Another great reason to vote -- the future of mental health care

Voting on Nov. 4 is important for so many reasons. For us Democrats, it's an opportunity to get our message out and to elect progressives to our Republican-dominated legislature which, frankly, often appears as if it's lost its ever-lovin' mind. Right now, Democrats hold 14 of the 90 seats in this august body. We need new voices, ones that represent women, ethnic minorities, the LGBT community and a younger demographic. We have Democrats running in all of those categories this time. We need them in the legislature. We also have great candidates for governor (Pete Gosar) and superintendent of public instruction (Mike Ceballos). Social-justice advocate Charlie Hardy is running for U.S. Senate. Vote!

There are other good reasons for voting. It gets you out of the office for an hour or two -- if your employer deigns to have this benefit. You see old friends working the polls -- if you're a certain age (mine!). You get that nifty "I Voted" sticker for your shirt or blouse.

Here's another. Mental health care depends on voting for the best candidates.Those candidates are usually Democrats. Don't expect Republicans or Libertarians to give two shits about the mentally ill. What about Dems? Well, our country's mental health system is terrible. Blame Obama! He gets a sliver of the blame, but he also gets credit for the Affordable Care Act and the Mental Health Parity Act. Give some credit to George W. Bush for the latter. There are Republicans that have had mental health challenges and others who have mentally ill family members. But their ideology often gets in the way of logic and compassion. You need a structure to care for those who need it. That usually means gubment. Just saying "get over it" or "cowboy up" won't do it. Wishing it will go away doesn't cut it. It doesn't work for other threats, such as terrorists or Ebola or cat-five hurricanes. You need a sensible structure to deal with these threats.

Republicans have also worked overtime -- with their SCOTUS pals -- to disenfranchise voters. You can count the mentally ill in the category of marginalized citizens. Also include the poor, the undocumented, the elderly, those who speak English as a second language, etc.

And then there's the lack of Medicaid expansion, mostly in red states such as Wyoming.

Dania Douglas wrote this recent post for the NAMI blog. I decided to publish it intact on this blog. Call me lazy. Call me concerned. Just don't call me late for dinner.

Go Vote. Mental Health Care Depends On It

By Dania Douglas, NAMI State Advocacy Manager 

It’s that time of year when various colored signs start popping up on lawns and medians across the country. Going to the farmers markets or getting on and off public transportation most likely means you’re going to be handed a pamphlet of sort. In other words, it’s election season. Political advertisements fill the radio airwaves and newspapers are bursting with election-related articles. So what does any of it have to do with mental health? Each year elected officials make decisions related to health care, education, housing and employment that will directly impact the lives of people living with mental illness. Today’s candidates will become tomorrow’s elected officials, with the power to make important decisions. As voters concerned about mental health care, it is critical that we learn about issues, educate candidates about the importance of mental health, and use our votes to elect representatives that will help improve mental health care in this country.

Be Prepared

There are a few important steps you can take to make sure you’re ready for Election Day! Check to make sure you are registered to vote. Make sure you know where to go to cast your vote on Election Day as local polling places can change. Make sure your voter ID is up to date.

Get to Know the Candidates

Do your homework. Listen to what candidates are saying about mental health. Better yet, ask questions. If you feel that candidates are not addressing important issues contact their campaign. Ask them about the issues that are most important to you. If you don’t know where to start, check out our materials for sample questions. Be ready to educate the candidates, to dispel myths or stereotypes, and to explain why mental health issues are so important. If you have a chance tomeet with your candidate in person, take advantage of that opportunity. If not, email, call or write. Visit NAMI’s website for more important tips on talking with candidates.

Know Your Rights

Voting is a Constitutional right and the foundation of our democracy. People with mental illness should have full and equal access to polling places. Unfortunately, misinformation and misunderstanding about mental illness can lead to discrimination. However, there are numerousfederal laws that help safeguard your right to vote. Learning about these laws can help you make sure your rights are protected. Voters with mental illness also have the right to have assistance on voting day. If you need assistance with voting, federal law gives you the right to choose the person, such as a friend or family member, who will help you cast your ballot. In some states, people can be disqualified from voting if they have a guardian or have been declared incapacitated by a court of law. NAMI has created a guide to state laws that affect the voting rights of people with mental illness.

Election Day, Go Vote!

Nov. 4, 2014 is Election Day. Make sure you show up to the polls or find out how to cast an absentee ballot. Every vote counts. Your vote is your voice. Use it to tell candidates that mental health care matters!

For Democrat Charlie Hardy -- Have lights, will travel

Wyoming Democrat Charlie Hardy doesn't have the funds for fancy billboards, be they old-fashioned variety or the new e-versions. However, he does have some old stage lights and a "Charlie Hardy for U.S. Senate" template. He takes his jerry-rigged projection system around Wyoming on a refurbished 1960 city bus festooned with campaign signs. He projects his electioneering slogan and the simple "Vote!" on the sides of buildings around the state. His favorite screen is the front of Wal-Mart stores, when he can find one.

The projection medium above is one of the many excellent outdoor murals in Laramie, where Charlie and his red-white-and-blue bus prowled last weekend during University of Wyoming's homecoming weekend. When he's not campaigning, he parks the bus in the corner of the most visible intersections in his hometown of Cheyenne.

Charlie is an ex-priest. He ministered to flocks throughout Wyoming then, from 1985-1993, he ministered in poverty-stricken areas in South America. He lived for most of those eight years in a pressed-cardboard-and-tin shack in a barrio on the edge of Caracas, Venezuela.

Charlie's opponent in the U.S. Senate race is incumbent Republican Mike Enzi. He's a kindly gentleman, an indie businessman, a dedicated reader and long-time arts supporter. Problem is, he votes with the right-wing loonies 98 percent of the time. He has to go.

Don't miss Wyoming author Mark Spragg this Friday at Booklovers' Bash

Plan to attend the Booklovers’ Bash, the primary annual fund-raiser for the Laramie County Library Foundation, on Friday, October 24, 6 p.m., at Little America Hotel & Resort in Cheyenne. Featured speaker this year will be well-known author Mark Spragg.

Mark Spragg grew up working on Wyoming’s oldest dude ranch just east of Yellowstone National Park and is a graduate of the University of Wyoming.  His memoir, Where Rivers Change Direction, won the Mountains & Plains Book award for nonfiction in 2000.  He is also the author of the novels The Fruit of Stone, An Unfinished Life and Bone Fire. All four were top-ten Book Sense selections and have been translated into fifteen languages. An Unfinished Life was made into a major motion picture starring Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez and Morgan Freeman in 2005. Spragg and his wife Virginia co-wrote the screenplay. The couple live in Cody, Wyoming.

There will be silent and live auction items.Tickets must be purchased in advance. Call 307.773.7221 for more information. 

Wyoming Liberty Group threatens state retirement plans

A big thanks to Patrick Crank for his fiery op-ed in Saturday's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, "Liberty Group threatens state retirement plans."

Crank, a local attorney and former attorney general of Wyoming, attended the Wyoming Liberty Group's "Pension Reform Summit" Oct. 6 in Cheyenne. In case you don't know, the Liberty Group is a right-wing fringe organization funded by ultra-conservative Texas gazillionaire Susan Gore. Its sole purpose, it seems, is to destroy the state's excellent retirement system to further marginalize the state's workers.

About 25 firefighters covered by the state retirement plan showed up at this so-called summit. They were denied entrance. Crank and one other retired firefighter finally were allowed to observe the meeting. Keynote speaker was State Rep. Donald Burkhart (R-Rawlins). Rep. Burkhart has a seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee and was selected by the speaker of the house to serve as liaison to the Wyoming Retirement Board.

He was joined at the summit by a batch of Republican lawmakers. Two of them are legislative liaisons to the Retirement Board: Sen. Curt Meier (R-LaGrange) and Rep. Mike Madden (R-Buffalo), The others were Republican representatives Sue Wilson of Cheyenne and Marti Halverson of Etna and Republican senator Cale Case of Lander. Not sure where the Democrats were, especially those from Laramie County, home to a majority of state workers. Perhaps their invitations were lost in the mail.

Who else was at the meeting?

Other than these legislators, virtually everyone else at the meeting appeared to be either Liberty Group staff and members and paid out-of-state lobbyists.

This is a key element of the Liberty Group -- its funded by out-of-state money, run by out-of-staters and it employs out-of-state lobbyists in an attempt to destroy Wyoming's excellent retirement system. One has to wonder why all of these people from Texas and Colorado and elsewhere don't have something else to do, such as foreclosing on widows and gaming the stock market. They're doing that too. I'm just surprised that they have time for little ol' Wyoming retirees.

Patrick Crank wonders about that too:

Why are ultra-rich right-wing groups, financed by multi-billionaires, attacking our ability to have a reasonable income during our golden years? 

Why are they attacking our children's ability to obtain a reasonable retirement plan for their years of work yet to come?

We also have to wonder why so many of our Republican legislators are eager to sign on to the Liberty Group/Susan Gore agenda? Yes, they hate gubment and think state employees such as myself are bums. These right-wingers are angry as hell and aren't going to take it anymore. Just why they are angry when they seem to have it all is another question entirely.

Republican-dominated and sparsely-populated Wyoming must seem like a juicy test case for these out-of-state interests. They may look at us as some sort of backwater that can be turned into a colony for oligarchs served by an army of compliant serfs who get paid peanuts and go into their golden years without a farthing. We are, after all, the state with the highest number of billionaires per capita. Hey, it's only six, but all of their pals are looking to the future to see how subservient they can make the population, how compliant they can make our Republican-dominated legislature.

Crank wrapped up his op-ed succinctly:

It is wrong that ultra-right-wing millionaires, with the assistance of elected representatives like Mr. Burkhart, have chose to attack this benefit of work life that has served the United States well for the last century.

It is wrong.

Time to talk to your legislator about this issue. BTW, Rep. Burkhart's e-mail is Donald.Burkhart@wyoleg.gov. You can find more e-mails and phone numbers of legislators at Wyoming LegisWeb.

Campaigning for Mike in Cheyenne

Walked neighborhoods for Mike Ceballos this afternoon. Mike is the Democratic Party candidate for superintendent of public instruction. A fine candidate, as I told anyone who was home and not off at the UW homecoming game in Laramie. People tend to be friendly in Cheyenne, even when you're coming to their door and possibly disrupting the arc of an Indian Summer Saturday afternoon. I kept thinking: Why am I not in my backyard, sitting in an easy chair under the shade of my big elm, reading a good book, golden leaves falling around my shoulders? But here I was, knocking on doors, talking to people, and strolling down quiet streets.

The Ceballos campaign will be busy from now until election day. Some TV ads, and some GOTV events are planned. His Republican opponent has been running attack ads on TV and radio. She must be getting desperate.

Check out Mike's web site for more info.

And remember to vote on Nov. 4. You can vote early, too.

Sunday round-up: Heating up -- Political races & Cheyenne's downtown

Newspapers and online sources seem to agree that the Wyoming political races are heating up. This week, Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Pete Gosar went on the offensive against Matt Mead at the debate. And Democrat Mike Ceballos and Republican Jillian Barlow went at it regarding some critical social media comments. At this point, three weeks and two days away from election day, races should be heating up. Facebook may be the best way to follow Pete and Mike's campaigns. As for the debates, Wyoming PBS will simulcast those this week and stream them online. Get more info here.

The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle punctuated its week-long series about Cheyenne's downtown with its lead editorial this morning, "DDA must focus on the essentials." I knew it was important due to the very large headline. Downtown way be the most important issue Cheyenne faces. As downtown goes, so goes the city. I agree that all of the entities involved need to do this: "Time, energy and money must be targeted, not shotgunned out in hope that something good will happen."

Speaking of downtown... My work colleague, artist Camellia El-Antably, and artist and educator Mark Vinich, staged a "soft" opening of their new gallery space on Thursday during Art Design & Dine. Called Clay Paper Scissors Gallery & Studio, these artrepreneurs have created a striking, well-lighted space geared to featuring regional artists. Go by and see the new space at 1513 Carey Avenue. See for yourself how downtown can become a more vital and artful place.

A reminder that Democrats are holding a FUNdraiser today from 2-4 p.m. at Joe's house, 3626 Dover Rd. If you truly want to see the campaigns heat up, come on by, meet the candidates, contribute to the cause and eat some scrumptious desserts, such as Mike and Jeran's homemade pumpkin cheeesecake.

Some final words about Mental Health Awareness Week

I could not let Mental Health Awareness Week go by without commenting.

The week, promoted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), was a week filled with a flurry of social media posts, including a series of images (see one above). Thursday, Oct. 9, was National Depression Screening Day. I’ve already had mine – several in fact -- and depression was located in various regions of my body – my heart, my celebral cortex, my Islets of Langerhans. I take meds for it, see my psychiatrist every six months and my therapist every week. I work out at the YMCA every other day and eat right.

Last weekend I made chili for the Broncos game. This is not a recommended treatment for depression. Following the Broncos may even cause depression – the jury’s still out. I make my own chili because I love chili and the store-bought variety comes with tons of salt. Too much salt causes my heart to work harder to get rid of fluid build-up. An overworked heart negates the medication I take to keep it calm and reliable. An overworked heart may go into a fatal arrhythmia and would cause my ICD to kick in which, in turn, would cause me to flop around on the floor like a fish. Depression would follow, as would stares of passers-by.

Homemade chili, you see, can ease both heart disease and depression. Mine features lots of pepper slices and tomatoes, our planet’s super-food. No-salt-added tomato sauce. It’s meaty with the lowest-fat hamburger I can find. Flavoring is a problem that no amount of Mrs. Dash, cumin, and chili power can remedy. Our taste buds are primed for salt and lots of it. We need some salt as our body’s origins are in the briny deep. I’m still working on that part of the chili challenge.

It’s not that easy to get the same attention for mental illness as is given to heart disease. I’m pleased that heart disease gets lots of attention and much funding. I might not be alive if that were not the case. I am pleased that my local hospital has a spiffy new cancer center and that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Everyone wears pink, even NFL players and cowboys (at least they do every summer at the CFD Rodeo's "Tough enough to wear pink" day). As for the NFL -- those were some bitchin’ pink cleats that the Houston and Indy players were wearing on Thursday Night Football. Good game, too.

I didn’t spy many green ribbons or green shoes this week. As I said, social media lit up with references to depression and schizophrenia and bipolar. USA Today did a series on mental illness and suicide. Nice job – I read it all. Shocking stats revealed that 40,000 Americans killed themselves last year. It’s shocking enough that an average of 22 military veterans take their lives daily. But to really be shocked, you have to read their stories. Many don’t get any help at all, or the right kind of help. But many do and still kill themselves. Many civilians with mental illnesses don’t get any help at all, or can’t afford it, or don’t get the proper treatments. They jump off bridges or shoot themselves or OD on pills with alarming regularity. Does that mean it’s hopeless? No, but people who feel hopeless may not get help because of the stigma attached to mental illness or the “cowboy up” mentality that we have in Wyoming and other western states. “Cowboy up” is not a helpful response to someone who needs help. “Tough it out” or “lighten up” – also not helpful responses. But you can’t really blame people. If they haven’t experienced a mental health challenge themselves or with a friend or family members, they may be clueless.

I walk around with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator in my chest. My wife Chris walks around with an insulin pump on her hip. We often get into lively discussions with people with heart disease and diabetes. We compare experiences and devices. Growing old, it seems, is filled with these types of conversations. Having a heart attack gives you carte blanche to bore everyone silly with your story.

Want to stop a lively conversation in its tracks? Bring up mental illness. Chris was at a community gathering this week and was having a good old time talking to old friends about her meter and my ICD. Lots of people have encounters with heart abnormalities and blood sugar levels. But when they asked about our daughter -- let's call her Margaret -- and Chris told them she was in a mental health treatment center, the conversation stopped. Crickets chirped. Tumbleweeds rolled through the room. The friends excused themselves and Chris was left standing there, an intriguing story hanging from her lips.

Too bad they didn’t stick around to hear the story. Margaret has received a variety of diagnoses. Bipolar. Borderline personal disorder, with and without bipolar. Severe depression. She’s a cutter too, you see, which usually freaks out the uninitiated. It freaked me out when I first found out about it. She’s used knives, box cutters, razors and even broken glass to carve a topo map of scars on her arms and legs and stomach. It’s a constant reminder of her traumas. It will always be a reminder to her as the challenges she faced as a teen and young woman. She may arrive at a place where she can live with her mental illness, maybe even outgrow the worst symptoms. But she’ll always have the scars. When she’s 63 as I am now, her grandchildren may ask, “Grandma, where did you get those scars?” She can tell any story she wants, as grandparents do. But I have a feeling she will share the truth. That may help them somewhere down the line. This mental illness runs in our family, you see, and DNA has a funny way of replicating itself. Science may come up with answers. Better, more targeted drugs with fewer side-effects. Better and more widely available therapy. Less stigma. Empathy breaking out all over.

Meanwhile, there are social media images to post and blogs to write. Chili warms on the stove. Life is a series of little treatments, tiny steps, unexpected laughter. Sorrow awaits you around every turn. Be aware.      

The BBC transforms a great Brian Wilson song into a video promo

Brian Wilson's great "God Only Knows" has been transformed by the BBC into a "for the love of music" video promo with a cast of thousands. I like it. The song comes from Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys' masterpiece, according to many critics, and one of the influences for The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I barely paid any attention when Pet Sounds came out in the summer of 1966 as I was busy sharpening my dancing skills for Motown hits. Take a look...

What is your vision for the future of Cheyenne's downtown?

Thanks to the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle for this week's series on Cheyenne's downtown. It covered many aspects of downtown's current plight and ended today with an upbeat forecast for the future. I happen to agree that the city's mid-town area has improved remarkably during the past few years and will look quite a bit different in 3-5 years. Cheyenne is lucky in that it has a distinctive downtown and that it is riding the "downtown is cool" wave that is dawning all over the U.S.

And you don't have to go to Colorado to find good examples of this trend. We have some cool downtowns in this state and I suggest that you check them out as you travel. Laramie is a great example, and it's right over the hill. New homegrown businesses, funky cafes and brewpubs, lots of colorful murals, and new western-themed bike racks. You can sip a craft beer and watch the trains chug by. Rawlins just rebuilt its downtown, and Rock Springs is in the process of sprucing up its odd mid-city that is cut in half by train tracks. Think of Sheridan's beautiful downtown, Cody and Lander, too. Thermopolis has thriving downtown businesses and a lively art walk. There are many others.

Best thing that Wyomingites can do is to get involved in the local scene. Shop locally, eat locally, drink locally, and think locally. Because I live in Cheyenne, I often look south for entertainment and sports and food. The border, after all, is permeable.And there's a new CostCo going up just off I-25 in Fort Collins. And you can't get Ethiopian food in Cheyenne. Or see the new Broadway touring plays -- or even old ones. The Rockies don't play in Wyoming -- maybe that's a reason to count our blessings.

But Wyoming has things that Colorado does not. Find out what they are and spend your dough there. One of the topics that was woven into the WTE series was those aspects of Cheyenne that make it special. Our history is as rich as Denver's -- just take a look at all of the murder and intrigue happening in Cheyenne this season on AMC's "Hell on Wheels." Fictionalized but based on fact. We've only begun to explore our railroad and Native American and geologic history. Yes, there's Cheyenne Frontier Days. But that represents only a small slice of local lore. Native Americans made these parts home for a lot longer than cowboys, but their stories are barely told. And what about dinosaurs of land and sea? For millions of years they made this place home.

So, when locals start talking about a western-themed downtown, ask them which West they are referring to. A cowboy sculpture on every corner is not my idea of a lively downtown. All kinds of art all over downtown is a great idea. That takes vision.  And planning. Cooperation among government and business and patrons and artists.

When I retire in a few years, I plan on getting involved in downtown in some way. I will write about it, too, as I am now. My question for now is the same one asked by the WTE series: What's is your vision for the future of Cheyenne's downtown?

Well?

Meet and greet Democratic Party candidates for Gov and Dept. of Ed. at Oct. 12 fund-raiser

On Sunday, October 12, at 2 p.m., local Democrats are hosting a Meet and Greet/Fund-raiser for Pete Gosar and Mike Ceballos. In case you haven't been paying attention, Laramie Democrat Pete Gosar is running against incumbent Republican Matt Mead for governor. Cheyenne Democrat Mike Ceballos is running against Republican Jillian Balow for Superintendent of Public Instruction. The get-together is at Joe's House, 3626 Dover Rd. in Cheyenne. Enjoy a dessert reception, refreshments and hear their ideas and show them your support! Suggested Donation levels of $30/$60/$90.

Yes, this is a fund-raiser. Even in Wyoming, all politicians need money to wage their campaigns. This is especially true in Wyoming, where registered Dems are outnumbered two-to-one.

Democrats do several things well. We know how to put on fund-raisers. We know how to wisely spend money. We like to have a good time. 

So come on out. If you're curious about what makes Wyoming Democrats run, this would be a good time to find out. My wife Chris and I signed up to invite 10 Dems or Indies who have been too shy to get involved or who have just moved here from a blue state and wondered if they are actually any liberals in this whole dang state. There are! Drop us a line in the comment section if you are interested. Or just show up with your checkbook. Any donations are eagerly accepted. And you will be fed sweets and welcomed by an engaging group of engaged citizens.

Questions: E-mail robin@wyodems.org or go to Laramie County Democrats on Facebook.

Young Wyoming activists come up with unique way to save the elephants

The Tooth Fairy is real. 

Two young people in Jackson Hole have come up with a compelling project to help save elephants. You may have heard that elephant poaching increases even in the face of stepped-up preservation efforts. The reason: ivory from elephant tusks. The market: China, which seems to have an insatiable appetite for the stuff. Here's the project:

THE TOOTH FAIRY PROJECT presented by Elephant Daze and WILD SCIENCE

October 4-5 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Center Theater Lobby, Jackson

- Elephant photography exhibit by Joachim Schmeisser and Kate Brooks
- Elephant Art Contest (awards announced Oct. 5 at 4 p.m.)
- Elephant Lifespan Exhibit
- Activism: Kids write letters asking the Tooth Fairy to send his baby teeth stockpile to China where 70 percent of elephant ivory tusks end up and where 70 percent of Chinese citizens believe elephant tusks FALL OFF and REGROW. This provocative and endearing community activation message will engage the public and the press to advance our mission: to garner media attention to save the elephant by ending legal (and illegal) ivory trade and carving in China.

The Tooth Fairy Project is supported by two young Jackson Hole activists: LILY MARVIN (11) and ALEX FRENCH (9), who are working hard to save the elephant, which they know also saves you and me.

Americanism trumps Conservatism this week in JeffCo schools

Kudos to those Jefferson County, Colorado, students who staged a walkout this week to protest to new conservative school board's attempt to to ram their "America is Perfect!" history curriculum down student throats. They are perhaps a bit more wise that we were, back in the 1950s and 1960s, when we blithely attended our "Americanism vs. Communism" classes. BTW, Americanism, whatever that is, won.

One thing I will tell those students: history education only begins when we get out of school. Experience will teach you that Americanism has many faces, some of them glorious and some quite ugly. I'm hoping that you will read widely, watch a lot of offbeat indie films, learn another language, travel all over, and talk to everyone you meet. People will tell you the darndest things, if only you lift your head from the iPhone and really listen. Family elders are a great source of information and bullshit. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. My suggestion is to check your elders' facts. If they tell you, as Bluto Blutarsky did so famously in "Animal House," that the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, check it out. After all, fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

I'm impressed with the student activism I've seen out of this generation. Elders are supposed to spend an inordinate amount of time criticizing the younger generations. I suppose I've done some of that. But those 20-somethings and 30-somethings that I've met in the arts world and progressive politics, well, they are amazing. Young artists, impatient with the entrenched art establishment, have gone to crowd-funding and other resources to meet their goals. The Wyoming Democrats employed a young undocumented UW graduate as its PR person until recently, when he decamped to Austin to help the Texas Democrats hone their social media outreach. When the Occupy Movement was in full flower, I met young people from throughout Wyoming who were fed up with the status quo and willing to take to the streets to do something about it. Just as those JeffCo students did this week.

Now here comes the advice -- you knew that was inevitable, right? Activism is not a short-term strategy. You have to be in it for the long haul. You will be disappointed. You will fail. At times, you will succeed. When you get to be 60-something, you can look back with satisfaction and say that you fought the good fight.

And that you are fighting it still.

Kurt Caswell returns to LCCC Oct. 3-4 for the Literary Connection

The Literary Connection features a four-hour free workshop for writers on Friday, Oct. 3, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., in the LCCC Center for Conferences & Institutes in Cheyenne. Featured writers this year are Kurt Caswell, Ernie Cline and Danielle Pafunda. Great to see Kurt Caswell back at LCCC, where he taught English and writing classes back in the day. LCCC Theatre Director Jason Pasqua will serve as emcee.

Registration deadline has passed, but you can probably show up next Friday and find a seat. LCCC usually offers some fine treats and coffee.

Here's the schedule:

8 a.m.: Bookstore opens. Buy books.

8:30 a.m.: Registration and Breakfast. Lots of good munchies and coffee.

9:15-10:15 a.m.: Danielle Pafunda -- "Loss for Words: How Poetry Helps Us Say What We Mean"

10:30-11:30 a.m.: Kurt Caswell -- "Spiritual Mathematics: Reconsidering Structure in Your Writing"

11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. -- Ernest Cline -- "Writing W hat You Know By Writing About What You Love"

Saturday's events at LCCC Conferences & Institutes require a fee. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. and the program starts at 10 a.m. No breakfast, but lunch will be served.

Go to the Friday workshops. But the Saturday events are worth the cost. You get to schmooze with fellow writers and talk to the presenters. Buy books, too.

Get more info here: 307-778-1285

You can see the end of coal from the People's Climate March

More than 300,000 rally for the People's Climate March Sunday in NYC. Can you say, "Goodbye, coal?" I thought you could.

The rich are different --- they want to destroy Wyoming's public pension plan

Thanks to fellow prog-blogger Rodger McDaniel for his excellent column yesterday in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle and later reprinted on his Blowing in the Wyoming Wind blog. The newspaper's op-ed editor paraphrased a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald for the headline: "The rich think differently." Fitzgerald's quote comes from his short story "The Rich Boy" published in 1926 in Redbook Magazine:

“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and kcynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different. ”

The esteemed author had already artfully described how the rich are different in his 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald also had a bad case of wealth-envy. Maybe that's a trait we all possess, thinking that we shouldn't criticize the wealthy too harshly lest we hit it big on the Powerball or strike oil in our backyard.

Most of us are content to labor hard and retire comfortably. That's my philosophy, passed down to me from my father the accountant and my mother the nurse and scores of immigrant ancestors who worked on the railroad and in the factory or on the farm.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I am a state employee of 23 years and expect to retire some time in the next decade.

In Wyoming, rich out-of-staters want to dismantle our state employee pension plan because, well, just because they can -- or think they can. Canadian Maureen "The Hater" Bader of the Wyoming Liberty Group recently wrote a venomous op-ed describing the state retirement plan as "the gold-plated promise of retirement security." Our pension plan is the envy of many, not because it is "gold-plated" but because it has been managed so efficiently that "30-year projections show that the plan is on a trajectory leading to assets totalling 114.7 percent of benefit costs," writes Rodger.

The Liberty Group was founded by Susan Gore, wealthy Texas heiress to the Gore-Tex fortune. This group is a member of the State Policy Network which is a driver of the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC, the organization that hands canned right-wing legislation to Wyoming legislators so they can sabotage the state's workers.

So...

Wyoming Liberty Group's attack on Wyoming's pension plan is nothing more than a cookie cutter provided to them by ALEC and the Policy Network. 

The rich indeed are different. They're out to destroy the middle class. They're doing a fine job. The elimination of the state's pension plan would go a long way to making us lackeys of the oligarchs represented by ALEC, the State Policy Network and the Wyoming Liberty Group.

Day two of touristing on the high plains

At Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Site: Mike Shay and Brian and Eileen Casey. Thousands of wagons passed this way during the heyday of the trails that cut through Wyoming. 

Why all of the sheriff’s cars at Hawk Springs Reservoir?

A Sunday drowning. But on Tuesday morning, I didn’t know that. We stopped at Hawk Springs to take in the reservoir and the bluffs beyond. We were touristing so stopped at almost every site we came across. When I travel Wyoming, I’m usually zipping to or from a destination and I need to be there at a certain time. Not just work trips but personal ones, too.

I used to be the guy who stopped at all in interesting things. What’s that marker? Where does that road go? Somewhere along the line, I lost that sense of adventure that drove my family crazy.

We stopped at Hawk Springs State Recreation Area because we were escorting my sister Eileen and her husband Brian on a Wyoming adventure. Can’t have an adventure unless you take the road less traveled. Our goal was Fort Laramie but we had all day, so why not stop?

It was quiet at Hawk Springs. Wind rattled the Cottonwood leaves. Some locals fished. We didn’t know it, but search parties scoured the reservoir for a drowned man. On Sunday, James “Jesse” Nelson of Torrington apparently dove into the reservoir to rescue another person who had fallen overboard. That person was rescued by another boat but Nelson was not.

Tragedies happen around us while we look the other way.

But on this day, we were roaming around southeast Wyoming. We stopped in the town of Hawk Springs to take some goofy photos. We met the proprietor of The Emporium, one of the few eating and drinking establishments along this stretch of state road. On this day was closed for a thorough cleaning after a busy summer catering to tourists and Sturgis-bound bikers. The owner invited us to return on the weekend to dine and watch a UW game.

Ever stopped at the Homesteader Museum along Torrington’s main drag? Me neither. You can’t miss it – it’s in the old train station across from the sugar plant. A big caboose sits adjacent to the museum. On the north side of the museum is an old homesteader cabin that once occupied good bottom land near Hawk Springs. It was moved when the dam was built and before the water rose high enough to drown people in 2014. A couple raised their three children in this windowless log cabin. Imagine. The museum grounds also included a one-room schoolhouse and a two-story rancher’s house, all moved from elsewhere in Goshen County. Settlement history in our part of the world may be recent, but there’s a lot of it.

Did you know that Jackson Hole is not the only hole in the state? This part of of Wyoming was historically referred to as "Goshen Hole?" A valley carved by rivers over thousands of years. You get the sense of "hole" when you top of rise of the highway and look down into the valley all the way to Nebraska. 

We picnicked at the city park in Lingle. Mothers and their pre-K kids trooped into the park, set up some soccer nets and commenced a game. One of the younger kids clambered around on the bandshell that was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1941-42, just as the U.S. was entering WWII and men in those WPA and CCC crews were putting on uniforms. Beautiful red-white-and-blue concrete bandshell that’s probably been the home for many Fourth of July concerts with fireworks to follow. Across the front of it is this: “Small but proud.”

Fort Laramie was our next stop. I’ve written about it before. This National Historic Site was a favorite destination when the kids were young and we were looking for a jaunt into history. This frontier fort along the North Platte and Laramie rivers was a thriving place for much of the 19^th century. It closed when the frontier was declared closed in 1890, which is also the year of the Wounded Knee massacre. The fort’s buildings almost disappeared from disuse and scavenging by citizens from the town of Fort Laramie. But, as often happens, the government stepped in and saved it. Drat that damn gubment. Now southeast Wyoming has a beautiful historic site to add to many others and an economic generator. Lots of cars and campers in the parking lot on this Sept. 16 afternoon. A big bus, too, filled with tourists anxious to explore history and plug some Euros into the Wyoming economy.

Chris and I has never been to the historic sites celebrating the wagon ruts and Register Cliff. The Oregon Trails Ruts State Historic Site marks the place where thousands of wagons and handcarts cut a swath through the side of a hill on the Oregon/Mormon/California trails. When you stand in the ruts, you can imagine the hard slog that these pioneers experienced. The major traffic would have been in June as they planned to reach Independence Rock near Casper by the Fourth of July. They already had glimpsed Laramie Peak shimmering in the distance and wondered, “How are we going to get over that?” But the trail turned northwest from here, following the path of the river through the relatively flat county on the way to Fort Caspar.

There’s a marker at the wagon ruts that celebrates the site in language a bit flowery for my tastes. A photo of it is included. I wanted to rewrite it in simple language, something a little more Hemingwayesque. Maybe you’d like to take a crack at it.

The marker at Register Cliff was a bit more to my liking, as it actually mentions the natives of this area, who also happened to etch petroglyphs into this site. Their signatures were destroyed by a sea of immigrants, a metaphor for what happened to their tribes as the wagons rolled West.   

"Wagon wheels cut solid rock, carving a memorial to Empire Builders." Not sure when this sign was installed but it could use a few updates.

Day one of touristing on the high plains

Hanging out at Esther Hobart Morris's statue at the Wyoming State Capitol with Brian and Eileen Casey.

My sister Eileen and her husband, Brian Casey, visited us this week in Cheyenne. They live in Orlando, Florida, and had never been to Wyoming. Eileen is a history buff and Brian likes trains. I told them, “You’ve come to the right place.”

Visitors from distant climes help me focus on the clime I’m in. I’ve lived in Cheyenne 23 years but have not seen everything there is to see. A human trait, to take for granted the place where you live.

On Monday, their first day in town, Eileen, Brian, my wife Chris and I toured Cheyenne. We exploited the state capitol building, which is in the beginning of a $250 million renovation. I saw Leslie in the Governor’s office and went in to say hi. She asked if we wanted to see the inner office, the place where Gov. Mead signs bills, and we said yes. She let Eileen and Brian sit in the Gov’s chair and I took photos. We wondered if we could walk into the Florida governor’s office, sit in his chair and take photos. Probably not. We toured the legislative chambers and viewed the art. I took time to actually view the art on the walls instead of just passing by. On the House side, the portrait of the 1913 group had a tear in the middle. The tear is about the width of a human head, which is due to the fact that one disgruntled legislator plucked the portrait off the wall and bashed it over the head of a colleague. Those are the kind of details that make history come alive.

We next toured the state museum. I’ve been in there a hundred times. But on this, the 101^st visit, I saw things I didn’t know were there. It is a gift to have fresh eyes alight on a thing and say “I didn’t know that.” That’s what museums are all about, right? We ate lunch at the historic Albany and then toured the Depot Museum. Trains created Cheyenne. The magnificent depot was created in view of the State Capitol to remind legislators to not forget what side their bread was buttered on. These days, legislators don’t have a view of the Powder River Basin coal fields, but that lesson has a prominent place in their memory.

You can see the coal trains from the second-floor museum viewing room. It’s a busy rail yard, which delighted Brian almost as much as the big model train in the next room. You’re in choo-choo country, pardner!

Time flies when you’re touristing. We walked around the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, a place that I love. The flowers are in their last gasp of beauty before the frosts arrive and the snow falls. The folks at the gardens did a great job of resurrecting the flower beds after our June and July hailstorms. I showed off the architectural plans of the new building. I’m very proud of it, as I was one of the forward-thinking voters who approved it during the election of 2012. Without Chris and I and thousands of others, we wouldn’t be creating a city for our children and grandchildren. Take a bow, ya’ll.

We wrapped up the day with a barbecue at our house. A fitting end to a fine, late-summer day in the high prairie.

To be continued….

So you want to write a novel?

My friend Joanne Kennedy over at Joanne Kennedy Books on Facebook is teaming up with two other Cheyenne fiction writers for this:

Have you always wanted to write a novel? Laramie County Library is presenting Novel Writing University every Tuesday night for six weeks, beginning September 23. Classes will cover all elements of fiction writing, from getting started to writing dialogue, from characterization to resonant endings. Submitting to agents and editors will also be covered, along with self-publishing and marketing. Whether you're a beginner or a more experienced writer, these classes will help you improve your craft and understand the steps to publication. The class will be taught by multi-published authors Joanne Kennedy, Amanda Cabot, and Mary Gillgannon. Join us!

Joanne and Mary are my former critique partners at the Cheyenne Area Writers Group (CAWG). They are terrific teachers and know their way around a novel -- short stories, too, as I can testify. I've seen Amanda in action at several writing conferences, including the annual WWInc gathering. They all are kind and meticulous, a winning combination. Get more information at the Laramie County Public Library web site.

Join the "Shatter the Silence" walk Sept. 10 in Cheyenne

Join Stop Suicide Cheyenne, the VA Center, Prevention Management Organization, and Grace for 2 Brothers for the World Suicide Prevention Day Silent Walk on Wednesday September 10th. This event begins at 11:45 a.m. at the Depot Plaza in Cheyenne with keynote speakers to talk about suicide prevention. A silent walk will take place up Capitol Avenue to the Capitol Steps where there will be recognition of those lost to suicide.

Hemingway found a clean, well-lighted place to write in Wyoming

Me sitting at Hemingway's writing desk at Spear-O-Wigwam in the Big Horn Mountains.

Ernest Hemingway found something in Wyoming.

A book, or a way to finish a book. He wrote portions of A Farewell to Arms in Arkansas and Kansas and Sheridan, Wyo., eventually finishing it in a log cabin in Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains. Hemingway was a globetrotter back when it took a long time to get anywhere. You crossed oceans by ship and continents by rail. Travel was measured in days and weeks rather than hours. The author sojourned in Paris, Spain, Cuba, Africa, Canada and all over the U.S.: Chicago, Kansas City, Key West, Sheridan, Wyo. and Sun Valley, Idaho, to name a few. He hauled his typewriter and manuscripts along with him. After he became a successful author, he travelled with 26 suitcases, according to Valerie Hemingway, who served as Hemingway's secretary in the 1950s.

It's odd to think of a peripatetic author and war correspondent traveling with 26 suitcases. That's just one of the odd Hemingway facts you discover when hanging out at the Spear-O-Wigwam Mountain Campus near Sheridan with Val and other Hemingway fans. We were there to start the planning process for a 2018 Hemingway celebration. Why 2018? Since much of a A Farewell to Arms was written in Sheridan and the Big Horns, a 90th anniversary celebration is in order. The idea was hatched by Sheridan College's Susan Bigelow. Our August planning session coincided with the Spear-O-Wigwam presentation by Ms. Hemingway. More than 100 people traversed the rugged Red Grade Road for her afternoon talk.

A Farewell to Arms is based on Hemingway's experience as an ambulance driver in Italy during World War I. If you didn't read the novel during one of your college survey courses, you may have caught up with it as an adult. Perhaps you saw one of A Farewell to Arms movies. Gary Cooper as Frederic Henry in 1932 pursuing Nurse Catherine Barkley (Helen Hayes). In 1957, Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones were the ill-fated couple. There were stage plays and radio plays as well.

After A Farewell to Arms was published in 1929, Hemingway was a success. He wrote one best-seller after another. He accumulated residences and books and suitcases. Other writers began to copy his spare style, which Gore Vidal called "the careful, artful, immaculate idiocy of tone that has marked Hemingway's prose." "Idiocy of tone?" What's Vidal mean by that? Is the accent on "idiocy" or on "tone?" Not only has the author been copied -- badly -- but satirized, too, by Alan Coren and Woody Allen. There is the annual Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, with winners announced at the annual Hemingway Days in Key West, which also holds a Hemingway Look-Alike Contest and marlin fishing tournament. There are Write like Hemingway and the Six-Word Hemingway Story competitions.

Some of these tourism-themed events may seem excessive. But think about it? How many writers are celebrities these days?   Not just those celebrities who are famous for fame's sake, but those who actually have been engaged with the world and pioneered a new writing style in the process? I can't think of any contemporary writer who's done what Hemingway did. Wyoming's own Mark Jenkins is a globe-trotting, mountain-climbing adventurer and a fine writer. As far as I know, the only people calling him "Papa" are his two daughters. Sebastian Junger has written of adventure on the high seas and in the Afghan battlefields, and he's considered a hunk, but he's not Hemingway. Montana's Jim Harrrison and Tom McGuane can be considered celebrities in the writing world, but I'm not sure if your average person on the street would recognize those names.

Hemingway was bigger than life and he liked it that way. He made a fine living as a writer and it enabled him to travel the world. Alas, he did have to find time and a place to write. In 1928, he tried sequestering himself at the Sheridan Inn before it was the Historic Sheridan Inn and just a hot, noisy, and crowded hotel. So he rode up the mountains to Spear-O-Wigwam, sat down at a desk in a rustic cabin and finished the book that would make a splash over the next decade.

Hemingway killed himself -- did I mention that? He was bigger than life but in the end was felled by depression and a family trait. When Margaux Hemingway killed herself in 1996 in Santa Monica, she became the fifth generation of Hemingways to do so. We talk a lot about suicide but still it continues, by gun and rope and pills.

I sat at that desk in Hemingway's cabin. He wrote in longhand before breaking out the manual typewriter to do the finished draft. He'd do the revising on paper before getting down to the QWERTY keyboard. Wonder if the other guests at the ranch heard Hem's tap-tap-tap on the keys. Sounds like that writer fella -- says he's working on a novel about the war.

That was a small act by a big man. Left a lasting impression on the world. I think it's only right that the folks of Sheridan County want to celebrate it.

But how? There's the rub. And we have four years to figure out how to do it.

Human Rights Campaign holds reception in Cheyenne

This announcement comes from Wyoming Equality: 

HRC Wyoming: Cheyenne Community Reception 

Sept. 18, 6-8 p.m., at The Suite Bistro, 1901 Central Ave, Cheyenne

We are excited to invite you to an upcoming community reception with the Human Rights Campaign in Wyoming. You are invited to join us in Cheyenne for a community gathering with brief remarks from HRC Director of Programmatic Development, Brad Clark, followed by a reception including complimentary hors d'oeuvres and beverages. 

We hope you can join us and ask that you please RSVP in advance. Go to http://action.hrc.org/site/Calendar/2118893071

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.

Maybe Gov's new science panel may negate some of the damage done by the legislature

Democratic Party Gubernatorial candidate Pete Gosar was bemused by Gov. Mead's announcement of the selection of a panel to improve science education at our only four-year public university. This from Gosar's Facebook post:

The current administration appoints a panel to upgrade science at the University of Wyoming, but just a few months ago censored science for Wyoming students in K-12. Let's hope this panel puts in a full complement of remedial science courses at UW to ensure that our students can learn after graduation what they were denied before graduation.

It's difficult to live down the embarrassment of the legislation from last legislative session that banned schools from adopting national science standards. Gov. Mead signed off on the legislation offered by Rep. Matt Teeters (R-Lingle) who, thankfully, lost his primary challenge and will no longer darken the halls of the legislature with his Dark Ages approach to book larnin'. 

How many science panels and commissions does it take to negate one piece of boneheaded legislation?

Difficult to know. Word travels fast in this cyber-age. I read the bios of those appointed to the panel and was impressed. They are supposed to make some recommendations to the Gov by Nov. 1, just four days before the election. One of those recommendations should be: "Repeal the legislature's anti-science footnote and keep Republican legislators as far away from education legislation as humanly possible."

Then maybe we can get back to the business of being a player in the 21st century instead of a bystander.

2014 Equality State Book Festival showcases the art of the book

The Equality State Book Festival marks its fifth anniversary Sept. 11-13 in Casper. It offers a great line-up of authors, as always. Nina McConigley of Casper (now Laramie) will deliver the keynote on Saturday. Nina's book of short stories, Cowboys and East Indians, is getting rave reviews and earned her the 2014 PEN Open Book Award. Other presenters: include best-selling author Joshilyn Jackson (gods in Alabama, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty), flash-fiction writer and social media guru Meg Pokrass, writer and founder/curator of the Handmade/Homemade book exhibit Deborah Poe, Jackson poet Matt Daly and many others. One of the themes of this year's bookfest is book arts. Poe's book arts exhibit will be on display at the Casper College Visual Arts Building and the University of Utah Book Arts group will be conducting a workshop on Saturday. Make your own book! You still have to write the innards, though. Can't get away from that.

This is the fifth statewide book festival (held during even years) and it gets better with age. I'm a bit biased as I serve on the planning committee, the only non-Casperite in the bunch. Kudos to the committee's co-directors: Laurie Lye and Joseph Campbell. Laurie came out of retirement to help out this year when former co-director Holly Wendt decamped to a new teaching job in her home state of Pennsylvania. Thanks to Laurie. Have you ever organized a three-day arts event? It takes time and effort and attention to a dazzling array of details. Think about all of the fairs and festivals held throughout Wyoming each year. Your friends and neighbors do that work, often for no pay but for the joy of putting on a show.

Get more info at http://www.equalitystatebookfest.com/