"Occupy Casper" at noon Saturday across from the Dick Cheney Federal Building

Pamela RW Kandt announces Occupy Casper on Saturday, Oct. 8, noon-1 p.m., in Pioneer Park, Center & B streets, across from the Dick Cheney Federal Building in Casper, WY.

From Pamela:

Let's stand together and say "No More!" to greed, corruption, inequality, poverty -- politicians no longer work on our behalf or care about our well-being. We are the 99% of Americans stuck with the bill for corporate bailouts, economic shenanigans and bad government. We're old & young, middle class & poor, straight & gay, graduates & dropouts, conservatives & liberals. We are America and we deserve better!

These peaceful gatherings are flowering rapidly across the nation because people are overwhelmingly unhappy with what's happening in this country. Join us on Saturday to share your frustration and express your support for the 99%. Bring signs, kids, family, friends and neighbors. We're all in this together! RSVP at Facebook.

A short story about one government-issue, middle-class, Middle-American family from Denver

My government-issue parents in Denver, circa 1950. Thanks to my sister Mary for the photo.

I was born in Denver at the tail end of 1950.

My father was a World War II veteran who used the G.I. Bill of Rights to graduate from Regis College (now Regis University) in three years. It was a private Catholic college, one he never could have afforded without the government program, promulgated by Pres. Roosevelt and sponsored by Democrats and Republicans, that provided college degrees for millions of American men. The U.S. Navy paid for my mother's nurse's training at Mercy Hospital in Denver. The war was over before she finished so she didn't have to join the fight. But she did use her government-supported training to help support her nine children from 1946 until she died forty years later. My father spent most of his working life building Defense Department-funded ICBM missile silos around the West and then with the space program in Florida. His salary, directly and indirectly, was paid by Uncle Sam.

My father's father made a pretty good living in Denver selling insurance with Mutual of New York. But before he joined private industry, he served with the Iowa National Guard on the U.S. Mexico border and then in France with the AEF. After repeated gas attacks, the Army shipped him to Fitzsimons Army Medical Hospital outside Denver. During his recuperation, he struck up a friendship with an Army nurse, Florence Green from Baltimore, who had traded the life of a debutante to tend to shattered soldiers on the front. The U.S. Army trained her in the healing arts. Grandpa Shay was forever grateful. Both Grandma and Grandpa received the lion's share of their medical care from Veteran's Administration hospitals in Denver and Cheyenne. They both were buried in Denver's government-administered military cemetery, Fort Logan. You can go visit them. Notice what a fine job the V.A. does in maintaining this national landmark. Go ahead, notice.

My mother' mother was the first postmistress in a little town outside Cincinnati. She liked her government paycheck. But one summer she joined her sister and two friends for a road trip via flivver to the Rocky Mountains. The roads were rough. Fortunately, Brevet Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower had led the U.S. Army's Motor Transport Company from D.C. to California in 1919 and made the road navigable. A year later, she was following the same government-blazed trail and, a year after that, she and her sister were living in Denver and visiting the mountains regularly.

Ike was from Kansas but he liked Denver. He got married in Denver to Mamie Doud and later fished the U.S. Forest Service mountain streams during his breaks from the Oval Office. During one Mile High trip, he suffered a heart attack and recuperated at Fitzsimons Army Hospital. I was four -- almost five -- at the time. Our family lived just off of Colfax Avenue in Aurora and my father took me down to the corner, pointed at the well-lit building across the street, and said: "Our president is right over there." The president was a Republican. My father was a Democrat -- then. But he said "our" president. Gen. Eisenhower had been his supreme commander in the ETO. And now he was his -- our -- president. We then walked back to our $8,000 house, purchased without a down payment and paid for with a low-interest loan. At the end of his life, my father was astonished that he paid twice as much for a new car as he paid for his first house. He was a Florida Republican by then, a by-product of Nixon's southern strategy. He seemed astonished by many things, particularly the Liberal politics of his eldest son. Even though he passed away almost a decade ago, Dad may be astonished still.

Spawn of our government-sponsored parents (see above), taken in her backyard in Daytona Beach, Fla.,
where we used to watch government-sponsored rockets blast off into space (from the Mary Shay Powell archives).

My mother's father came from Ireland in 1917. He worked with his brother on the Chicago El until he got sick and had his infected lung removed at the city's charity hospital. The doctor advised him to take his one remaining lung and go to the healthy climes of the West. Grandpa made it as far as Denver, liked it, and decided to stay. He worked at the post office for many years, and then the railroad. He also was a handyman and a helpful neighbor. He only had a sixth-grade education, but I learned more from my Grandpa Hett than I did from almost anyone else. He was a strong believer in the healing power of ice cream. This also is my belief.

These are my forebears. An imperfect lot, to be sure, and I carry on that tradition. It is possible that we all would be perfectly fine without the programs and opportunities offered by our citizen-funded government. It is possible, yet unlikely.

Hundreds and hundreds of "Battered Brides" in Laramie County

"Battered Bride" (close-up) by Forrest King, oil painting, 36x48 inches

According to Safehouse: In Laramie County, one in every four women report that they are or have been the target of domestic violence. That's a shocking 21st-century statistic for the largest county in The Equality State, one that houses the State Capitol in Cheyenne where our legislators convene annually to discuss issues important to its citizens. If this isn't a pressing issue, I don't know what is.

Sometimes it helps to see a visual. Local artist Forrest King has done that for us. He's been working for months on his "Battered Bride" painting. As it nears completion (see above), he will exhibit it Thursday (today), Oct. 6, 4-7 p.m., at Safehouse's "Would You Walk in Her Shoes?" fund-raiser and consciousness-raiser for Safehouse at the Historic Depot in Cheyenne. You can see a series of photos documenting Forrest's "Battered Bride" project on Facebook. 

Come down to the Depot this afternoon. Walk around in "her" shoes for a few minutes. And then contribute to Safehouse, write a letter to the ed (and your state legislator), practice nonviolence in your own life.

LCCC Dems host presentation by author Andrea Batista Schlesinger Oct. 18

The Laramie County Community College Democrats in Cheyenne kicked off their first semester of existence this week with a successful bake sale (loved those brownies).

Next up: A presentation by Andrea Batista Schlesinger, author of "The Death of 'Why?': The Decline of Questioning and the Future of Democracy." It will be held in the LCCC Student Lounge on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 4 p.m. Refreshments will be served. Free and open to the public.

On Oct. 8, we Occupy Denver, site of the Democratic Party's 2008 convention -- was that only three years ago?

The arts, especiaslly the graphic arts, are laying a huge part in the Occupy Wall Street movement.  This event's right down the  road in my hometown of Denver. www.occupywallstreet.com

Convergence Wyoming: Historic preservation not just for Earth anymore.

Milford Wayne Donaldson, California’s state historic preservation officer, will be a featured speaker at the Convergence Wyoming 2011 in Cody Oct. 6-8. He will speak about some of the finer points of historic preservation. And its most otherworldly ones. In 2010, Donaldson successfully sought historic preservation status for the Apollo 11 moon landing sites.

The reasoning behind the first-of-its-kind designation was simple: Scores of California companies worked on the Apollo mission, and much of their handiwork remains of major historical value to the state, regardless of where it is now or what it was for used for then.

“It has a significance that goes way further than whether it came from a quarter million miles away or not,” Mr. Donaldson said. “They are all parts of the event.” 

While Apollo 11 was indeed a landmark mission — during which Neil A. Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon and he and Buzz Aldrin apparently ditched their boots — it wasn’t exactly tidy. Worried about the weight of their landing capsule, the harried lunar explorers left behind tons of trash, including empty food bags, electrical equipment and, yes, several receptacles meant for bodily waste. 

There is also a collection of artifacts of historical note and emotion: Mr. Armstrong’s footprint, for example, and an American flag. Apollo 11 also left behind a mission patch from Apollo 1, in which three astronauts died in a fire, and a message from world leaders. 

And while some of the garbage might seem like, well, garbage, California is just one of several states seeking protection for the items in the face of possible lunar missions by other nations as well as a budding space tourism industry. 

--clip-- 

Mr. Donaldson said he hoped his commission’s vote might help goad the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization into placing the landing site on the World Heritage List, an international compilation of famed landmarks. 

“I think there’s a threat from private companies,” Mr. Donaldson said. “And with today’s technology, they could probably pinpoint this.” 

That said, Mr. Donaldson admitted that there were no “space cops” available to safeguard the state’s newest historical resource. But, like the Apollo astronauts themselves, he seemed optimistic that Friday’s vote might lead to bigger and better things. 

“Hopefully,” he said, “this will take off.”

Register for Convergence Wyoming at http://www.convergencewyoming.com/register-today/. Article source: New York Times

Follow "Rebuild the Dream" on Free Speech TV

Watch live streaming video from freespeechtv at livestream.com

Van Jones explains it all for you

SEIU brothers and sisters join Occupy Wall Street

My brothers and sisters in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are now joining Occupy Wall Street. I'm a member of the Wyoming Public Employees Association, an SEIU affiliate. It's comprised of state employees such as myself. Kudos to these brave union members:

The United Federation of Teachers, 32BJ SEIU, 1199 SEIU, Workers United and Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 have said they will participate in the protest next Wednesday [Oct. 5].

More at http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/29/unions-and-liberal-groups-to-join-occupy-wall-street-protest/

Katie Goodman conducts improv comedy/life coach workshop within shouting distance of WY

Katie Goodman, improv comedian, author, and rabble-rousing singer/songwriter ("I Didn't F*ck It Up"), will be conducting a workshop at Chico Hot Springs, MT, Oct. 8-9. This is as close as she will ever get to Wyoming, unless she tap-dances over the border into Yellowstone while she's at Chico.

Here are the details:

Katie will present her workshop teaching how to use the tools of improv comedy in every day life. This workshop will be presented at the gorgeous Chico Hot Springs, one hour from Bozeman, near Yellowstone National Park in Montana.

Click here for reviews and testimonials. For additional information about the workshop, click here.

The cost is $255 which includes a beautiful Chico lunch both days and Katie's book to take home. Rooms run from $45 - $200, so to book your room, call Chico directly and pick what you like: 406-333-4933. Most participants stay over Saturday night, but you are certainly welcome to make a longer retreat of it and stay Friday and Sunday or longer. The workshop hours are 9am - 4:30 both Saturday and Sunday.

Lunches are provided for workshop participants both Saturday and Sunday. Exceptional cuisine from one of the region’s finest restaurant is available in the Chico Lodge restaurant for breakfast and dinner, as well as other budget options nearby. Other activities available include massage, hiking, horse-back-riding and more. And of course, the wonderful hot springs of Chico are included with your stay at the Lodge.

To register or for more information, email us or call 406-522-7623. 

Locavores unite -- Second to last Tuesday farmers' market of the season Oct. 4

Cheyenne's Market for Local Products. Eat Local. It’s Thousands of Miles Fresher!

Tuesdays through October 11, 3-6:30 p.m., Historic Train Depot Plaza, Cheyenne

Featuring:

            Free Honey Crisp Apple for each Market Patron!

            Big Trailer Load of Pumpkins this Tuesday Only

            Grassfed lamb is back in stock

           

Plus all your favorites:

Locally grown Produce: Squash, Onions, Potatoes, Peppers, and More!

Colorado Tree-Ripened Fruits: Apples, Pears, Frozen Pie Cherries

Fresh Breads and Baked Goods

Gourmet Pasta, Raviolis, Pesto

Smoked Salmon, Trout, Dips, Soups, Chowders, German and Austrian Foods

BBQ to Dine on the Plaza or Take Home

Cheyenne Honey and Baer's Jams

Grassfed Beef, Bison, Chicken, Jerky, Eggs

Local, Organic and Natural Body Care

House Plants

Wood Crafts, Hand-made Cards, Alpaca Products, Jewelry, Glass Gifts, Baby Blankets, more!

For more information, see our website:  www.wyomingfreshmarket.org

Cheyenne's Reproacher in concert this weekend

Joel Funk, one of my son Kevin's friends, is in the local metal band Reproacher, Cheyenne’s “crust punk heavyweights.” The band plays with three others this Sunday, Oct. 9, at the Lion's Park Old Community House. Bring earplugs, says the Facebook invitation. Of course, that’s also what CFD tells patrons attending summer concerts by Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum. Amplified music is loud! Bring earplugs! For event info and to RSVP, go to http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=140694529361884&notif_t=event_invite. Support local music!

CSU's 100 Views of Climate Change looks at the subject from all angles

Until John Calderazzo showed me his web site, I didn't know that there were 100 views of climate change.

That's the name of his site, 100 Views of Climate Change. It's an official Colorado State University site, one among hundreds at this place that started its life as Colorado A&M -- the big white Aggie "A" still lurks on the mountain above town.

John teaches in the CSU creative writing program which is part of the English Department. He is a writer of creative nonfiction which, put simply, means that he uses fiction writing techniques in his published books and articles and essays about volcanoes, rain forests, watersheds, etc. He takes his facts as seriously as he takes his technique. His book on volcanoes is fascinating. He once taught in China and had written extensively about Asia. Recently, he climbed his first big mountain, a 19,000-footer in Mexico. Pretty good for a guy who won't see 60 again.

I had a chance to visit with John when he was in Cheyenne for the Literary Connection put on by LCCC. He served as my first adviser when I went to CSU in 1988 as a thirty-something corporate dropout. We had a lot in common, including Florida roots, and he was only a few years older than me. We worked on several free-lance writing projects together. It's always good to see an old friend.

As is true with many Boomers in their sixties, John is not sitting in his office counting paper clips and marking off the days until retirement on a wall calendar. Well, he may be doing that but he's also bringing the climate change debate to CSU, Fort Collins, Colorado's Front Range and the Rocky Mountain West. He and his wife, Sue Ellen Campbell, are doing this together. Sue Ellen is also a published writer, professor and environmentalist. The duo has seen first-hand the depredations of climate change. They have written extensively on the subject.

When it was time to do something about it, they thought that they might as well start close to home. So many scientists at this university. Climatologists, soil biologists, ecologists, bioethicists, agronomists, water hydrologists and so on. And sometimes, to translate the work of these scientists, in come the artists, writers and performers.

No reputable scientist disputes the fact that global climate change is a real thing. However, the topic of "global climate change" sparks as many storms as a spring Rocky Mountain low pressure system. Policies that address climate change would affect almost all the ways that we've done business in the West for 100 years. They would affect coal mining, oil and gas drilling, coal-fired plants, transportation, infrastructure, home construction, and almost any other topic you could think of. Just the term "climate change" sends Wyoming Republicans into a tizzy. It's likely they work in the energy industry. It's certain that much of their election war chests come from EnCana and Peabody, etc. Many of their constituents work in the energy industry and make better money doing that than they would in almost any other endeavor. Local business groups and chambers of commerce welcome energy companies and energy jobs. The mayor of Gillette was just in Washington, D.C., telling a congressional committee to send more energy jobs his way.

So, it's not surprising that any hint of doing something about climate change causes berserkity to break out all over.

Chris Drury: "Carbon Sink: What Goes
Around Comes Around"

Here's a recent case in point from Wyoming's lone four-year university. A very talented artist, Chris Drury from the U.K., designed and installed a public art work on the UW campus. It's entitled 'Carbon Sink: What Goes Around Comes Around." It's made of real Wyoming coal and real beetle-killed trees from Wyoming forests. The burning of one of these things -- coal -- undoubtedly caused the warming planet which led to the pine bark beetle surviving winters which led to the killing of the trees. All of the parts will eventually return to the earth from whence they came, which is one of the messages of the piece. A giant circle of coal and wood spinning across a university lawn on its way back to the source. This also is our fate. The fate of humankind, of course, will be determined by the way we treat the planet.

Here's how the project was described on the UW Art Museum blog:

Chris Drury's Carbon Sink: What Goes Around Comes Around places beetle-kill pine and coal -- both natural resources in Wyoming -- in a formal structure derived from a mushroom spore, twisting into a vortex to suggest the natural process of decay, decomposition, and transformation.  Typical of the artist's work, who routinely connects natural phenomena from the macrocosmic to the microcosmic, the whirling deep, dark, and beautiful reflective properties of the coal play off the raw wood that has been charred so the materials merge at the center.

Some Wyomingites were not amused (snippets from stories about the installation from both the New York Times and The Guardian via Inhabitat): 

The coal industry immediately took offense: “They get millions of dollars in royalties from oil, gas and coal to run the university, and then they put up a monument attacking me, demonizing the industry,” stated Marion Loomis, the director of the Wyoming Mining Association.  

Two legislators also jumped into the fray -- Republican Representative Tom Lubnau and Gregg Blikre from Cambell County, site of the massive Powder River Basin coal mine. 

“While I would never tinker with the University of Wyoming budget – I’m a great supporter of the University of Wyoming – every now and then you have to use these opportunities to educate some of the folks at the University of Wyoming about where their paychecks come from,” stated Lubnau.

Read more here: Chris Drury’s “Carbon Sink” Art Installation Strikes Nerve of Wyoming Coal Industry Carbon Sink by Chris Drury – Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World 

As it turns out, it was a tempest in a teapot. No coal-crazed Republican legislators attacked the UW Art Museum budget. But we'll have many more of these. Some will be a lot more serious.

Chris Drury is obviously a thoughtful man in search of meaningful discussion of a big subject.

Maybe UW needs a dose of 100 Views of Climate Change. CSU is right down the road...

Chris Hedges: Join the Wall Street revolt or stand on the wrong side of history

Woman protester arrested on
Sept. 24 at Wall Street

This is pretty amazing stuff from someone who has so much to lose:

There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history. Either you obstruct, in the only form left to us, which is civil disobedience, the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil. Either you taste, feel and smell the intoxication of freedom and revolt or sink into the miasma of despair and apathy. Either you are a rebel or a slave.

This is Chris Hedges writing on Truthout.

Chris Hedges spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years

Read it at The Best Among Us/Truthout

Creative placemaking video of 13-year-old artist in Sheridan, Wyoming

Sheridan Artist Lauren Sarantopulos from Indie Media: The New Journalism on Vimeo.

The Wyoming Arts Council features 13-year old Lauren Sarantopolus as she discusses her work at the Sagebrush Community Art Center in Sheridan. Video by Alan O’Hashi.

It's important to "Step Up for Kids" in October in Wyoming

With Wyoming Tea Party Republican legislators refusing to step up for our children on so many issues – early childhood education, health care, mental health issues, daycare standards, juvenile justice, poverty rates -- it's more important than ever to "Step Up for Kids."

That's what a lot of us will be doing across Wyoming in October. Sponsored by Wyoming Children's Action Alliance.

Here's the rundown:

The fourth annual Step Up for Kids Week is taking place throughout the communities and

counties of Wyoming the week of October 8-15. The purpose of these events is to

bring hundreds of people together to raise awareness of all children’s issues and the need

for investment in children in our local communities, our state and our nation.

These are dates and activities across the state.

October 9-13 - GILLETTE

A series of advertisements/articles will run in the Gillette paper. Articles will focus on children’s issues and parenting tips.

October 11^th  CASPER:  “Kids:  A Long Term Investment”

First Interstate Plaza – Corner of First and Center Streets

10:30 a.m. Two booths, one on health care, staffed by Barb Rea; one with materials about the value of quality child care, developed and staffed by Dianna Webb and Deb Nelson.

11:30 – Refreshments available.

Noon – Program begins. Program Emcee Heidi Dickerson welcomes crowd, notes theme, and introduces mayor or other city representative.

·     Proclamation read by Mayor/City Council Members

·     Students from Woods Elementary introduce former State Representative Ann Robinson. Ann speaks about opportunity for Wyoming Legislature to invest in children

·     Students from Woods Elementary introduce Parent Pam McMichael. Pam speaks about value of investing in Head Start

·     Student from Woods Elementary introduces Jackie Brown or Chelsea DiPaolo. Chelsea speaks about Gear Up

·    Woods student introduces B&G Youth of the Year - Youth of Year introduces B&G Club staffer who was a critical mentor - B&G Club staffer (yet to be identified) talks about working w/YOY and long-term commitment to kids

·    Woods student introduces Bethany Cutts - Cutts talks about the importance of early childhood development and the importance of high quality care to all children, whether in public or private programs or care centers; calls for state investment in quality care.

October 11^th - RAWLINS

Carbon County Higher Education Main Campus, 705 Rodeo – Classroom #1

5:30 – 7:00 pm Family information booths

7:00-8:30  p.m.  Linda Burt-Director of Wyoming ACLU

                                Juvenile Justice in Wyoming

October 14^th – EVANSTON AND MOUNTAIN VIEW

Evanston Child Development Center:
March For Kids

Our Children will walk/parade to our local government buildings/courthouse. There we will have a guest speaker (tent. Mayor Joy Bell). This event will be advertised in our Center Newsletters and Local Newspaper. Children will then parade back to the Center for a bbq. During the month of October we plan to have flyers and information available for parents on child growth and development, etc.

October 14^th - The Children's Learning Foundation:
March For Kids

Same idea as ECDC

Saturday, October 15^th - CHEYENNE

Lions Park Community House

10 am - 12 noon

Fun Activities For Kids & Community Resource

Information For Parents!

Adbusters' Occupy Wall Street poster asks: What is our one demand?

I love this Occupy Wall Street poster from Adbusters. Curious about the origins and goals of the protest? The Nation  explains it all for you at http://www.thenation.com/article/163719/occupy-wall-street-faq

Convergence WY asks: "Wyoming culture is unique but are we leveraging this culture to help build prosperous communities?"

Jackson Farmers' Market - Creative Bakeries from Indie Media: The New Journalism on Vimeo.

This vid comes from a series filmed by Cheyenne videographer Alan O'Hashi as he tours the state (with Wyoming Arts Council staffer Randy Oestman) in search of details about Wyoming's Creative Vitality Index (CVI). Teton County's CVI is off the charts, making it one of the best arts towns in the West. And that's not all high rollers buying big bronzes and Teton landscapes. It's also young artists finding ways to transfer their skills to the kitchen, and then selling those handcrafted pies at the farmers' market, with money going into their pockets and the community. The Circle of Life!

I'll share more of these CVI vids as they become available... They'll cover other areas of the state, including Sheridan and Rock Springs and Cheyenne and others. This creativity is no surprise to Wyomingites who know that there is an incredible amount of arts and crafts happening quietly in farms and ranches and small towns and in cities (we have a few) and even resort towns all around the state. The video series is an attempt to put a face on that activity.

So interesting that this surge of creativity happens in such a conservative state. After all, Wyoming has the most Republican legislature in the U.S. -- and the least diverse. The new Tea Party Repubs fell all over themselves during the 2011 session trying to propose the most absurdly regressive laws. Anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-worker, anti-wolf, anti-environmental protections. You name it, they were agin' it. Except for guns -- very pro-gun. Fetuses now have their own concealed carry laws.

Our gun culture is part of the creative economy. There are many artisans making and decorating their own firearms. Cody is home to the Buffalo Hill Historical Center and its fantastic firearms museum. In Cody, don't miss the eclectic Dug Up Gun Museum. Cody artist Paul Clymer turns old shotguns into colorful works of art. Pinedale artist JB Bond is in the process of transforming a junked vehicle into a nine-foot-long machine gun that will be part of the town's public art initiative.

But let's face it -- Wyoming's population is aging rapidly. Its infrastructure is crumbling. The education system is not getting the results warranted by the investment of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, or so say the Repubs..

Most importantly, its young people aren't hanging around to watch it crumble. Sure, some of these youngsters are featured in these videos. But unless we can boost the entire state's CVI, those youngsters won't stick around.

I ask my fellow parents this question: how many of your children departed Wyoming to go to college or the military and never moved back? Go ahead, tell me your stories.

The Rocky Mountain West is filled with livable towns and cities that also are artsy outdoor sports meccas. Need I name them? Fort Collins, Boulder, Durango, Denver, Steamboat Springs, Park City, Salt Lake City, Moab, Aspen, Sun Valley, Bend, Missoula, Bozeman, Livingston, Moscow, Pullman, Boise, Taos, Tucson, Flagstaff and so on.

These are the cities that Cheyenne, Casper, Rock Springs, Gillete and Riverton are competing against. Here is the question posed by Convergence Wyoming: "Wyoming culture is unique but are we leveraging this culture to help build prosperous communities?"

Well, are we?

For Boomers, using social media effectively is an uphill climb (with bad knees)

We heard from social media whiz Juliette Rule last night at a combined meeting of the Laramie County Democrats and the Democratic Grassroots Coalition.

I liked her generational breakdown of Facebook's impact. For Gen Y (Millennials), it's all about branding, about doing your own PR. For Gen X, it's about holding people accountable. For Baby Boomers, well -- they (we) like that social connection. It may also come with a little bit of a downside. What she meant, but was too polite to say in front of a roomful of Boomers, is that we're dazed and confused by social media and don't really know what to do with it. Perhaps if there were a few Gen Y or Gen X Dems (besides Juliette) in the room with us codgers? Better question is: why weren’t there any other Gen X or Gen Y Dems in that room?

Best thing we can do is try to understand social media and use it appropriately. I’m not there yet. Are you?

More about Juliette at http://www.facebook.com/SocialWyo

A closer look at Forrest King's "Remember, Heal & Hope" sculpture

HM earlier featured some photos of Forrest King's sculpture for the International Day of Peace ceremony Sept. 21. We thought a close-up and a description was also in order. This artwork could be variously described as a sculpture, an assemblage, or an installation. After making its debut at Peace Day in the Herschler Building, it will tour local churches and any other locale that would like to view the piece and hear the story behind it.

The materials in the sculpture came from representatives of local churches. They donated the items at the Sept. 11 commemoration held 9/11/11 in front of the Wyoming State Capitol.

Forrest organized his piece around the symbols of three religious traditions: the Christian cross, a Jewish tallit or shawl and a set of Muslim prayer beads. A firefighter's helmet tops the sculpture and it's propped up with an EMT's ready box. To illustrate the international storm caused by 9/11, the shawl and prayer beads have a wind-whipped look and are forever frozen in place that way. Not sure of Forrest's techniques, but the sculpture has the look of a traditional bronze monument.

Arrayed below that are three panels that say "Remember," "Heal" and "Hope." A prayer candle sits above an old hymnal opened to "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and "America the Beautiful."

It takes time and contemplation and talent to come up with a work of art in 11 days. We would all do well to take some time to contemplate what the artist has wrought. If you're interested in bringing it and the artist to a church or synagogue or mosque or school near you, go to Forrest King's Facebook page.