An open conversation or ducking the punches?

U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi's conversation with the local newspaper didn't really get the job done. This state's delegation should meet with the people.

By D. Reed Eckhardt

I continue to be conflicted about the recent published conversation between U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. 

On one hand, the local newspaper was able to get the senator to at least sit down and answer questions from his constituents. 

Empty chairs mark the delegation's absence in Jackson.

On the other hand, Enzi was able to dodge having to hear directly from those who are unhappy with his positions on such things as Obamacare and his support for the Trump administration. He knows that could have been unpleasant, given what has happened at other Republican representatives' town halls around the nation.

Perhaps the senator doesn't care what those people have to say, so he probably is satisfied with the WTE interview. He has staked out a position as one of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate, though he isn't nearly as aggressive about it as other members. And he is well liked in Wyoming, so he really has nothing to gain from being pinned down at a town hall.

But there are people in this state who Enzi should be listening to. Consider a friend whose family was saved by the safety net that Obamacare offers. His child has a severe disease, and it only was through Obamacare that he was able to get substantial coverage. Without it, that child would have been kept out by a pre-existing condition and/or her age. That she was under 26 years old allowed her to stay on the family policy. One wonders how Enzi would respond if told face to face that he was threatening that child's health care by his efforts at "repeal and replace." We'll never know, of course, since that family was unable to confront the senator at the WTE.

Certainly, there are many others -- though not of Enzi's party, probably -- who have personal, social or political concerns that they would like to share with the senator. But he answered questions from the paper, and that provided him with at least an appearance of openness.

It's easy to understand the senator's hesitancy. Confrontation is not his cup of tea. But as a new article on WyoFile clearly shows (http://www.wyofile.com/delegation-applauded-legislators-scolded-constituents/), many Wyomingites want to speak directly with their congressional delegation. In some respects, it is cowardly for them to hide in Washington, D.C., or even in the editorial boardroom of the WTE. These residents are supposed to be represented by their delegation. For Enzi -- or Sen. John Barrasso or Rep. Liz Cheney, for that matter -- to duck them says a lot about who they really think they represent. That Barrasso, for example, chose to attend a fundraiser in Jackson while ignoring requests for a town meeting there speaks volumes.

So give the WTE credit for at least getting Enzi to come out from behind the curtain. Unfortunately, the people of Laramie County got to see only what the Wizard wanted them to see, rather than being able to see the Wizard himself. They, and the rest of Wyoming, deserve better from Enzi, Barrasso, and Cheney. Unfortunately, they won't get it anytime soon.

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

Praying for those who lead us

May they -- including President Trump -- be open to all faiths and their teachings about those who live among us.

By Rodger McDaniel

Allah, God, Yahweh, or what name gives the Divine Creator of us all the honor and praise our creator deserves:

We pause from the time wasted with our flaws, partisanship, prejudices

and fears, and in the spirit of your guidance, we pray for those with whom we disagree, even as we pray for our president, Donald Trump.

Your people live in times that try our souls and test our faith. Though we have all been created in your image and, therefore, have so much in common, we are so divided that there is danger we may not be able to adequately serve as your faithful partners in achieving the hope you have for humankind and all of creation.

Grant us the faith to understand that if Trump is as good a leader as his supporters believe, then he, with your guidance, will work to right the wrongs of our nation and world. Likewise, let others find comfort in the assurance that if Trump is as deficient a leader as they fear, you will lead others to work toward righting the wrongs he might otherwise bring upon our nation and the world.

Our deeply humble prayer is that our faith can overcome our fears, our prejudices and our partisanship as you guide his decisions.

Your people have been directed where to search for truth. We recall it was Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish rabbi, revered by Islam, and the one whom Christians follow who said, “I was born and have come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

It was, we also recall, the oppressor of the people, the one who denied their humanity, and the one who sought to marginalize and persecute those who were different, the defiant one who couldn’t distinguish the truth from the lies. It was Pilate, who ordered Jesus be executed, who wondered aloud, “What is truth?”

It is the truth we seek, while knowing it is found through following your teachings, and not those of any human being, that we will find it.

It is because of your word that we pray Trump’s heart will be opened to the immigrant and the refugee. The Holy Quran of your Muslim children speaks of those who were “oppressed in their own land, fleeing violence in their homes” when it asks, “Was not the Earth of Allah spacious enough for you to move yourself away from evil?”

The Bible Jesus read, the Hebrew scripture, says, “When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the foreigner. The foreigner who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the foreigner as yourself.”

Our prayer is that Trump’s heart be opened to these words you have spoken and those about whom you spoke.

In your infinite wisdom, you have shown us what is good. When asked, “What does the Lord require of you,” you told us it is to act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. You told us we will all be judged by what we do for the least of these, our brothers and sisters. We lift up our prayer that this president and all who come into places of power will lead us in that manner.

You also warned us against placing a human king over you in directing our lives. We place trust in the Hebrew scripture’s teaching that you can see the hearts of leaders when we cannot. You told Samuel, “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

We pray together with, and for, those with whom we disagree. Our purpose in this life matters more than our differences, and it matters enough that we seek to find common ground in your hopes for the world. For that we pray.

Amen.

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

Richard Johnson's parking lot concerns are on target

The proposal to put 35 slots in The Hole is under fire from the councilman. He is asking all the right questions, and not getting good answers.

By D. Reed Eckhardt

Councilman Richard Johnson is asking all the right questions about the proposal to spend $750,000 of the city of Cheyenne's money on a parking lot for The Hole along West Lincolnway downtown.

Johnson wants to know:

-- Will the city ever get its $750,000 back as promised by Hynds Building

The Hynds Building in downtown Cheyenne.

developer David Hatch and his cohorts among the city's economic development groups?

-- Why should the city set aside 10 prime parking spaces along the northwest corner at the intersection of Capitol Avenue and West Lincolnway for the Hynds when it won't do the same for other downtown businesses who have similar needs and desires?

-- Should the city spend one-eighth of its unencumbered reserves on this project when that same money could go to repair city streets? Cheyenne's new mayor, Marian Orr, supports this project, yet she was elected on a program of fixing streets. That seems to be a contradiction, Johnson rightly notes.

-- Is this proposal even legal? The Wyoming Constitution forbids the use of public funds to aid private businesses. How does that not apply here, Mr. Johnson wants to know. There are other technicalities related to the deal's legality as well.

The councilman is getting mixed responses. Chamber of Commerce head Dale Steenbergen admitted Tuesday to the council's Finance Committee that the money may never be returned. Uh oh.

And when Johnson helped pull the parking spaces from the proposal at Tuesday's meeting, he got the usual threat from Mr. Hatch: If these space aren't included, the potential clients for the Hynds might pull out. Where have we heard that one before?

On the streets vs. parking lot question, Orr has been silent. Perhaps she thinks that the money for streets in the sixth-penny proposal covers her campaign promises. It does -- if supporters want to wait years to get it. In the meantime, they can watch Cheyenne's roadways fall further into disrepair.

But the big elephant in the room is Johnson's question about the proposal's constitutionality. City attorney Sylvia Hackl says she is confident it can be done legally. That is not very reassuring. No doubt, Hackl can create an argument for the project out of whole cloth. That is what lawyers do. But it only will take one concerned resident -- or City Council member -- to challenge this iffy argument, and the Hynds project could be tied up in court for years.

The other question that Johnson is asking, though not as openly, is: Is this the best use of this property? The councilman supports helping to make Cheyenne more attractive for young singles and families, so he knows the answer to that question: It is not. This parking lot, indeed the whole Hynds development, will do little or nothing to help make downtown more viable. This space should be used for retail, or an eatery, or a facility like the Children's Museum, which Hatch and friends badgered out of The Hole last fall. A parking lot won't further the goal of reinvigorating downtown.

Here's hoping that Mr. Johnson's incisive questions will awaken those on the City Council who have fallen under the spell of Hatch and friends. Cheyenne can do better than another parking lot downtown, and one that won't even be public until after dark. Those who argue that this will a least put something in The Hole are wrong. City leaders should be holding out for the highest use of this property. Once it is gone, this chance to improve downtown -- and Cheyenne's future -- won't come again.

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

A one-man war on suicide prevention

This lawmaker from Casper plays fast and loose with the truth in an effort to kill Wyoming's agency that seeks to cut this state's high suicide rate.

By Rodger McDaniel 

The story is told of when the French ambassador to Spain met Miguel de Cervantes. He congratulated Cervantes on his book “Don Quixote.” Cervantes whispered in the Frenchman’s ear, “Had it not been for the Inquisition, I could have made my book much more interesting.”

That reminded me of the Wyoming Legislature. I spent 44 years

Rep. Tom Walters, R-Casper, uses fake facts to fight anti-suicide funding.

working those halls. From 1967 until 2011, I attended every session – as a reporter, as a legislator for a decade, a lobbyist for 22 years and an agency head for eight. Each experience was uplifting and pleasant, except those last eight years, which caused the PTSD preventing me from walking those halls today.

Many legislators have unsupported suspicions that agencies are hiding something and if they dig enough they’ll find it. With few facts and little background, they substitute the modicum of their knowledge for that of “in the trenches” professionals who work full time in programs these legislators blindly target during their brief 40-day stint in the Capital City.

Observations from the sidelines support a belief that it’s gotten worse. Some members are more ideological, less aware of government workings, and more given to operate on notions and prejudices. They venture outside of their lanes of expertise, entering debates armed with preconceived assumptions, rather than facts.

Rep. Tom Walters, R-Casper, and his war on Wyoming’s suicide prevention work is an example. Walters has no background in the complex issues of prevention. He’s a rancher with a degree in animal science whose biography says he’s a member of two organizations – the Fair Board and the Natrona County Republican Party. He also has a personal vendetta against the Department of Health’s suicide prevention program. And he has a platform. He’s a member of the Appropriations Committee.

Wyoming has a serious suicide problem. In 2015, 157 of our neighbors took their own lives, the second most tragic rate in the country. In 2012, the state halted the distribution of prevention money to disconnected community programs using a hodgepodge of non-science-based ideas to address the problem. Instead, funds were granted to a single agency, the Prevention Management Organization. It assures every community is served by well-trained personnel using best practices based on data and research.

That created a political problem. A program in Walters’ district lost funding. Someone complained. Without disclosing his relationship with the complainer, he took up the cause and still carries the flag five years later.

Using his perch on the powerful Appropriations Committee, Walters offered this unsupported accusation, “This organization has had over five years now, six years, to get things straightened out, and they have not; and this department just continues to say ‘give us more time, and we will make it work right.’ And they are proving that they just want more time and they’re not getting it done.”

Walters ignored that in the last five years, the program conducted nearly 1,600 sessions, training 45,000 Wyoming citizens on methods of helping suicidal friends make a different choice. Forty-four percent say they’ve actually used those skills to prevent a suicide.

Based not on these facts, but on Walters’ “alternative facts,” legislators slashed the prevention program by $2.1 million.

Ignoring some facts and distorting others is not ethical. Neither is the widespread practice of offering third reading amendments to avoid meaningful debate and public input. It’s trickery, and it’s a strategy employed too often by your elected representatives. On third reading consideration of the budget bill, Walters took his vendetta the distance. He introduced an amendment to prohibit use of state funds for the Prevention Management Organization.

Although colleagues saw through the charade and voted down his last-minute attack, Walters seriously damaged critical suicide prevention work.

To paraphrase Cervantes, “Had it not been for the legislative inquisition led by Walters, Wyoming’s suicide prevention effort could have been much more successful.”

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

So long, my feathered friend

Pepper, our family's bird died last week. He richly fulfilled his role as a pet.

Blogger's note: While Publius Wyoming is dedicated to liberal/progressive opinion, today's entry strays from the mission. My apologies to those who were looking for political inspiration. More will follow in ensuing days.

By D. Reed Eckhardt

The three-foot bird cage sits on my kitchen floor. It is deathly quiet. Nothing scrambling about, or pecking at food, or singing along with the radio. A friend of 25 years has passed on. He leaves an empty space in my heart and in our home.

Pepper was a cockatiel that I got for one of my daughters post-divorce in 1992 in Alexandria, Lousiana. It had been suggested by a friend that my girls should have

This is not our bird, Pepper, but he looked like this.

something to care for when they came to visit my apartment. So I got each of them a bird. Pepper was the only survivor in our home, even from a family that he and another cockatiel raised in the bottom of their cage. He hung around after my older daughters left, and he had given love and comfort to me, my wife and my youngest daughter over the years. He was a good friend.

That's the thing about pets: They provide us with great comfort. And they give us something to care for outside ourselves. Even as Pepper had been fading for the past several months, apparently from a stroke or something similar, he had provided great joy as I ground up seed for him in the morning, changed his water and kept a floor heater turned on for him at his cage for the warmth he seemed to need. He often struggled over to sit near me as I worked at the kitchen table. Each visit was one more with an old buddy.

Funny thing, though, is that Pepper didn't seem to really like me all that much. He saved his greatest affection for my wife and friends Jim and Mary, who often tended him when we were out of town. He would travel across the cage so they could stroke his head and neck feathers. But not me. It didn't matter. He could be a crotchety old man if he wanted and nip my fingers when I tried to touch him. It was all part of what he was.

At my age, 65, this is not the first pet that I have lost. But each has been special in its own way -- an iguana, dogs, cats -- and each has enriched my life and the lives of those around me. That's what pets do, and Pepper more than fulfilled that role.

I think, too, that pets remind us of our own mortality. A friend, Bradley Harrington, recently wrote in his column in the WTE about the loss of his family's dog, noting that "no one gets out alive." Indeed, and the death of Pepper reminds me of that. Just as this gray, white and yellow bird (with the orange spots on each side of his head) enhanced my life, it reminds me that it is important that I use my time to help make the lives of others better. So little time, so much to do, and see, and share. Perhaps I can be a Pepper to someone else, be it family, or friend, or passing acquaintance. That is a proper way to honor the death of a friend.

Pepper's other gift to me was music. He relished Vivaldi's "Four Seasons." He would sit on his perch and chirp, whistle and sing along. One evening I was playing the Traveling Wilburys, and one song -- I can't now remember which -- caught his fancy. We played it over and over, and he added his tones to the music. I also will think of him when I hear "Can't Touch This," by MC Hammer. Pepper would scoot from one end of his perch to the other as my daughter sang, "Doo doo doo, can't touch this!" Small joy, big smiles, immense pleasure.

Perhaps it is cynical, but for me, my life has been about saying goodbye. So long, my feathered friend. And thank you for what you have given me. I will treasure even this empty hole that you have left behind.

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

Try using love, rather than the Bible as a weapon

The church can influence public policy in progressive directions, not just where fundamentalists want to push it

By Rodger McDaniel

“There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear.” Those Buffalo Springfield lyrics have surprisingly more meaning now that I’m 68 than when first sung in ’67. “There’s battle lines being drawn; nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.”

There are some much older words I’ve been contemplating as the Wyoming Senate voted to endorse discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender human beings. Alas, the Legislature is fine with some losing their livelihood for exercising constitutional rights to marry the person they love. In the Equality State, being who you are is risky.

Legalizing discrimination is attributed by many observers to the Wyoming Pastors Network (WPN), the self-identified “network of Bible-believing pastors committed to teaching and applying biblical principle as the moral compass and source of Truth for all matters of life.

Many of us can claim the same identity while reaching far different

conclusions about whether discrimination against the LGBTQ community can be either legal or moral. That brings me back to those “older words” I’ve been contemplating, words written by the Apostle Paul in the first century.

Paul admitted to the Corinthians that, “for now,” he and they could see only “dimly.” He said we could only know “in part.” He implied there’d come a time when we could “know fully.” But he continued, “faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest is love.”

The point is that until we are able to understand fully, we are left to rely on love. The conclusion Paul leads us to is that love precludes using biblical interpretation as a pretext for discrimination. Love, rather than weaponizing the Bible, provides us with a “moral compass and source of Truth for all matters of life.”

But, the divider is biblical interpretation. As Buffalo Springfield said, “Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.” Biblical interpretation is the game everybody can play. That’s where battle lines are drawn. Division is the objective. The WPN acknowledges as much on its highly sophisticated website. “The WPN is NOT an ecumenical endeavor! We are not involved in the business of unifying separated brethren.” They openly admit their goal is “less about cooperation (joint working) than it is about coordination (synchronized work).”

The objective of the WPN is to influence political decisions, but only on a narrow range of issues. Its website evidences no interest in persuading lawmakers to feed the hungry or house the homeless. What matters to it is “issues of life, marriage and religious freedom,” i.e. abortion and discrimination against the LGBTQ community. It exists to “assist you to decide the most effective way” to engage in the public, i.e. political arena.

Conservative Christians have long complained about progressive Christians being involved in politics. Indeed, it was the progressive church that fought for civil rights, went to the streets to stop the war in Vietnam, stood in the vanguard of the struggle for women’s reproductive choice, marriage equality and environmental justice. It seemed counterintuitive, but as the progressive churches fought for their civil rights, many left the church, while folks on the other side of these issues flocked into conservative churches.

It’s no coincidence that President Trump now calls for repeal of prohibitions on the endorsement of candidates from the pulpit. Now they have a president who is aligned with their goals. Conservative Christians are prepared for full-throated involvement in partisan politics.

The defeat of the Wyoming non-discrimination bill should be the shot heard ’round the progressive world. The game has changed. Progressives are ill-prepared. Why? While many progressives held the church in disdain, those opposed to their objectives heard a counter message every Sunday morning in churches across Wyoming. And they are now animated by sophisticated religious-political operations.

Progressives have ceded that ground to conservatives and have ignored the historic power of the church to influence public policy at their own peril. There’s something happening here and what it is … is perfectly clear.

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

A parking lot in The Hole? We can do better

A resolution before the Cheyenne City Council would help turn the space along West Lincolnway into a private facility for the Hynds project

By D. Reed Eckhardt

It should come as no surprise that the city of Cheyenne is about to make parking downtown even harder -- and help to give away an economic development asset -- to please the developer of the Hynds Building.

After all, city officials were in cahoots with the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce, Cheyenne LEADS and others last summer when they bullied the Children's Museum out of The Hole downtown. Former Mayor Rick Kaysen, Chamber head Dale Steenbergen

Last summer The Hole was used for concerts downtown.

and others claimed that if the museum did not get out of the way, efforts to develop the Hynds Building would fail. So museum officials did the "right thing," even though they -- and their supporters -- didn't want to do so.

Now comes a proposed resolution before the Cheyenne City Council at the behest of new Mayor Marian Orr to build a parking lot in The Hole along West Lincolnway to serve the Hynds development, should that land be bought by LEADS. Among other things, the city would: 1 -- Spend $750,000 to put in a covered facility that would be used during business hours ONLY by Hynds tenants; and 2 -- Set aside 10 parking spots on the street at the Hynds along Capitol Avenue and West Lincolnway to be used ONLY by the Hynds tenants as well as five more in the Spiker parking garage.

I never have understood the love affair that the city, Chamber, and LEADS have had with the Hynds developer. Perhaps it's all about who knows whom, and the Hynds has been vacant a long time. But these groups seem unwilling to view The Hole as anything other than a place to take care of their friend. That he still hasn't moved forward months after the museum ouster should speak loudly to the people of Cheyenne, whose money will be used to build the parking lot, about whether the Hynds ever will be developed.

Hopefully someone on the City Council will question whether this is the highest use of this property because it isn't. This space should be employed for retail or some other business that will attract residents and visitors downtown and serve as a way to make this city's central business district a more interesting place to visit. A parking lot? Ho hum.

Here's an idea: How about a saloon and casino? Yes, I know that would require changes in state law, etc., but that -- or something else of similar recreation/entertainment value -- would put The Hole to better use than a 25-space private parking lot. This prime location that should be utilized to help grow Cheyenne.

And then there is the issue of the parking itself. It can be hard enough to park downtown during certain times of the day without giving up 10 key spaces at the corner of West Lincolnway and Capitol Avenue. One wonders how the retail businesses down there feel about that. And whether they would get similar favors if they sought them.

Here's hoping that someone on the City Council will do due diligence on this proposal. It also would be great to get more public input on this plan. It seems to have appeared out of nowhere, though word has it that it is the result of several secret meetings among the key players. The people of Cheyenne and area businesses should be heard on this matter.

Yes, The Hole should be filled. But somebody should make sure it is used to grow Cheyenne, not just to take care of a developer who can't seem to get his act together.

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

-------------------------------------

THE PROPOSED RESOLUTION

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE
CITY OF CHEYENNE, WYOMING, that if LEADS acquires the vacant property adjacent to and immediately west of the Hynds Building, such property being commonly referred to at present as the “Hole,” then the City is willing to commit:

(1) up to Seven Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($750,000.00) for the construction of a covered parking facility at that location to accommodate the parking requirements of potential tenants;

(2) up to ten (10) designated on-street parking spaces adjacent to the perimeter of the Hynds Building and five (5) designated parking spaces in the Spiker Parking Garage, such parking spaces to be committed to the benefit of potential tenants of the Hynds Building, yielding an approximate total of forty (40) parking spaces, assuming a
twenty-five (25) vehicle capacity at any covered parking facility constructed on the vacant property adjacent to and immediately west of the Hynds Building, such contributions subject to the condition precedent that the developer produce proof of actual construction initiation by no later than January 1, 2018, after which time the
City may no longer be able or willing to make any such contribution;

(3) to granting access to the developer and its agents to perform any work necessary to complete the developer’s geothermal heat element plan before the construction of any covered parking facility begins; and

(4) to negotiating in good faith to reach any ancillary agreements, including, but not limited to, agreements on necessary easements, shared walls, parking use, and other logistical items that the parties necessarily must enter into before construction of the covered parking facility.

Wind River Reservation needs a hero

Statistics show the people of the Cowboy State lack understanding about their  only Native American reservation 

By Rodger McDaniel

Imagine for a moment that the people of one of Wyoming’s 23 counties lived an average life of 20 percent fewer years than those living in any other county. Imagine that county had cancer rates 20 percent higher than any of the other counties, where chronic liver

disease was diagnosed 90 percent more often.

What if mothers and fathers in that county suffered infant
mortality at a rate of more than 100 percent higher than all the other Wyoming counties?

Imagine that in the middle of Wyoming there were hundreds of families without adequate heat during Wyoming’s winters. What would be the response of public officials if one county’s median household income was half of other counties and a quarter of the poorest households earned less than $9,000 a year, leaving nearly two-thirds of them below the poverty line?

Now imagine that one of the U.S. senators representing the people of that county was once chairman of a congressional committee with direct responsibility for that “county,” and that the Supreme Court long ago ruled the government has a moral and legal obligation to care for the people of that county.

Imagine the expectation others would have that something be done to alleviate these Third World conditions. Imagine the outcry.

These grim statistics don’t apply to the lives of non-Native Americans living in any state or Wyoming county. They describe life on the Wind River Reservation. Therefore, sadly, there is no outcry.

A 2016 report titled “In the Heart of Wyoming is Indian Country” describes contemporary life on the Wind River Reservation. Funded by the Wyoming Office of Multicultural Health, the report was sponsored by the Wind River Advocacy Center, Wyoming Department of Health and Wyoming Association of Churches.

It is a valuable resource, long overdue. The Wind River Reservation is misunderstood by many, when they bother to think of it at all. The document invites the people of Wyoming and its public officials to update their stereotypes about the Native Americans living among us.

Many of those stereotypes involve abuse of alcohol. Wyomingites may be surprised to learn that while the numbers of persons who drink excessively is higher, the overall rate of alcohol consumption is “significantly lower” on the reservation than it is statewide.

Additionally, many people will be surprised to learn that the monthly “per capita” checks received by tribal members are not a handout paid by your tax dollars. Instead, the checks are earnings paid to the tribal members as compensation for the minerals extracted from reservation lands. The reservation is also a source of county and state revenue. The state and Fremont County collect “over $10 million annually from severance taxes, ad valorem and sales taxes from the residents and entities on the WRR.”

When people of the Wind River Reservation weren’t being ignored by the government, they were being deceived. The report recounts a shameful history. WRR boundaries were originally established by the 1863 Fort Bridger Treaty to include 44 million acres across parts of Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Colorado. After decades of taking, the reservation now covers less than 3 million acres, with ongoing boundary disputes threatening them.

Too many elected officials are reluctant to champion the needs of Native Americans. A new year brings new hope. The 2017 Wyoming Legislature is considering HB 76, establishing standards to teach students about Native Americans, their history and contributions to Wyoming. The bill has passed the House of Representatives and is headed for the Senate.

Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, says the legislation is important because of the level of ignorance across the state about Native Americans. Jason Baldes of the Eastern Shoshone said the lack of knowledge about indigenous peoples is one cause of “racial tension.”

As a Republican president works with a Republican Congress, U.S. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming and former chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, is knowledgeable enough about these matters to be a national champion for the Wind River Reservation.

The Office of Multicultural Health report demonstrates Wyoming people need education, and Native peoples need a champion.

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

Half a loaf not nearly enough on pot possession

Wyo. lawmakers still want to manage the state's mores. "Pot" is the younger generation's alcohol, so get over it.

By D. Reed Eckhardt

Former Gov. Dave Freudenthal and I had this debate over and over.

As the author of a book on leadership and then-headman at the local newspaper, I argued that vision was essential to leadership. Dream big dreams, push them forward, seek to enact them into law. I called it the "whole loaf" approach to leadership from the Governor's Office. Demand that lawmakers pass the biggest and best option, the whole loaf, so to speak.

Mr. Freudenthal, on the other hand, liked to play the political game. Get behind closed doors. Negotiate with lawmakers. Agree on what would pass.

Young Denverites celebrate 4/20 in 2016

Settle for half a loaf, if that is what would be approved. Demanding the whole loaf just was not an effective strategy, the former governor would argue.

But my response was that when you put a half-loaf into the Legislature, you never got it. Lawmakers would slice it and slice it again. The result would be a quarter-loaf, an eighth-loaf, even a 16th-loaf. Essential measures got so watered down that they become meaningless.

And that is just what has happened in this Legislature on the issue of marijuana decriminalization.

Decriminalization -- making possession of small amounts of pot a civil crime -- makes perfect sense. Holding, say, two ounces of marijuana is a personal issue. This person is not out to do anything but to use the pot for him or herself. If you want to put dealers behind bars, go for it -- I do not favor legalization in Wyoming, at least not until we get DUI under control. But to charge someone with a misdemeanor for possessing a couple of reefers is just plain stupid at a time when the millennial generation views marijuana as its drug of choice, just alcohol in a different form.

But lawmakers never can just take the full loaf; they have to chop it up and give something while holding onto something else. The result is House Bill 197, which gradually increases fines and jail time every time police catch someone with marijuana. A slap on the wrist ($200, 20 days) for first possession quickly grows to something onerous ($5,000, two years) on third possession. It's offering little and taking away a lot of personal freedom. You can be an evil person once, but after that, watch out!

All of this has the same ring to it that it has every time this issue comes up. Ill-informed lawmakers want to protect this state from the wicked weed. Yet their children are regularly using it -- especially those who are 35 and younger -- and they will continue to do so. Meanwhile, of course, lawmakers are partying virtually every night in Cheyenne and are enjoying their drug of choice, many times to excess. The hypocrisy is too much to bear.

It is past time for lawmakers to move past trying to be guardians of the state's social mores. Their hesitancy to approve medical marijuana is silly. They argue on other issues that no one should come between a doctor and patient. They then forbid physicians to prescribe medical marijuana. Legislators see that approval as a gateway to legalization, but it doesn't have to be. The same with decriminalization. It is not going to encourage greater use, but it is going to prevent state law from ruining young people's lives.

I'm sure the supporters of HB 197 are proud to be providing this half-loaf solution. But if they truly cared about young people -- who they don't even try to understand -- they would make possession of small amounts of marijuana of little consequence. Perhaps when one of their children gets hit with jail time to make him or her "an example," that will finally bring an end to this silliness. Until then, they will wield the hammer.

Perhaps to a hungry man, half a loaf is better than none. But that old saw just doesn't apply when it comes to decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

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

Pro-choice lawmakers force their views on the rest of us

Recent hearing on abortion bills shows how far apart their views are from the rest of the people of the Cowboy State

By D. Reed Eckhardt

One tweet from Casper Star-Tribune reporter Laura Hancock said it all during this week's legislative hearings on a set of bills designed to limit abortion in Wyoming.

"Most of the #pro-life people testifying are men," Ms. Hancock tartly observed as she covered the hearings live on Twitter.

Indeed. All of this is enough to make any good liberal and

progressive tired, watching these small-minded white Christian males

do anything and everything they can to score points in the battle over abortion. Roe v. Wade remains the law of the land. And efforts, like forcing women to view ultrasounds, or trying to cut off abortions after 20 weeks, or asserting they know when a fetus feels pain despite scientific consensus, have been rejected by courts across the nation. 

These Wyoming legislators know all of this, but that doesn't stop them from grandstanding and trying to force their religious views on abortion onto everyone else in the state. And if that treads on women's rights or the sanctity of the relationship between a doctor and his female patient, then that's just the way it has to be. Abortion remains the biggest burr in their fundamentalist Christian saddle -- though gay marriage and LGBT-plus rights are a close second -- and they will try anything they can dream up to get in the way of it.

It's all so silly, really. There aren't enough abortions performed in Wyoming (20 in 2013) to waste this legislative time and energy, especially in the midst of multiple fiscal crises. And there are only two doctors in the state -- in Jackson -- who do the procedure. With abortion readily available in nearby states, these bills will have no real impact on the issue.

But more importantly, the vast majority of Wyomingites don't even agree with these guys. Here's how the state's premier political scientist, Jim King of the University of Wyoming, put it in a column at WyoFile:

"The general numbers have been fairly consistent over the years: around 10 percent (of Wyoming residents) oppose abortion altogether; 35 percent support abortion in cases of rape or incest; 15 percent support abortion for other “clearly established” reasons, and 40 percent accept abortion as a matter of personal choice. This distribution of opinion actually shows Wyoming’s population to be slightly more liberal on the abortion issue than the U.S. population as a whole." (The italics are mine.)

This is why, in the end, bills such as those that passed out of committee this week http://tinyurl.com/z964q7h should die the same death as the dozens that have come before. They not only force a religious belief on those of us who see things differently, but they are not even representative of what this state stands for. Indeed, while the idea that Wyomingites champion "live and let live" is mostly a myth, in this case, it actually holds true. Most people in Wyoming recognize that abortion is a hard choice made by women, their families, and their doctors. Meddling, haughty white male legislators are rightly not included in that discussion.

One has to wonder what the sponsors of these bills were doing while thousands of the state's women (and their supporters ) were marching, both at home and in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21. For the record, gentlemen, they were expressing their fears at the Women's Marches that those in power would try to rob them of their hard-earned rights. One wonders where they got that idea.

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