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.