999-2000) and Iraq (2003-2004). Luis Carlos Montalvan served 17 years in the U.S. Army, with a deployment in Iraq that earned him a Purple Heart and a lifelong limp and a case of TBI -- Traumatic Brain Injury. Patrick Amelotte was a U.S. Marine Corps Reservist who was deployed during Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1991. They all spoke during a panel entitled "Active Duty, Active Voices."

One of the most haunting quotes came from Brian Turner. He noted that 18 veterans or active duty troops commit suicide daily. That includes veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as all of the other conflicts the U.S. has been engaged in during my lifetime: Korea, Vietnam, Cold War, Vietnam (including Cambodia and Laos), Grenada, Central America, Desert Shield/Desert Storm (Iraq and Kuwait), Bosnia, Somalia, and other hotspots too numerous to mention. It seems odd to include The Good War in these stats but, yes, there are aging WWII vets who sometimes choose the gun or rope over the long march into the darkness caused by cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc.

Eighteen per day. At least one of those suicides is by a member if our active duty forces. You know, some 19-year-old kid who used to live next door to you and joined the Army to pay for college or a trade school or to gain citizenship.

Here's how Brian put it:

"There are 18 suicides today, 18 tomorrow and 18 on Sunday when I fly back out. By the time I get back to Orlando, my platoon is gone."

Every three days, we lose a platoon to suicide.

This is not right.

So what are you going to do about it?

I leave you with a Brian Turner poem on the subject (from Here, Bullet). Brian read this poem at the book festival:

Eulogy

It happens on a Monday, at 11:20 A.M.,
as tower guards eat sandwiches
and seagulls drift by on the Tigris River.
Prisoners tilt their heads to the west
though burlap sacks and duct tape blind them.
The sound reverberates down concertina coils
the way piano wire thrums when given slack.
And it happens like this, on a blue day of sun,
when Private Miller pulls the trigger
to take brass and fire into his mouth:
the sound lifts the birds up off the water,
a mongoose pauses under the orange trees,
and nothing can stop it now, no matter what
blur of motion surrounds him, no matter what voices
crackle over the radio in static confusion,
because if only for this moment the earth is stilled,
and Private Miller has found what low hush there is
down in the eucalyptus shade, there by the river.

PFC B. Miller
(1980-March 22, 2004)

Smoke and Black Hawks and history in the air over Mount Rushmore

We cruised up to Mount Rushmore National Memorial yesterday afternoon. It's a 27-mile drive from Rapid City past a weird assortment of tourist attractions -- sprawling waterslide parks, Bear Country USA, Reptile Gardens ("See Maniac, America's Giant Crocodile"), Old MacDonald's Farm petting zoo ("Pig races!"), Black Hills Maze, Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns, etc. Most are closed for the season. A few are closed for good.

Anyway, we got to Mount Rushmore. I've been there but my wife Chris has not. I took the kids there 13 years ago when my son was at Boy Scout summer camp near Custer. It's an impressive place. It took 14 years and 400 workers and a million dollars and tons of dynamite to carve the faces of four presidents into Harney Peak Granite. Why bother, you might ask. But therein lies the tale. Local promoters thought it would be a great celebration of American freedom and a terrific tourist attraction. They were right about the latter. The former is still being debated, which seems fitting. The ranger at the visitor center said there was a recent History Channel documentary that called Mt. Rushmore a "testimonial to white privilege." Or maybe that was "testament to white privilege." He seemed upset by the idea. But you have to admit that those are some big white faces up there on a mountain that is still claimed by High Plains Indian tribes. I'm not privy to the current state of white-Indian relations regarding Paha Sapa. But it's always been testy, not to mention bloody.

We took many photos. We walked the Presidential Trail. A beautiful day in the Black Hills. As we made our way from one interpretive placard to another, we heard the sounds of a helicopter. Looked up to see a Black Hawk hovering nearby. We wondered if it was some sort of spring weekend military demonstration. Or maybe a visit by a V.I.P.? A president, perhaps? But we would have heard about that.  

The Black Hawk dipped behind the trees, hovered, and the buzzed off. We forgot about it until we got back to our car in the parking lot and saw a plume of smoke on a nearby ridge. Uh oh. The Rapid City Journal's cover story Saturday morning talked about the extreme fire danger caused by unseasonably warm temps and high winds. On our return to Rapid City, we passed fleets of police cars and firefighting trucks blocking a side road. Smoke was in the air. So was a Black Hawk.

Good news. The authorities jumped on the fire and put it out quickly. The cause appears to be target shooters, as shotgun shells littered the charred ground and targets were affixed to surrounding rocks. Not sure what to say about that. There are many things one can do safely in a tinder-dry forest. Discharging firearms is not one of them. 

Suicide solutions in Wyoming should go beyond the glib “it’s a mental health issue”

Thanks to the Casper Star-Tribune, and to reporter Tom Morton, for keeping alive the issue of Wyoming’s high suicide rates.

The Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center reports an average of 107 people a year completed suicides from 2007-2009. Of those completed suicides, 72 percent were accomplished by firearms.

Generally, only 1 percent or 2 percent of people attempt suicide with firearms, but firearms are 85 percent to 90 percent lethal. Other methods, even hanging, can give a person a window to reconsider and get help. Guns by their very nature are lethal. If they weren't, people wouldn't use them for self defense.

--snip—

On personal note, I'm also a survivor of a suicide attempt. I used pills and alcohol. If I had a gun, I wouldn't be here. Preventing suicide by firearm involves many of the practices one finds in hunter safety and the NRA's Eddie Eagle programs. The precautions of storing ammo and firearms separately or using gun locks equals "banning guns."

This scourge of suicide by firearm has become a sad political debate instead of its recognition as a terrible personal and social tragedy needing solutions beyond a glib "it's a mental health issue." And so I'll end with a question: If someone told you s/he was considering suicide and had immediate access to a gun, what would you do? Call a mental health professional for an appointment? Look for antidepressants in the medicine cabinet? I doubt it.

I would hope you would dial 911. I also hope you would do whatever you could to take the gun away from the person as soon as possible.

Banning guns is not an option. Gun safety helps, as do education programs and access to suicide hotlines. The gun is a very final solution to what can often be a passing call to end it all.

Read more: http://trib.com/news/opinion/blogs/morton/touching-the-third-rail-of-wyoming-culture-guns-and-suicide/article_b8558df4-1e90-5ff5-90c2-4622c6381e67.html

Feeling safer already as new Wyoming concealed carry law goes into effect today

I feel safer already (from the Casper Star-Tribune):

A law that allows Wyomingites to carry concealed weapons without permits goes into effect today. 

-- snip --

During the second of two seminars on the new law sponsored by the Cheyenne Police Department on Wednesday, the instructor, officer Jay Remers, told the group it still is beneficial to get a concealed weapons permit. The firearms training is valuable for gun owners who may be familiar with hunting rifles but not with using handguns, particularly if faced with someone armed with a knife, he said. 

-- snip -- 

Officer Remers, meanwhile, said after the meeting that he expects only minor problems with the new law, like people carrying a concealed weapon into a prohibited area. “I don’t anticipate carnage in the streets, as some predict,” he said, adding that more signs prohibiting firearms have been posted in the capital city recently. 

-- snip -- 

The new law, he said, appeals to citizens who are suspicious of government and don’t want to subject themselves to the scrutiny associated with getting a permit. 

During the seminar, Remers warned of the severe ramifications of shooting or killing someone, even in self-defense. “If you can avoid shooting someone, avoid shooting someone,” he said. 

-- snip -- 

Read the snipped-out parts here.

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

Tea Party Slim & Sovereign Jake vs. Liberal Mike

I ran into Tea Party Slim at the downtown Starbucks. “Hey Slim,” I said. “Enjoying that Fair Trade Coffee?”

He peered at his grande coffee cup. "Slim” was printed on its side.

"It's just coffee,” said Slim.

I grabbed a colorful bag of beans from the rack. I read: “By working together and paying the prices that premium coffee deserves, we’re helping improve the lives of those farmers and their communities. Find out about additional ways we are working with farmers to ethnically source our coffee at starbucks.com/sharedplanet.”

Slim frowned. “I may have to go back to the doughnut shop. They have regular American coffee there -- and it doesn't preach at you.”

“Even Dave’s Doughnuts serves coffee made somewhere else," I said. "It’s sold by corporations like Folger’s or Nestle. The corporation gets more of the profit and small growers less.”

“Who’s the know-it-all?” Slim’s friend spoke for the first time. He looked a bit younger than Slim, maybe in his fifties. His hair was streaked with gray as was his bushy beard. He wore a striped western shirt, brown vest, jeans and Sunday-go-to-meeting cowboy boots.

“Meet Liberal Mike,” said Slim, “one of the few registered Democrats in Laramie County.”

“I’m Jake,” said the man. “Freeman."

We shook hands. His grip was firm; his eyes held mine.

"Jake Freeman," I said.

"No, my last name is, well, it's not important," he said. "I meant that I am a Free Man -- sovereign."

I'd heard the terms before and wanted to know more. “Let me get some shade-tree-grown Nicaraguan coffee and a whole wheat organic scone and I’ll join you gents.”

I did just that. I grabbed one of the easy chairs across from Jake. He and Slim stared at me. “Do I have a booger hanging out of my nose?” I swiped my hand across my face.

Slim laughed. “Jake doesn’t know any Liberals.” He turned to Jake. “It’s like going to the zoo, eh Jake? Looking at the strange creatures.”

“I have lots of company,” I said. "In 2008, 3,800 new Democrats registered in Laramie County. Many of them voted. That's how Obama won the majority of votes in this county."

"That was then," said Slim. "Where were they last November?"

"I don't vote," said Jake.

This time, Slim and I stared at Jake.

"Don't vote?"

"Don't need to," he said. "Why should I have to register to vote for a government I don't believe in?"

Jake erupted in a diatribe about what it means to be a sovereign. The united states of America (lower case u and s) is a republic based on the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. The Magna Carta, too. And the Bible. The United States of America (capitalized) was corrupted following the Civil War. It became a centralized, profit-seeking corporation, its many laws and regulations just ways to keep the people in their place. States, on the other hand, are individual republics and make the only laws worth following.

Our coffee cups were bone-dry by the time Jake fell silent.

"I guess you don't pay taxes," I said, recalling the big check I just wrote to the IRS.

He chuckled. "I'm not a slave to the IRS. I believe in free enterprise. Me and my fellow sovereigns barter our goods and services."

"What's your skill?"

"Paperwork," he said with a grin. "In my previous life, I was a Certified Public Accountant with the State of Wyoming. I know all the tricks. I pay my filing fee and present reams of paperwork that some clerk has to input into the system. Clogs up the bureaucracy. Drives them crazy."

"Guerrilla tactics," said Slim the veteran.

"Same kind of tactics that anti-war activists used during Vietnam -- and right now," I said. "Don't pay taxes for the war machine. Or pay in bags of pennies that you haul down to the IRS office. File loads of paperwork to clog the system."

Jake stared at me. "You Liberals have your own causes," he said. "Mostly you believe in big government. An illegitimate government." He paused. "Our president doesn't even have a birth certificate."

"Now you're talkin'" said Slim.

I replied: "I thought you didn't believe in government. That's who handles birth certificates. Do you want government more involved in tracking our personal lives?"

Jake waved away my criticism. "State and local governments have some legitimacy. For instance, I register my vehicles and pay the fees. My truck needs a license plate."

"So some government is O.K.?"

"State and local. The county sheriff is the law of the land."

"If you're so sovereign, why would you take orders from any law officer."

He nodded. "Slim, your boy here is sharper than he looks."

"He has his moments," said Slim.

"There is one thing that we won't register, right Slim?" He padded his vest, lifting it up so I could see the Glock snug in its holster. Slim, in turn, lifted his jacket and revealed the SIG Sauer pistol he had showed off to me several times.

"No gun registration for these bad boys," said Jake. "It's just a way for the One World Government to track us down, take away our guns and lock us away in re-education camps."

The coffee was long gone, and the conversation had taken a bad turn.

"This government will fall, by peace or by force," said Jake.

I stood. "If you gentlemen will excuse me, I'm off to buy a gun."

"I thought you didn't believe in guns," said Slim.

"Hush, Slim," said Jake. "I think we talked him into joining us."

"No," I answered. "When the time comes, I may need it to protect myself and my family from the likes of you."

NOTE: Much of the information on the sovereign movement was taken from an excellent three-part series by Tom Morton in the Casper Star-Tribune. Joe O'Sullivan also covered some similar issues regarding city zoning laws. For some additional stories, read Tom Morton's blog at http://trib.com/news/opinion/blogs/morton/

Wyoming Sen. Kit Jennings: Guns before people!

Republican Sen. Kit Jennings of Casper on Wyoming Legislature's concealed carry bill: "We kind of drew the line in the sand and said we're going to start here and start working back toward everybody having constitutional rights." He also said that Wyoming citizens and lawmakers sent this message with the passage of the bill: "Quit taking away our constitutional rights."

So why did he vote to strip constitutional rights from Wyoming LGBT citizens? Guns before people? Does he have a list of people he is going to eventually endow with constitutional rights? If so, gays and lesbians and teachers and immigrants must be way down at the bottom.

Check out his contradictory votes at http://legisweb.state.wy.us/

Wyoming: Guns 'R' Us

This e-mail update comes from Brianna Jones of the Wyoming Democratic Party. I'd just share a link but the info isn't up on the web site. So here it is in full:

The past week has seen both ups and downs for Democratic interests. Thank you so much to each of you that has responded to our action alerts over the past week and contacted legislators. It is so important that you are taking the time, even if the outcome is not always the one you would hope.

Your input is critical. Please continue watching for our action alerts and contacting your representatives on some of these important pieces of legislation. You can find email addresses for all legislators here: http://legisweb.state.wy.us.

The following is legislation that saw action this week:

Co-employee immunity (SF 61): As sponsored by Sen. Eli Bebout (R-Riverton) and Rep. Tim Stubson (R-Casper) the bill would raise the bar for suing a co-employee (usually a supervisor) for injuries in the workplace. Currently the standard is "willful and wanton" and the standard this would put in place is "with the intent." The AFL-CIO and Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association, and the Wyoming Building and Construction Council all spoke out strongly against this legislation. It failed the Senate on first reading by a vote of 13-17.


Very rare and uncommon area designations (HB 152): This legislation as sponsored by Rep. Semlek (R-Moorcroft) would abolish the rare and uncommon designation and would "retain the authority" to remove protections. Adobe Town is currently designated as rare and uncommon. The Wyoming Conservation Voters and Wyoming Outdoor Council are opposing this legislation.

Health Care Choice and Protection Act (HB 35): Legislation sponsored by Rep. Bob Brechtel (R-Casper) passed first reading in the House today with 35 members voting in favor. This bill would make it a crime to implement the affordable care act in Wyoming. Please write your representatives and ask them to oppose this legislation.


Defense of Marriage Act (SJ 5): This legislation which was defeated in 2009, would put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to only recognize marriages that are between one man and one woman. The proposal narrowly passed the Senate on a vote of 20-10, with 11 needed to defeat the measure.

DUI-elimination of right to refuse test (HB 29): Legislation sponsored by Rep. Gingery (R-Jackson) would remove the right to refuse a BAC test when there is reasonable suspicion of driving under the influence. It passed the house 35-23.

Civil Unions (HB 150): Rep. Cathy Connolly (D-Laramie) introduced legislation, which would create a system for civil unions in the state of Wyoming. The bill was heard by the House Judiciary Committee on Friday morning and narrowly failed on a vote of 4-5. Reps. Throne (D-Cheyenne), Barburto (D-Rock Springs), Greene (R-Laramie), and Brown (R-Laramie) voted in favor. Reps. Cannady (R-Glenrock), Peasley (R-Douglas), Nicholas (R-Laramie), Krone (R-Cody), and Brechtel (R-Casper) voted against.


Illegal Immigration (HB 94): This is a proposal mimicking Arizona-style SB1070 legislation targeting illegal immigrants. It was brought by Rep. Pete Illoway (R-Cheyenne) and heard in the house minerals committee. There was no motion to move the bill and it died in committee.

Marital Counseling (HB 65): Legislation as introduced by Rep. Bob Brechtel (R-Casper) was heard in the House Labor Committee. It would require three hours of counseling before a marriage or a divorce. The committee significantly amended the bill, but it ultimately died in committee.

Health Care Freedom (SJ 02): This legislation proposes a constitutional amendment guaranteeing so-called "health freedom." It was written in direct response to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It was amended significantly on the Senate floor during first reading and passed. The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Leslie Nutting (R-Cheyenne), voted against the bill following amendments.

Abortion - available information for decision (HB 118): This bill sponsored by Rep. Bob Brechtel (R-Casper) would require women who are considering abortion to be given government-scripted information and then wait 24 hours before having the procedure. It failed on general file on a vote of 23-32. 


Concealed Weapons (SF 47): This proposal, sponsored by Sen. Kit Jennings (R-Casper), was defeated last session, would all residents to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. It passed the Senate and will now go to the House.

Sen. Chris Rothfuss will talk about the concealed weapons bill at Monday's meeting of the Laramie County Democrats (see previous post). This is another in a long line of ridiculous bills considered by this legislature. Most handgun violence in Wyoming comes in the form of domestic dust-ups, drunken brawls, and in suicide, either attempted or successful. It's entirely possible that Wyoming's preponderance of guns keeps the violent crime rate down. I'm willing to give that notion some credence. But carjackings and armed robberies and drive-by shootings are still relatively rare in the state. So why does everyone need to carry around a concealed weapon? Is this another N.R.A. inspired and written one-size-fits-all legislation? Or another Tea Party-inspired be-afraid-be-very-afraid bills?

Ask Kit Jennings. Since 2008, Sen. Jennings has been a member of Don't Touch Us, the Domestic Violence Protection Group. This group was formed in Casper after a rash of 2007 domestic incidents ended in shootings. One involved a woman who shot to death her male partner. Will concealed weapons be handy prevention tools for battered women living under the thumbs of violent and well-armed men?

Here's info from a Dec. 22, 2010, press release from the Violence Policy Center, which addresses gun violence as a "public health issue:"

Since May 2007, concealed handgun permit holders have killed at least 282 individuals--including nine law enforcement officers--in 193 incidents in 28 states. In more than two-thirds of the incidents (134) the concealed handgun permit holder has already been convicted, committed suicide, or was killed in the incident. Of the 59 cases still pending, the vast majority (47) of concealed handgun permit holders have been charged with criminal homicide, two were deemed incompetent to stand trial, two incidents were unintentional shootings, and eight incidents are still under investigation. Of the 193 incidents, 17 were mass shootings where concealed handgun permit holders claimed the lives of 73 victims.

Here's another one from Sept. 30, 2010:

Concealed handgun permit holders have killed at least 202 individuals since May 2007 with 34 percent of the killings involving family violence according to the September update of Concealed Carry Killers, a Violence Policy Center (VPC) on-line resource that tallies news reports of killings by concealed handgun permit holders. The update comes one day before the beginning of Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October.

Forty-two of the 122 incidents involved family violence. Of these, 29 involved intimate partner violence. Fifteen of the 42 family violence incidents ended in murder-suicide, accounting for 65 percent (15 of 23) of all the murder-suicides committed by concealed handgun permit holders tallied by the VPC to date.

Violence Policy Center Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, “A permit to carry a concealed handgun has become one more weapon in the arsenal of domestic abusers who ultimately kill their intimate partner or other family member. Contrary to the false assurances of concealed carry proponents, too many of those with valid permits kill in anger, not self-defense.”

And these are permitted gun owners. What happens when anybody can carry a concealed weapon? People such as the mentally ill Tucson shooter? Makes you think...

Concealed weapons law hot topic at Jan. 31 meeting of Laramie County Democrats

The Laramie County Democratic Party and Grassroots Coalition will have a joint meeting on Monday, Jan. 31, 7 p.m. at the IBEW Union Hall, 810 Fremont Street, Cheyenne.  The topic for the meeting will be the current concealed weapon law going through the Legislature.  Sen. Chris Rothfuss, Dem from Albany County, will be a guest speaker.  So many topics to be discussed. Sen. Rothfuss had some success this  week adding amendments to the Republicans' idiotic bill that would end  job protections for teachers.  FMI: www.laramiecountydemocrats.org  FMI: http://legisweb.state.wy.us/lsoweb/session/sessionhome.aspx

Searching for Arizona's soul

While watching crusty and opinionated Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik on TV over the weekend, I thought, "I'm glad this man is watching over my boy."

My boy is Kevin. He's no longer a boy but a man. A resident of Tucson, and a student at Pima Community College. Kevin probably doesn't give it much thought but it's good to have a sensible and sensitive human as the county's chief law enforcement officer.

I've spoken to Kevin several times since Saturday's shootings. Yes, everyone in Tucson is talking about it -- and we're all upset. No, he's never seen the shooter around campus. But there are five PCC campuses and thousands of students. I haven't had a chance to talk to him since this evening's memorial service at the University of Arizona Arena. Attendance was 26,000. I wanted to be there.

Tucson is a fine city. My most recent trip to Arizona was in January 2009. Call me a genius but January in Tucson is much more temperate than July in Tucson. My wife Chris and daughter Annie and I drove to Arizona in July of 2007. Long Fourth of July weekend and we had a week off. The evening of July 3, we stopped in Bernalillo north of Albuquerque and watched fireworks with a bunch of teenagers sitting on the hoods of their cars. The next night, we ventured out of the AC to watch the holiday fireworks from Tucson's A Mountain.

A few days later Kevin and I ventured out in the midday sun to visit the University of Arizona Poetry Center. U of A has since built a new poetry center, which was mentioned by University President Robert Shelton in tonight's closing remarks. He read a poem by W.S. Merwin, who lives in Hawaii but has spent a lot of time at the center, according to Shelton. Interesting how poetry and music are needed in times of woe.

Since Saturday, I've spent many hours online reading commentary about the Tucson shootings. I tended to gravitate to those pieces that talked about Arizona's culture.

One of the best is by Aurelie Sheehan. She's the director of the U of A creative writing program. She's a friend and a one-time Wyomingite. She wrote this:

Saturday night we had signed on to go to a benefit concert for a small organization that develops music programs for at-risk children in the Southwest. It was organized by a talented 12-year-old boy who took guitar lessons alongside our daughter, and we had been looking forward to it. Now no one really wanted to go — we were all too beaten down by the day. But we went anyway, to support the young guitarist and the nonprofit group.

We sat down in the school auditorium, restless, a little ill at ease, scattered in our thoughts. About 200 people were there. The lights went down and, after a weirdly protracted pause, Brad Richter, the nonprofit’s co-founder, took the stage. 

We talked quietly about what had happened that morning. He had played guitar at Gabrielle Giffords’s wedding, in 2007. And that evening he played an original composition for us, something she had requested he play then: “Elation,” the song was called. The feeling of community in the room was palpable, and if elation was beyond our reach, we were at least consoled.

Aurelie is such a great writer. I've also worked with Brad and know his soulful music. Again, here are the arts helping us to make sense of tragedy.

A harsher critique of Arizona appeared on Media Matters. It's by Will Bunch and is entitled "Arizona is where the American dream goes to die." Here's an excerpt:

The real factors behind this Arizona Nightmare -- venal banks, too much borrowing, too much outsourcing of jobs that, unlike home construction, would have been permanent and stable -- were too abstract, especially for the toxic soup of talk radio. It is tragic how a state that once prided itself on Barry Goldwater-style can-do self-reliant libertarianism devolved into blaming The Other the minute that things went south here. Virulent anti-immigrant nativism -- occasionally sprinkled with things like neo-Nazism -- grew into the desert, as did fear of Muslims, to the point where an architecturally unusual new Christian church in Phoenix had to declare in a giant banner that it was not Islamic. Political heroes were now those like Arpaio who didn't just pursue reactionary policies but actually heaped humiliation and degradation on The Other, in sweltering outdoor prison camps. Ditto with members of Congress suddenly out of step with the new zeitgeist -- moderate Democrats like Harry Mitchell and Gabrielle Giffords were not just to be disagreed with but to be physically threatened with vandalism or worse. Meanwhile, guns became a statewide obsession, as lawmakers competed to see just how lax an environment they could create, where it was legal to bring concealed firearms just about anywhere. This was the world that surrounded and buffeted a disturbed young man in Tucson named Jared Lee Loughner.

I've seen that part of Arizona. I've seen it in Wyoming, too. The anger of people who are well-to-do but who feel a strange resentment towards The Other. Those people who are wildly indignant about nearly everything because, well, because...

O.K., calm down, self. No name calling tonight.

Will Bunch does that pretty well. Although he wraps up with this hopeful note:

...maybe Arizona can dust itself off, gaze into the splendor of its big sky and see what an outsider sees, and remember what it was that brought them all to this scenic corner of America in the first place.

The promise of paradise.

Timothy Egan wrote "Tombstone Politics" for the New York Times op-ed pages. He wrote that great book on the Dust Bowl. To read his column, go here: 

Tombstone, the town, is in Giffords’s southern Arizona district, an Old West burg where shootouts are staged, bodies fall into the street, and then everybody applauds and laughs it off. Tombstone politics is the place we’ve been living in for some time now, and our guns are loaded.

We're living in a mythic cowboy West and our guns are really loaded, unlike those on "Tombstone Territory" and "Wyatt Earp" or "Gunsmoke." All Hollywood versions of Wild West shoot-em-up towns. But a fake Tombstone is one thing. A very real Tucson where deranged people fire guns at politicans?  We can't afford that.


For full text of Pres. Obama's speech, and other coverage of today's Tucson events, go here. 

Legislature ditches living wage but okays carrying guns anywhere we damn please

From a WyoDems press release:

Members of the Wyoming House voted today to not introduce a bill that would raise the minimum wage for tipped employees, such as waitresses and bartenders, from $2.13 per hour to $5.00 per hour. The bill failed on a vote of 23 in favor and 35 against; a bill requires 2/3, or 40 votes, for introduction during a budget session.

The bill was introduced by Rep. George Bagby of Rawlins, who was discouraged the bill did not reach committee. “This is not a fight we are willing to give up. There are too many Wyoming residents who are in this situation and too intimidated about losing their job to ask their employer to make up the difference when the tips don’t.”

“This is a common sense bill that would do so much good. It would bring greater economic stability to many more Wyoming workers and would not slow business growth or harm our small businesses,” commented Rep. Stan Blake of Green River.

Rep. Mary Throne of Cheyenne noted that this bill would have helped combat the gender wage gap in Wyoming. "The overwhelming majority of tipped wage workers are women and the failure to act on this issue perpetuates the gender wage gap in Wyoming--the worst in the nation. We talk about this problem, but when the opportunity arises to help hard-working women--we fail to act,” said Throne.

Rep. Joe Barbuto of Rock Springs said, “It is a disservice to the people of Wyoming to not even give them the chance to testify on something that would have such an
overwhelming impact on so many of their lives.”

According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP) the minimum wage for tipped workers in Wyoming has been the same since 1996 and has not been adjusted for inflation. In an August 2009 report NELP estimated that if the wage had kept up with inflation it would be approximately $4.90.

Rep. Mike Gilmore of Casper pointed out, “These men and women deserve to make a living wage. Basing an entire salary upon tips, because honestly $2.13 cannot be called a salary, makes a whole sector of our population very susceptible and with this economy I would think we would want everyone to be on the best footing possible.”

Rep. Bagby introduced the legislation and plans to bring it back in the future.

Meanwhile, any damn one will be able to carry their damn guns into any damn place.

Let's hope these less-than-minimum-wage employees don't get any ideas:

Rep. Lorraine Quarberg (R-Thermopolis) introduced a bill giving concealed weapon authority to Wyoming residents over the age of 21. This would do away with the current requirement that residents show knowledge of firearm use and register and receive a concealed weapon permit from the state of Wyoming. This proposal changes the standard considerably by making the requirements to carry a concealed weapon limited to “not suffering from a physical infirmity which prevents the safe handling of a firearm,” not being a convicted felon, not being an abuser of controlled substances or alcohol.

This bill has been referred to the Judiciary Committee.

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

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

For they are brown and without belief