Occupy Casper: "Honk if You Share Your Toys!

From Meg Lanker's tumblr site: At Occupy Casper, Kaylee reminds us to share.

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!

Wyoming's first openly gay state lawmaker wows them at Denver gathering

WY Rep. Cathy Connolly (D-Laramie)

Ana's Political Page alerted me to this Denver Post story about one of Wyoming Fighting 14 Democrats:

Wyoming’s first openly gay state lawmaker wowed ‘em this weekend at The White House Project’s Go Run dinner in Denver, where more than 100 women attended a two-day political training seminar. 

State. Rep. Cathy Connolly is one of only 14 Democrats in the 90-member body, and the number of women isn’t much better. In contrast, Colorado has the highest percentage of women serving in the state legislature and Democrats control the Senate. 

When Connolly said she is the lone female on the joint education committee, the crowd murmured. The same when she said Wyoming doesn’t have state-funded preschool.

FMI: http://blogs.denverpost.com/thespot/2011/09/17/gay-wyoming-lawmaker-regales-white-house-project-attendees-in-denver/39698/


For a snarky exploration of the one-sided demographics of the Wyoming State Legislature, go to my previous post at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2011/09/legislator-demographic-map.html

Put your kids first, Wyoming

UPLIFT Executive Director Peggy Nickell was interviewed for the latest edition of Wyoming Kids First. We're all hoping that the State of Wyoming will put its very considerable fiscal resources into its most precious natural resource -- its children. The overall political atmosphere does not look favorable for this, as selfishness and stupidity are on the rise in state and national politics.

Still, Peggy Nickell provides a voice of reason in a difficult time. In the name of full disclosure, I must claim my role of UPLIFT board member since 1998. Here are some kind and wise words from Ms. Nickell:

Question from Wyoming Kids First: In your opinion, what is the most important thing Wyoming can do for its children?

Peggy Nickell: Wyoming is fortunate to have the resources to ensure that all children have a good start to life. The first five years are so critical in the development of children. It all starts with prenatal care and education and then home visiting nursing services for first time moms. It is hard to list one thing because every component of early childhood care, education, and services are so important but it does have to start before these precious children take their first breath of Wyoming’s clean mountain air!

The Progressive: ALEC, Republicans Beat Up On Kids in Special Ed

To see what's coming Wyoming's way in the form of ALEC-sponsored "education" bills, read this story in The Progressive: ALEC, Republicans Beat Up On Kids in Special Ed

Wyoming Republican legislators will be traveling to the ALEC wingnut conference in August to get their marching orders for the next session. Beating up on special ed kids will be in the mix.

I am the father of two children who benefited from the very comprehensive special education programs offered in public schools in Colorado, Maryland and Wyoming. While not all teachers and administrators were easy to work with, they all had to comply with federal regulations as spelled out in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other legislation.

It's a different story in private schools. Those schools do not have to comply with IDEA. And some of those schools according to The Progressive, are fly-by-night academies who prey on parents desperate for solutions to their children with learning disabilities and/or behavior problems.

UPLIFT hosts big yard/parking lot sale Aug. 6 in Cheyenne

On Saturday, Aug. 6, 8 a.m.-noon., UPLIFT of Wyoming is holding its Cheyenne Yard Sale in the parking lot of the Oregon Trail Bank on the corner of College Drive and Lincolnway. Lots of goods for sale. Prizes, and a car wash too. This is UPLIFT"s big fund-raiser for 2011. I've been a board member of this very active non-profit organization since 1998. UPLIFT's mission: "Encouraging success and stability for children and youth with or at risk of emotional, behavioral, learning, developmental, or physical disorders at home, school and in the community." A tall order, considering the huge needs in this very rural state of 97,000 square miles. UPLIFT has offices statewide and, in the past six months, its small staff has assisted 576 youth in 21 counties. Those are kids that would fall through the cracks if it wasn't for UPLIFT services funded by state and federal government agencies and donations from good people like you. A true public-private partnership. Come to this yard/parking lot sale or donate online at http://www.upliftwy.org.

Library's Maurice Sendak exhibit closes June 24

One more day to see this cool exhibit at the Laramie County Public Library in Cheyenne:

IN A NUTSHELL: THE WORLDS OF MAURICE SENDAK EXHIBIT

This exhibition explores the influence of the Old and New worlds in the work of renowned illustrator Maurice Sendak, best known for children’s books, “Where the Wild Things Are,” and “In the Night Kitchen.” (All ages, Entrance Gallery)

Let's Move! program gets kids up and moving and creating and eating healthy food

Having fun at the Manhattan Children's Museum

This new program sounds fun and educational -- with emphasis on the fun. Kids who take part in activities that promote healthy local foods and artistic movement and creativity (and creating) will be better prepared for the challenges they will inherit from their elders. And less likely to believe that the local food movement is a Commie plot. They also may get the strange idea that public-funded entities (That Darn Gubment!) such as museums and libraries are essential to their community’s well-being. We can hope. And support innovative projects such as Let’s Move!

This blog post comes from Susan Hildreth, director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services:

The space shuttle wasn’t the only launch in Houston last week! At a meeting with thousands of museum professionals I had the great honor of joining First Lady Michelle Obama as we launched Let’s Move! Museums and Gardens. 

 Speaking via video message to attendees of the Association of Children’s Museums and American Association of Museums Annual Meetings, Mrs. Obama said, “Everyday, in museums, public gardens, zoos, and so many other places, you expose our children to new ideas and inspire them to stretch their imaginations. You teach them new skills and new ways of thinking.  And you instill a love of learning that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. 

Every day, you all make such a difference in the lives of our children. And that’s why I’m so excited to work with you on an issue that is so critical to their health and well-being.”  

The national initiative, coordinated by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, will provide opportunities for millions of museum and garden visitors to learn about healthy food choices and physical activity through interactive exhibits and programs. 

Museums and gardens are eager to do their part in making a difference. Many of them have core missions that focus on creating healthy environments for children and their families.

Let’s Move! Museums & Gardens will focus on interactive exhibits, afterschool, summer programming and food service that help young people to make healthy food choices and be physically active.

Republicans attempt to "piratize" special education

Excellent post by AnnieJo at Daily Kos on "Piratizing Special Education in Wisconsin." You don't have to be a Wisconsin parent of a special needs child to realize the problem behind legislation such as AB110. In fact, if you live in states with Republican legislative majorities, you soon will be seeing this type of bill.

So what does AB110 propose? Chip away further at the public schools by letting the funding flow to the private schools... who aren't required to abide by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act!  Yes, that's part of the con.  As outlined in an excellent piece by Disability Rights Wisconsin, called Special Needs Scholarships: Myths and Facts about AB110, "AB110 does not even require that private schools which accept special needs scholarships have a single special education teacher or therapist on staff!"   Further, "using a special needs voucher to attend private school means that parents and children give up ALL their state and federal rights to special education."

Points to ponder for Wyoming's Congressional delegation during Children's Mental Health Week

During National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week, May 1-7, here are some points to ponder on the subject. I challenge Republicans to reconsider their rash moves to decimate Medicaid, which is crucial to the states for children's mental health care. This is a specific challenge to Wyoming's Congressional delegation, all three of whom have marched in lockstep with those who have no problems with cutting funds for children and families and working people but are quick to defend tax cuts for millionaires and continuing bloated U.S. defense budgets that channel money to outdated weapon systems and away from veterans' health care. Let's name the names: Sen. Mike Enzi, Sen. John Barrasso, and Rep. Cynthia Lummis.

The following info comes from the National Federation for Children's Mental Health. Find detailed documentation of the following at the org's web site.

2011 Prevalence of Mental Health Challenges & Extent of Service Use

Most children with mental health challenges do not get the help they need.

• 1 in 3 adolescents (aged 13 to 18) with mental disorders receive services for their diagnosis
• Half of adolescents with severely impairing mental disorders never receive treatment
• Service rates are highest for adolescents with ADHD (59.8%) and behavior disorders (45.4%)
• Fewer than 1 in 5 adolescents with anxiety, eating, or substance use disorders receive treatment for those disorders
• Hispanic and Black adolescents are less likely than their White counterparts to receive services for mood and anxiety disorders

Mental health is a nationwide public health issue.

The mental health and well-being of Americans are critical issues affecting each individual’s quality of life and the health of our communities, business and economic stability. It touches everyone– regardless of race, gender, class or religion.

• Half of all lifetime cases of mental and substance use disorders begin by age 14 and three-fourths by age 24
• Adults who began drinking alcohol before age 21 are more likely to be later classified with alcohol dependence or abuse than those who had their first drink at or after age 21
• More than 34,000 Americans die every year as a result of suicide—that’s approximately one every 15 minutes
• One estimate puts the total economic costs of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders among youth in the United States at approximately $247 billion
• Racial incidents can be traumatic and have been linked to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms among people of color
• LGBT individuals experience violence and PTSD at higher rates than the general population
• More than 6 in 10 U.S. youth have been exposed to violence within the past year, including witnessing a violent act, assault with a weapon, sexual victimization, child maltreatment, and dating violence. Nearly 1 in 10 was injured
• In a 2008 study by RAND, 18.5% of returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans reported symptoms consistent with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression

Save the date for the Children’s Justice and Mental Health conference in Cheyenne

This June 14-17 conference is timely, as mental health needs and juvenile justice continue to be big topics in Wyoming. Just yesterday, Gov. Mead was interviewed by Bob Beck on Wyoming Public Radio about the state’s flawed juvenile justice system.

The ACLU and other organizations have criticized the high numbers of juveniles who are jailed, many for minor offenses. Groups have called for a uniform approach towards addressing young offenders. Now, each county decides how to handle juveniles. Gov. Mead says he is trying to get a handle on how large the problem is, but says he does favor some type of uniform approach.

"The goal is not to put as many Juveniles in jail as possible, the goal is to address Juvenile problems and delinquency and address it. Jail is always going to be part of that, but we don't want to put more than we have to in jail."

Mead says he would like to see a Juvenile Justice system with strong accountability, but he does think they need to move away from incarcerating Juveniles. The legislature's Judiciary committee is tackling the issue next week.

Gov. Mead is in the hot seat on this one. His Republican Party supports tough crime laws  and local control. They have a Biblical bent toward “spare the rod and spoil the child.” None of that bodes well for juveniles seeking fairness from the justice system, especially in very rural counties.

The 2011 Children’s Justice and Mental Health Conference, “Well-Being, Family Voice, and Children’s Choice,” will be held June 14-17, 2011, at Little America, Cheyenne

Parent scholarships are available (see below for more info).

The conference agenda is built around several keynote sessions with a selection of breakout sessions. The conference will focus on building the capacity for a broad group of stakeholders including service providers, parents, and policy-makers in the following areas: trauma informed care, understanding the juvenile justice system, parenting children with serious emotional disorders, system of care for children’s mental health, and medication assisted treatment for youth and adolescents.

Internationally known counselor, speaker, and author, Dr. Bruce Perry, will be the keynote speaker. Dr. Perry is a recognized authority on children in crisis. He has been consulted on many high-profile incidents involving traumatized children, including the Columbine school shootings, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the Branch Davidian siege. Additionally, Dr. Rick Delaney, a psychologist who specializes in foster and adoptive children and their parents, will be sharing practical strategies for parenting and working with children with serious emotional and behavioral problems.

Conference also includes a panel focusing on the juvenile justice system entitled, “Where Do Parents Fit In?” And Dr. Bob Klaehn will present on medication assisted treatment for youth and adolescents.

There is not a registration fee but participants must register at http://gal.state.wy.us and click on “annual conference” or http://www.courts.state.wy.us/CJP

UPLIFT has been awarded funding from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry for a limited number of scholarships to assist with travel/lodging costs.  Parents participating in this event will have the opportunity to engage with other stakeholders and build their skills in understanding and parenting their child.  Parents of children or youth with emotional or mental health disorders need to register for the conference at website listed above and then submit the following information to UPLIFT at 4007 Greenway St., Ste. 201, Cheyenne, WY 82001 or kconner@upliftwy.org

P.S.: I serve on the UPLIFT board. You can leave a comment here if you seek more info.

Children's Mental Health Awareness Week (May 1-7) celebrates "the diversity and resilience of families"

Most children with mental health challenges do not get the help they need.

Here are some facts to mull over from the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health:

• 1 in 3 adolescents (aged 13 to 18) with mental disorders receive services for their diagnosis.
• Half of adolescents with severely impairing mental disorders never receive treatment.
• Service rates are highest for adolescents with ADHD (59.8%) and behavior disorders (45.4%).
• Fewer than 1 in 5 adolescents with anxiety, eating, or substance use disorders receive treatment for those disorders.
• Hispanic and Black adolescents are less likely than their White counterparts to receive services for mood and anxiety disorders.

Support a local writer -- and a good cause

Please join us on Saturday, April 2^nd, 6-8 p.m., at Barnes & Noble Cheyenne, 1851 Dell Range Blvd., for a book launch party and benefit for Cheyenne Therapeutic Equestrian Center to celebrate the release of Cowboy Fever by Joanne Kennedy.

And…

You’re invited to the after-party/reception at 8-11 p.m. at Uncle Charlie’s, 6001 Yellowstone Road. Refreshments, cash bar, and music by Brian Leneschmidt  

Guest blogger: "Three cups of tea" and girls' education are keys to Greg Mortenson's mission

Guest blogger this week is Linda Coatney, Cheyenne poet/essayist and fine ukelele player and singer. She reports on Greg Mortenson's March 29 presentation in Cheyenne. 

Greg Mortenson has humanitarian marrow in his bones.

As an adolescent, Mortenson lived in Africa with his Lutheran missionary parents and his then three-year-old sister as his father set up the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in Moshi, Tanzania, which was opened in 1971. His father announced that, in ten years, the facility would be staffed by the citizens of Tanzania. A month later he was fired for having the audacity to think that Tanzanians could run their own hospital.

So Mortenson, who spoke in Cheyenne Tuesday night, is familiar with failure. The title of the first chapter in his book Three Cups of Tea is "Failure." It is the beginning of his prophetic journey in building girls schools, first in Pakistan, and then in Afghanistan. At 23, Greg's sister Christa died from a massive epileptic seizure on the morning she was to go on her dream trip to Deyersville, Iowa, where the movie Field of Dreams had been filmed. She was inspired by the film and watched again and again.

Mortenson decided that he would climb Kilimanjaro in Christa's honor. He brought her necklace with him and he planned to leave it as an offering at the top of the mountain to "whatever deity inhabited the upper atmosphere" (From Three Cups of Tea, pg. 9). He had summited "The Savage Peak" at eleven years of age, and had much climbing experience at other locations. Nothing to it to doing it again, he thought.

He ended up spending 78 days on the mountain, but never made it to the top. When he finally got down, a sick and exhausted Mortenson ended up in the village of Korphe, where the first school was built.

At the Cheyenne presentation, we watched a short film about the first school built in Afghanistan. On Mortenson's first visit to Afghanistan, he discovered classrooms of boys in the metal storage containers used by the Russians during their invasion and occupation of the country. He also saw that the girls had no place to hold class except outside on a hillside. It was here that he met Gomajin, a young boy who herded his goats while watching the progress of the school. He was anxious for its completion so that he could attend. But he stepped on a land mine and died from his wounds. In Gomajin's memory, his father learned how to remove land mines. There is a monument to Gomajin near the school. From the first board for framing, the villagers wanted a strong school, one that could withstand bombs.

The term “three cups of tea” means that with the first cup, you are a stranger, second cup a friend, and by the time you are drinking a third cup, you are family. But this is not a linear progression, 1-2-3, boom, you're in. In every village, there is an unspoken progression of bringing one into the social circle. It may take many cups of tea, not formally ceremonial, but an important indicator of acceptance and trust. Greg has taken many cups of tea in his 18 years in the field, and has been able to bring schools to villages where one would not think they would survive, let alone thrive.

Why girls schools? Educating girls has many positive rewards for the community. Women bring life and nurture it after it is here. Statistics show that when girls are educated, the birth rate drops, the infant mortality rate drops, the quality of life improves, and women go back and serve the community from a more informed place. It is a powerful thing when a woman can read the news. Isolation breeds fear. It becomes a vicious circle of fear and ignorance breeding ignorance and fear. Education is the only way to civility.

Mortenson, who lives with his family in Montana when not traveling, mentioned more statistics. Since 2007, more than 3,000 girls schools have been destroyed or shut down by extremist groups. There is a proverb that says, "The ink of a scholar is holier than the blood of a martyr." In 2000, there were only 800,000 students, mostly boys age 5-15. In 2011, the count was up to 8.3 million children, with 2.8 million of those girls.

In talking with the elders of these villages, Greg has been told that they don’t need firepower, they need brain power; that they want to be part of the decision-making process; that they want education; that if they don’t like someone, they will take care of them. Afghanistan is also sitting on a mining boom, and the rest of the world is waiting to exploit 

The subtitle on Three Cups of Teas is “One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time.” This was not the first choice of the publisher, who wanted to say something about one man's mission to fight terrorism. But Mortenson is adamant that he is doing this to promote peace. The book didn't sell with the publisher's subtitle, but Greg was able to get the publisher to agree that the subtitle would be changed if the book didn't at first do well. After the subtitle was changed, the book became a best-seller.

Mortenson also talked about the poverty in this country and how we must be willing to touch, hear, and be poverty to realize any formative changes to the situation. His Pennies for Peace program does this, and suggests the grass roots effort in towns across America of collecting pennies and getting the money to our most impoverished schools. This was his first fund-raising program, but it only began when he was asked to speak at a school about how to get the school built in Korphe. Up to then, he had typed hundreds of letters asking for donations, and only received one check back, from TV commentator Tom Brokaw. A young boy brought his pennies to Greg, and that is how Pennies for Peace began.

Our military mission in Afghanistan now includes soldiers who work at laying some groundwork for the beginning of a school in villages. Greg believes the most successful mission begins with empowering the members of the village. They must dedicate the land for the school, provide the labor to build, and get the materials to where they need to be. With this kind of investment, the village is not so willing to let the school be closed. When the elders of a village in Afghanistan played on the playground of a school, they told Greg they wanted a school in their village, a place where extremists had a strong hold, but only if it had a playground also. They told him that as children, they never had a chance to play, all they were taught was to fight.

Around the world, children are bought and sold into slavery, and at the youngest of ages, are taught to kill. Soccer balls are made by children in Pakistan. China and India have huge child labor forces. Children are mistreated, poorly fed, work fourteen-hour days, and fear abduction and/or molestation at night. Many just disappear. They are certainly not allowed to go to school, but many want to.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave a speech in which he tried to emphasize what it will take to make headway against the extremist faction in this part of the world. The only hope to supplant the extremist movement is through education, and understanding a culture in which we are too quick to judge as not in the least understandable. He says that hearts and minds cannot be captured by force. Maybe he remembers when Rep. Charlie Wilson was jeered out of Congress when he asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for $1.5 million to be put into education in war-torn Afghanistan, after the Russians had been ousted by Wilson’s bringing stinger missiles to the Afghan people.

Mortenson can just guess what the world might look like today if education had been the goal back then.

 As one village elder told Greg, the more bombs you drop, the harder the earth becomes. 

So Mortenson continues his work against the ill winds of prejudice and ignorance.

After his Cheyenne speech, he received a standing ovation from the 5,000-some attendees.

--Linda Coatney, Cheyenne

Many local events lead up to March 29 talk in Cheyenne by activist and author Greg Mortenson

I try to spend some of that time I once devoted to Sunday morning mass to the contemplation of nature, spirituality and even organized religion.

While reading this morning’s Cheyenne paper, I saw an ad promoting the appearance of activist, educator and author Greg Mortenson. He wrote the acclaimed bestseller, “Three Cups of Tea,” about his experiences promoting primary education in Afghanistan. He will speak on Tuesday, March 29, 7-8:30 p.m., at the Taco John’s Event Center in Cheyenne. Tickets are $5 for students and $15 for the general public.

Presented by these Cheyenne Community Partners: Laramie County Community College, LCCC Foundation’s Gerald and Jessie Chambers Speakers Series, Rotary International, Laramie County Library System and Foundation, Laramie County School District #1.

Great cooperation on this project by all levels of the public education system. That includes the library. Kudos to Rotary International. I admire their good work. So many selfless and community-minded organizations out there. The Lions work on behalf of better vision, the Shriners sponsor childhood learning disability clinics, the Kiwanis Club seems to do all the good things a community needs, such as the amazing free pancake breakfasts during Cheyenne Frontier Days. I find it compelling that a bunch of people can gather together to perform good works. Such a contentious age we live in, yet altruism continues. We must crave it.

A few words about Mortenson from the LCCC Foundation web site:

Greg Mortenson, co-author of the New York Times bestseller, "Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time," will share insightful commentary and stunning photography to educate and promote awareness of the importance of primary education, literacy and cross-cultural understanding about the remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson has dedicated his life to bringing education where few education opportunities existed before. In 1996, he co-founded the Central Asia Institute with his wife, Tara Bishop, and since then has managed to construct 145 schools in the Middle East and bring educational opportunities to more than 64,000 students, including 52,000 girls. Mortenson’s extraordinary journey has had many hardships, but recently it also has brought international appreciation. In 2009, he was awarded the "Star of Pakistan" and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in both 2008 and 2009. FMI: 307.433.0024.

A number of events this month lead up to the March 29 event. Our family has been collecting pennies for Pennies for Peace. The library has focused many of its events around the concepts of altruism. Here’s one:

TEENS MAKE A DIFFERENCE, March 16, 6 p.m.: Join us for an evening with Judge Ronn Jeffrey as we explore ways you can impact your community in a positive way. Teens will have a chance to win a ticket to hear Greg Mortenson speak at the Taco John’s Event Center on March 29, 7 p.m. Don’t forget to bring your Pennies for Peace! (Grades 7-12 & parents, Cottonwood Room, 1st floor).

The library also will host a tea party on St. Patrick’s Day, celebrating tea-drinking cultures such as Ireland, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Very innovative. ON St. Patrick’s Day, many of us forget that the Irish also drink tea.  

LCCC has also planned a number of related events. This coming week is spring break on campus. But on Wednesday, March 23, these are scheduled:


Ethnic food tasting: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Center for Conferences & Institutes, Room 129/130. Food tasting limited to LCCC students and employees. Roundtable discussion: “Women and Islam in a Central Asian Context” with Dr. Marianne Kamp, Dr. Mohammed Salih and Arshi Nisley. 1-3 p.m., Center for Conferences & Institutes, Room 129/130.

See other events celebrating the work of Greg Mortenson

Kevin the Climber, Part II

Vedauwoo photo from climbing site vedauwoo.org

This is a good day to be recalling some of my adventures with our son, Kevin. He’s flying in from Tucson today as a 26-year-old man who has a life of his own a thousand miles away. He’s a groomsman at a good friend’s wedding, and he taking an elongated spring break. He’s on the lifetime plan at a community college. But it’s his plan and I’m glad he has one. He doesn’t do much rock climbing any more, but it was his passion as a youngster growing up in Colorado and Wyoming. This post is the second installment of Kevin the Climber.

I watch my son Kevin as he clambers up the tumbledown boulder field of Vedauwoo in southeastern Wyoming’s Laramie Range during the summer of 1996.  There is something natural about this 11-year-old’s ease with the billion-year-old rock, the way he picks his way through narrow passageways and finds just the right finger hold to get up and over a house-sized chunk of Precambrian granite.  You could say that since he is a third-generation Coloradan, born within the magnetic fields of dozens of mountain ranges, he was destined to climb rocks.  He could just have easily been born to yodel country-western songs or snowboard naked or speculate in Aspen real estate or a thousand-and-one things Westerners seem compelled to do.  Kevin prefers rocks.

Where Kevin sees a ladder to the sky, I see a rocky barrier. I will climb until I get to the top or get stymied by a “radical vertical,” whichever comes first.   The rocks seem to beckon Kevin, to welcome him in ways foreign to me.  I have suggested that he should take rope-climbing classes, learn the traditional roots of the sport.  “Why would I want to do that?” he asks, as if it never occurred to him to place something as foreign as rope between him and the mountain.

It’s possible his rock worship might date back to our Druidic roots, our Celtic ancestors’ reciprocal relationship with the natural world.  It may just be that he likes free-climbing rocks the same way I loved surfing during my teen years on Florida’s Atlantic coast.  The Druid Surfer spawns the Druid Rockhead.  If we could jump back in time a million years or so, we could both be engaged in our separate passions right on this very spot.  He could be climbing Mesozoic rocks, still bursting from the earth’s crust, and I could be surfing the bitchin’ waves of the ancient inland sea.

Because Kevin has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, his love for rocks has physiological roots.  To concentrate is everything for this hyperactive kid.  He can’t do it for extended periods of time unless he is under the influence of Ritalin, a drug that helps him control an aggressive impulsiveness, one of the telltale signs of ADHD.  Right now, as he climbs toward the sharp blue Wyoming sky, the Ritalin, a central nervous system stimulant, is working on my son’s brain stem arousal system causing it to not be aroused.  Why is that?  Don’t look for any help from the medical texts.  Says thePhysicians’ Desk Reference:  There is no “specific evidence which clearly establishes the mechanism whereby Ritalin produces its mental and behavioral effects on children, nor conclusive evidence regarding how these effects relate to the condition of the central nervous system.”

Each time we climb, Kevin eventually disappears, leaving me to my own shortcomings as a climber.  I don’t mind.  Rocks offer him solace and solitude.  They do not call him names.  They do not mistake his energetic aura for anything else.  They are rocks and that is why we came here and why he will continue to climb long after I am sidelined by the aches of an aging Baby Boomer body.

Alone on the rocks, I get a chance to conduct my favorite climbing activity: sitting on a perch, watching the dark patterns that drifting cumulus make on the blue-green landscape.  Across the narrow valley, members of a rope-climbing class from University of Wyoming take turns rappeling down a cliff.  In the far distance on Sherman Hill, a line of trucks crawl along I-80 and a freight train crosses “The Gangplank” of the Laramie Range — a granite sheet that is a centuries-old thoroughfare for Cheyenne and Arapaho, pioneers, railroaders, vacationers and truckers, those transients that have been both boon and curse to the West.

I luxuriate in the feel of the cool breeze on my face, the tart taste of an apple on a July afternoon.  Hawks ride Vedauwoo’s complex air currents. A wonderful dream, to fly like a hawk.  Some time within the next hour Kevin will shout my name and I will look up to see him waving from a pinnacle, his lanky form etched against the blue sky. “Come on up!” he will yell, and I will return his wave and shake my head.

He goes some places where I cannot follow.

Cross-posted from easytolovebut blog. Way back when, this piece appeared in a longer and slightly different form in Montana’s now-defunct Northern Lights magazine.

Kevin the Climber, Part I: An ADHD Memoir

I’ve been blogging from Wyoming since 2005, but only a portion of my posts focused on our family’s experiences with ADD, ADHD, OCD and mental health challenges. This is fitting in a way because my blog is named hummingbirdminds after a description by Internet hypertext pioneer Ted Nelson. He said in Wired Magazine that people with ADHD have “hummingbird minds.” I always liked that. My blog, like my mind, flits from subject to subject.

Kevin the Climber, Part I

Our son Kevin was diagnosed with ADHD at 5. I guess you could say it was a pretty severe case because it was evident from the time he started walking at 9 months – maybe even earlier. Walking was too tame for Kevin. He was a runner and a climber.

He climbed out of his crib. He climbed out of his playpen. He climbed 100-foot trees. And that was all before he turned 2. Later he climbed cliffs and mountains and buildings. He was more interested in climbing on the top of playground swing sets than he was swinging on them. He liked to shinny up the metal bars that formed the arch that held the swings. Like an inchworm, he would creep along the poles until he was right over the heads of those kids below on the swings.  "Hi down there," he would say with a laugh.  Some kids greeted him; others just stared.  The parents had various reactions. Most seemed concerned for their own children, afraid that Kevin could slip and fall right on them. A falling body builds a tremendous velocity in a very short span of time. Broken bones could result. Concussions and worse.

One day I was at the playground with Kevin while my wife Chris worked. Kevin’s favorite park was three blocks from the university’s married student housing complex where we lived while I worked on my writing and my graduate degree at Colorado State University. When we arrived at the park, Kevin made a beeline for the swing set and climbed up the curve of the rusty red iron pole. Within seconds he was perched 20 feet up, poised over the head of a blonde five-year-old girl wearing a Minnie Mouse T-shirt.  Her mother looked worried.  I didn’t have to be a member of the Psychic Hotline to understand the look of concern that creased that woman’s face. She imagined Kevin losing his grip and falling through space for a collision with her daughter. I imagined a similar scene.  She was thinking: “Why doesn't his father say something to this menace of a boy.”  She pushed her daughter with both hands as she peered up at Kevin. What follows is the conversation as best as I can remember it:

-- Your boy sure likes to climb.
-- Yes he does.
-- He seems pretty good at it.
-- He is.
-- It's a long way up.
-- He likes heights. He climbs mountains.
-- Has he ever fallen?
-- From Mount Everest. But just that once.

Ha ha. I sort of regretted saying it. I just wanted to wound this mother slightly, to get back at her for thinking I might be a lousy father. I felt like it sometimes, that I was a terrible parent for letting my son climb on something that obviously was meant to swing on not climb on.

I felt guilty around these good parents. They all seemed so much more comfortable with their roles than I did with mine. They acted as if parenting is some snug undergarment that never slipped or became wedged in vulnerable bodily cavities. I used to think that parenting would be innate, that I wouldn’t have to learn a series of new dance steps to dance the parent waltz. I wonder if they had all received some sort of parenting gene from kind and loving parents that I did not.

But there was something else: their kids were classified as normal and mine was not. And I was constantly trying to deal with that fact.

Look for Kevin Climber, Part II, in upcoming posts. Also, find this post on the Easy to Love but Hard to Raise blog after Feb.22. 

In "Easy to Love but Hard to Raise," parents tell their stories

I'm pleased to have my work included in Easy to Love but Hard to Raise, a book from DRT Press set for an October release. Editors are Adrienne Bashista of Pittsboro, N.C., and Kay Marner of Ames, Iowa. Both are accomplished writers and editors who have experienced struggles in raising their own children. I have been impressed by their thoroughness and kindness. It's evident in their own essays and in their dealings with writers. My snarky self had a hard time with it, at first. One thing I learned early on as a parent with a son diagnosed with ADHD and a daughter with PBD and ADD -- wear your armor when you venture out into the world. My armor is my sharp tongue and, when that fails, scathing wit, to dull the cold hard stares and even colder and harder words of people who don't understand.

It's been a pleasure to work with Kay and Adrienne. Looking forward to the book. Here's some info the editors just posted on the brand new Easy to Love but Hard to Raise blog:

This blog got its start with the book: Easy to Love but Hard to Raise: Real Parents, Challenging Kids, True Stories (DRT Press, October, 2011). Contributors to this blog are connected to the book in some way: they sent in essays, offered their expert advice, or lent helpful thoughts and useful advice.

But our hope for this blog goes further than simply giving our book a presence on the Internet : we’d like our space to be a safe, kind, and understanding resource for anyone raising a child who is easy to love, but difficult to raise. We are here to support, share stories, commiserate, give tips, and provide safe haven for anyone parenting children impacted by ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder), PBD (Pediatric Bipolar Disorder), OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) or any other situation the takes the already difficult job of parenting and adds to challenge.