Republican Legislators worried about immigration tidal wave inundating The Equality State

So much for our designation as The Equality State. And I'm sure that anti-gay legislation can't be far behind.

From Wyoming Public Radio:

A number of Wyoming legislators are planning to introduce a bill that would bring Arizona's immigration law to this state. Wyoming Public Radio's Renny MacKay reports.

Arizona's law requires police to check immigration status, if they suspect any person they have detained is in the U-S illegally. The law has been controversial, because many people say it will encourage racial profiling. Representative Pat Childers will co-sponsor the bill in this state. He says he believes the bill is written to avoid racial profiling.

"Sometimes it is difficult to prevent a certain amount of that, but the intent of the law is not to do that."

The primary sponsor of the bill is Representative Pete Illoway, from Cheyenne. He says Wyoming does have an illegal immigration problem, and lawmakers should at least debate the legislation. In a statement to WPR, Governor-elect Matt Mead says he could support a bill similar to Arizona's if it is tailored to Wyoming's specific needs, like restricting employers from hiring illegal immigrants.

Staged reading and music part of Autry's fifth anniversary screening of "Brokeback Mountain"

Cross-posted from the wyomingarts blog:

The Autry in L.A. describes itself as "California’s only museum and cultural center dedicated to the history, art, and stories of the American West. Located in Griffith Park, the Autry features special exhibitions, lively programs, and hands-on activities for kids." While the Autry isn't exactly commuting distance from Wyoming, it is interesting to note that one-time Wyoming resident Annie Proulx wrote the story that started it all. "Brokeback Mountain" was in her collection Close Range: Wyoming Stories, with color illustrations (in the hardcover first edition) by noted Denver artist William Matthews. Annie also shared the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for the film, now celebrating the fifth anniversary of its release. According to Variety mag, New York's City Opera had plans for a "Brokeback Mountain" opera until the 2008 economic collapse -- and the departure of its artistic director -- caused it to shelve the project.

Wyoming wind takes liberties with street signs

When the Wyoming wind blows, it can wreak havoc. It worked over this sign last week. If I was religious, I might take this as a sign.

Ally ASL wins one on the "fair use" front

"The problem is that the various music groups hire zombies and trained monkeys who scour the Internet searching for any use of their licensed material regardless of the context or purpose."

This is an attention-grabbing comment by Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) attorney Cindy Cohn in a Houston Press music blog story. I didn't know that zombies and trained monkeys were scouring the Internet. More about that later...

More importantly, the article focused on Allyson "Ally ASL" Townsend. Using American Sign Language, she interprets popular songs on YouTube videos. I say "interprets" because sign language is more than translation. It's a language unto itself. Anyone who has seen signers at poetry readings and music performances knows what I'm speaking about. Body language and facial gestures are part of it. You can have a demonstrative signer or a laid-back one. You also can have one that censors words or takes other liberties with the language. I am told that language interpreters do this on a regular basis. They have to understand idioms and slang and tone of voice. They try to incorporate all that in their interpretation.

So is Ally ASL translating the songs? Interpreting? Using them fairly or unfairly?

The EFF and Warner and Universal and YouTube all agreed that this was fair use. She is performing a service for the deaf. She has quite a few fans. All interested parties say, "Rock on, Ally ASL."

That's a good thing.

Now back to zombies and trained monkeys. I don't know what they are. I am assuming that record companies have search bots called zombies and trained monkeys that troll the Internet looking for people illegally downloading copyrighted material. But I can't rule out Warner Music actually using actual trained monkeys for this task. Not sure about zombies, but you never know about these music companies.

City boy says: Let food freedom ring!

Today, I'm thinking about food.

No surprise. Yesterday was our annual eating extravaganza. I enjoyed Thanksgiving -- always do -- although I didn't do much beside cook two pies and take them to our friends' house where the rest of the goodies resided.

I didn't ask any annoying foodie questions, such as "were these sweet potatoes raised within 100 miles of Cheyenne?" That's the problem with foodies -- always asking annoying questions while we're trying to eat.

I ate some root crops: sweet potatoes, potatoes and onions. I ate wheat: dinner rolls, gravy and stuffing. I ate nuts: pecan topping on the mashed sweet potatoes. I ate turkey, of course, and cranberries. Green beans from the usual casserole. I ate apples and pumpkin in the pies. Olives.

Most of this could have been grown or raised in the general vicinity. Wyoming is known more for cattle and sheep than for its turkey ranching. But you could do it on a small scale. If not, maybe it's time to switch our local Thanksgivings to beef or lamb or elk or goose. You can get those locally. Alas, turkey is traditional and usually comes from big turkey farms located far away.

According to an article by Keith Goetzman in Utne Reader, more than 50 percent of Thanksgiving turkeys come from the Willmar Poultry Farm in Willmar, Minn. The Humane Society recently screened a video filmed secretly at the plant. Not a pretty picture. If you have the stomach for it, you can see it at http://www.utne.com/Politics/Where-Turkeys-Come-From.aspx.

Goetzman also recounts how meat-eaters and vegetarians square off across the Turkey Day table. He ends his piece by making a case for squash lasagna as a holiday main course.

Sounds good. My 17-year-old daughter, the vegetarian, would like it. So would I. But, alas, my daughter also likes the traditions of the day which include the succulent odors of cooking turkey. Good smells make good memories. And let's face it -- vegetarians have plenty of choices on the traditional table. Turkey and gravy are the only items that they can't eat. Dressing isn't stuffed into the bird any more and, if you don't add giblets to it, it's O.K. for vegetarians.

I strive to eat locally produced foods. My garden provides some during the warm season. It probably could provide more, according to the University of Wyoming Extension Service. And not by expanding my acreage. I could get additional growing time by taking advantage of my yard's microclimates. I also could invest in a small high tunnel or a small greenhouse. These people know their biz. They even have a magazine called Barnyards & Backyards which features farm/ranch/garden tips and interesting articles. You can subscribe by going to http://www.barnyardsandbackyards.com/.

A couple more food-related items. For one, I think it's time to invest in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). We now have a half-dozen farms within 100 miles which offer CSAs. I've been putting off joining because I thought I could grow all of my own but that isn't possible. I was checking out the web page for Meadow Maid Foods in Yoder, which is in Goshen County. The Ridenour family grows natural veggies and raises grass-fed beef. I've bought veggies and beef at the farmer's market and all of it was great. Meadow Maid has also leaped on the agri-tourism bandwagon, with tours of the property and workshops. Some places, such as Grant Farms in Wellington, Colo., bring their CSA customers in to help plant and weed and harvest. Agri-tourism could join the ranks of ranches offering hands-on experiences in trail drives and branding. This trend could eventually be huge in rural Wyoming.

And then there's Wyoming Food Freedom. In its proposed legislation, terms such as agri-tourism and farmers' markets come up often. WFF proposes to do away with onerous state and federal regulations that prevents "informed consumers" buying directly from "trusted producers." I support this. In fact, I find it a place where libertarians and liberals can meet without yelling and screaming. WFF realizes that Big Ag products are making us sick. I want to buy more products from local farmers and ranchers. I want to spend less time at the grocery store. I'm not sure about this whole raw milk thing. That seems to be a big issue -- buying unpasteurized milk directly from small dairies. Some of the rhetoric around this issue harkens back to "poisoning of our precious bodily fluids" days. But there may be some truth in what the raw-milkers say.

Our family bought raw goat's milk from a local producer for years. It was great, but I don't drink much milk so, when our milk-consuming son moved away, we stopped getting it. But there are many who swear by the stuff. We also know that pathogens can breed in milk if it's not handled correctly.

Meanwhile, I'm going to support Rep. Sue Wallis and WFF. On its web site, WFF contends that freeing up food commerce can add a billion dollars worth of stimulation to the state's ag economy. It would really beef up rural areas hit hard in the past few decades. It also might regenerate family farms, which are disappearing fast.

At yesterday's dinner, a man my age -- a local pharmacist -- spoke about the small family farm he grew up in in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, which is just across the border from Goshen County, Wyoming. The family ran the farm until it grew too expensive. His parents both got jobs in town. They sold some of the land to the railroad. They leased out the rest. Pretty soon they weren't farming any more. He said that he loves the way he grew up but that it's almost impossible to do so now.

It should be possible. So says this city boy.

Skip the holiday stuff, buy a goat (or a cow)

Ideas from Sojourners and CRWRC about alternative gift-giving for the holidays: http://www.crwrc.org/pages/crwrc_giftcatalog.cfm?utm_source=Sojourners%2BAd&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=Sojo

Citizens -- gird your loins for upcoming Wyoming Legislature

Know your state legislature.

A good phrase to keep in mind as we face a new batch of legislators and a Republican-dominated government in 2011.

Moderation has been the touchstone of the Wyoming Legislature during my 20 years in the state. Legislators occasionally pass a wacko law, but have spurned attempts during the past several sessions to outlaw gay marriage.

But the new Legislature will be under the sway of Tea Party politics this year. The Equality State Policy Center in Laramie says in its latest newsletter that the 2011 session is likely to bring...

another attack on setting aside Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (provided for under the Environmental Quality Act)

another attempt to change the Wyoming Constitution to outlaw gay marriage and civil unions

a proposal for a Draconian immigration law like Arizona's

at attempt to repeal basic safety requirements for childcare facilities

And I'm sure other weird proposals will rear their ugly heads. Remember last year?

In an effort to increase citizen involvement in the process, the ESPC is sponsoring its annual Citizen Lobbyist Training on Wednesday, January 12, the second day of the general session, starting at 8 a.m. at the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne.

Here are some details:

Participants in the trainings learn how a bill becomes law. Experienced lobbyists who work for ESPC member organizations outline the attributes of an effective lobbyist and teach attendees how to testify before a legislative committee. Other presentations outline how citizens can get the attention of legislators and affect their policy deliberations from home. Sitting and former legislators offer their perspectives on lobbying and discuss approaches that worked – and didn’t work – with them.

The training attracts citizens from all walks of life, including students, representatives of nonprofit groups and people who simply want to learn more about lawmaking in Wyoming.

The Equality State Policy Center offers scholarship funds to help bring individuals and organizational representatives to our Citizen Lobbyist Training.

Scholarship applications will be considered from individuals and all nonprofit organizations, with priority given to groups working with women, people of color, youth, low-income, rural, disabled, Native Americans, immigrants and refugees, and gay, lesbian and transgendered people.

Registration is open until the training is filled.

FMI: E-mail it to Dan Neal at dneal@equalitystate.org.

Creative economy coming to a Cheyenne near you

I pulled this blurb from the Cheyenne International Film Festival site. The film fest is an exciting new event for Cheyenne -- I attended most of the screening at the first one last year. This year, CIFF2 is thinking of new ways to invigorate the community through arts and culture.

Here are the details:

Mark your calendars! The Cheyenne International Film Festival (CIFF) begins with an important pre-festival gathering for anyone wanting to learn about and experience the New Creative Economy. It’s not just about the intrinsic nature of arts and culture as community assets, but also how creative thinking is integrated into day-to-day activities.

So far, Wyoming Community Media (WCM) and Ignite Cheyenne are teaming up to provide a day-long experience. Join the event through facebook by clicking http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=142223729161546

The ECE features hands-on seminars presented by experts and practitioners of digital media arts. Students of all ages including businesses owners, their employees and budding entrepreneurs will learn how to tell their stories better: Other ECE partners will be announced as they consent.

Here are some of the topics:
storytelling – scriptwriting, and story arc
basic still and motion pictures – composition, lights, sound and camera operation
digital music production – how to compose your own music
website design – blogging, email marketing
social media – how to maximize networks to increase profits
art integration – how educators can add creating thinking approaches in the classroom

Take away experiences that will enhance existing skills on the job, add new skills if you’re reinventing yourself. There will be a small registration fee, that includes lunch and a ticket voucher for a CIFF film program.

ECE will convene May 20, 2011, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. the Historic Atlas Theatre in Downtown Cheyenne, 211 W. 16th Street. There will be a small registration fee that covers lunch and two ticket vouchers for CIFF movie programs. Half of your registration is tax deductible as a charitable contribution.

Stay tuned for more details about seminars and presenters. Even if you don’t plan to attend, please pass the word to your friends and colleagues.

Making sure that my premiums are spent on health care and not solid-gold Hummers for insurance execs

Local food and local products at Cheyenne Winter Farmers' Market

The Wyoming Business Council sponsors the Cheyenne Winter Farmers Market on six Saturdays throughout the winter. The market will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. inside the Historic Train Depot in downtown Cheyenne. Dates are November 6 (missed this one), December 4, January 8, February 5, March 5, and April 2.

Some of the locally raised and produced products are all-natural eggs, meats from free-range animals (beef, lamb,  bison, chicken and turkeys), winter vegetables, salsa, soup mixes, local jams and honey, gourmet pasta, mushrooms, natural hand-crafted body care products, and much more.

For further information contact:
Kim Porter, Farmers Market & Education Program Manager
Phone: 307.777.6319
Fax: 307.777.2838

Connecting culture and agriculture in rural Wisconsin

Fascinating info and video about the Wormfarm Institute in rural Wisconsin. One of the winners of this year's Wisconsin Governor's Awards in Support of the Arts, residencies at the Wormfarm include 15-18 hours per week of growing and cultivating and harvesting in the institute's vegetable garden. The rest of the time, artists can cultivate their own art. Veggies, fruit and art is sold at Roadside Culture Stands. There's also a gallery in the local town.

FMI: Connecting culture and agriculture

Thanks to The Artful Manager's blog for this.

After watching the video about the Wormfarm produced for the awards, I am in love with this place. Although I am a city boy, I've planted my own veggie gardens in three states since 1974, with time off for various reasons. My Cheyenne, Wyoming, garden has been expanding the past three years. I do not have grandiose plans, but prefer to grow my own because it is fun and the results are so tasty. As a writer, I get ideas while gardening -- and sometimes mull over my latest story while plucking weeds from beneath he tomatoes. I'm now working on a gardening story. Wait, don't run away. It's a very exciting story involving sexual hijinks -- and I'm not just talking about botanical pollination, although that can be very stimulating for gardeners. I'll see where it goes...

Tell it like it is M.L. and Wanda and Walt and Eminem and Maria and...

Nice review of the anthology "Working Words" in Hot Metal Bridge, the litmag at University of Pittsburgh. The reviewer, Amanda Brant, points out that "tell it like it is" seems to be the touchstone holding the many pieces together." Who can argue? Not every day that Eminem and Walt Whitman and Jim Daniels and Wanda Coleman and Emily Dickinson and Michael Moore and Maria Mazzioti Gillan get to share the same stage.

The reviewer excerpted the end of Gillan's long poem, “Daddy, We Called You.” Because it is much easier to cut-and-paste than actually type, here it is:

Papa,
silk worker,
janitor,
night watchman,
immigrant Italian,
better than any “Father Knows Best” father,
bland as white rice,
with your wine press in the cellar,
with the newspapers you collected
out of garbage piles to turn into money
you banked for us,
with your mousetraps,
with your cracked and calloused hands,
with your yellowed teeth.

Papa,
dragging your dead leg
through the factories of Paterson,
I am outside the house now,
shouting your name.

Read the entire review at Hot Metal Bridge.

Buy "Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams" at Coffee House Press or from your local bookstore.

No Hobbit Homes for Tea Party Slim

When my neighbor, Tea Party Slim, came to the door, I thought he was going to rub my face in the election results.

But I was wrong.

“I guess you won,” I said, extending my hand.

He shook it. “We did. But that’s water under the bridge. Got a few minutes?”

Slim didn’t wait for an invitation. He breezed right past me and sat on the couch. He held a sheaf of papers in his right hand. He shook them at me. “America’s suburbs are threatened with a gigantic conspiracy.”

“Want some coffee?” I asked.

“Not if it’s that shade-tree grown farmer-friendly commie goop they sell at farmer’s markets and serve at trendy city coffee shops.”

I was taken aback. Slim had never refused coffee before.

“That’s what I’m saying. The cities are talking over, trying to push us suburbanites into U.N.-mandated human habitation zones.”

I had many questions. But first, I had to set the record straight. “Slim, we don’t live in the suburbs.”

“We do too. We’re not in the city. That’s downtown.”

“We’re in the city limits. The suburbs ring a city. Suburbanites have to drive to work.”

“I drive to work. So do you.”

“True, but sometimes I walk. Sometimes I ride my bike. I could ride the bus if I wanted.”

“That’s what they want – public transportation.”

During the past year, I’ve had similar one-sided conversations with Slim. Socialized health care. Missing birth certificates. Elitists in Washington. It was best to get a cup of commie coffee and let it play out. So I did.

“You’ve heard of Article 21?” He was shaking the papers at me again.

“I haven’t.”

He smiled. “I knew it.” There followed a long convoluted explanation, so long, in fact, that it forced me back to the coffee pot. When I returned, Slim was still talking. It was peppered with references to "compact development" and "smart growth" and “sustainable development” and "New Urbanism" and "transit-oriented development” and “creative economy” and "livable communities."

“These all lead to the same thing – the U.N. forcing us to live in Hobbit homes.”

“You mean Hobbit like in the movie? Those nifty little houses in Hobbiton with the round doors?”

“Not so cute if you’re 6-foot-2 like I am and are forced to live in one and give up your two-car garage and three bathrooms and big kitchen and back porch with the gas grill.” He looked like he was going to cry.

“Don’t worry, Slim. None of that is going to happen. Hobbiton is just an imaginary place.”

His face took on the rosy red glare of Tea Party outrage. “You’re darn right it’s not going to happen. Americans have the Constitutional right to live in any kinds of houses we want and drive any kind of truck we want.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” I said.

“Trucks are our ‘personal mobility machines” – that’s what Ed Braddy of the American Dream Coalition calls them. He’s a real trailblazer – you should look him up. A true visionary.”

“I drive a Prius, but you know that. But I’m thinking of buying that new electric car. Just plug it in at night – no more gas stations.”

He laughed. “Agenda 21 already has you by the balls. Next thing you’re going to tell me is that you and your wife are going to retire to a cramped city condo instead of a sprawling retirement community in Arizona with a golf course.”

“Yes, Slim, that’s exactly what I’m saying. The misses and I already have a cool condo picked out in Denver. It’s close to stores and museums and relatives. We can walk everywhere or take the light rail. No lawns to mow and water. The apartment complex even has its own roof garden where I can plant my veggies. It’s close to a bikepath and …..

Slim stood. He’d heard enough. “You go ahead and live in a Hobbit home, Frodo.” He shook his papers. “We’re going to fight this at city hall. No human habitation zones for us.”

I stood. “Good luck, man. You’ve had some recent successes so best to strike while the iron’s hot.”

"Join us, Mike. Join the rising tide of outrage against nearly everything.”

I saw Slim to the door. “I’d love to, Slim, but I have to ride my bike to the winter farmer’s market in the renovated historic Depot downtown to buy my locally produced food and locally made Christmas presents. That’s all part of sustainable development, Slim.”

I thought his head would explode. But he calmed himself and smiled. “We’re on a winning streak, you said so yourself.”

“True, but streaks don’t last forever. Just ask a baseball player. Or a Democrat. Even a Republican.”

With that, he said his farewells, got in his truck and drove to his house two doors down.

Inspiration for this piece came from the recent article in Mother Jones, “The Tea Party Targets… Sustainable Development?” by Stephanie Mencimer. Go to http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/tea-party-agenda-21-un-sustainable-development?

UPLIFT presents Rodger McDaniel with public service award

Photos by Mindy Dahl

Wyoming Tribune-Eagle education reporter Josh Mitchell wrote about UPLIFT’s 20th anniversary celebration in Wednesday’s edition.

The celebration was held Tuesday evening in the Cole Elementary school gym. One of my fellow UPLIFT board members, Brenda Ducharme, teaches at the school.

UPLIFT, the Wyoming affiliate of Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, presented Rodger McDaniel (shown in lower left in photo with UPLIFT Director Peggy Nickell) with its public service award. McDaniel is the outgoing director of the Wyoming Department of Health’s Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Division. He will be missed.

I served with Rodger in the early 1990s on the first board of Laramie County Habitat for Humanity. I moved on to other volunteer roles and a few years later, Rodger and his family were in Nicaragua directing that country’s Habitat projects. He returned to his law practice, became an ordained minister and was eventually tapped by Gov. Dave Freudenthal for public service. His retirement was announced last week.

Rodger’s been crucial in bringing vision to a state that struggles with some rotten mental health and drug abuse statistics. Crisis centers – even in the Capital City – are few and far between, as are clinicians. The division’s Medicaid Waiver program for children and teens have helped pay for residential treatment and, even more importantly, aftercare when the child returns home.

Here’s hoping that Rodger and his colleagues have put us on a course that even 2010-style regressive politics can’t change. Wyoming’s new “Code of the West” may be fine for ropin’ and brandin’, but it doesn’t help curtail alarming teen suicide statistics and the state’s shortage of quality children's mental health treatment.

Josh interviewed me for the Nov. 17 story. My two cents worth:

Mike Shay is an UPLIFT board member and both of his children received help from the organization.

UPLIFT outreach coordinators attend school meetings with parents, Shay noted. The organization helps navigate parents through the complex system and connects families with different services, Shay added.

“UPLIFT”s been crucial in Wyoming,” Shay said.

I’d send you to the WTE site to read the rest, but it’s not on there.

As I've said here before, my son struggled with ADHD and my daughter has mental health issues. Both were helped by the incredible UPLIFT staff. We need these professionals to navigate school and government and treatment centers. They serve as guides to us confused, stressed-out parents.

You can find out more about UPLIFT at http://www.upliftwy.org/

Speaking of short stories -- return of Mrs. P

Here are the opening paragraphs of my story included in the new Coffee House Press anthology, Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams:

The Problem with Mrs. P

First problem: nobody was home to help. Not her two daughters, off to school. Not her husband Robbie, who hadn’t been home for weeks, probably right this minute at that whore Gloria’s house.


Second problem: she was seven months pregnant and bleeding like crazy. She pressed a cream-colored towel against her crotch; it bloomed with a red chrysanthemum of her own blood. She stood in the bathroom doorway, eyes sparking, knees shaking.

Third problem: her damn husband had the car. Not that she was in any shape to make the seven-mile drive into Cheyenne, ten if you factored in the hospital which was downtown.

Fourth problem: the telephone was dead, thanks to Robbie not paying the bills like he was supposed to. She had her own prepaid cell phone with a few minutes still left on it. But it was downstairs on the kitchen table. Just the thought of negotiating the stairs brought a throbbing to her abdomen.

Fifth problem, or maybe it was the first: she and her baby boy might be dying.


To be continued...

The Guardian: Tech helps short stories make a comeback

When making pitches to editors and agents, short story writers are often asked two question:

1. Why?

2. Do you have a novel?

My answers are usually these:

1. Because

2. Yes, I have several unpublished novels but right now I am writing stories so why don't you publish them, eh?

We short-form writers have plenty of venues for our work. Most are small magazines or literary magazines attached to colleges and universities. They usually pay in copies or in a subscription or in small amounts of what's known to novelists as "cash."

So, when we see good news regarding short stories, we latch on to it like a Tea-Partier onto a dubious factoid.

Here's part of a story from London's The Guardian:

Technology has enabled literary magazines to solve the two problems holding them back: print and distribution costs, and marketing. The Internet solved the first and social networking is fixing the second.

--snip--

These days, the process of "deep reading" – that is, entering into a trance-like state and becoming mentally and emotionally consumed in another world – often seems like a huge effort, especially when the cheap thrill of Twitter or a blog is just a tap away. However, people are starting to suspect that the Internet connives against us. It sells us the lie that it's better to click or flick in idle spare time than it is to read a book. But after half an hour – after you've exhausted your regular websites and blogs, and everyone on Twitter and Facebook is in bed – you get the same feeling as you do from eating chocolate all day.

Could we be in a place now where technology has brought us full circle? Where that which took us away from stories is now set to bring us back to them?

"The short story is an essential art form again," says [author and blogger] Nikesh Shukla.

Many writers are now selling their stories separately at places such as Shortlist Press and .

Read the full story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/nov/10/literary-magazine-technology-internet

I, for one, am happy about this changing state of affairs. I published one story collection in book form and have been contemplating self-publishing the next one. I have published many stories in small mags, although none of them are strictly online versions. Most print mags keep your stories for 3-6 months and it can be up to a year before your story appears.

I've been blogging since 2005, and started my web site a decade ago. But neither has led to a publishing bonanza. I've posted snippets of stories on the web site and I blog regularly about prog politics and Wyoming and writing and mental health and assorted other issues. Perhaps I'm flitting around too much from topic to topic. But what the heck -- it's my time and my blog so I'll write what I want.

I'll be spending the next couple weeks exploring online publishers of short stories. Stay tuned for future reports....

Just what are those chemicals used in fracking?

I was watching the CBS 60 Minutes segment tonight ("Shaleionaires") about natural gas drilling and horizontal drilling and fracking in shale formations. Most of the episode was set in Louisiana and Texas and West Virginia. One guy demonstrated how he could light his water on fire.

This issue has come up in Pavillion, Wyoming, and has been well-documented. Wyoming is now the only state that requires companies to release the chemicals used in fracking. Kind of hard to believe that our oil-and-gas-and-coal state had the foresight to make a stand on fracking. Too bad CBS didn't talk about that.

Oil shale drilling is booming in Laramie, Platte and Goshen counties here in Wyoming. Lots of talk about danger to our water supplies but no hard data yet. Or maybe I should say -- no hard data that's been released to the public.

More later....

UPLIFT 20th anniversary reception on Nov. 16 in Cheyenne

You are invited you UPLIFT's 20th anniversary reception on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 5-7 p.m., at the Cole E.S. Gym, 615 W. 9th St., Cheyenne. Enjoy free food and beverages and learn about UPLIFT's services. More info at www.upliftwy.org

"Lived experience" is the buzz phrase for future mental health care

I am not a clinician.

But I am a parent of two children with mental health issues. As an adult who’s struggled with depression and takes wonder drugs for it, I am also considered a consumer of mental health services.

This “lived experience” may prove to be crucial in the future.

Change, you see, is on the horizon. I would say that the dark clouds of doom are looming, threatening to destroy us all, but that would depress me and I’d have to go lie down and read Kafka for the rest of the day.

The annual conference in Atlanta for the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health began the day after Black Tuesday, Nov. 2. Many presentations were colored by that fact.

Andrea Barnes, policy wonk for the federation, said this on the opening day’s overview session: “What we know about the Republicans’ agenda is they want to roll back everything, especially prevention funds. The Affordable Health Care Act has some very important pieces regarding mental health. There is no guarantee that all the provisions will be enacted now that the Congress has changed.”

Much talk about change – the bad kind. Some gloom and doom.

But by the end of the conference, I felt hopeful that stressful times and creative thinking may bring about a new and more family- and community-centered way of taking care of our youth.

“We have to find alternative ways to do business,” said Gary M. Blau, Child, Adolescent and Family Branch, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). He urged us to embrace the reality of huge deficits and the changing face of Congress. He said that it was our “lived experience” that will make the difference.

This changing dynamic will not only need involvement from parents and youth and family members and the community. It will be crucial. “We need to implement things that work – things our young people have told us,” Blau said.

As I said earlier – I’m not a clinician. Nor am I part of a social services non-profit and treatment center. I am a lay person on a board for a UPLIFT, the federation affiliate in Wyoming. I do not know all the lingo and acronyms tossed around like confetti at these conferences. However, my wife and I have 20 years of experience helping our children with their mental health challenges.

Here’s a brief intro from Gary Blau as to how this world is changing.

He outlined five areas in substance abuse and mental health that SAMHSA and the federation would like to be included in benefit packages, such as those that are part of Medicaid and Medicare.

1. Respite care, so parents can get a break and even go back to work.
2. Therapeutic mentoring to extend services
3. Behavioral health consultation services. Monitor children in daycare and preschool and get help for those who need it. Can reduce the number of kids kicked out of daycare for aggressive behavior.
4. Use technology to deliver services. “Our kids come out treatment and don’t go to AA meetings. They do communicate via social network sites.” This can be used for e-therapy and peer counseling.
5. Parent and caregiver support services. He said that this is the number one issue for SAMHSA. “We need a cadre of parent support providers, and we’re working on a certification process.”

All of these acknowledge the fact that parents and youth are on the frontlines and know what’s needed. That’s a big change from 20 or even 10 years ago when parents often were blamed for their children’s failing – and therapy was something done to a teen and not with the teen.

These changes will be needed as budgets shrink and more Americans (32 million) enter the health care insurance system via the (mostly) Democratic Party’s reform package.

None of it can happen without advocacy. “If folks in this room don’t advocate, our very existence is threatened,” said Blau.

I consider this blog an advocacy tool. More to do, of course, both locally, statewide and in Congress.

For more info, go to the federation web site at http://www.ffcmh.org/ or SAMHSA at http://www.samhsa.gov/. For help in Wyoming, go to http://www.upliftwy.org/ or call 307-778-8686.

Happy 65th birthday, Neil Young -- keep on rockin' in the free world

On Veterans Day... A story from the front lines of empathy

Six days before Veterans Day 2010, Afghanistan War veteran and author Wes Moore had this message:

“As a society, we need to be more empathetic, tolerant and proactive.”

This was unlike other speeches I would hear in the week leading up to Nov. 11. It was a crowd of some 700 people whose mission includes empathy, tolerance and activism. It is the annual gathering of the Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health. While I’m sure there were military veterans in the room, most attendees you would fall under that term sneared at by Mrs. Palin and her pals -- community organizers.

Lest you think that Mr. Moore is some namby-pamby community organizer…. Well, he is a community organizer. Not much namby in his pamby (or vice versa).

He served in Afghanistan in 2005-2006 with the U.S. Army’s elite First Brigade of the 82nd Airborne. Trained in the art of combat and the art of jumping out of planes in full battle gear. He grew up in a single-parent family in a tough Baltimore neighborhood. He graduated from military school and Johns Hopkins. He later became a Rhodes Scholar and studied in scores of foreign countries. He was special assistant to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2007. He writes. He thinks. Soon, he’ll be a father for the first time.

We should be thanking him for his service. Instead, he thanked us.

“Thanks for the work you do,” he said on this chilly Atlanta Friday. “There’s no way we can advance in society with only a sliver of society engaging in the conversation.”

He added that there are “no expendable kids and no expendable zip codes.”

As a teen, Moore felt that he was expendable. He started getting in trouble. His mom was scared. She found a military school who agreed to take her son. He went to Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania -- but wasn’t happy about it. Moore ran away. His mom sent him back. He ran away again. His mom sent him back. After returning from his fifth AWOL, Moore felt something click in him. He found himself in the midst of an opportunity. He was being encouraged to excel.

So he did.

As he pursued military service and education, Moore discovered that others who had grown up in his neighborhood were falling through the cracks in those beat-up mean streets.

One was Wes Moore – the one in the title of the book The Other Wes Moore. He and three other young men robbed a jewelry store. As they fled with $400,000 in stolen goods, one of the men drew a gun and shot and killed an off-duty Baltimore police officer. A multi-state manhunt ensued. The robbers were captured and tried. The other Wes Moore now serves a life sentence without parole in prison.

“This was the wind in the back of the project – I wanted people to understand these neighborhoods we come from.”

Moore corresponded with the other Wes Moore and later they met face-to-face. Soldier Moore found out that Prisoner Moore was smart and tough. He wanted no pity but agreed with Soldier Moore that action was needed to save other neighborhood kids.

“We can’t look at them as ‘those kids,’ “ Moore said. “We need to say ‘our kids.’ “

He added: “Potential in the U.S. is universal but opportunity is not. The biggest gap we have in our country is the expectation gap.”

We applauded wildly, of course. We all agreed on the mission. How could we not. Poor kids and kids of a different color and kids with mental health issues all need to be considered “our kids.” But we diverge on the methods.

Moore asked us to consider some things.

"You are out there every day and know we can’t wait for someone else to figure it out,” he said. “Answers don’t lie in state capitol buildings, they lie in our communities.

“You are all the change agents.”

He didn’t say it but I was thinking it – you can’t count on solutions from the federal government. We are moving away from that dynamic. Community organizers need to think more creatively about the first word in this description – community. For too long, we’ve looked at money and answers to come raining down from D.C. Most of the time, the answers were coming from us, although there was that fed cash, too.

But the rains have turned to showers and, once the weird new Congress is in place, a drought will surely follow.

We’ve already seen that with our Wyoming federation affiliate. Some of the government funding sources are drying up. Corporate and private sources don’t have the cash to spare. How will our youth get services during the coming drought?

Moore isn’t waiting around for someone else to take the lead. He wrote a book. He’s speaking to all kinds of groups, motivating grass-roots work on mental health and fatherhood in the black community and prison recidivism. He works with the kids in his old neighborhood and in New Jersey where he now lives (in the photo, Wes is talking to students at Patterson Middle School). He’s tackling it head-on, just the tactic you might expect from an Army officer turned community organizer.

“We have a saying in the Army – you can’t hit a target you can’t see,” he said. That got a spirited hoo-ah from the back of the room. Moore acknowledged it and moved on. He’s a mover.

Wes, since I didn’t get a chance to say this last week when you signed my book: “Thanks for your service. Happy Veterans Day.”

Wes Moore's book info: The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, 256 pages, Spiegel & Grau, ISBN-10: 0385528191; ISBN-13: 978-0385528191

At children's mental health conference, creative people tell their stories

I rose very early and jetted off to Atlanta on Wednesday, Nov. 3 – the morning after.

I was bound for the 21st annual conference for Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health. I serve on the UPLIFT board, the federation affiliate in Wyoming, and it was my turn to attend the conference. It was especially important to concentrate on something other than the dismal election results. Wyoming is now officially a one-party state, with a full slate of Republican electeds, and a veto-proof (almost Democratic-proof) legislature.

Children’s mental health. Huge topic. I filled half of a composition book with notes and brought back reams of paper and many resource links. I’ll tackle the topics in bite-sized chunks.

Of the 750 registrants, some 150 were “youth,” mostly high school and college ages. The conference had an entire youth track. Much of it revolved around the arts. Viva Vox, an arts mentoring group from St. Louis, conducted workshops in photography, dance and drumming. There also was a youth poster competition for next year’s conference. These young people, all diagnosed with various mental health and behavior issues and substance abuse issues, brought their dance and drum performance to Sunday’s wrap-up session. They were accompanied by two musicians from the Ivory Coast, now living in the U.S. A terrific performance by talented people.

The federation goes out of its way to involve young people, and not just in some token way. They are a crucial part of the conference. They voiced lots of great ideas in sessions. In some cases, they were the centerpiece. Many of them belong to local chapters of Youth M.O.V.E. National. M.O.V.E. stands for Motivating Others through Voices of Experience. It has its own office at the federation, and advisory board members come from all over the U.S.

My two children could be members. My son was diagnosed at 5 with ADHD and spent one of his teen years in drug and alcohol treatment. My daughter was diagnosed bipolar, struggled with self-mutilation and spent most of a year in two different mental health treatment centers. She’s now in an intensive substance abuse treatment center. My wife has a learning disability and ADHD. I struggle with depression. We are veterans of the mental health treatment battles. And, as is true with most of the people at the conference, we have stories to tell.

Most involve battling the stigma of mental illness. Such a huge issue. When you’re young and different, you’re a target. Kids have to be resilient to weather the storms. Sometimes they are able to stand up to the bullying. Other times they wrap themselves in the “weirdo” label and live the life of an outcast. That can have some merits. I don’t know how many poets and artists I know who were outcasts at school and went on to fruitful arts careers. Some kids wrap themselves in the stigma and pursue drug and alcohol and other behaviors that help them fit in or so it seems. And there are those who just give up.

Wyoming has the dubious distinction of leading the nation in teen suicides. This from a Wyoming Tribune-Eagle article last summer:

Since 1999, Wyoming has had one of highest suicide rates in the nation. In 2002, 2003 and 2006, Wyoming had the highest rate of any state.

It's a statistic that many say is unacceptable, but is largely ignored or avoided by the general public.

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among Wyoming youth, said Keith Hotle, the suicide prevention team leader with the Wyoming Department of Health. Only car crashes kill more teens.

Cowboy up, ya’ll!

It was a much-discussed conference topic. We began Sunday morning with a memorial service for those young people who had committee suicide during the past year. At least a hundred people got up to write a name on the easels at the front of the hall. I went up and wrote, “We miss you, Charlie,” for my son’s old friend who hung himself in a closet last winter. We wrote the names in silence in deference to the dead. Many tears.

My 25-year-old son has lost three good friends to suicide since high school. One had mental illness but had just finished art school in Denver. He used a gun. Another used pills. It happens too often.

So the federation addresses the issue by holding sessions on stigma, bullying, suicide prevention and ways to assist youth as they transition from teen years to adulthood. One of the most powerful was the one that featured LGBT youth and their parents. They spoke of having mental health issues (being gay is not one of them, despite what the fundies say) and their LGBT status, especially in high school.

The four youth were Hispanic and African-American. They had at least one supportive parent – all mothers, at least in this group. There are supportive fathers such as Kirk’s dad in “Glee.” But when gay young men come out of the closet, it’s usually the fathers who have the most extreme reaction.

I came home from the conference with a greater understanding of the challenges faced by our young people. There are many other challenges when you work or are an advocate in this field. We’re all facing the fact that the new Republican House will do its darnedest to cut budgets and turn back the clock on health reform. Medicaid programs, such as Wyoming’s excellent Mental Health Waiver, will be in jeopardy. We all will have even bigger roles to play in the future. More about that later…

We have to work with our young people to make this a better place for them. I found encouragement in Youth M.O.V.E.’s activism. They are learning to embrace their realities and move forward, helping themselves and their peers, and showing adults that they can be active participants in the healing process.

At a session entitled “Social Marketing with Digital Video: Celebrating Resiliency, Bridging Divides,” I saw five videos that gave me hope. One, "Bring Change 2 Mind," was directed by Ron Howard and featured Meryl Streep and her adult sister who’s struggled with mental health issues. But local organizations are also tackling these topics in video form. Carol Tiernan and Lisa Preney showed a 90-second video they produced entitled “Together We Can Build a Bridge.” See it here.

Creative people telling stories. That’s what it’s all about.

Find many more resources at the Federation's web site.

Can't leave well enough alone? You must be a blogger.

Did your mom or grandmother ever say, "You can't leave well enough alone?"

Funny expression. When it something "well enough" and why should you leave it alone? Shouldn't it be "well done" or just finished?

Many bloggers I know can't leave well enough alone. Maybe that's what drew them to blogs in the first place. Unlimited space where you can ignore well enough into eternity.

Anyway, some of you followed my serial tale of the Oct. 22 near-miss crash with a drunk driver on I-25. I told the installments on Facebook as sat in my Ford on the way to Pueblo later than day.

I received an "unsafe lane change" ticket which I was going to pay but thought better of it. The young driver who almost killed us was busted for DUI -- drunk at 8:15 a.m. So I decided to write a letter to the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles and copies to various other agencies (see the end of the letter).

Here's the letter:

Oct. 26, 2010

Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles
Department A
Denver, CO 80243

To Whom It May Concern:

I am not a perfect driver.

But I am a pretty good one.

I drive thousands of on-the-job miles around Wyoming each year. That’s in all kinds of weather. I put thousands of personal miles on my own car each year traveling back and forth between Cheyenne and Fort Collins and Denver, which is my home town.

No tickets. No wrecks. Maybe a few close calls, but that’s to be expected in the Rocky Mountain states, where driving conditions can change in the blink of an eye.

That’s how accidents happen – in the blink of an eye. I may have blinked on Friday morning, Oct. 22, near the Harmony Road interchange on I-25 in Larimer County. I looked in my side view mirror, clicked my turn signal, and then eased into the left lane. I was avoiding the heavy morning traffic merging on to the highway.

Next thing I know, I saw a green Subaru on my left. I pulled back to the right lane, slowed and watched as the Subaru kicked up a cloud of dust from the median and then crossed right in front of me and off to the right. In the chaos, I slowed and pulled off to the right shoulder about 100 yards down the road. I got out of the car and made my way back to the Subaru. It was upright facing the wire fence. The car had a few dings and the tries were flat. The driver was out of the car and seemed to be O.K. I apologized, certain that I had caused the accident. The driver was young, maybe mid-20s, with a sparse beard. He was dressed in black. His hands shook from the shock, or at least that’s what I thought at the time.

Thirty minutes later, he wore handcuffs in the back of a Colorado State Patrol car. He was on his way to jail for driving while impaired.

And I got a ticket for unsafe lane change. Or, as the ticket read: “Changed lanes when unsafe.”

Funny how your perception can change almost instantaneously. One moment I’m feeling terrible because I may have made a bad move that led to the wreck of another person’s car. The next minute I’m thinking, “We could all be dead.” “All” meaning my wife of 28 years, my 17-year-old daughter and me. And the driver of the Subaru who was drunk at 8:15 on a Friday morning.

When I was merging left on the highway, I didn’t see the driver of the Subaru because he wasn’t there. My guess is that he was behind me and tried to speed around me on his way to work, which is where he said he was going. My statement to the police said that “I didn’t see the Subaru.” I meant that literally. When he looked in my side view mirror, the Subaru wasn’t there. And then, in the blink on an eye, he was there and spinning out of control in his 4WD Subaru Outback. That’s one safe car, known for its reliability and safety. That the driver emerged unhurt speaks to that.

But you can give an impaired driver the world’s best car and he or she can find ways to do unsafe and dangerous things in it.

I am contesting my ticket. I may end up paying it when I go to court in Ft. Collins on 1/14/11, and that’s something I can live with. But I want the record to show that the unsafe lane-changing driver was not me but the driver of the Subaru. He was unsafe when he got into his car that morning. He was unsafe speeding down the highway. My miscalculation resulted in his unsafe and unsound response that downed a highway light pole, wrecked his car, and could have resulted in death or injuries to my family and any number of other drivers on the road that morning.

I conclude by commending the Colorado State Patrol, the Larimer County Sheriff and the ambulance EMTs who were at the scene. Professionals all. One patrolman even jumped my car, dead on the side of the road from extended use of emergency blinkers. Thanks to him, we quickly resumed our trip to Pueblo. We were late, but intact.

Sincerely,



Michael Shay

Cc: Colorado State Patrol
Larimer County Court
Farmers Insurance

Art blossoms all over Georgia -- and in airports all over U.S.

"Dogwood," a sculpture by John Portman in downtown Atlanta. I think this a dogwood blossom in bronze I(although I couldn't determine the medium). These blossoms light up the Georgia spring which usually occurs in late March. In Wyoming, the calendar may say spring but the landscape cries snow and cold. The Atlanta airport has a fantastic public art program. Walking the concourse like walking the corridors of a museum. Art, history and science displays.

Here's another airport that really values art:

What hath Coke wrought?

Ol' Doc Pemberton offers up a serving of CoCola (Southern pronunciation) at the World of Coca Cola in Atlanta. I was taking a walk in the sun during a break in the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health conference. One of the discussion topics has been the high incidence of drug and alcohol abuse among youth with mental health issues. Way back when, patent medicine was laced with coca and laudanum. Parents gave it too their kids for all kinds of reasons. Our heritage of abuse? My understanding is that the coke in Coke was replaced early on with caffeine, which is the drug of choice for most of us now.

'To Learning'

The entrance of the old Carnegie Library in Atlanta is now a monument or public work of art, depending on how you look at it. New central library not so new. One of those dreadful square concrete mid-sixties buildings. Art inside helps warm the space.

In U.S., opportunity is not universal

Wes Moore, author of "The Other Wes Moore," today at the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health conference in Atlanta: "In the U.S., potential is universal but opportunity is not."

Looking forward to reading the book.

More Atlanta public art

"The Rites of Spring" by Eliot Weinberg. Cold day in Atlanta. It is warmer (I hear) back in Cheyenne. Wes Moore speaking at Mental Health conference luncheon.

Big statues, big themes, big vision

"Ballet Olympia" (1991-92), conceived and designed by John Portman from Paul Manship's "Maenad" (1953), a three-foot bronze figurine. Created in the run-up to the 1994 Olympics.

Harvey Deselms talking about a bronze on every Cheyenne corner. How about this one in Atlanta across from my downtown convention hotel? Within a block of the hotel are at least seven original sculptures. I don't like them all but none are horses or cowboys, which is a vast improvement.

Real Wyoming suicide problem trumps imaginary one

From Fox News:

U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis said Friday that some of her Wyoming constituents are so worried about the reinstatement of federal estate taxes that they plan to discontinue dialysis and other life-extending medical treatments so they can die before Dec. 31.

Instead of worrying about some imaginary suicide problem in Wyoming, Lummis could be doing something about a real suicide problem (from an article by Baylie Evans in the 8/28/10 Wyoming Tribune-Eagle):

Since 1999, Wyoming has had one of highest suicide rates in the nation. In 2002, 2003 and 2006, Wyoming had the highest rate of any state.
It's a statistic that many say is unacceptable, but is largely ignored or avoided by the general public.

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among Wyoming youth, said Keith Hotle, the suicide prevention team leader with the Wyoming Department of Health. Only car crashes kill more teens.

If a new disease was the second-leading cause of death for youth, "that would be front page news all over the state," he said.

Instead, the topic makes people cringe.

People such as Rep. Lummis, no doubt.

Has she shown similar outrage about this real problem?

Read the rest of WTE's disturbing article at http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2010/08/29/news/01top_08-29-10.txt

Election Day 2010 Cheyenne

Mike and Mike in the morning -- electioneering for House District 8 candidate Ken McCauley. Lots of waves, honks and thumps-ups at the corner of Dell Range and Yellowstone. Hot chocolate helped too.

Join David Wendt and his "Lummis Left Us Behind Tour"

Last-minute pitch from Democrat David Wendt for Wyoming's lone Congressional seat:

Candidate for Congress David Wendt concluded his “Lummis Left Us Behind Tour” on Sunday in Green River. Wendt addressed a number of issues on the tour, including Lummis’ record of voting against student loan reform, against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and of failing to fully support our Veterans.
In Green River, Wendt spoke on those issues, and called special attention to the Wyoming Range. Lummis voted “NO” on a bill that protects the Wyoming Range from oil and gas drilling.

Here are his prepared remarks:

“Hello, thank you all for joining me today. I have had the great honor, over the past seven months, of traveling the state of Wyoming as a candidate for the United States House of Representatives. I am currently on the last leg of my final campaign road trip and I am very excited to bring the ‘Lummis Left Us Behind Tour’ to Sweetwater County. It’s always a pleasure to visit with the hard-working people here in this wonderful part of the state.

“I believed, when I began this campaign, that it was my duty to step up and run. I believed then and believe now that Wyoming does not have the representation that it deserves. Too many have been left behind by my opponent, Rep. Cynthia Lummis.

"In Laramie, I spoke with students left behind when my opponent sided with Wall Street on a bill on student loan reform. I met with veterans in Cheyenne and spoke about small businesses in Casper and discussed the fact that my opponent, in her first vote in Congress, opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which provides protection to women, who too often do not receive the same pay as their male colleagues when they perform the same job.

“But it isn’t simply this group or that group that has been left behind. Wyoming has been left behind. There is no better example than the Wyoming Range – just a short distance from where we stand right now. Opening the beautiful Wyoming Range to oil and gas drilling is absolutely wrong – and it’s not a partisan issue.

“Protecting the Wyoming Range was a signature issue of the late Republican Senator Craig Thomas. It is an issue that has won support from Senators Barrasso and Enzi. This is an issue that the citizens of Wyoming, from all political beliefs, can unite around. My opponent chose another route.

"It is time that we take some Wyoming values to Washington. We can solve the difficult issues facing this country, but we need to restore civility and a sense that we’re in this together. That’s the Wyoming way and I intend to bring Wyoming’s citizen-legislator style of governance with me to Washington. My opponent and her Tea Party colleagues are committed to a politics of division. That approach is wrong and fails to uphold our great Wyoming traditions.

"Because here in Wyoming, we roll up our sleeves, work together and solve problems. We believe that people should get a fair chance, that students should have opportunities to pursue world-class educations, that we must support our small businesses instead of special interests. We believe that women have a right to equal pay for equal work and that we must support our nation’s Veterans. We cherish our great land and believe we must maintain it for future generations.

"Wyoming has been left behind by Cynthia Lummis, but if voters elect me, I’ll go to Congress and take Wyoming with me.”

Wendt’s “Lummis Left Us Behind Tour” made stops in Laramie, Cheyenne, Casper and Green River.

David Wendt, a Democrat, has more than 30 years of bipartisan public policy experience working with Democrats, Republicans and Independents on issues of international security.

For more information on David Wendt, please visit http://www.wendtforwyoming.com/ or call the campaign headquarters at 307-734-3913.