Reviving Victory Gardens by growing veggies and art

This is a 1940s-style poster for the Peterson Garden Project, which encompasses "vegetable gardening, history, seed diversity and community... all in a day's work as we revive a World War II Victory Garden in Chicago's 40th Ward." This 2010 growing season poster was designed by E. Karl Fresa Fine Art. Signed limited edition prints were sold at an Aug. 5 fund-raiser geared to collect money for a documentary film on the project. Cool idea. Where were the WWII Victory Gardens located in Cheyenne? Time for some research... Thanks to Red, White and Grew's Facebook page for the tip-off about this effort. Read the latest posts on Red, White and Grew making a case for Victory Gardens as folk art.

"Four Walls" by Iain McGilchrist in Poetry Magazine

A psychiatrist's view of poetry and mental illness: Four Walls by Iain McGilchrist : Poetry Magazine [article/magazine]

At the polls, Democrats are switching over in large numbers

I worked as an election judge today at my polling station in Cheyenne. A half day, thanks to legislation sponsored in the Wyoming House by my District 8 Rep Lori Millin. Still, I was one of the few judges taking a short shift.  I like working the polls. Public service, and all that. Congenial company. Community. We have five precincts in one spot. A good thing that it's a very large spot -- the Kiwanis Community House in Lions Park.

Polling was light today, at least while I was there. Only a third of the eligible voters had shown up, with six hours to go. Primaries play second fiddle to the general election. This seems a bit backward, as it's the primaries wherein you get to make big and interesting decisions.

Democrats were switching party affiliation in large numbers. How large I'm not sure, but I saw a lot of it. This allowed Dems to vote against right-wing gubment-hater Ron Micheli and for a more moderate candidate. In my book, here's the order of moderation: Matt Mead, Colin Simpson and Rita Meyer.

Can't wait to hang out with the LarCoDems tonight to see the results.

I voted the Dem ballot. I wavered several times, thinking I might change affiliation. But in the end I stayed with my party. I understand the motives of the switchers, having watched Micheli in action the past three months or so.

The problem is, I wanted to vote for in the Dem District 8 race. That pits Ken McCauley against Bernie Phelan. Both worthy candidates, but Ken wants it more and I like his dedication. I also wanted to vote in the Dem Gov's race. I did.

Now I have the rest of the day off, thanks to my vacation leave as a state employee. I enjoy my government job. Work hard, too. Several reasons why I have no use for the gubment-haters such as Micheli, who used to work for the gubment.

See you at the polls on Tuesday

A reminder from Bryon Lee at Organizing for America/Wyoming:

Polls are open on Tuesday, August 17th, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. If you are not yet registered to vote, you can register at the polls on Election Day with a photo ID.

Wyoming voters will cast their ballots for the candidates who will represent them in the halls of Congress -- so it's crucial that as many voters as possible make their voices heard.

You can visit the website below for more information about voting:

http://wy.barackobama.com/WYVotes

Petersen on the Dem side, ABM (anybody but Micheli) on the Repub side

The Wyoming primaries are tomorrow.

I glanced at the sample ballots on the Laramie County Clerk's web site. I'm in precinct 2-7 and a Democrat so, naturally, my ballot is less crowded than the one to be used by my Republican brethren and sistren. There are many names on the Dem gubernatorial slate. Only two serious candidates -- Leslie Petersen and Pete Gosar. When I say serious I mean that they have a serious chance of winning. The others, they are seriously running for governor but don't have a snowball's chance. I like Pete Gosar -- he's thoughtful and has said some interesting things on the campaign trail. But I'm voting for Petersen. She has the best chance in this tough year for Democrats.

My House district (8) has a race between Ken McCauley and Bernie Phelan. Bernie Phelan has the name recognition but has done very little campaigning. Ken's been all over his district several times and on Saturday, assembled a motley crew of local Dems and other ne'er-do-wells for a lit drop. I covered my neighborhood in record time with no rabid dogs or rampaging Tea Party types hot on my tail. Returned to HQ just in time to have brunch, which is the way it should be.  I call this one for McCauley.

I'm voting for Mike Massie for superintendent of public instruction. He's the only one on the Dem slate and he'd be great at it. I don't see much of a choice on the Repub side. McBride is the incumbent but he doesn't seem to have much vision for the state. Cindy Hill shows promise, but Trent Blankenship? He's already had the job and failed so miserably that we sent him packing to Palin Land. Massie is the man for this job.

On NPR this afternoon, Laramie County Clerk Debbye Lathrop said that some 2,500 people had voted absentee at the City and County Building, with another 700-some coming in via the mail. The Secretary of State's office opined that we could see a record turnout for a primary election.

Some of that is no doubt due to the full slate of good governor candidates on the Republican side. I would vote for Matt Mead. I heard him on the radio today saying that Wyoming needs to do a better job with technology, both creating jobs and upgrading our infrastructure. Rita Meyer, who spends most of her TV time boasting of her military credentials, said that Wyoming needs to focus on what it does now but do it better -- the extractive industries. I'm not sure if I got this quote right, but she said something like "trona is glass, oil is gas." So she wants more drilling and digging and to hell with alternative fuels and the future. This scares me.

One of the other Repubs, Colin Simpson, touts those old Wyoming values, which also means more of the same. He comes from a moderate family -- The Simpsons! -- and has a record of supporting the arts. According to our local paper, Simpson has run a lackluster campaign and just doesn't seem to want the job very much. But that name recognition could prove to be very important.

Last and certainly least we have Ron Micheli, the right-winger (and Tea Party fave) from Uinta County. Yes, he's a Mormon and comes from Mormon Country. He will get the Mormon vote, the Tea Party vote, maybe even the Evangelical Christian vote. Although, as you probably remember from Mitt Romney's unsuccessful prez bid in 2008, Mormons and Christian Evangelicals aren't always on the same side. Republicans all, but ask some born agains and they will tell you that Mormons are cultists and not real Christians. Not my view, but I'm a liberal pinko Cafeteria Catholic. I have no soul.

I hope the Repubs slug it out tomorrow. Micheli would be terrible for the state. He wants to cut state government by 30-40 percent and put true believers at the head of state agencies. You can just imagine what he means by true believers. He actually didn't say "true believers," but just people who thinks about things the way he does. Gubment-haters. Obama haters. Let's have an immigration law just like Arizona's. His people are "Let's take Wyoming back to the Stone Age" types. "Wyoming is what America was." A bumper sticker mentality.

Repubs never take my advice. If I was giving it (especially if they were state workers) I'd say ABM -- Anybody but Micheli.

It was a Cold War -- but the art was hot!

A nuke explodes in April 1953 at the Nevada Test Site. Looks like a painting, doesn't it?

As the Cold War recedes into the past, it's tempting to be nostalgic. Gee, the planet didn't go up is smoke, as it did with the Doomsday Device in "Dr. Strangelove" or in dozens of sci-fi books. The Russkis are sort of our friends now, fellow travelers in the world of unbridled capitalism and swarthy mob bosses. Those of us on the far side of the Iron Curtain did have some good times, though. We had hula-hoops and rock'n'roll and PCs and moon walks (the real kind) all happening during those halcyon years. Art, too. Lots and lots of art.

The University of Wyoming Art Museum launches an exhibit of Cold War art on Aug. 21:

"Cold War in America: Works from the 1950s - 1970s, Selections from the Art Museum Collection" opens to the public Saturday, Aug. 21, at the University of Wyoming Art Museum. A free public reception for all the fall exhibitions is scheduled at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17.

The end of World War II in 1945 marked the beginning of a new conflict, the Cold War. This ongoing state of political conflict, military tension and economic competition continued primarily between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Abstract expressionism, color field painting, pop art and minimalism all came of age during the Cold War period, representing a radically new engagement with materials and space, and redefining the role and purpose of art.

Abstract expressionist artists, such as Willem de Kooning and James Brooks, who based their works on the pure expression of ideas relating to the spiritual, the unconscious and the mind, will be included.

Color field painting is characterized by large fields of flat, solid color creating areas of unbroken surface and a flat picture plane. It will be represented by the work of artists such as Robert Motherwell and Adolph Gottlieb.

Pop art in the United States, considered a reaction to abstract expressionism, will be represented by artists Alice Neel, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Lee Krasner and Larry Rivers.

For more information on exhibitions and programs, call the UW Art Museum at (307) 766-6622 or visit the museum's Web page at www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum or blog at http://www.uwartmuseum.blogspot.com/.

The museum has a great blog that's updated regularly. Great visuals, too, as you'd expect.

Wikipedia lists the era of the Cold War as 1947-1991. The U.S. military recognizes Cold War veterans as those serving between September 1945 and December 1991. Other sources say it began in 1948, with the Berlin Airlift.

No matter when it started, the end came with the dissolution of the Soviet empire. I wasn't born until 1950, but by then the struggle was going full force. The Korean War had started earlier in the year, pitting the North Korean and Chinese Communists on one side and South Korea, the U.S. and various allies on the other. North Koreans live in the Stone Age while South Koreans drive KIAs and eat sushi. The ChiComs are all capitalists now.

BTW, North and South Korea are still fighting.

The Cold War is becoming an easy way to mark an era. Historians seem to like dealing with handy chunks of time, such as World War II or the sixties. But a span of 44 (or 46) years seems unwieldy, as if you were talking about the the Ice Age or the Jurassic Era. For now, historians like their Cold War subjects in smaller bites. But one day, it will seem as remote as The Day the Dinosaurs got Clobbered by the Comet.

Planet JH asks potential Govs what they think of the future of the arts in Wyoming

Planet JH Weekly staff conducted interviews with all the gubernatorial candidates. Subject: the state of the arts (and arts funding) in Wyoming.

Excerpts from some of the best responses for those of us who want to see the arts thrive in our state:

Matt Mead (R) said that artists' works attract cultural tourists. He sees Wyoming arts as being more closely tied with statewide tourism efforts, but though he confesses “a great passion for playing guitar that is inverse proportion to his talent,” he believes that art adds to individual quality of life. Mead pledges to follow Freudenthal's lead by continuing to make sure the arts remain relevant in Wyoming.

Rita Meyer (R): This is a 'quality of life' issue.” The governor, she said, is responsible for promoting the arts as much as economic development, natural resources and education. She would advocate for “incremental funding increases to the Cultural Trust Fund,” she said, and include the arts in Wyoming's infrastructure.

Leslie Petersen (D) said that she wishes the arts had been included in the Hathaway Scholarship curriculum, which provides incentives for students to pursue post-secondary education. Born in Dubois, Petersen credits her mother, a painter, with instilling her with a strong sense of the arts despite so much as a local movie theater. She would like to see the arts added to the list of accolades for Wyoming life, along with low crime, high education standards and the outdoor lifestyle. Petersen also said that she would use her many years of experience fundraising for various political campaigns and community efforts to increase private funding for individual artists. “I know how to raise money,” she said, “and I think it's very appropriate for the governor to do so.”

Pete Gosar (D) said that his experience as a teacher has given him first-hand knowledge of the value of arts in education. Once a student of the piano – who professes no ability – Gosar said that the arts are a different part of the learning process that add value to education. “It's a different way to put context to culture,” he said.
Read the entire article at http://www.planetjh.com/

Rawlins man publishes a Wyoming mental illness memoir

An amazing story at this Casper Star-Trib link: http://trib.com/article_6d01c998-a490-11df-84c7-001cc4c03286.html

Daniel Meyers, 56, finished his autobiography, "The Spirit of the Lion," after 21 years of work. An earlier version was lost, so he had to begin again. Not many of us writers have such dedication and stamina.

Daniel has schizoaffective disorder. He lived a wayward childhood and was once in an orphanage. He's been in and out of mental health centers and has taken a variety of medications for his disorder.

He started the writing his book around 1989 as part of a non-fiction writing class taught by Helon Raines at University of Wyoming/Casper College.

Rodger McDaniel, head of the Wyoming Mental Health Division, liked the book so much that he bought one for every state legislator. And the Carbon County Library in Rawlins includes it in one of its book discussion groups.

Read the entire CST story. It's inspirational.  And then go buy the book at http://www.authorhouse.com/

Foodies swamp farmers' market, swoon over peaches and squash and roasted peppers and all the rest

I love our farmers' market.

Smells like roasted peppers, for one thing, which excites my senses. I want to buy bags of peppers and shove them up my nose. No good can come from that.

But smelling the pablanos and jalepenos gets me in the mood for buying other foodstuffs.

First up -- peaches. I know that it's slightly early for Colorado peaches but I bought a few from Palisade and some apricots. Nothing quite as sensual as the smell of peaches. I love the juices running down my chin and onto my clothes. Sweet and sticky. Better yet -- slice peaches onto vanilla ice cream.

I also bought some Palisade-grown apricots. Very good. Not sure about apricots and ice cream but I'm willing to give it a try. BTW, Palisade is 12 miles east of Grand Junction, Colo., along the Colorado River Valley. The Palisade Peach Festival is Aug. 19-22.

Vanilla ice cream is the starter for so many fruits. Strawberries, peaches, cantaloupe, blueberries, raspberries, etc.

I bought some pattypan squash from a farm located between Kersey and Greeley, Colo. Before I left for the market, my wife asked me to buy some of those squashes that looks like blossoms and have ridges around the edge. The seller told me that another customer had told her how wonderful these squash were when cooked on the grill.

Did someone say "grill?"

The seller told me to cut them in half, drizzle olive oil over them, and let the propane-fed flames and/or coals lick them to perfection.

I bought some olive oil. Foodies thrive on olive oil. They would drink gallons of the stuff if they though they could get away with it.

Carol Ann Kates, author of "Secret Recipes from the Corner Market," makes some dazzling olive oils. I bought a bottle of the Mexican lime. Sample cups were set out with chunks of bread. I sampled the lime and blood orange and several other varieties. Carol told me that the olive oil comes from California but she juices the limes at her place and puts them together for a fragrant combination. I may end up drinking the Mexican lime olive oil.

Dipping chunks of that bread into the olive oil samples sparked numerous conversations. Good food sparks good talk. We all hung around Carol's stand and dipped and munched and finally bought. My idea is to take the Mexican lime oilve oil and slather it on the squash and grill them. I bought a loaf of Jewish rye from the Styrian Bakery out of Fort Collins. This will be great for dipping. I also may use the olive oil as a marinade for the steaks I bought from the 7 Bar 2 Ranch, which is 20 miles west of Cheyenne along Happy Jack Road.

I bought three sirloins. "Wyoming-raised, dry-aged and all-natural beef."

Can't wait to grill them. I revel in the fact that the beef was raised within a few minutes of my house in Cheyenne. I sampled some of the 7 Bar 2 burger and it was very tasty without any added elements.

After the farmers' market, I headed to Safeway to buy some cilantro grown at Grant Farms in Wellington. I also bought some shrooms for the steaks and ice cream, of course, because farmers' markets aren't the best places to buy ice cream.

I have a lot of my own leaf lettuce that needs to be eaten. Chinese pea pods, too, along with a couple of tomatoes. I am watching the tomatoes very carefully. I want them so bad.

Wyoming primaries are two weeks and counting

Difficult to believe, but the state primaries are only two weeks away -- Aug. 17.

Been so busy with family matters and old-fashioned melodrama and gardening and work that I barely noticed.

I volunteered to be an election judge. I was a judge in the monumental 2006 mid-term elections, supervising the polls so thoroughly and adriotly that they wanted me back for aznother round.

Besides, the county was short of warm bodies, especially those with experience.

It's enjoyable to work at the polls. In the olden times of 2006, volunteers had to work full shifts, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Lori Millin, our state rep in District 8, shepherded a bill through the House that divided up those shifts. Not monumental legislation, but it may bring in more volunteers when county residents find out that they don't have to work from dawn, when the coffee and doughnuts are fresh, until it gets dark and all that's left is sludge at the bottom of the coffee pot and a few stale dough balls.

Lori has moved on to run for the State Senate. I worked for her election as rep and will do the same for her as senator. New to the race this year is Ken McCauley, who's been very active in the Laramie County Democrats and now makes the leap to running for office.

I have one of his signs in my yard. He did a hit-and-run delivery Sunday evening. It's blue (of course) and a logo that includes an A-10, the same kind of plane Ken flew in combat. Very clever. Ken's a commercial pilot now and has a thoughtful platform. You can read it at http://www.mccauleyforhouse.com/.

I'm not sure who will get my vote on the Dem gubernatorial slate. Pete Gosar and Leslie Peterson are the only serious candidates. Before these two candidates pushed the filing deadline to the last minute, there was nobody to vote for. Some Dems were thinking about registering as repubs and voting for anyone but Micheli, whose only idea is gutting state gubment and keeping the federal gubmint off of our backs. Interesting to note that Micheli collected all kinds of subsidies from the Agriculture Department which happens to be a branch of the dang federal gubmint. Mead did too. But I can forgive Mead, since he's more of a moderate and seems to be one of the few Repubs in the Gov race who takes time out from chewing on the feds. I've been astonished at how much time Colin Simpson spends bashing gubment and gubmint. He's not as moderate as a I first expected.

Most WyoDems are voting for Dems, as it should be. I could vote for Mead. But won't.

WyoDems' Jefferson-Jackson Banquet Sept. 25

Bill Luckett has announced the details about the 2010 Jefferson-Jackson Banquet hosted by the Wyoming Democratic Party. It's on Sept. 25, which is unfortunate since I'll be at the Equality State Book Festival in Casper. But most of the Dem candidates will be there and it's a great time and place for schmoozing.

Here's the announcement:

I am pleased to announce that we have scheduled the 2010 Jefferson-Jackson Banquet for Saturday, September 25, 2010, at the Cody Holiday Inn. I hope you will be able to join us for the state party's annual fall rally and Central Committee meeting as we head into the final weeks before Election Day. Our new Acting Chair plans to raise with the Central Committee our strategy and message going forward and we will be organizing for a major statewide effort aimed toward getting out our vote in November.

We are trying something a little different this year by having a LUNCHTIME banquet instead of the more traditional evening event, and the banquet itself will take place from noon to about 2 p.m. Individual tickets are $75 per person. You can make your reservation today by calling state party headquarters at 800-729-3367 (that's 800-SAY-DEMS) or by purchasing tickets online at this link:

http://www.wyomingdemocrats.com/ht/d/RegisterForConvention/i/1311383

We have a block of rooms available at the Holiday Inn for the discounted price of $109 for Friday and Saturday night, but the deadline to get that rate is August 27, so please make your reservation now and don't miss out. Call the Holiday Inn at 800-527-5544 and ask for Booking Code ZQS to get the Wyoming Democratic Party rate.

The banquet is scheduled from noon to 2 p.m., September 25, at the Holiday Inn. Featured highlights will include addresses from our excellent slate of candidates for statewide offices and announcement of the winner of our Party Builder of the Year Award. We will announce further details as they become finalized, but we wanted to let you know the date, time and place for this exciting event so you can make your plans today.

Please join us if you can for this annual fall fundraiser and political rally with Democratic leaders and activists from across Wyoming. While we expect to have a very few tickets available at the door, space is limited, so sign up today by calling the state party office at 800-729-3367 or purchase tickets online at:

http://www.wyomingdemocrats.com/ht/d/RegisterForConvention/i/1311383

Bill Luckett
Executive Director
Wyoming Democratic Party
luckett@wyomingdemocrats.com

Big weather pounds high plains -- big hailstone travels to Boulder

Sean R. Heavey/For The Billings Gazette

From the Billings Gazette: Sean Heavey of Glasgow tracked a storm that hit Valley County and Phillips County on Wednesday evening. A pickup truck pulling a trailer drives in the storm on Highway 2 between Hinsdale and Glasgow at about 8 p.m. Wednesday. Victor Proton, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service office in Glasgow, said reports indicated the tornado touched down for a brief time near Hinsdale at about 7:30 p.m.
 

Twenty-five tornadoes have been reported in Montana so far this year. That compares to seven last year. An EF3 tornado that hit Reserve on Monday killed two people and injured several others. Another big storm in Vivian, S.D., spawned hail the size of cantaloupe. One of those hailstones was 11 inches in diameter and may be the largest ever recovered. It was transported to the National Weather Service office in Cheyenne last week. On Friday, it was shipped off to NOAA in Boulder.

 

There's some bad news: When the NWS measured the hailstone, it had shrunk to only eight inches in diameter. This may endanger its chance for a weather record. 

 

At first, I thought the impressive chunk of ice was coming to town for Cheyenne Frontier Days. I would like to see a huge hailstone. Others would too. The CFD committee should have found a place in the parade for it. "Record-setting hailstone from Vivian, S.D. See it before it melts!" The stone, of course, would have to be transported in a refrigerated plexiglass case. Probably impractical. Hail is transitory, as are the storms that birth them.

High plains storms are bitchin' to watch from a distance but hell when they strike your community. On Sunday, Cheyenne marks the 25th anniversary of its deadly 1985 flood. Twelve people were killed, including the mayor's daughter.


Here's how the NWS describes it on its site "Historic flood events in the Missouri River Basin:"

By late afternoon on August 1, 1985, a stationary thunderstorm developed over Cheyenne, Wyoming, producing record amounts of rainfall. In approximately a 3-hour time span, six plus inches of rainfall occurred. The storm produced at least one tornado, heavy rains, and hail. In some parts of town, hail piled up to depths of 4-6 feet. The severe flooding resulted in 12 deaths, 70 people were injured, and total damages exceeded $61 million.

Strangely enough, another historic flash flood happened on the same day nine years earlier just 60 miles south of Cheyenne. It was the Big Thompson Canyon Flood that killed 135 people.

It takes a talented photographer to capture one of these summer storms (see above). For another impressive shot, go to www.billingsgazette.com

Literature drop for Ken McCauley Aug. 14

Linda Stowers sends this Dem news:

Ken McCauley, Wyoming House District 8 candidate, is having a literature drop on Saturday, August 14. If you are interested in particpating in this activity join him at 3612 Moore Ave at 8 a.m. on the 14th. You will just be leaving literature on neighborhood doors.

I am in Ken's district. He has visited me and my neighbors at least once already. He is a Democrat. He is a great candidate. Not sure if I can make lit drop as I may be out of town. But I will drop lit on other days.

Good luck Ken!

FMI: http://www.mccauleyforhouse.com/

"Cowboy up" mentality doesn't prevent suicides

The Wyoming Department of Health Aug. 27 on-line newsletter about suicide prevention carried this article:

The "Cowboy Up" motto of self-reliance can be deadly for vulnerable Wyoming residents.

Rugged individualism prevails in Wyoming and other frontier states, where residents “cowboy up” to take care of problems on their own — even if that may mean taking their own lives.

Halloween 1991 was a happy time for siblings Beau, Brett and Blair Wagner of Cheyenne. Yet before one brother turned 20 he would be dead by suicide. A second brother ended his life four years later.

Cheyenne Frontier Days™ had wrapped its 113th year a mere week before Beau Wagner ended his life. The date was August 4, 2009, and while local and national media were reporting on record attendance and rodeo champions, Beau was living his last hours. “He was in such a dark place,” recalls his mother BJ Ayers.

Like many who contemplate suicide as a final escape from unrelenting “psychache,” Beau hid the depth of his pain—and hid it well. Reflecting the rugged western independence that Wyoming citizens abide by, Beau handled his problems in his own way. So did his kid brother Brett.

Less than four years earlier, Brett too had died by suicide. He was 19 years old, and the youngest of the three Wagner boys. It was December 1, 2005, the day that Brett's sudden and unforeseen death first shattered this Wyoming family.

The Wagner brothers -- Beau, Brett and Blair -- resemble one another in more ways than their rugged good looks. Genetic predisposition to depression, a mood disorder that is often present in people who die by suicide, is something else Brett and Beau likely had in common. But both coped with their emotional pain in their own ways that didn't include clinical treatment—medication, therapy, or ideally both in combination with one another.

After Brett's passing, he left many drawings, sketches and letters that now serve as a testament to his emotional pain—a pain so great he saw no way out other than to end his life. Mom BJ hoped her two remaining sons would be insulated from thoughts of suicide by their youngest brother's death. That was not to be for Beau. Research shows that people who lose a loved one to suicide are at much higher risk of dying by suicide themselves. As unfathomable as it may be, Beau's following in the footsteps of his younger brother, while tragic and incomprehensible, is not surprising to experts in suicidal thoughts, gestures and attempts.

In 2009 the boys' mom established a non-profit organization, Grace for 2 Brothers Foundation. Its mission is two-fold—to serve as a resource for those in emotional crisis or for those who know a person in crisis, and also for people who have lost a loved one to suicide. These "survivors of suicide loss" often experience traumatic, complicated grief and can be prone to anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, along with potential onset of clinical depression, as an outcome of coping with a loss as profound as suicide, particularly that of a child.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! SATURDAY, AUGUST 14: 1st ANNUAL "WALK OF GRACE" at 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Lions Park Amphitheater in Cheyenne. For information or to register, visit http://www.gracefor2brothers.com/. SUNDAY, AUGUST 15: 2nd ANNUAL MEMORIAL GOLF TOURNAMENT the Airport Golf Course in Cheyenne; registration begins at 11 a.m., with tee-off at 12:30 p.m. For information or to register, contact Rick Boheler at 307-432-0547 or rboheler@comcast.net.  

On stage in Casper on Aug. 9

ARTCORE announces its MUSIC & POETRY Series: Betsy Bower ("Lycra, Music, Yoga") and Michael Shay (writer and yours truly) on Monday, Aug. 9, 7:30 p.m., at the Downtown Grill & Venue, Casper,.

In Betsy’s own words: “My father owns a welding shop where I grew up playing with fire and tools twice my size. Though I never wanted to grow up, I live in a 24-year-old body playing as if I have faery wings stretching out behind me. I build my own toys out of the resources around me. In high school, I studied abroad for one year as a Rotary exchange student in Japan. Breathing, eating, and socializing in another culture cured me of believing that there is only one way to live. Traveling became another passion for me and since I have met, it seems like, countless amazing philosophers, circus freaks, artists, dancers, musicians, transcendentalists, teachers, and muses. I generally move every few months, and I dream of living on the road in an art/music studio on wheels. I enjoy watching Casper blossom. Every time I return from somewhere the culture has grown.”

Michael Shay’s fiction and essays have been published in Northern Lights, High Plains Literary Review, Colorado Review, Owen Wister Review, Visions, Relief Journal, High Plains Register, and In Short, a Norton anthology of brief creative nonfiction. His book of short fiction, The Weight of a Body, was published by Denver’s Ghost Road Press in March 2006. Michael was co-editor of the Wyoming Center for the Book’s 2003 anthology, Deep West: A Literary Tour of Wyoming. Michael blogs about writing and politics and Wyoming on his hummingbirdminds blog. He is the individual artists’ program specialist for the Wyoming Arts Council in Cheyenne.

FMI: http://www.artcorewy.com/

Depressed? Get over it, cowboy!

Wyoming teens still engage in risky behavior.

That’s not really news for teens living anywhere or at any time. I must admit that I engaged in some risky behaviors as a lad. Lived to tell the tale and to lament the fact that we don’t seem to be making any progress on this front.

In its Kids Count report, the Annie E. Casey Foundation says this:

Wyoming’s death rate among people 15 to 19 years old, based on accidents, suicides, homicides and other causes, was 86 per 100,000. Only seven other states had a higher rate.

In 2000, Wyoming’s teen death rate was 81 per 100,000.

For our teens, things are getting worse, not better.

And this happening during boom times, a time of budget surpluses and increases in state spending on education and, to a certain extent, health care. This includes boosts in funding for mental health care, too.

So, if throwing money at a problem fixes it, we should all have happy and productive and living teens.

Some of us do not. In 2008, six percent of the state’s teens were not attending school and had not graduated from high school. That’s better than 2000 when that figure was 10 percent. Teen pregnancy is up. Fifty-one births were recorded in 2007 for every 1,000 females 15-19 years old. That was 42 per 1,000 in 2000.

Lots of bad news sprinkled with some good news.

These are more than boring stats for those of us with teen children. Our 17-year-old daughter Annie has engaged in some risky behavior. I’m sure that Chris and I know only some of it. The war on drugs has failed us and our country. Teens seem to get booze any time they want. Annie seems to know more high school drop-outs than kids still in school. There’s a batch of homeless teens in Cheyenne who roam from one friend’s house to another and occasionally sleep under bridges. One only has to wander through the mall to see our town’s array of teen mothers.

One could write a book on this subject, but someone else will have to do that. I just want to explore one factor that underlies all of these problems.

Wyoming.

A conservative state with a frontier mentality. If you live here, you get to enjoy some incredible scenery and outdoor activities. Peace and quiet and low crime rates. In exchange, you will be underpaid and have access to second-rate health care and third-rate amenities in the arts and culture. Mental health care is almost nonexistent. This is a state without a single child psychiatrist and only one drug and alcohol treatment center for teens. The reigning attitude is that you can tough it out, no matter what the “it” is? Drunk? Quit drinking. Depressed? Get over it, boy, and get to work. Suicidal? If you want to shoot yourself, please do it outside.

This is all tied in with the rugged individualism that made Wyoming great. That’s the myth, anyway. Our State Legislature actually spent time during the past session on an official code based on some pretend cowboy past. I blogged about during the session (http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2010/02/wyomings-new-code-of-west.html) and last spring http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2010/04/uw-panel-discusses-wyomings-new-code-of.html.

The Legislature is representative of Wyoming in that it is overwhelmingly Republican and more conservative that most of the Wyomingites I know. It has many more members from the ranching and agricultural fields than is represented in the population as a whole. The part-time Wyoming House and Senate should be made up of mainly of those from the extractive industries, tourism and government – local, state and federal. A columnist once postulated that if Wyoming had a logo that better represented its population, it would replace the bucking horse with a bureaucrat carrying a briefcase. Just imagine that image on state letterhead.

We hate gubment. We are the gubment. Wyomingites get more back in funding from Uncle Sam then they pay in taxes.

We hate gubment.

Back to our teenagers. We have some fine teens in this town. Smart, energetic, talented. In a few years, they’ll be of to college and exciting careers in places other than Wyoming. Some will had for the military, and still others for the oil patch.

Many others will be left behind. Pregnant at 16, or working fast-food jobs while something better opens up. Others will die while driving drunk.

And we’ll sit back, watch the unfolding chaos, and ponder the wonders of the Cowboy Code.

THE MAN IN ( MOSTLY) BLACK

Most of us break out our Western duds only during Cheyenne Frontier Days. The cast in this city-wide spectacle has to look the part. Question: Can you tell by my outfit that I'm a fake cowboy?

What health care reform looks like for people with mental illness

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) provides fact sheets on the huge new health care reform law and what it means for those of us struggling with depression and bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and behavior health issues. Mental health parity is finally becoming a reality. I just discovered that my health insurance has caught up with the times, removing caps on mental health treatment, both out-patient and long-term hospitalization. Change! And hope!

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Issue_Spotlights&template=%2FContentManagement%2FContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=100489

National Geo Geotourism Map worth a look

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


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


Entirely possible that National Geo knows more than I do.

U.S. Army stats: Discharges for mental disorders increase by 64 percent

Disturbing news from a USA Today story as reported in The (Pakistan) Nation on the Web:

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are taking a toll on minds as well as bodies, statistics released by the U.S. Army indicate.

The Army said the number of U.S. soldiers forced to leave the military because of mental disorders increased by 64 percent from 2005 to 2009, USA Today reported.

Last year 1,224 soldiers received a medical discharge for mental illness such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

The number accounts for one in nine medical discharges.

Army Lt. Col. Rebecca Porter, a behavioural health official, said research shows "a clear relationship between multiple deployments and increased symptoms of anxiety, depression and PTSD."

The Pentagon reported in May that mental health disorders caused more hospitalizations among U.S. troops in 2009 than any other medical condition.

Joe Davis, a spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the military is excellent at treating visible wounds but not wounds to the mind.