Wyoming mental health care hinges on travel to far-off places

Yesterday in Casper, I paid $1.18 per gallon of gas. That's with my King Soopers discount card. As the fuel flowed into Chris's Saturn, my bare hands absorbing the below-zero Wyoming cold like meat sponges, I marveled at the drop in gas prices since we'd been making the almost weekly trips to Casper in August. Now at $1.21 a gallon, what were they back in August? Two dollars. Maybe $2.50? CNN says that Cheyenne has the lowest gas prices in the nation but I can tell you that Casper's prices beat Cheyenne's. That's not the reason we make the 360-mile round trip each week. "Hey Chris, let's drive though this blizzard to get some cheaper gas in Casper."

We go to Casper to see our bipolar daughter who's in WBI, a residential treatment center. It's the closest place -- with the best treatment for adolescents -- in Wyoming. She's been there since August 4. Before that, she spent six months at Poudre Valley Mountain Crest in Fort Collins, just 45 miles south of Cheyenne. We could drive to Ft. Collins in 35-40 minutes, as it's downhill from Cheyenne. Casper takes from two-and-one-half to three hours, as it's uphill and down, and the headwind can sometimes be ferocious.

Our daughter needed a different type of treatment. That became clear to her psychiatrists and therapists and eventually to us. You may be surprised to learn that the switch had very little to do with insurance -- or lack thereof. My insurance with the state is adequate for most needs, although it falls way short when it comes to mental health treatment, including that for drug-and-alcohol dependency. Once our daughter entered treatment in January for suicide threats and some very real cutting, the clock was ticking. We figured the insurance would cover a couple months and we would tighten our belts for the co-payments. We had no idea what we would do after that.

Horror stories are rampant when it comes to teens' mental health. We know people who withdrew their mentally ill kids from facilities because the insurance ran out and they were as afraid of financial failure as they were of the fate of the kids. You can see the fear in their eyes. They desperately want help for their kids but don't want to lose their house in the process. They don't know where to turn for help. The mental health bureaucracy seems like a fortress when you look at it from the outside. You don't see an entrance anywhere and you wonder if you have the strength to climb the walls.

I found a way inside, I'm happy to say. The Wyoming Department of Health's Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Division sponsors the Medicaid Waiver Program for children and adolescents (collectively called "youth"). It makes up for insurance shortfalls in mental health care. It relieves at least one of the burdens of families whose kids are going off the deep end. Program administrators help you negotiate the bureaucracy and sign all of the paperwork. Be forewarned -- there are mounds of paperwork. But the results are worth it.

I had some advantages when our daughter's problems erupted. I've been a board member on a non-profit social services agency for a decade. I've served on the Governor's Mental Health Advisory Council. Our son had his own problems six years ago, so we had some experience in finding proper care. I work in the state government, the same one which houses the Mental Health Fortress.

All that said, I had no clue about the ins and outs of this Medicaid Waiver -- and how it could help our daughter. I didn't know that it could pay for care inside and outside the state -- and also provide support after our daughter's discharge.

We hope that comes soon. Nobody else can claim that they are Annie's parents who love her very much and are willing to travel to Casper each weekend to be with her. We talk to psychiatrists and therapists and nurses and state personnel. We have to somehow know what is right for our daughter and what feels strange. We get the phone calls that say Annie's taken a turn for the worse, that she's carved her arms or freaked out and had to be restrained. We also get calls that say she's making progress and could be home in early 2009.

On Sunday in Casper, I fueled the vehicle that brought back Annie from her weekend pass. We dropped her off, knowing she's getting better and that we will make the trip again this Wednesday for a four-day Christmas pass. It's sad to leave her behind -- again -- but we know there's an end to these long, cold but strangely fuel-efficient trips.

P.S.: More on this subject in future posts, including lists of resources.

Get your red-hot short stories now!

Ominous black-and-white cover photo with disembodied arm

Are you partial to open-ended short stories with depressing themes?

Do you like your dark humor served with a dollop of irony?

Neo-Nazis on the loose in Deseret! Bikers and bunny rabbits in Wyoming! Unrequited love in The Sunshine State!

If this appeals to your baser reading instincts, treat yourself to a copy of The Weight of a Body, my 2006 book of short stories, now available at $7.98 a copy at Ghost Road Press. Order two – one for yourself, one for a distant relative. I’ll sign your books, if you can track me down.

Go to www.ghostroadpress.com now. You may be glad you did.

Calling all students for Good Mule Project

Remember how "community organizers" were disparaged by certain Republican politicians during the recent election campaign?

But while Sarah Palin wasn't looking, community organizers went out and beat her and McCain's butt.

Over in Albany County, students at the University of Wyoming in Laramie registered voters in record numbers. Now UW is sponsoring The Good Mule Project, "a student-led initiative to increase awareness of social and environmental justice issues, to encourage civic mindedness, and to promote cross-cultural understanding."

It will be held in conjunction with all the Days of Dialogue activities surrounding Martin Luther King, Jr., Day at UW.

The Good Mule Project will be held on campus Jan. 24-25. The key word will be CHANGE (sound familiar?) and aims to "develop student leaders who are informed voices for positive social change" (there's that cool word yet again).

Workshops will be held on grassroots organizing, fund-raising, event planning, online organizing, working with the media, "UW Going Green," lobbying, and many others.

Download a copy of the application at http://www.uwyo.edu/cvssupport/The%20Good%20Mule%20Conference%20application.doc or pick one up at the UW Center for Volunteer Service. Applications must be e-mailed to the_good_mule@yahoo.com by Dec. 31.

Thanks to Nancy Sindelar's excellent e-mail newsletter for the tip.

Cheney returns to Wyoming to "have fun"

V.P. Dick Cheney will abandon his official residence in D.C. on Jan. 20, 2009, right on time but way over budget.

Jared Miller reports from the Casper Star-Tribune capital bureau that Mr. and Mrs. Cheney will arrive in their home town of Casper on Inauguration Day.

Vice President Dick Cheney will waste no time getting back to Wyoming after he and President George Bush officially leave office next month. Cheney and wife Lynne are slated to fly to Casper immediately after the Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony for a reception that night at the home of family friends Mick and Susie McMurry, said state Treasurer Joe Meyer, a longtime friend of the Cheneys.

The private reception will offer a chance for the vice president to begin to "decompress" after eight years in office, Meyer said.

Close friends, including some members of the Cheneys' 1959 Natrona County High School graduating class, are expected to attend. "It will be low key," Meyer said. "It's just a chance to get out of that [Washington, D.C.] environment, come home. There are so many friends here, and let's have fun."

Rumor has it that many fun parlor games are planned. They include "Pin the Blame on the Other Guy;" "Let's Waterboard a Democrat;" a new version of "Risk" in which chickenhawks get to make the moves and teen-aged G.I.s from Rawlins and Lovell get to die; and a Republican version of Monopoly, in which bankrupting the U.S. Treasury is the goal. A fun time will be had by one and all.

The next day, Jan. 21, Cheney will be in Cheyenne addressing the Wyoming State Legislature. Later, he will be feted by the Long's Peak Council of the Boy Scouts, where he will receive a "distinguished citizen" award. Wow, the Boy Scouts sure have gone downhill since I was in it, even since my son was in a Long's Peak Council troop in Cheyenne. I wonder if Cheney will have the gall to recite the Scout Oath:

On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

It's difficult to determine which words Cheney will choke on. "On my honor," is my guess, since he has none. "Duty" is another one, since he apparently did his "duty" by invading foreign lands, quashing constitutional freedoms, and enriching himself with war boodle. "Law" could be another stumbling block.

If you have the stomach for it, you can pay $175 to attend the Boy Scout event at Little America in Cheyenne. "Contributors" will have to fork over up to $15,000 to attend.

"If you want to meet and greet and rub elbows with the Cheneys, it's going to be $15,000," said Long's Peak Council's Sheryl McBride, who should know better.

Who wouldn't want to rub up against those elbows. Cheney has rubbed elbows with some of the best: George W. Bush, Saddam Hussein, Donald Rumsfeld, Wall Street rip-off artists. That's a lot of greasy elbows.

After this gala, what will Dick and Lynne Cheney do next? According to the CST report, they will keep their mountain fortress in Jackson, but also are building a house in Maryland. Wonder how many houses that is? As many as McCain?

Mountain West still a frontier for doctors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One thumb's up, one thumb's down for Sen. John Barrasso

Wyoming's Sen. John Barrasso had a very busy day today. On the plus side, he stood up for clean water. Here's a bit of the press release on his web site:

Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo) is demanding the Department of Defense own up to its role in contaminating Cheyenne’s water wells.

Barrasso fought for the results of the tests in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report. The report outlines the possible sources of trichloroethylene (TCE) found in Cheyenne’s water supply. A nearby nuclear missile site where TCE was once dumped is currently being cleaned up under the Superfund laws by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Barrasso called for the DoD to take direct responsibility for the contamination during a speech on the Senate floor. “The Army Corps over the last few years has looked to blame almost any other entity it can for the contamination in the city’s wells. Such claims have included that there might have been a train derailment carrying the contaminant in the area. They have also blamed a handful of nearby oil rigs, and a local shooting range. Anyone but themselves.”

Barrasso noted the clear connection between the nuclear missile site and the nearby Cheyenne water wells.

Applauding the city of Cheyenne and the state of Wyoming for their successful efforts to protect the folks of Cheyenne, Barrasso said, “Let me be clear, the city of Cheyenne’s water is safe.” Barrasso said that Wyoming taxpayers should not foot the bill. “Untold thousands of local taxpayer dollars have gone to keep TCE out of the water supply. The Army Corps and the U.S. Government has a responsibility to fund the clean up. They have a responsibility to fix the problem. It is time to do so.”

Ranking Member of the Superfund and Environmental Health Subcommittee, Barrasso pushed for testing between the one mile area of the nuclear missile site and the city of Cheyenne’s wells this year.

I live close to the nuke sites. But my neighborhood has been more worried about contamination from the adjacent Wyoming Air Guard Base. The feds have been drilling test wells in my neighborhood to measure TCE contamination. One was right at the edge of my lot. No contamination found, which is relief to us parents and gardeners. It is good to know that your U.S. Senator cares about your drinking water.

On the other hand, Barrasso voted against the so-called bailout of the U.S. auto industry. Unlike some of his hypocritical Republican colleagues, he didn't blame the auto workers for the sad shape of the industry. He issued this terse statement:

Taxpayer money alone cannot solve the problems that the auto industry created for itself.

I will not ask Wyoming taxpayers to subsidize failure.

The time has come for these companies to undergo substantial restructuring on every level without putting taxpayer dollars at risk.

Republicans have a lot of gall to denigrate working stiffs when the auto company CEOs and shareholders and investors were busy raking in the dough. They've been subsiding failure for eight years under Bush. Failure of the investment banks. Failure of mortgage lenders. Failure of two wars. One failure after another.

Is this the course they'll follow for the years under the Obama administration? They'll be outnumbered in the both the House and Senate. It won't be a veto-proof majority in the senate, but the Democrats can make very miserable for them -- and I hope they do.

Football aside, which university is the best?

A non-sports argument erupted yesterday on "Mike & Mike in the Morning" on ESPN2.

Mike Greenberg, a graduate of the Northwestern University Journalism School, saw the match-up between Northwestern and Missouri Dec. 29 in the Alamo Bowl and dubbed it the Journalism Bowl, a battle between schools with the best two J-Schools in the U.S.

He received all sorts of e-mails in response. One really cracked him up -- me too. It came from a guy who worked at NBC 17. It read: "With all do (sic) respect... you forgot the Gators and its great Journalism School." That last part is not verbatim, but the first line is. Here's a guy arguing for the superiority of his university training and he doesn't check his spelling. It's possible he made a mistake. More likely he didn't know the correct word.

Can we forgive him because he's a TV guy?

Mike didn't. He and Mike Golic banned the perpetrator from the show for life but later changed their minds, banning him though the Gators-Sooners national championship match-up. Along the way, Greenberg wondered about the national rankings for Journalism Schools, saying he'd look it up later.

I looked it up and and found that most people in the know consider Northwestern, Missouri and Columbia the three top J-Schools in the country. After that, it depends on who you talk to. University of Florida is on some lists (with all do respect). Syracuse, USC, Texas, Arizona State, Ohio State, and UC-Berkeley all appear regularly. Columbia will not be in a BCS game anytime soon. So Greenberg may be right about the Alamo Bowl. Oklahoma-Florida may be the BCS championship game, but it will not decide the fate of journalism in the 21st century.

I bring this up because I was an English major at UF and came within a couple credits of minoring in journalism. During my final two semesters (1976), I worked as a reporter for the Independent Florida Alligator, which is one of the best college newspapers in the U.S. (you can look it up). I also worked for UF Information Services, writing press releases and taking photos of jocks for game-day football programs.

I wonder how the UF English Dept. stacks up against Oklahoma's? How do you compare the two? Number of graduates? Graduates who went on to be famous? How many of them know the proper spelling of "due" as in "with all due respect?" What about college creative writing programs, especially the graduate M.F.A. programs? Iowa gets the nod there. The Hawkeyes play South Carolina in the Outback Bowl On New Year's Day. Wonder how many poets play linebacker for Iowa? Wonder how those corn-fed Iowa novelists would match up against the Gamecocks' brooding Southern memoirists?

Other M.F.A. writing programs of note are Stanford, which breeds some pretty good football players; Syracuse (ditto); Brown, where lacrosse is preferred over football; Arizona and Arizona State, both having off-years on the gridiron; Texas (got screwed by the BCS computer); Columbia, which hasn't fielded a real football team since Kerouac's era; and Florida State, which boasts scores of great creative writing faculty but still can't find a way to beat the Gators on the football field. FSU plays Wisconsin in the Champs Sports Bowl on Dec. 27. Pound for pound, I think the gritty short-story writers from FSU can lick the post-modernist weenies from Madison. Wanna bet?

Still regrooving blog following election rush

It's been tough deciding where to go next as a blogger. I've enjoyed the past three years blogging about politics, particularly the Wyoming variety. It gave my "hummingbird mind" a clear focus. I had some big fat targets on the national scene. Dick Cheney was a rich one (ain't that the truth) and it was an added bonus that he comes from Wyoming. Bush was always on-message, or maybe off-message -- I could never really tell. The Invasion and war in Iraq really pushed my buttons, and led me to my involvement with county and state politics and, eventually, the national scene.

Many bloggers have commented on the ennui that followed Nov. 4. But some bloggers are, at heart, political junkies. NPR's Political Junkie, to name just one. Arianna Huffington and her crew at Huff Post and the many Kossacks at Daily Kos. On the Rocky Mountain side, you have the energetic Montanans at 4&20blackbirds and Left in the West. Square State in Colorado and Red State Rebels in Idaho. The Celtic Diva in Alaska has gone to the Soapblox format and now has the assistance of some dedicated bloggers who followed the dirt on Sarah Palin, no matter where it led. There are more blogs of note, so many more.

I'm not giving up the blog, just shifting focus to issues that are my passion. That's the advice imparted by Ariana H. last week on The Daily Show. "Write your passion." All writers have heard this before. Many ignore it at their peril. Some ignore it and get rich (I'm not one of them, drat the luck).

My passion is not really politics. It was a rush being part of the gallant effort that led to the Obama victory and majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. I certainly will dabble in politics when I feel the urge, but will spend most of my blogging time on books and fiction writing, the arts, mental health issues and, yes, Wyoming and its quirkier aspects. On occasion, I will blend books, fiction, the arts, mental health (or lack thereof) and Wyoming. This could be a dangerous mix, but I'm up to the challenge.

I'm almost finished with my post-election regrooving and soon will return.

Help your Republican friends celebrate the Winter Solstice Holidays

Here's a Christmas and/or holiday gift that will bedevil your Republicans friends and family members. Especially those in the former Confederate state of Georgia, who think that the re-election of Saxby Chambliss is some sign from The Almighty that the Repub resurgence (or possibly The Rapture) is upon us.

Four years of Barack Obama and the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate and House! That amount to 48 months, 208 weeks and 1,460 days. Help them mark each one in excruciating detail with this calendar. You do have to contribute $35 to the Obama campaign, but how can you put a price upon the joy of holiday giving?

"Secretary of Arts" idea a good one, but now's the time to boost NEA funding

I heard that musician/composer Quincy Jones is pushing President-elect Obama to appoint a "secretary of arts." I Googled "Quincy Jones" and came up with this info from his web site:

Quincy’s call for a U.S. secretary of the arts has inspired an online petition. It was during his recent interview with John Schaefer on WNYC’s Soundcheck that Quincy let the words fly. "The next conversation I have with President [-elect Barack] Obama is to beg for a secretary of the arts," he said....

One listener who heard Q’s call is Jaime Austria, who plays bass in for the New York City Opera and the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra. "As soon as I heard Quincy use the words that he would beg Obama for secretary of arts, I rushed to my computer and typed out a petition." Word is spreading. As of this writing, the online petition has more than 1,000 signatures.

If you'd like to sign, go to http://www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html

Adding an arts secretary to the president's cabinet may be a great idea. It would elevate the arts into the prominent position it deserves. But what's the process to add another cabinet position? It sounds like a battle that Obama doesn't need to fight during the next couple months. There's the tanking economy, lack of universal health care, multiple wars to stop, etc.

Besides, we already have the National Endowment for the Arts and it's been underfunded since the Newt Gingrich budget assault following the 1994 Congressional elections. The NEA's current budget is around $144 million, or about 50 cents for each American. Obama wants to boost that budget, and those of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Obama is a strong supporter of arts education. It's in his platform and he spoke of it often during the campaign. If the NEA budget were doubled, half of all the additional funding over $175 million will go directly to arts education. Obama also aims to beef up arts education in the Dept. of Education.

The great news is that he has lots of allies in the House and Senate to accomplish these goals. Some are Democratic newbies, some are moderate Republicans, such as Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi. He has sided with his party on many issues, but he's an arts supporter and a member of the senate Arts Caucus. There is that pesky U.S. budget deficit to deal with, but Obama has pledged to "spend, baby, spend" to rev up the economy. The arts and economic development go hand-in-hand. The arts brings more money into cities than does professional sports. Denver's a great example. You can look it up.

Quincy "Q" Jones is a fine musician and supports the work of the NEA. But his time with the president-elect will be better spent if he advocates for more money for the NEA. Later, Q might be a fine choice for Secretary of Arts. He could inject some music into those drab cabinet meetings.

11/08: One for the history books

November 2008 goes down in history at midnight tonight. And what a month it was. Last-minute surge to elect Barack Obama as president. Lots of Dems elected to U.S. House and a few newbies to the U.S. Senate. It took awhile for Alaska to count its votes, as they were transported to the capital by Todd Palin's sled dogs. Georgia has a run-off on Tuesday, with Democrat and Vietnam veteran Jim Martin and Republican chickenhawk Saxby Chambliss duking it out for the U.S. Senate. I've lost track of proceedings in Minnesota. Is Al Franken our first comedian/script-writer/author/radio host to be elected to the U.S. Senate? We've had actors, of course, and jocks, but never someone who wrote for Saturday Night Live. Guess I'll have to go check out the Minnesotans on leftyblogs.

The month wrapped up with the horrible attacks on Mumbai. Terrorism is still with us, an ongoing problem that will be Obama's to handle. He will announce his National Security team tomorrow (Dec. 1) and let's hope they work fast to undo torture policies, close Gitmo and get us out of Iraq. Meanwhile, they can focus on the real terrorist threats in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Here in Wyoming, Republicans still rule the roost, although we get two more years of Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal (Gov Dave) before the 2010 gubernatorial elections. No names are surfacing on the Dem side (thus far) but it's inevitabvle that there will be a slew of Repubs interested in the job. Wonder if some of the WyoGoppers returning from D.C. will be interested in running for office. This is always the hidden danger of a Dem in the White House.

The state legislature comes to town in January and there is talk about the budget surplus being less surplustic due to a drop in oil and gas prices as well as a downturn in tourism which leads to a drop in taxes. Press reports during the past week say that the economic downturn has yet to hit Cheyenne and the rest of Wyoming. How long will that last?

Energy in a new century

Walking the dog across the Casper College campus on Thanksgiving morning. Came across Robert Russin's 1973 sculpture Man and Energy in front of the Gertrude Krampert Theatre and snapped the photo with my cellphone. Wonder what Man and Energy 2008 would look like? If only Mr. Russin were around to compose the artwork. He passed away last year. The task of composing "Human and Energy" now will be up to living artists.

Russin's bronze sculpture features a man wrapping "energy" in arms that become a solid surface that looks like coal or possibly the earth itself. A metallic fire burns within, a fire that could be fueled by oil or gas or coal or nuclear energy powered by Wyoming yellow cake. At the heart of the fire is an empty circle. This implies heartlessness. But "energy" comes from inanimate objects that are turned into powerful forces by humans. Energy can't be heartless. But man can. An important distinction as we try to come to grips with our energy future.

Big Al sees Barack Obama as "a healer"

C.J. Baker of the Powell Tribune conducted a fine interview with Wyoming's former U.S. Senator Al "Big Al" Simpson. As always, Simpson was outspoken. He campaigned by the McCain-Palin ticket, which won by a handy margin in the state. Still, the lifelong Wyoming Republican is ready to give President-elect Obama a chance:

Some Republicans have heralded the election of Barack Obama as a surefire disaster, but Simpson isn't scared -- even if he would rather have seen McCain and Palin elected.

"Somebody will say, 'I heard Simpson isn't afraid of Obama. He must be an old fart sitting there who doesn't even know what he's doing anymore.' But I'll tell you, I still do," he said. "And what I see is this: I think (Obama's) a healer. And I think he's going to do what he said he's going to do, which is help heal the nation, and get rid of this stench of partisanship, which is unworkable."

Read the entire article on the Casper Star-Tribune web site.

"Buy Nothing Day" is Nov. 28

Nov. 22: Ask what you can do for your country

On this 45th anniversary of Pres. John F. Kennedy's assassination, I keep hearing this amazing sentence from his inauguration speech:

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

I thought of these words during the past week when the Detroit auto execs were up on Capitol Hill seeking bailout money. I've been thinking of JFK's words a lot during the past year, as many of "my fellow Americans" worked hard to reclaim our democracy. Ask what you can do for your country! During the past eight years, all we got was Bush's version of this line: "...ask what you can do to your country." Yes, and the Bushies did plenty to us. But we also deserve a share of the blame and the burden. Now it's time to clean up the mess. Persevere, and ask what you can do for your country beside vote and write a few pro-Dem blog posts.

Kennedy's words will be in the air when Barack Obama is inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009.

Laramie Co Democrats meet Nov. 25

The Laramie County Democrats will meet on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 7 p.m., at the Historic Plains Hotel in downtown Cheyenne.

While we have plenty to celebrate with the presidential race results, we do have to examine how Dems got so clobbered in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House races.

So come to the Plains Tuesday night for some celebrating and brainstorming.

It's free and open to the public. New members welcomed.

WMCs not all in GOP camp

During the past several decades, it has seemed that U.S. Christian evangelicals have been on a Rapture-like ascendancy. Not only were mainstream churches losing members, but mega-churches blossomed from coast to coast. Mega-churches raised cash and raised hell for The Lord (their close personal friend), damning to hell all unbelievers, secularists, Democrats and artists. They bought up bushels of Republican politicians and, sometimes, entire communities. Colorado Springs, for instance, and the neighboring Air Force Academy. "Attention Zoomies! You're all Christians now! Or else!"

Look how the mighty have fallen. All it took was eight years of Bush and Cheney and John Ashcroft ("cover that nekkid statue!"). War and torture and economic collapse, all done with the support of your local mega-Christians. In fact, it was Married White Christians (WMC) who voted overwhelming for Bush twice and even voted for that non-churchgoing divorcee John McCain. Meanwhile, the rest of us voted for the guy with the brains and the plan, not to mention a loving marriage with an accomplished wife and two fine children. He goes to church, too.

Not all WMCs are GOPers, even in Wyoming. Chris and I have been married more than 26 years, with nary a divorce between us. We're Christians, too, in thought and deed, although we sometimes fall prey to cursing Bush on TV. We're white, too, northern European and Irish Celts, skin white where the sun don't shine but speckled with freckles where it does. We're White Married Christians in one of the most Republican of states. Yet we're Liberals, and damn proud of it.

Many of our Repub neighbors, though, bet on the wrong horse. They're WMCs and, according to columnist Kathleen Parker, they're a vanishing breed and that spells doom for the GOP. Parker used to be reliably pro-Republican, and maybe she still is, but once she wrote that scathing column about GOP Veep candidate Sarah Palin, the hate-filled screeds from conservative Christians started filling up her e-mail in-box.

Didn't seem to faze her, though. Today's column in the local paper spelled out the obvious:

The evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.

...three long-term trends identified by Emory University's Alan Abramowitz have been devastating to the Republican Party: increasing racial diversity; declining marriage rates; and changes in religious belief.

In Wyoming, marriage rates have remained fairly consistent. As of 2006, 53 percent of households are headed by married couples. Wyoming ranks third in the nation in that category. In 2005, Wyoming ranked 7th in the nation with 9.4 marriages per 1,000 people. But if having half of its households headed by married couples makes Wyoming third in the nation, what are the stats in the rest of the country? In this state, 5.8 percent of households are headed by a single female with children under 18 (2006 figures). That makes Wyoming 49th in the U.S. So most states have more -- some many more -- households with single moms. And Wyoming's single-mom stats have risen 13 percent since 2005 -- a pretty dramatic increase.

Wyoming's not a particularly religious state. It's nothing like the Deep South or neighboring Utah or the Okie Bible Belt. One map I saw shows Wyoming as a state with less than 50 percent of the population declaring any religious affiliation. The state's residents tend to be independent that way, although they still mindlessly vote Republican.

It must be the white person factor. Wyoming's 2006 stats showed us with 88 percent white persons (not Hispanic). So, Wyoming has quite a few married people and a good number of self-declared Christians and a whole bunch of white people. That's how you get 66 percent of the population to vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Still, 33 percent of the populace voted for Barack Obama. Chris and I weren't the only ones voting for hope.

Abandoned children a mental health issue

We’ve been hearing a lot about Nebraska’s safe haven law. Thirty-four children -- mostly teens -- have been abandoned in the state since mid-September, shortly after the new law went into effect.

Today, I read another piece about the situation in Karen Ball’s sobering Time Magazine story, "The Abandoned Children of Nebraska." There are some parts of the story worth repeating.

....dealing with the underlying causes of abandonment is much harder, child welfare experts say. "These parents had to be totally overwhelmed to do something like this," says Rev. Steven Boes, president of Boys Town — the original safe haven of Father Flanagan fame, which happens to be headquartered in Omaha. Once upon a time, Depression-battered parents would buy bus fare for their children and hand them a sign, "Take Me to Boys Town." Their counterparts today "are parents who have tried to navigate the system for years and this is their last resort; these are parents who ran out of patience too darn fast and gave up too early, and everything in between," says Father Boes.

Boes says one root of the abandonment problem is that there is simply not enough help for parents in crisis. In Nebraska, for instance, there are only six child psychiatrists in the entire state, he says. "It's a national problem... insurance often won't pay after six visits — so if the kid's not fixed, you're out of luck. States have a jumble of services. It's a puzzle with missing pieces."

Only six child psychiatrists in Nebraska? In a state with 445,000 residents under 18 (2006 census), that’s one child psychiatrist per 74,000 kids. That’s a lot of 50-minute appointments.

Wyoming, Nebraska’s squarish neighbor to the West, doesn’t fare much better. At last count, Wyoming had two child psychiatrists. That’s one psychiatrist per 60,770 kids. How many of these youngsters will need mental health care in the course of a year?

The National Alliance on Mental Illness web site cites that fewer than one-third of adults and one-half of children with diagnosable mental disorders get treatment in any given year (stats from HHS Mental Health: Report from the Surgeon General). Suicide is the third leading cause of death of those 10-24 years old (suicide ranks number one among that age group in Wyoming). 90 percent of those who commit suicide have a diagnosable mental disorder. More than 50 percent of kids with a mental disorder at 14 and older drop out of school.
Both of my kids have a diagnosable mental disorder. They used to see a child psychiatrist in Cheyenne, back when we had one. My son moved to Arizona. Not because AZ has more shrinks, but because he went off to college. My daughter has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and relies for assistance on our family physician and a psychiatrist who specializes in adult mental health and a great therapist.

Resources are available, but you have to seek them out. I'll address those in future posts. Meanwhile, those of us in the 177,000 square miles that comprise Wyo-Neb will have to resort to the Depression-era strategy quoted above. Take your child to the airport (very few buses anymore). Pin a sign to the tyke’s shirt that reads: "Take me to a child psychiatrist in Colorado or Kansas – anywhere but here!" Or, you can follow the example of some frantic parents, and abandon your troubled child at any Nebraska hospital.

Poll: Wyomingites want renewable energy

A UW Survey and Analysis Center poll shows that Wyoming residents favor a variety of solutions to meet U.S. energy needs, with near-unanimous support for renewable energy.

Wind power had the support of 97 percent of respondents and solar power, 96 percent. Almost 87 percent favored pumping more oil from existing wells, drilling more offshore wells (74 percent) and opening the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge for oil production (56 percent).

Nuclear energy? 60 percent in favor.

Respondents were split on whether the U.S. should release oil from its strategic oil reserve, with 49 percent in favor and 44 percent in opposition.

And 83 percent of respondents believed that Teapot Dome is Dick Cheney's White House nickname. Just joshing. That wasn't really part of the survey -- but it could have been.

Here's a quote from a UW press release:

"Senators (Mike) Enzi (R-Gillette) and (John) Barrasso (R-Casper) and Rep.-elect (Cynthia) Lummis (R-Cheyenne) have stated that addressing the nation's energy needs will be among their priorities when Congress convenes in January," says Jim King, a professor of political science at UW and the poll's director. "Our survey results indicate that Wyoming residents are open to many solutions to the current energy situation."

Yes, and Wyoming residents voted for John McCain by a margin of 2-1. Shows how much they know. And the Enzi-Barrasso-Lummis triumvirate will have very little sway over what happens in Congress during the next two years.

But it is gratifying to see that those polled were overwhelmingly in favor of renewable energy sources. Wind power, especially, is catching on big in Wyoming, with wind farms sprouting faster than poppies in Afghanistan. What's being fought over are the venues by which that power will reach the citizenry. Transmission lines, anyone? We'll need entire forests of those.

Notice anything missing from the poll?

C-O-A-L. Especially the "clean" variety.

University of Wyoming should build Cheney Bunker on campus

A brouhaha has arisen on the University of Wyoming campus about the name of the new Cheney International Center. That’s "Cheney" as in "Dick," the UW grad and outgoing V.P. Two students, Fred Vanden Heede and Suzy Pelican, have stoked opposition to the center’s name with letters in UW’s Branding Iron and newspapers across the state. Here’s an excerpt:

"For a long time to come, many Wyoming residents and millions more people across the U.S. and beyond will seriously doubt the legitimacy of an international center named after Dick Cheney."

They’re being a bit hard on the Veep. He’s traveled widely during his time in politics, meeting world leaders such as Saddam Hussein (remember him?) and other assorted dictators who used to be our friends. He’s also been the impetus behind our country’s many international peace-keeping efforts, such as bombing Iraq back to the Stone Age. This guy knows his international. It’s odd, though, because during his student years of many draft deferments he said he "had better things to do" than visit Vietnam. He missed out on a grand adventure!

But I think UW is missing the boat on the Cheney naming rights thing. I think the U should construct an entire mini-campus dedicated to Cheney. His many international accomplishments could be represented in a grand assemblage of buildings. Here are a few suggestions for the Cheney International Center:

We gotta have art. The center's centerpiece should be a gigantic statue of Dick Cheney, something like that big likeness of Saddam Hussein that was pulled down when U.S. troops got to Baghdad in 2003. Big Soviet-style statues would suit Cheney's Soviet-style tactics in his role as the All-Powerful Oz of Veeps. It might be fun to designate a "Topple Dick Cheney Day" each year on campus, when the students can haul down the statue in celebration of democracy's return on Jan. 20, 2009. I suggest the statue be fitted with a spring-loaded pedestal so it can snap back into place once the celebration is over. This is so we don't have to keep building more statues. Whadda ya think, Dick's made of money? By the way, no government funds should go to the monument, as Lynne Cheney spent most of her professional career lobbying against gubment funding for statues.

What of the buildings? A big fort modeled after the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad would be nice. But it has to have a moat. And a big huge concrete blast barrier around it, which would make the structure a fort within a fort. Maybe two big concrete walls, with would make it a fort within a fort within a fort. And a drawbridge, too. And...

Now I'm sounding like Cheney. A few deep breaths. I'm not Dick Cheney! I'm not Dick Cheney! I'm not Dick Cheney! That's better.

The building should be modeled after other buildings on the UW campus. Nothing grandiose. Nothing fat-headed. It should match the sandstone facades of the other structures, such as the student center and the English Department HQ. I'm not sure there's any room for a new structure like this.

But I have a great idea. Since the Veep has spent most of the past eight years in an underground bunker, why not build the center underground? Below Prexy's Pasture? Halliburton crews could dig out a huge cavern and there's no limit to what you could do with it. So much space. You could even put the Dick Cheney Vice Presidential Library inside. You could nuke-proof it, and Dick might even want to include a living space for his visits to campus. The Veep Lair. "To the batmobile, Lynne. All of us at the Dick Cheney International Center have countries to ruin!"