It's past time for UW to apologize to the Black 14

One of the biggest stains remaining on the University of Wyoming's athletics department is the way it -- and the state -- treated black football athletes in 1969 when they sought to protest racism by Brigham Young University.

By Rodger McDaniel 

You may or may not agree with Colin Kaepernick’s beliefs, but the truth is he risked his career to say what he believed. When did any of his harshest critics ever take

Ten members of the Black 14 at UW in 1969.

such a risk? Instead, they sit safely in the cheap seats, screaming along with Pontius Trump, “Crucify him!”

Sports figures have often been more willing to take a personal risk than politicians. Before Kaepernick was Muhammad Ali. History proves Ali right for refusing to serve in Vietnam. Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos were ostracized when they raised clinched fists protesting racism while receiving their medals at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

Then came Wyoming’s Black 14.

In the midst of the current debate over whether black athletes have a right to express themselves in the land of the free, the University of Wyoming has some unfinished business. Another football season is nearing an end without an apology to the 14 football players whose UW careers were sacrificed to “Equality State” bigotry.

It was 1969. Skin color divided the nation. Wyoming wouldn’t be permitted to remain on the sidelines. The controversy visited Wyoming’s most sacred shrine, UW football.

The Cowboys were one of America’s best, ranked 12th nationally. The Pokes were 4-0 to begin a season after they nearly upset Louisiana State University in the Sugar Bowl, then one of the four major bowl games played on New Year’s Day. UW was preparing to play its biggest rival, Brigham Young University.

Though the policy has since changed, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints barred blacks from its priesthood. Many of the black players said that a year earlier, when the Cowboys defeated BYU in Provo, Utah, they had been subjected to racial taunts from BYU players and fans. In October 1969, BYU, an LDS school, was headed to Laramie to play the Pokes. Fourteen black UW players asked to protest what they felt was racism by wearing black armbands.

Coach Lloyd Eaton didn’t take time to hear them out. He had no interest in their concerns.

Eaton had previously demonstrated a racist penchant when one of his black players planned to marry a white woman and asked him to approve a request for married student housing. “That’s not gonna happen,” Eaton barked. “I can’t let you marry this girl on Wyoming’s money.” Eaton was apparently referring to the scholarship he believed purchased the young man’s constitutional rights.

When the black players appeared in his office, a quick-tempered Eaton dismissed all 14 from the team, depriving them of their scholarships. Everyone from UW’s board to the governor, legislators, white teammates, Cowboy fans and much of the public promptly sided with Eaton.

Much of the opposition to the 14 had unmistakable racial overtones. Many fans followed the example of the politicians taunting the 14 student-athletes. At least one proudly waved a Confederate flag during the following week’s game.

Martha J. Karnopp, a Denver lawyer, was a Laramie schoolteacher in 1969. Karnopp recalled the ubiquitous bumper stickers reading “I Support Lloyd Eaton.” She said, “I didn’t have bumper stickers, my views were known, and it was NOT fine! I later lost my teaching job, partially due to this incident. The only group in the state who saw the injustice and did NOT support the coach was the law school faculty. So, I chose to go to law school.”

It took years before UW could recruit exceptional black players and many more seasons before they won another conference title. The Black 14 incident remains a stain on Wyoming’s reputation.

Nothing ever damaged UW’s image so much as the Black 14 incident. If those men were invited to stand at the 50-yard line of the stadium where they once played to receive a formal apology from the governor and UW’s president, affirmed by a standing ovation from today’s fans, much of the stain would be removed.

It has been 48 years. But it’s never too late to do the right thing.

Rodger McDaniel is the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He resides in Laramie.

May those who care always tilt at windmills

Effort to declare Cheyenne a "compassionate city" was defeated by those who fear monsters under their beds. Caring for others will always frighten some, but the Don Quixotes of the world must keep up the good fight.

By Rodger McDaniel

My most cherished book is “Don Quixote,” so much so that I have Picasso’s painting of the knight and his sidekick, Sancho Panza, tattooed on my forearm.

The classic was written by a 16th-century Spanish writer,

Miguel Cervantes. His early career was rather checkered. Exiled from his beloved Spain, Cervantes worked in Rome as a cardinal’s assistant. Having enlisted in the Spanish Navy, Cervantes was captured by Barbary pirates. After his family paid a ransom, he was an accountant for the Spanish Armada. A “discrepancy in the books” caused him to be jailed for a time. After all of that, he began writing. Who wouldn’t?

Cervantes’ timeless character, Don Quixote, became the most chivalrous of knights so that he could fearlessly tilt at windmills.

Don Quixote came to mind when Cheyenne’s mayor and one of the City Council members brought about the demise of a resolution declaring Cheyenne a Compassionate City. They were building windmills based on what they feared they saw in the shadows.

Another councilman knows the meaning of those shadows. Richard Johnson said, “We live in a city that is perpetually afraid of itself. We’re scared of our neighbors. We’re scared of each other. We’re scared of the outside world.”

Were it possible to speak across time to Señor Cervantes, I’d tell him how his writings prove that God inspired more than that one great book – and how they inspired some to tilt at windmills.

Don Quixote’s story, like that of Jesus of Nazareth, demonstrates the risks of becoming compassionately unafraid in a world that distrusts the motives of those attempting to do good.

Literary critic Harold Bloom wrote an introduction to one English translation of the book, which has been translated into more languages than any other with the exception of the Bible. Bloom said, “We cannot know the object of Don Quixote’s quest unless we ourselves are Quixotic.” Irony begets irony in the story of humanity.

Thankfully, there are those in this age who find fulfillment and purpose in the compassionate work of tilting at windmills.

Just as Cervantes’ knight was inspired by reading books of chivalry, so it is that many of the Quixotics of our day are inspired by reading the Gospels. Don Quixote reminds them of Jesus who, upon completing his days of temptation in the desert, went about preaching good news to the poor and liberty to the oppressed.

And so, Don Quixote, having completed his preparations, writes Cervantes, “did not wish to wait any longer to put his thought into effect, impelled by the great need in the world that he believed was caused by his delay.”

Much of the pain and suffering in our world is likewise caused by our delay in serving others. As it is in our world, Don Quixote recognized that in his, “the greatest adversary love has is hunger and continual need.”

The writer Thomas Oppong observed, “Over the course of our lives, we make millions and millions of decisions that are essentially bets, some large and some small.” Don Quixote placed his bets on doing good, though his friends and family, like those of Jesus, thought he was without his wits for doing so. That is the risk we take when following our faith and placing our life’s bets on the words of the Gospel.

In Cheyenne, people of good faith placed their bets on encouraging compassion. They found some politicians were so uncomfortable with the idea that they began searching for ghosts lurking in the shadows. Thus, compassion itself became a windmill.

Alas, it was so for Don Quixote, whom Cervantes wrote, “ventured for God and the world” in the face of those who could not “be made to understand the error” of their suspicions of that work though it was “founded on articles of faith.”

Compassion can be troubling, especially to those who build windmills. Yet compassion means being thankful for the windmills and for those who fearlessly tilt at them always.

Rodger McDaniel is the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He resides in Laramie.

The poor are getting screwed in Cheyenne

From the focus on a south Cheyenne trailer park to legislative actions that cut programs and steal away health care, those who are needy in the Capital City find themselves always on the short end of the stick.

By Rodger McDaniel

Frank Annunzio was a member of Congress from the mid-1960s until 1973. He was a colleague of Wyoming U.S. Rep. Teno Roncalio. Like Roncalio, he was a plainspoken Italian American.

Like Roncalio, Annunzio had a heart for the poor and the courage to ask, “Why are so many people so poor?”

I was on Roncalio’s congressional staff at the time and have a vivid memory of this incident. The House passed legislation reducing subsidies on wheat production. The bill primarily hurt the poor by raising prices of foodstuffs like bread and pasta. Annunzio stormed out of the House chambers and cornered the first member of the press he saw. It was a reporter from the Chicago Tribune.

“The people just got screwed,” Annunzio cried out.

“Congressman,” the reporter recoiled, “I can’t print that. We are a family newspaper.”

Annunizio didn’t miss a beat. “Well, then, you can print this. ‘The family just got screwed.’”

Well, since the Wyoming Tribune Eagle is a family newspaper, I need to say that the “family just got screwed.”

When? Every time they turn around. Where? Everywhere they look. From the Cheyenne trailer park controversy to the tax bill winding its way through Congress. From choices made by Wyoming legislators to avoid new taxes while cutting everything from health care to low-income energy assistance to education. From the predatory lenders who thrive in Wyoming to the landlords who rent unsafe, overpriced housing to people who have no other choices.

The trailer park issue in south Cheyenne is a teachable moment for those in the middle and upper economic classes in our community. The focus from those who say they want “to end the blight” is on getting rid of the substandard mobile homes. Instead, they ought to be asking why some of our neighbors have been forced to live in those conditions. Families are “getting screwed” because politicians refuse to address the underlying injustices of our local economy.

Start with wages. Ask why people working full time in multiple jobs can’t afford a decent place to live or nutritious food for their children. Move to a dialogue about access to health care. Open a conversation about slumlords. While you’re there, visit about the wage gap between men and women in a state with a high divorce rate that often leaves women to raise children in poverty.

Do a little research on the extent of the relationship between the poverty affecting too many Wyoming school students and low test scores in the state’s public schools.

How about demanding members of our congressional delegation demonstrate with facts just how it is that the Trump tax plan they support will trickle even a nickel down to the people who are forced to live in the trailer park the city wants to tear down?

The problem may be merely one of limited vocabulary. Think about it. Wyoming’s politicians have a vocabulary that proves useful when talking about oil and gas, public lands, state’s rights, cutting budgets, eliminating regulations and reducing taxes. They can wag freely as they deny the science of climate change and complain ad infinitum about wolves, welfare and “Obamacare.”

Ask about the causes of poverty. All they can come up with are simplistic, single-syllable words about drug testing welfare clients and disproven talking points suggesting that increased minimum wages will somehow hurt the poor.

With few exceptions, they have not the eyes to see, the ears to hear or the stomachs to consider the manner in which some in our community have a stake in the poor being with us always. From slumlording to payday lending, there’s money to be made from the poverty of others. There is no political downside in blaming the poor. The risk comes from asking why they are poor. The answers begin to look like meddling in the lives of those who profit from poverty.

Nonetheless, until the community engages in a compassionate debate about how to address the causes of the blight, we won’t be able to end it.

Rodger McDaniel is the pastor of Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He resides in Laramie. 

Not all churches fight the LGBT-plus community

More than 1,200 clergy have signed a brief supporting LGBT-plus citizens in the "wedding cake" controversy. It's important to tell the U.S. Supreme Court that all churches don't seek to marginalize those they don't understand.

By Rodger McDaniel

I was pleased to join 1,200 of my clergy colleagues from all 50 states and two dozen faith traditions in signing an “amicus curiae” in support of the rights of gays, lesbians, transgender and bisexual citizens to be treated with dignity.

Amicus curiae is a Latin term meaning

“friend of the court.”As friends of the court, we want the U.S. Supreme Court to know that it is unconstitutional to use religious beliefs as a justification to discriminate against others.

The case before the highest court in the land is captioned “Masterpiece Cakeshop versus Colorado Civil Rights Commission.” It’s the hill on which religious conservatives have decided to make their last stand to legitimize their need to marginalize the LGBTQ community.

This started when the Supreme Court ruled gays and lesbians were constitutionally entitled to marry. Two men planning their wedding went to a business that held itself out to the public as a place that made wedding cakes. They wanted one of Masterpiece Cakeshop’s masterpieces.

But like Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi,” the cake shop owners told these men, “No cake for you!”

Conservatives said these men should shut up and quietly buy their wedding cake elsewhere. These are the same sorts of folks who believe that instead of starting a bus boycott, Rosa Parks should have just asked politely, “Is that seat taken?” When told she could not sit there, they believe she should have quietly found an alternative way to get to work. Why stir up a fuss?

The Colorado men did not go away quietly without stirring up a fuss. They filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The commission ruled against the cake makers on the basis of longstanding legal protections against the ability of businesses to discriminate.

Those protections were at the center of the battle over the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Business owners howled long and hard as Congress passed that legislation. They believed they had the right to deny service to anyone. Congress thought it had put an end to that ruse. But the heirs of those who lost that battle are back.

They argue it is their understanding of God that gives them the right to discriminate.

That is why we clergy became amicus curiae. We don’t believe the cake shop and its supporters should be allowed to speak for us. Religious thought in America is vastly diverse. As faith communities go, we are now in the majority. Faith communities claiming their beliefs provide the basis for denying the human dignity based on their sexual orientation or identity are declining in numbers.

A recent poll of people identifying themselves as Christians found a significant majority support gay marriage. Masterpiece Cakeshop bakers are asking the court to impose the views of a religious minority on all of us.

The Public Religion Research Institute poll also found more than six in 100 Christians opposed allowing businesses to refuse to serve gays or lesbians based on religious beliefs.

My clergy colleagues and I want the justices to know, as our amicus brief says, “Within the diverse panorama of American religious thought, a large and growing portion of the religious community welcomes, accepts and celebrates LGBT individuals and rejects the idea that they should be subject to discrimination in public accommodations based on differing religious views that reject their dignity and equality.”

The Supreme Court must not be left with the incorrect impression that most people of faith share the views of those who seek to employ their beliefs as a sword to smite those they don’t understand.

Jesus said there were two great commandments, and all religious rules depended on them. The framers of the Constitution said the nation could not establish the views of any one faith as predominant, adding that everyone is entitled to equal protection under the law.

Both the Gospel and the Constitution apply to this case, but it should be decided on the basis of the latter, not the former.

Rodger McDaniel lives in Laramie and is the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. Email: rmc81448@gmail.com.

Cheyenne residents reach for compassion

A new group has formed with the goal of driving the Capital City's decisions through the lens of caring for other people. That might make us uncomfortable, but it is the right thing to do.

By Rodger McDaniel

Imagine being in a community defined by compassion. Contemporary theologian Karen Armstrong says it would look like this:

“A compassionate city is an uncomfortable city. A city is uncomfortable

when anyone is homeless or hungry, uncomfortable if every child isn’t loved and given rich opportunities to grow and thrive, uncomfortable when, as a community, we don’t treat our neighbors as we would wish to be treated.”

Armstrong is the founder of a global movement with chapters throughout the United States and the world that has found its way to Cheyenne. It is known as “The Charter for Compassion.”

It had its genesis here a couple of summers ago when the Rev. Steve Shive, the head of Wyoming’s Presbyterian churches, convened a meeting of clergy representing a variety of faith communities. Seated around the table were Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Catholics, Methodists, Muslims, Jews and others.

Rev. Shive acknowledged the differences between the faiths but asked that for the moment we cast them aside and identify what we have in common. In a nutshell, it came down to what we call “the Golden Rule.”

That led the clergy to Karen Armstrong’s 2008 TED Talk. She called on people of faith to work for peace by treating others as we would like to be treated. Urging a revival of the Golden Rule, she suggested the world create what she called the “Charter for Compassion.”

What followed were months of multi-disciplinary conversations about the meaning of compassion. In January 2010, the charter was launched with 60 members beyond the U.S. to include England, Brazil, Australia, India, Botswana, and Malaysia. Now, Cheyenne is on the list.

From that 2015 roundtable, interfaith dialogue in Cheyenne has grown into a small movement. The group adopted the Charter of Compassion, which states, in part, “The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures.” The full text of the charter can be read at www.compassionatecheyenne.org. It calls compassion an urgent need “in our polarized world.”

Through Compassionate Cheyenne, the charter has been endorsed by 122 individuals and 13 organizations in the Capital City.

The organizers of this movement are clear that they have no political agenda. They are not asking for money, charging dues or offering grants. While people of faith are involved, Compassionate Cheyenne is not a religious organization, but one that recognizes compassion is not just the work of a church, synagogue or mosque, but all of us.

The vision and mission are to recognize and highlight the enormous amount of compassionate work currently being accomplished in our community and to motivate others to be a part of it.

It exists for one purpose, and that is to continually place the matter of compassion before decision makers: “How does compassion inform your choices?”

Decisions are made for many reasons. Finances guide some, politics others; debates occur over who to help and whether, costs, return on investment, worthiness and more. All are important, but Compassionate Cheyenne asks that compassion is made the priority in every choice.

The dictionary defines the word “compassion” as “having a sympathetic concern for the suffering of others.” The Charter for Compassion seeks to move the needle from concern to community-wide action.

The late Henri Nouwen, the priest, professor, philosopher, and writer, taught us that “Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness.” Did you hear all those action verbs? “Go,” “enter” and “share.”

What does “compassion” ask of the people of Cheyenne?

Rodger McDaniel is the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He resides in Laramie.

Right an historic wrong: Rename Devils Tower

Native American tribes from around the region have asked that the national monument -- a sacred place for them -- be given a more appropriate name.  "Bear Lodge" would more honor their beliefs. Get on with it.

By Rodger McDaniel 

Wyoming historian Phil Roberts discovered a single memorial to a Confederate hero in the Cowboy State, a grave marker noting the final resting place of John C. Hunton at Cheyenne’s Lakeview Cemetery.

After serving in Virginia’s 7th Infantry at the Battle of Gettysburg, Hunton

became a wealthy cattle rancher along Chugwater Creek.

Hunton’s tombstone likely won’t generate a debate over removing Confederate war memorials in Wyoming. But there are “memorials” to the genocide and cultural destruction wrought by the U.S. government during and after the Indian Wars in the American West. One example is Devils Tower, the name the victors of that war attached to this sacred Native American site. There should be a discussion about giving back the names the Native Americans gave to this and other sites.

Long before white people invaded the land, the Black Hills was home to the Crow and Kiowa peoples among First World Nations. They were the first to name the extraordinary rock formation in northeast Wyoming.

According to Mary Alice Gunderson’s book “Devils Tower: Stories in Stone,” the people of the Crow nation called it “Dabicha Asow,” meaning “Bear’s Lair.” Through interviews and Native American legends collected by Dick Stone of Gillette, Gunderson recounts tribal beliefs about this rock.

Kills-Coming-to-the-Birds first saw the rock in 1833. Ninety-nine years later, she said it was placed there “by the Great Spirit for a special reason.” The rock had religious significance to native peoples. Gunderson’s book and Stone’s collection include Native American legends about what the conquering white people took it upon themselves to call Devils Tower.

One tells of seven Crow girls and their brother playing. Suddenly the boy transformed into a bear. The bear chased the girls, who found a tree stump. It invited them to climb aboard. The stump reached into the sky as the bear climbed after them, leaving claw marks yet visible on the sides of the impressive rock. The Great Spirit kept the girls beyond the reach of the bear: “The seven sisters were born into the sky, and they became the stars of the Big Dipper.”

To the victors go the spoils. The white settlers tried to erase the stories. According to Native American writer Leslie Silko’s book “Ceremony,” the first novel published by a female native writer, this is the kind of Indian legend the white conquerors deemed “nonsense.” After white people stole the land and the stories, they deprived sacred sites of names by which the Indians knew them.

A National Park Service website admits Devils Tower was referred to as “Bear’s Lair” and “Bear’s Lodge” throughout much of the 1800s. “Devils Tower” was most likely the result of a bad translation. Lt. Col. Richard Dodge’s 1875 journal noted, “The Indians call this shaft ‘The Bad God’s Tower.’” The Park Service acknowledges that “Bear Lodge” may have been mistakenly interpreted as “Bad Gods.” Congress adopted a paraphrased bad translation when it created Devils Tower National Monument in 1906.

In 2014, those who first owned the naming rights asked that the name Devils Tower National Monument be changed. The Park Service acknowledged, “In each instance, the request is to change ‘Devils Tower’ to ‘Bear Lodge.’ More than 20 tribes with close association to the Tower hold it sacred, and find the application of the name ‘Devils’ to be offensive.”

The name change stalled when Wyoming’s congressional delegation objected. As a Lakota survivor of Custer’s Last Stand said, “Washington was where all the problems began.”

Insisting on retaining the name given this rock by the conquerors furthers the regrettable strategy of destroying native peoples’ culture. Despite concerns of tourism interests that changing the name would be bad for business, righting a wrong might prove to be as good for business as it would be for the heart.

A name change honoring those who first saw it and honored it, who first came to understand it as sacred and from whom the land was stolen would become a part of the legend, making “Bear Lodge” a more popular tourist destination.

Rodger McDaniel is the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He lives in Laramie.

Wyoming surrenders to education mediocrity

Using the plan submitted to the feds, Cowboy State leaders will create a school system that won't produce the grads needed to compete in a modern economy. This state's students need champions, not a leaders who are faint of heart.

“We have to have an educated workforce. It is absolutely critical.” -- University of Wyoming President Laurie Nichols regarding the ENDOW Advisory Council, a statewide group responsible for investigating ways to diversify Wyoming's economy.

By D. Reed Eckhardt

The above comment from UW's president might seem obvious. Wyoming cannot succeed in the modern, high-tech and global economy without educated workers who can handle its challenges.

The demand for ranch hands, oilfield workers, and coal miners is headed only in one direction -- down. Meanwhile, companies seeking smart employees who can

handle state-of-the-art tasks and can pivot to meet the needs of a rapidly changing economic environment will move to the forefront. If they don't find those workers here in Wyoming, they are going to locate elsewhere along the Front Range.

So please explain why this state's leaders -- its governor, its superintendent of public instruction, its Legislature -- continue to ask so little of their schools and the students who sit in their classrooms every day? 

It is unfortunate that the image, if only in the minds of many residents, is that Wyoming's public schools are excellent. Because there are no data to back that up. For example, the most recent Quality Counts report ranked the state's academic quality as a C-minus. And ACT scores show that just 33 percent of this state's high school graduates are college-ready in math, 38 percent in reading.

Given that, one might think that Wyoming's leaders are showing great distress about the quality of their schools. That they might be making a concerted effort to strive for excellence.

Think again.

Consider just one example: the goals contained in the recent plan submitted by State Superintendent Jillian Balow (and signed by Gov. Matt Mead) to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, also know as ESSA. According to the report, within 15 years -- that's right, 15 years -- the state hopes to have its third- to eighth-graders 59 percent proficient in math and 65 percent in reading. And those numbers drop to 46 percent and 39 percent, respectively, for high school graduates.

Please, doesn't anyone see what this means? That in 15 years, six of 10 Wyoming high school grads still will not be proficient in reading and more than half won't be able to do math at an acceptable level? These are not just low bars for success; they are criminally shallow. And they make you wonder where the schools are now if they are going to be at these levels in a decade and a half.

Here's the dirty truth: The Cowboy State has settled for educational mediocrity for far too long. If that continues, there will never be the kind of workforce that UW's Nichols (and others, including Mead)  envisions and which Wyoming will need to compete for jobs and to meet its forever goal of diversifying its workforce.

Say what you will about the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which preceded ESSA, but at least its sponsors understood the importance of setting that bar high. It was impossible, of course, to prepare every student in every school for success. But at least the sponsors' hearts were in the right place: They focused on education excellence. Wyoming's leaders, with their ESSA proposal, are surrendering before the fight even has begun. It is an acceptance of mediocrity. This state's children, parents, and taxpayers deserve better than this.

Here's hoping that next year's elections produce two things: A governor and state superintendent who champion education excellence and who will accept nothing less; and a plan to make that happen. Wyoming may not need a No Child Left Behind Act, but it must have a will, a mindset and a strategic blueprint to prepare itself and its young people for the future. It is time to stop talking about creating an educated workforce to diversify the economy and do something about it. The status quo -- as reflected by the state ESSA plan -- is not going to get that job done.

D. Reed Eckhardt is the former executive editor of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. He has been writing about education issues in the state for almost two decades.

A horrible wrong done in the name of Wyomingites

Andrew Johnson of Cheyenne was wrongly imprisoned for 24 years. Yet the Legislature stubbornly refuses to pay for his losses. Some 32 other states compensate those convicted wrongly. But not the Cowboy State.

By Rodger McDaniel 

During the 2017 legislative session, the people of Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne, where I am the pastor, sent a petition to Republican and Democratic leaders.

Andrew Johnson and his former wife, Annette.

They asked legislators to compensate citizens who have been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned, as do 32 other states and the District of Columbia.

Specifically, they asked Wyoming to pay Andrew Johnson for the nearly 24 years he spent in prison for a crime the state knows he didn’t commit.

Not a single legislator from either party bothered to reply.

You may not remember Andrew and the grave injustices visited upon him by both the criminal justice system and the criminal malpractice of the Legislature.

In 1989, he was convicted of rape. There was no DNA testing then, only false accusations. Before the verdict, he said, “I thought the trial was going in my favor. I knew there was no evidence I had committed a crime.” Andrew was wrong. It took the jury 20 minutes to find him guilty.

Years later, DNA tests provided proof. He was innocent. Andrew was released from prison with little more than the shirt on his back. He had no job, no home, his mother died while he was incarcerated. With the injustices of the legal system corrected, Andrew then faced the injustices of the legislative system.

In 2014, bills compensating Andrew for those lost years passed both houses of the Legislature, in different forms. The bills landed in a conference committee, a well-known playground for mischief. Former Laramie County District Attorney Scott Homar and his accomplice, Cheyenne legislator Bob Nicholas, argued disingenuously that DNA proved nothing. Andrew was, they said, still guilty. And although Homar didn’t have enough evidence to retry Andrew, he used his political influence to further ruin this man’s life.

The late John Schiffer of Kaycee, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was the bill’s chief proponent. After the bill died in the conference committee, he said, “This is something we need to do in this state; it just wasn’t meant to be this year.” However, more than three years later, legislators seem satisfied with doing nothing ever.

So, Andrew remains uncompensated for those lost two and a half decades. His attorneys threw a “Hail-Mary” pass and filed a federal court lawsuit. That court has now rejected Andrew’s plea for someone, anyone to recognize the enormity of the injustice he has experienced.

He finds himself hemmed in between two Latin terms. One is often employed by courts when they deny justice, i.e., res judicata, meaning “the thing has been decided.” It means that if you look long enough through a bunch of dusty, dead, old law books, you’ll find a reason to deny justice.

The other Latin term explains Wyoming lawmakers. Una sals victis nullam sperare salutem, is intended to tell people like Andrew, “The only hope of the vanquished is not to have any hope at all.”

A year after Nicholas and Homar killed the compensation bill, an Albany County legislator, Charles Pelkey, then a freshman Democrat in the state House, briefly took up the cause. He introduced but then, inexplicably, withdrew a bill to provide compensation to the wrongfully convicted. Since then, nothing.

Criminal prosecutions are undertaken in the name of the people. When the conviction turns out to have been wrong, that wrong is likewise perpetrated in their name as well. The people of Wyoming, through their elected representatives, are guilty of a grave injustice. As the “Innocence Project” explains, “With no money, housing, transportation, health services or insurance, and a criminal record that is rarely cleared despite innocence, the punishment lingers long after innocence has been proven. States have a responsibility to restore the lives of the wrongfully convicted to the best of their abilities.”

Legislators will say the state just doesn’t have the money. Well, the state had enough money to pay the cost of wrongfully convicting Andrew. They had the money to pay for his prison cell for 24 years. Justice and common decency dictate they find the money to make right this terrible wrong.

Rodger McDaniel is the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He lives in Laramie.

Be honest, Christians: You DO hate the sinner

Those fundamentalists who oppose giving rights to LGBTQ people say it's really about hating the sin. But they need to be honest with themselves: Depriving people of their livelihoods is all about hating them too.

By Rodger McDaniel 

As the Cheyenne City Council prepares to debate an ordinance prohibiting employers from discriminating against gays, lesbians, transgender or bisexual people, some are making plans to stir Shakespeare’s cauldron. (Editor's note: It now appears the council will delay action on the matter, pending a U.S. Supreme Court decision from Colorado.)

“Double, double, toil and trouble.” Most of the trouble will come from self-identified Christians.

What is it that causes some Christians to hate LGBTQ people? Please don’t insult our intelligence

with that disingenuous Christian ditty, “We hate the sin but love the sinner.”

Let’s be honest. You hate “the sinner.” You reserve a special hatred for same-sex love and gender identity you don’t understand. You weaponized God’s word for justification and claim your so-called “religious freedom” is at stake in whether they have equal rights under the law. Some of you reject your own daughters and sons when they come out.

You encourage the passage of laws dictating which bathroom they can use and support banning otherwise patriotic Americans from serving our nation in the armed forces. And now, you advocate that they lose their jobs and livelihoods because of the way God made them.

I’m sorry, that’s hating the one you believe to be the “sinner” even more than it is hating the sin.

I’ve heard your justifications. You call it “tough love,” claiming “the Bible tells you so.” You argue that you have to be able to discriminate against them to exercise your religious freedom. You claim you worry about their relationship with your God.

But hate is not that complicated. It has only two components: thought and action. Hate is characterized by extreme ill-will, intense dislike and a passionate aversion to something or someone. But no one cares whether you have extreme ill-will for gays, lesbians, transgender or bisexual people. It’s what you do, not what you think, that makes you a hater.

When you attend a City Council meeting and use your faux-Christian credibility to lobby against nondiscrimination, you cross the line and become a hater. Then you’ve decided to use your beliefs to do damage to the lives of those you deny hating. When you act on your ill-will, you relinquish any plea of innocence to the sin of hating your neighbor.

Anyone of sound moral deportment should agree that no one should lose their job unless the boss has a good reason. That job is all that stands between the worker and poverty and being able to put a roof over the heads of one’s family and food on their dinner table.

There are few legal doctrines in Wyoming as dishonorable as the “at will” doctrine. Created by the Wyoming Supreme Court, not the Legislature, the doctrine allows employers to discharge an employee for no good reason. Regardless of how many years you’ve contributed to the well-being of the employer and his or her business, without a union or personal contract that says otherwise, you can be sent packing with no recourse.

Employees can be fired for no cause, but not an illegal cause. Under the law, illegal causes include discharges based on race, creed, religion and gender. In past debates over nondiscrimination laws, the haters have said no such law is necessary. They asserted that LGBTQ employees are protected under civil rights laws.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions pulled the rug out from under that argument. The case was brought by a gay man who was fired because of his sexual orientation. He told the court civil rights laws prohibit firing employees because of sexual orientation. Sessions says those laws provide no protection to LGBTQ workers.

Thus, Cheyenne City Council’s debate comes down to love and hate. That is always the choice Christians have to make. None of that “we don’t need a new law” or “hate the sin but love the sinner” stuff. Peel back the veneer. See this for what it is.

“Double, double, toil and trouble.” You can either hate LGBTQ people enough to subject them to loss of their livelihoods because of how God created them, or you can love your neighbor as yourself. You can’t do both.

Rodger McDaniel is the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He resides in Laramie. 

One man's vision has become Cheyenne's as well

Honoring Ronnald Jeffrey by renaming the Youth Alternatives facility in his honor reflects well on him -- and on the city. Few localities in Wyoming choose care over punishment for youth offenders. The Capital City does.

By Roger McDaniel

Cheyenne’s 150th anniversary was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the ways in which a variety of people made Cheyenne a special community. Ronn Jeffrey is one of them.

On Aug. 18, the Youth Alternatives facility at 1328 Talbot

Cheyenne's Ronnald Jeffrey.

Court was formally dedicated as the Ronnald J. Jeffrey Youth Complex. The Cheyenne City Council authorized the name change in January. It was appropriate recognition for someone who dedicated his life to the cause of serving the young people of Cheyenne.

In 1971, fresh out of college, a youthful Ronn Jeffrey had a vision. His vision became Cheyenne’s, and for the past 46 years the community has benefited from his innovative and insightful approaches to serving juveniles. Ronn would be the first to say he didn’t do it alone. The program has enjoyed the contributions of thousands of volunteers and an incomparable staff and the continuing support of Cheyenne’s city officials.

What will now be known as the “Ronnald J. Jeffrey Youth Complex” is itself the product of volunteers. In 1980, Marv Gertsch, a general contractor, and Randy Pouppirt, an architect, volunteered their services. Others pitched in, and what they created has housed Youth Alternatives since 1982.

In 1990, Youth Alternatives was honored by then-President George H.W. Bush. The program was named “A Point of Light” for its outstanding volunteer participation.

If you don’t think Youth Alternatives has made a difference, take a trip around Wyoming. You’ll see many communities struggling to deal with juvenile offenders. There are not many who have made the choice Cheyenne made to be innovative and supportive to these kids and their families. Across the state, most kids who get into trouble with the law find themselves in adult courts, treated like miniature adults. They plead guilty and start to create a criminal record that will haunt them for life, while their real-life needs for counseling and other services are ignored.

Because of Ronn’s vision, Cheyenne made a different choice. The difference is evident in the name change the program experienced in its early years. First opened in 1971, it was “the Office of Juvenile Probation.” By 1974, it became “Youth Alternatives” and was made a department within Cheyenne’s city government. Those changes were visionary and gave the program the support it needed to set a successful course.

Since then, Youth Alternatives has collaborated with Laramie County School District 1, the Wyoming Department of Family Services, Peak Wellness, Laramie County Community Partnership and others to serve children and families.

A kinship program assists caregivers seeking guardianship. A “Girls and Guys” group helps young people develop coping skills to deal with gender-specific issues. Youth Alternatives provides counseling and mentoring to keep young people in school and to help those who have been suspended or expelled. Together with Laramie County Community Partnership, Youth Alternatives offers after-school programs at Johnson and Carey junior high schools. Youth Alternatives provides parenting tips weekly on KGWN-TV.

One of the most successful innovations spurred by Youth Alternatives is the Municipal Court program serving juveniles. Ronn is not a lawyer and yet, in 2006, the mayor appointed him a judge in the Municipal Court. That happened only in Cheyenne, where officials had seen the successes of the Youth Alternatives programs. They were persuaded that when young people find themselves in court, it’s not necessarily a law-trained judge they need. What these youngsters need is someone who understands them, their stages of development and family dynamics.

When youngsters appear in Judge Jeffrey’s court, they are not processed as adults. Needs are assessed, and efforts are made to work with the family and community programs to help these kids succeed. As a result, most of these young people avoid a criminal record while receiving the services they need to successfully move on with their lives.

Congratulations to Jeffrey, but give credit also to the city of Cheyenne for seeing what can be accomplished by supporting a thoughtful and research-based approach to the needs of young people.

Rodger McDaniel is the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He lives in Laramie.

Mediocre ACT scores from Wyoming's kids again

The state's young people continue to languish in education mediocrity. Yet the problem is not the high levels of funding; those are needed. Rather, it's the fault of legislators for not enforcing rigorous reforms on the school system.

By D. Reed Eckhardt

Given the recently released results of Wyoming students on the ACT test, it is little wonder that lawmakers have been looking at cuts in education spending.

This state's young people continue to languish on this test, which is one of the few nationally normed challenges they face each year. Yet Wyoming continues to be

This chart is from the Wyoming Dept. of Education.

one of the top-spending states on education in the nation. Thus, lawmakers' logic is that since high spending is not working, then certainly the schools can do with less. Of course, that is just silly, especially given that the Legislature's unwillingness to enforce high standards on school districts is the real source of the problem. (More on that in a moment.)

Consider this: Not only are ACT scores not rising in Wyoming; they are falling. The statewide composite for 2016 was 20.0, which is 1 percent below 2015's score of 20.2. The score for 2014 was 20.1. So statistically speaking, scores have remained flat over the past three years.

One of the excuses Wyoming officials always give for these mediocre scores when compared to elsewhere is that all Cowboy State juniors take the test, not just the college-bound. But that actually is a good thing because it shows how this state's students are doing compared to national standards. The results are not pretty (see chart above). Every parent and taxpayer should be shocked, for example, to see that just 34.3 percent of this state's high school juniors are proficient or better in reading and just 37.0 percent are proficient or above in math. That means nearly two-thirds of Wyoming students are graduating without the math and reading skills needed to succeed in modern society.

Another way of looking at it is: Are Wyoming schools preparing their kids for college? Again, the ACT's answers are ugly. Just 33 percent of this state's graduates are college-ready in math and 38 percent in reading. It's a little better -- but nothing to brag about -- in English (58 percent) and worse in science (31 percent). And only one in five students (20 percent) is ready in all four subjects.

These numbers are sickening. Wyoming has been enforcing state standards at least since the turn of the 21st century, and its students continue to languish in mediocrity. Thus, it's no wonder that tax-averse legislators are throwing their hands up in frustration -- or at least pretending to do so as they look for ways to cut into a looming $400 million annual funding deficit for education.

But there is no way the Legislature can cut its way to success in the schools; that is counter-intuitive. Slashing teachers and support staff, increasing class sizes, delaying school buildings or holding off on the purchases of new books and other materials are recipes for further declines in scores and for making the state even less competitive in the new economy.

The problem with Wyoming's schools is not that they are over-funded. Rather, it is that lawmakers have refused to attach strings to the funding. Rather than setting high state standards for success, and enforcing those standards on districts, school and teachers, legislators have fled from the idea of education reform, abdicating the responsibility of quality results to the localities. And since there has been no one to demand excellence with the money, little of that has been produced.

Similarly, the state Department of Education has chosen to sit on the sidelines, adopting the role of happy cheerleader rather than demanding coach. Did agency officials decry the poor performance on the ACT? Nope. Did they put forth programs to raise the bar for the local schools? Nope. They blithely accepted the results, reported them and went on their way. Their lack of concern should trouble every taxpayer as well as every business in Wyoming that has to deal with the less-than-adequate raw material that the school system produces.

If lawmakers are serious about getting more for their education bucks rather than just dodging tax hikes, it is the time to demand success and enforce real reforms on the system. Yes, Wyoming's children are more than worth the money that this state spends on them, including new taxes. But unless rigorous change is imposed on the system, that money will go to waste. It's true that the Legislature can't cut its way to education success. However, until it finds the gumption to demand greater returns -- including jettisoning the concept of "local control" -- it can't spend its way to excellent results either.

D. Reed Eckhardt is the former executive editor of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. He has been writing about education issues in the state for almost two decades.

Crossing the rubicon

With his birthday on Aug. 14, blogger Rodger McDaniel now has joined Wyoming's burgeoning 70-and-over crowd. He says this gives him the chance to celebrate "the freedom that comes with growing older."

By Rodger McDaniel 

This past Monday, I joined a few thousand Wyoming folks who will celebrate the end of their 60s this year.

The Census Bureau says there are 12,000 of us between the ages of 67 and 69. The numbers rise to more than 16,000 for those 70 to 74, before taking a steep decline from 

Deathclock.org estimates your life expectancy

there till the end. Only 7,681 of our Wyoming neighbors are older than 85.

There is a rather involuntary nature to birthdays. They just keep coming until one day they don’t. And yet there seems to be something bold and optimistic about having one more. You don’t know what or how much time is ahead, which makes it all the more engaging.

It’s like driving down an old dirt road in the middle of the night. You can see only as far as your headlights allow, but every year that seems more and more OK. It’s probably healthy not to be able to see any further.

At this age, there are few certainties. Former Gov. Ed Herschler used to joke, “I don’t even buy green bananas anymore.” We aren’t guaranteed another birthday. Each passing year makes the likelihood of another one less likely, although there is a curious statistical increase in life expectancy as we age.

When I celebrated my 59th birthday, I had a life expectancy of more than 22 years. Now that I have lived 10 of those years, the actuaries say I can expect another 14.

At www.death-clock.org, you get an even more precise calculation of the “Estimated Time of Arrival” of the Grim Reaper. The website wants to know not just current age and gender, but also your lifestyle. Do you smoke, drink in excess, what is your body-mass index, and in what country do you live?

After plugging in the requested data, I was told, “Based on our calculations, you will die on Monday, 17 March 2031.” The death clock shows that I have 4,984 days, 3 hours, 43 minutes and an ever-declining number of seconds left.

That works for me. I’d be 82. That seems like a “long enough” life. It would give me the great satisfaction of seeing the last of my grandchildren graduate from high school and perhaps the older of the five earning a college diploma. Pat and I would have celebrated more than half a century of marriage and, knock on wood, I’d still be preaching at Highlands Presbyterian and tweaking local conservatives with weekly Tribune Eagle columns.

A couple of years ago, I took part in an informal gathering of ministers. All of us were in the same age range, i.e., older than average. We went around the table, taking turns answering this question: “What do you find to be optimistic about at this stage of your life?”

For me, it is the freedom that comes with growing older. This is a time when you can afford to be who God meant you to be. You can say what you mean and mean what you say. It’s not so easy in younger years, when starting a career means being careful about what you say and to whom you say it. It’s not so easy in younger years, when many of us are still grappling with understanding who we are and what we are being called to do or become. Older folks have the opportunity to be honest.

This is also the time of life when you get a more complete sense of how your path in life has prepared you for these years. I think of it regarding theologian Joan Chittister’s book, “The Gift of Years.” She writes about the stages of our lives.

“Each period of life has its own purpose. The latter one,” Ms. Chittister says, “gives me the time to assimilate all the others.”

Thus, nearing the end of 70 years of life is not a time to just “endure the coming ending of time.” It is time to come alive in ways we may never have “been alive before.”

Rodger McDaniel is the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He resides in Laramie.

It's time for our senators to hear the people

As they have fought to get rid of Obamacare, U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Mike Enzi, both R-Wyo., have failed to heed the voters who put them into office. It is time to meet the needs of Wyoming, not continue to serve party bosses.

By D. Reed Eckhardt

Now that our U.S. senators are on recess and back in the state, perhaps they will take some time to talk to their everyday constituents about their continued efforts to repeal Obamacare.

But probably not.

There is no good reason to think that U.S. Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso,

U.S. Sen. John Barrasso and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo, in a 2013 photo.

both R-Wyo., who played key roles in crafting the latest effort to "replace" the national health insurance program, will veer even one step from their recent vows to continue to fight to get rid of Obamacare. As for listening, they refuse to hold town meetings for fear of what they might hear.

"I remain committed to passing a law that actually fulfills the promise of affordable and quality health care," a defiant Barrasso said last month as a seven-year effort to repeal Obamacare fell flat in the Senate.

A blind commitment to partisan politics apparently causes one's nose to grow. Despite Barrasso's assertion, the bill brought forth in the Senate was neither affordable -- it would have sent premiums soaring -- nor would it have provided quality care. Indeed, it would have robbed thousands of Wyoming residents of access to the Medicaid program. Repeating a lie, Mr. Senator, does not make it the truth.

It is past time that both Enzi and Barrasso stop listening to their party's leadership as well as their close friends and supporters, and actually hear what the people of this state are saying. The senators could start with the woman behind the counter at a local pharmacy who cornered me last weekend. She knows I used to work as editor at the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, and she wanted to know how she could get in contact with the senators.

"If my premiums go up any higher, I won't be able to afford health insurance at all," she told me. "They have to know that. I already can't afford care because my deductibles are so high. They are going to make it worse."

There are hundreds, nay thousands, of Wyoming residents who feel the same way. Indeed, polls before the July repeal effort showed that only one in three Wyomingites supported the measure pushed by Enzi and Barrasso while 46 percent were opposed. And recent data show that the vast majority of Americans -- no doubt including Wyomingites -- do not support the repeal effort; they want Obamacare repaired, not replaced.

There was a time when Enzi was known for reaching across the aisle to his Democratic peers to solve problems. Indeed, he and the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., joined hands years ago on an education bill. Now Enzi has become part of the problem. He has moved steadily into the arms of party leadership, where he has found Barrasso already firmly ensconced.

And if you asked either of these men, they would tell you that they love the people of Wyoming. Yet their actions speak louder than their words. The bill they supported would have kicked many Wyomingites, included the elderly and military veterans, off Medicaid and cranked premiums beyond the reach of many. Now they seem willing to let premiums rise ever higher in hopes that Obamacare will collapse of its own weight.

Both Barrasso and Enzi have the juice to get the health care debate headed in the right direction. How much better they would serve the people of this state if they joined hands with moderate Republicans and -- gasp! -- moderate Democrats to craft a measure that would meet their obligations to lead and serve rather than to pander to party bigwigs and slap down those who really need their help.

Both of these men should think about the woman that I spoke with at the pharmacy as well as the many others like her. In Wyoming, we help our neighbors; we don't ignore their cries. Now that our senators are home for a few weeks, perhaps they will be reminded of that.

D. Reed Eckhardt is the former executive editor of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

John Barrasso has sold his soul to the devil

Wyoming's junior senator is more interested in serving party leadership than he is taking care of the people who elected him. Cowboy State residents deserve a leader who watches out for their interests. They won't get that from Barrasso.

By Rodger McDaniel 

The “repeal and replace” Obamacare fiasco is over for the moment. Now we need to talk about our junior senator.

John Barrasso reminds me of Stephen Vincent Benet’s story “The Devil and Daniel Webster.”

“There was a man named Jabez Stone, lived at Cross Corners, New Hampshire.

U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo, addresses the media last year.

He wasn’t a bad man to start with, but he was an unlucky man. If he planted corn, he got borers; if he planted potatoes, he got blight. He had good enough land, but it didn’t prosper him.

“He’d been plowing that morning and he’d just broken the plowshare on a rock that he could have sworn wasn’t there yesterday.” His horse began coughing. At home, his children and wife were ailing. It was the last straw.

“I vow it’s enough to make a man want to sell his soul to the devil. And I would, too, for 2 cents.” The next day, the devil arrived to cut the deal.

You’ve seen that ubiquitous photo of Barrasso photo-bombing Mitch McConnell? It costs Wyoming more than you realize. Inclusion in that photo is not free. In order to be at the right hand of the Senate leader, you must sell your soul to the party leadership. Inclusion comes with more “terms and conditions” than benefits.

Wyoming pays a price. Being part of that photo means never questioning the party, regardless of what it costs your state. Don’t believe it? Ask yourself why independent Republicans like Maine Sen. Susan Collins or Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski are never in the photo. They prefer representing constituents to photo-bombing McConnell.

They are busy negotiating better deals with the majority leader rather than standing at his side. Not Wyoming’s junior senator. Barrasso is so reliably in McConnell’s pocket that the GOP leadership never bothers to ask what Wyoming needs. Taken for granted, Barrasso goes along to get along. Wyoming pays a price.

Truthfully, Barrasso hasn’t received the credit he deserves for the failure of the Obamacare “repeal and replace” bills. He led the GOP chorus demanding the ACA’s repeal but produced nothing but bad ideas that would have damaged the lives of those he was elected to care about. Need proof that Wyoming voters don’t matter to Barrasso? Exhibit A was the bill he helped draft secretly, which would have taken health care from approximately 50,000 Wyoming citizens. He thought we wouldn’t notice his attempt to slash Medicaid. He’d have been gleeful to have destroyed people’s lives on a 51-50 vote.

Three courageous Republicans saved us from Barrasso’s folly. Independent GOP senators, worried more about constituents than themselves, saved millions of Americans from losing health insurance while the devil collected his due from Barrasso.

In Benet’s story, Farmer Stone lived at “Cross Corners.” It’s the place where members of Congress make choices. It’s where lawmakers with empathy choose to help their hurting constituents and those with political ambition don’t. Stone, like Barrasso, made the wrong choice. He sold his soul for seven years. Barrasso sells his six years at a time.

Unlike Wyoming folks, Stone had an empathetic advocate. Daniel Webster represented his constituent with passion. Webster argued that Stone was the victim. He’s no Barrasso. He’s Barrasso’s constituents. Webster told the jury of “the early days of America and the men who had made those days.”

Stone was, according to his advocate, “an ordinary man who’d had hard luck and wanted to change it.” Webster argued his client represented those who “got tricked and trapped and bamboozled.” The jury agreed. Stone won. The devil lost.

Applying Benet’s story to Barrasso’s sold soul doesn’t allow the senator to be “an ordinary man who’d had hard luck and wanted to change it.” Barrasso is a politician who could have offered his soul to his constituents. They are Jabez Stone. They’ve been “tricked and trapped and bamboozled” into voting for people like Barrasso.

Jesus warned we cannot serve two masters. Barrasso agrees. He chose to serve the powerful over the powerless. Great photo, Mr. Senator, but Wyoming deserves better.

Rodger McDaniel is the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He lives in Laramie. 

A butterfly flaps, Wyomingites get hurt

When President Trump talks about Russian orphans, he actually is talking about a chain of circumstances that ended up robbing Wyoming families of the children from that nation who would have been part of their families.

By Rodger McDaniel 

You might have thought the only connection between Wyoming and Russian President Vladimir Putin is our congressional delegation’s willingness to ignore the Trump-Kremlin collusion.

There is another, and it is the relationship that allows you to understand that

Children such as these in a Russian orphanage await adoption.

when either Trump or Trump Jr. says they were only discussing “adoptions” with the Russian president, something more sinister was afoot.

The connection between Wyoming and the Trump-Russia scandal demonstrates what has been called “the butterfly effect.” The term comes from chaos theory, a mathematical interpretation of the underlying causes of patterns that appear random. The butterfly effect describes the impact minor disturbances can have on future events.

Chaos theory can be used to understand the current occupants of the White House. The butterfly effect helps us understand the impact of international politics on unsuspecting Wyoming families.

Its basics are explained metaphorically by Karen Marie Moning, author of “Darkfever:” “A butterfly flaps its wings somewhere and the wind changes, and a warm front hits a cold front off the coast of Africa, and before you know it, you’ve got a hurricane closing in.”

In the context of current events, it goes like this. It all begins when someone steals hundreds of millions of dollars from the Russian treasury. An American-born British hedge-fund manager named William Browder lives in Moscow and exposes the theft and the thieves.

The Russian government is not pleased. The Russians retaliate by confiscating much of Mr. Browder’s vast holdings and deporting him. A butterfly has flapped its wings.

Mr. Browder hires a Moscow attorney named Sergei Magnitsky. Together, they expose the extent of the government’s corruption. The winds have changed.

Mr. Magnitsky is arrested, thrown into prison and subsequently beaten to death by his captors. Browder makes the case a cause célèbre. A warm front then collides with a cold front somewhere over Russia.

The U.S. Congress passes the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act,” the Magnitsky Act for short. The 2012 law identifies specific Russians as human rights abusers and punishes those responsible for Magnitsky’s death by banning them from the USA and its banking system while imposing additional sanctions on Russia.

Vladimir Putin is furious. A hurricane closes in.

There isn’t much he can do to punish American lawmakers for passing the Magnitsky Act, so he looks for far more vulnerable targets. Now, the flapping of the butterfly wings that caused the winds to change and a warm front to hit a cold front off the coast of Africa causes a hurricane. It strikes Wyoming and, more specifically, the Wyoming Children’s Society, which operated a highly successful program helping families adopt Russian orphans. Putin retaliates against the lawmakers who passed the Magnitsky Act by banning the adoption of Russian orphans by Americans.

The Russian adoption program abruptly ends while Wyoming citizens, along with some 200 other American families, are awaiting Russian children to join their homes. One Wyoming family was actually in Moscow, expecting to bring two children home with them, as Putin crushes dreams and hopes at Christmastime in 2012.

When you hear Trump and his son met with Russians to talk about “adoptions,” they are admitting to something far less benign. Their discussions with Putin and others were about a much more complicated series of events that started much earlier with the flapping of butterfly wings and extended to Putin’s cruel decision to end American adoptions of institutionalized Russian children Putin’s government neglects.

In the obscure and often unsavory world of international politics, butterflies are always flapping their wings. The hurricanes that generates generally have unintended consequences that harm those for whom the instigators have little regard. Such was the case when the Russian dictator’s decision brought hurt to Wyoming families who were only trying to create a better life for Russian orphans.

Rodger McDaniel is the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He lives in Laramie.

Robocalls really about big-money politics

A lawsuit filed recently in Wyoming argues that the state's law against election calls is unconstitutional. But Cowboy State judges should stand up for the people, not for corporate agents who spend their money to mislead voters.

By Rodger McDaniel
Free speech isn’t free. In fact, what passes for “free speech” today may cost us our freedom.

Those who turned democracy into a money-driven, hate-fueled venture are determined to drive the last nail in America’s coffin. The First Amendment is their hammer.

Wyoming is now the battleground to remake our republic in the image of those with money in their pockets and hate in their hearts.

Recently, a Michigan robocall company filed a Wyoming lawsuit, arguing they have a First Amendment right to misinform you with annoying and misleading automated calls.

Republics are defined by democratic characteristics. Power is located in the people’s right to elect representatives. Inherent is the requirement that voters be sufficiently informed that the process is connected to their interests and those of the nation.

Courts are being asked to make certain those with money control the mechanics of educating the voters.

There’s a fight in our Divided States of America to determine whether voters are informed or misinformed. Like combat units softening up the enemy with mortars before the infantry charges, vilifying the media was the opening salvo. The second stage of this battle is what Abraham Lincoln, one of America’s last genuine republicans, warned us about.

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country,” he said. 

That future Lincoln saw was one in which “corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the republic is destroyed.”

That’s the coffin in which some strive to lay our republic. To the lasting shame of conservatives, the most sacred of our constitutional protections is being used to accomplish their goals.

Seven years ago, conservatives persuaded the Supreme Court to lay the groundwork for an oligarchy, a form of government in which the supreme power no longer resides in the voters, but in a small group of economically powerful people. It’s money and the power it buys, not votes, that matter.

In a 2010 decision, “Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission,” the court sided with big money over the voters. By a 5-4 vote, the justices said free-speech rights guaranteed under the First Amendment allow corporations and political action committees to spend unrestricted amounts of money to “inform” the voters. They also protected “misinformation” under the First Amendment.

These aren’t actual humans volunteering to help candidates by calling potential voters. These are thousands of unsolicited, unwanted and frequently deceptive computer-generated calls.

Calls made by unaccountable organizations with misleading names deprive voters of any knowledge of their motives. They make misleading assertions intended not to inform, but to misinform. A particular subset of the electorate is targeted after polls show the specific message that might sway them.

The message is seldom fact-based. Evidence in a South Carolina suit showed robocallers falsely tying Democrats running for the state legislature to Nancy Pelosi. Because the caller and the sponsoring committee are basically anonymous, claims are made without regard for accuracy. The process requires lots of money, and “Citizens United” made sure some had it.

That’s what passes for “free speech” in today’s America.

Conservatives care little that you don’t want your phone ringing incessantly and causing unwanted intrusions at all hours of the day, spewing negative campaigning. It’s their bread and butter.

They believe their right to what they call free speech is greater than your right to be free of their speech.

Some are so committed to winning they are willing to use the Constitution against the republic. These tactics turn off voters, driving them away from the process at precisely the time they need to fight back. That may be the robocallers' goal.

Wyoming judges must decide whether free speech includes perverting the Constitution. Wyoming judges can protect the republic or become accomplices to burying it.

Rodger McDaniel is the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He resides in Laramie. 

Why does Trump hate poor people?

It appears the president believes only rich people are qualified to serve in his Cabinet. Apparently, he doesn't know the secret: You don't have to be smart to be a multi-millionaire. You just have to have a rich daddy.

By Roger McDaniel
A self-described poor woman from rural Tennessee told National Public Radio how much pain she was in because of the loss of all of her teeth. She was waiting at a free health clinic, hoping to get some relief. She volunteered, “I voted for Trump.”

The next day, I listened to President Trump tell supporters in Cedar Rapids, “I love

all people – rich or poor – but in those particular (Cabinet) positions, I just don’t want a poor person.” The president asked rhetorically, “Does that make sense?”

Actually, it doesn’t.

Why does a president of the United States believe poor people are disqualified from serving?

Candidate Trump promised to drain the swamp. We should have asked him to define what he meant by “the swamp.”

If you’ve been to a swamp, you know the calm waters on the surface are deceptive. They hide the alligators and poisonous snakes lurking below. A swamp may appear calming, but you’d never want to dive into its waters.

So, when you heard candidate Trump say he’d drain the swamp, didn’t you figure that once he was president, the water would be gone and, once exposed, the alligators and snakes would crawl and slither off? Did anyone who applauded that campaign slogan really think that once the water was gone that the alligators and snakes would reign?

Yet there they are. The same predators who have always roamed Foggy Bottom. Trump wanted voters to believe he was promising to rid our government of the influence of the wealthy and self-serving well-connected. I figured he’d heard the concerns of the ordinary folks who are frustrated by the power wielded by the elites. When Trump used the “draining the swamp” metaphor, I pictured a coming together of a government to which folks on Main Street could relate and a government that could relate to folks on Main Street.

Instead, as the swamp was drained, the alligators and snakes flourished. They proudly took over the swamp. Why? Because they are a part of the social and business circle in which the president is comfortable. The president is at home with these swamp dwellers.

What he told that Cedar Rapids crowd is that he isn’t comfortable with poor people. He wants to be surrounded by aristocrats and oligarchs now, as he has been all of his life. Jesus may have said “the poor will always be with you,” but Donald Trump said, “Not with me, they won’t.”

When it comes to putting people in charge of “Making America Great Again,” he is clear. “I just don’t want a poor person.” Why not? What’s wrong with poor people, Mr. President?

Does Trump figure that if poor, they aren’t smart? What’s the difference between Trump and many poor people? It’s not IQ. It’s not a willingness to work hard. It’s not found in what each knows or doesn’t know what it means to struggle for their family and community’s well-being.

The significant difference between many poor people and Trump is that he had a daddy who could bankroll his life.

When I was the director of the Wyoming Department of Family Services, I made a concerted effort to get to know those we served – poor and low-income families across Wyoming. I learned that false stereotypes animate conservative policymakers. Seeing people as poor because they are lazy, incapable or make bad choices leads to bad public policy.

Professor Jay Zagorsky conducted a study at Ohio State University. His conclusion? “Your IQ has no relationship to your wealth. Intelligence is not a factor in explaining wealth. Those with low intelligence should not believe they are handicapped, and those with high intelligence should not believe they have an advantage.”

Having a close adviser who has experienced poverty might make Trump a better man and a better president.

If Trump really wants to drain the swamp, he needs to understand this. People may become a part of the swamp just because they are rich, but people don’t become rich just because they are smart.

Rodger McDaniel is the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He resides in Laramie.

Orr needs to change course on "religious exemption"

Cheyenne's mayor should stand by her campaign pledge to fully back a nondiscrimination ordinance. Her stated support for this exemption is a poison pill that would nullify protections for the LGBT-plus community.

By D. Reed Eckhardt

Cheyenne's LGBT-plus community -- as well as its supporters -- have every right to be upset with Mayor Marian Orr.

After pledging to champion a nondiscrimination ordinance during her

Mayor Marian Orr talks to the media during last fall's campaign.

campaign for mayor last year, Orr slipped a poison pill into her "support" this week: She said she favors a religious exemption as part of any proposal that might come before her. (For the full account, go to: KGAB story) That is a non-starter for the LGBT-plus community, and rightfully so, since it nullifies the goals of the ordinance, which is to bar discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation.

Perhaps Orr doesn't know this -- though she probably does -- but demands by the religious community to exercise a "right to discriminate" based on their (usually fundamentalist Christian) beliefs has become the new mantra now that same-sex marriage has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Those who are offended by gay and lesbian couples, and in particular by the idea of them legally marrying, are fighting back by trying to disallow them access to their businesses and rental properties and by denying them jobs in their workplaces.

No doubt, these Christian people have sincerely held beliefs, and they honestly may not want to serve members of the LGBT-plus community, seeing that as a violation their faith. They argue that because it is THEIR business, and because they have a First Amendment right to religion, they can bar gays, lesbians, and others. But the courts already have made it clear that religion is not a legal basis for discrimination. That was decided in the South in the 1960s when residents there said it violated their beliefs to serve blacks or mixed-race couples. Indeed, the right to access public accommodations now is written into U.S. Code:

"All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin." (Title 42, Chapter 21, Subchapter II)

And the Wyoming Supreme Court addressed this issue earlier in the year when it ruled Pinedale Judge Ruth Neely did not have a right to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples simply because such marriages violate her religious beliefs. 

In the midst of censuring Neely for failing to do her job, Justice Kate Fox wrote the following: "In addition to protecting religious freedom, our (Wyoming) Constitution recognizes the importance of equal rights for all. ... we could not read the provisions regarding religious liberty to render those provisions recognizing equal rights and due process to be inoperative or superfluous."

Elsewhere in the ruling, the state's High Court says, "(W)hile the freedom to believe is absolute, the freedom to act cannot be." It adds, "(T)he Wyoming Constitution is construed to protect people against legal discrimination more robustly than does the federal constitution."

So rather than being cowed by the fundamentalist Christian community, Orr would be wiser to show some leadership here. She should explain to them that they do, indeed, have a right to their beliefs, but their rights to do not trump the rights of LGBT-plus residents to be free from discrimination. The LGBT-plus community deserves that from Orr, given that they voted for her, believing she would properly handle this issue, which is so important to them.

As for waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in a case involving a bakery in Colorado that refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, why? The Wyoming Supreme Court already has said religious belief does provide cover to discriminate. Let's get on with affirming the rights of ALL of this city's residents, not just those who sit in fundamentalist pews on Sunday.

D. Reed Eckhardt is the former executive editor of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.