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Wednesday, November 26, 2008
WCR04 - Christmas season can be the cruelest time of year
For most of us, this is the greatest time of the year. It is a time of family and a time of celebration of the birth of Christ.
It is also a time of long dark nights and cold frigid weather.
And if you do not have a caring family or if you are estranged from your family, well, it can also be the most unpleasant time of the year.
And in a great many parts of our country, this year could see itself as a time of financial stress. As jobs disappear and salary cutbacks affect most businesses it can be expected that wages, bonuses and job security all look very risky.
Losing a job is one of life’s toughest occurrences. But there are worse things.
Enduring having a loved one die or becoming seriously ill or getting sick yourself or dealing with a family member who is lost in a swirl of drugs and alcohol can all make these holidays anything but bright.
As I write this an incident that recently occurred here in Wyoming is heavy on my mind. A friend of one of my adult children was found dead from suicide. This person had had a problem with employment because of an accident on the job, was single because of a divorce and had recently been evicted because of no money for rent.
As a virtual homeless person and staying with a friend, well, the lethal mixture of alcohol and a firearm ended a life. And perhaps the gaiety of the season may have contributed, too.
Friends, co-workers and acquaintances of the suicide victim are all feeling guilt and terrible regret.
Sure, they knew things were not going well for their friend but who would have thought . . .?
And I guess that is the point.
Because this is such a busy time of year, it is tough enough to deal with your own problems let alone be worrying about everyone else, too.
But concern for others truly is the reason for the season.
Here in Lander my wife Nancy, her friend Becky Elliott and the local Elks Club and a host of others raise money and buy food to supply over 200 “Christmas Food Baskets” for families that are hurting this time of year.
The outpouring from the community is incredible with nearly $10,000 raised in donations.
Interestingly a lot of the donations come with notes attached to them. And many of the donors do not have much themselves but are, indeed, thankful that they are well enough off that they do not need the donation of a basket of food, toys and goodies to get them through the holidays.
Beyond money, though, perhaps the best donation a person can do this time of year is the giving of your time and your concern.
It is oh, so easy to sit in front of the TV on a cold winter night and be thankful for how you have been blessed.
But it is another thing to take that little bit of time to reach out to someone who is lonely or in need.
If we really want to emulate the spirit of Jesus Christ, what better way is there then to give back to those less fortunate than ourselves – especially at this time of year?
Perhaps the most ironic part about such actions is that the person doing the giving usually gains more from the experience than the person on the receiving end.
It has been my experience that another group of people who need some TLC this time of year are those who spend most of their time being caregivers.
These are the family members caring for sick or injured relatives. It also includes the people working at the clinics, hospitals and nursing homes who often are pulling double shifts to keep everyone cared for.
If you know someone who is already giving but would appreciate a gesture of appreciation or some relief or just a helping hand, this is a wonderful time of year to do it.
To all the readers of this column, have a Merry Christmas. And especially, reach out and help someone else have a merry one, too.
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WBR04 -The flight of the best and brightest from Wyoming
It could be argued that the rest of the world is not upset by the brain drain that has occurred in Wyoming over the past 50 years.
But this question is asked constantly by our business leaders: Why have so many of our young people headed out of state for jobs?
There’s a couple in Casper whose three kids were educated at Dartmouth, Notre Dame and Stanford. “They will never live here,” the father laments, in the same breath as he maintains how proud he is that they’ve done so well.
One conclusion that I came to a long time ago is that it can be a waste of energy to fret over the exodus of many of Wyoming’s young people. Some of our more ornery citizens even complain about how our tax money is educating our youth so they can go elsewhere and help out employers in other states.
Why do so many of our best and brightest leave?
Wanderlust used to be a virtue among most young people. A huge percentage of the present population of Wyoming came here from somewhere else – or at least their parents or grandparents did.
Cheyenne attorney Paul Hickey lists one big reason why so many Wyoming women move away – Colorado’s wages are substantially higher than Wyoming’s for women. Our gender gap is an embarrassment. It seems the Equality State is not so equal – especially when it comes providing real wages for women.
But all is not lost. Rather than worry about it, I think there is something we can do about it. Here is a strategy to entice our children back home.
Let’s locate these folks. We can recruit our young people who have moved to other states to come home where the air is clean and the opportunities are growing. There are great futures here for business leaders, lone eagles, small manufacturers, eBay-types, etc.
No state is as prosperous as Wyoming. This is a way to capitalize on it.
With much of the country mired in a deep depression, it only makes sense to reach out to folks who have roots here and who may be facing tough times in their adopted homes.
And rather than wasting our time trying to recruit folks who never heard of us, let’s go after those people who are very familiar with Wyoming.
Some eight years ago, I wrote a column in a statewide newspaper’s business section, which detailed the Achilles Heel of Wyoming’s projected economic expansion: the lack of qualified workers who will live here.
One obvious solution is inviting natives and former residents back home.
Because of my newspaper marketing experience, I think that the state should work with the Wyoming Press Association in sending out advertisements in newspapers mailed to former Wyomingites living outside the state.
As a former president the WPA, I know there are probably more than 12,000 copies of newspapers mailed out of state each week. These subscribers are prime candidates to accept an invitation to come home. Plus these newspapers maintain terrific web sites, which are being accessed constantly by natives who have moved away.
Here are some other folks that would be worth recruiting home to Wyoming:
• The list of servicemen and women who have spent time at Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne.
• The out-of-state folks who have applied for and purchased hunting and fishing permits in Wyoming would be ideal candidates to move here.
• Vigorous retirees are always good candidates. They would bring their own retirement income with them plus often they end up investing in local businesses. Wyoming offers a huge budget surplus, low taxes, good medical care, low population, inexpensive housing and a wonderful vigorous lifestyle.
• The mailing list of University of Wyoming graduates would be invaluable, as would the list of grads from the state’s community colleges.
• People who vacation here . . . why not work where you play?
• Unique institutions like the National Outdoor Leadership School in Lander have more than 50,000 graduates across the world, all of whom recall wonderful times during their time here.
Some years ago, the Wyoming Business Council did focus groups with some folks living in Denver. One of the questions asked was: “Does Federal Express serve Wyoming?”
With questions like that, it is obvious we can do a better job of informing our departed sons and daughters of what kind of business opportunities are currently available here in their home state.
With our budget surpluses and our need for workers, Wyoming is in an ideal position to enjoy economic expansion in all corners of the state.
But the biggest hurdle to that happening may be the lack of an educated, trained workforce. This “Come Home to Wyoming” program could sure help solve that problem.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008
848 - Wyoming`s astonishing energy facts
This quote concerning our state’s energy resources is worth repeating: “If Wyoming were a country it would be the leading energy exporting country in the Western Hemisphere.”
Can this be true? Although it might be hard to prove, our state’s abundance of coal, natural gas, uranium, oil, wind, solar and geothermal makes it sound pretty plausible.
Statements like the above come to the fore in the wake of a recent Casper business and energy conference, which explored the global warming and the consequences of policies concerning that theory on Wyoming.
But first, let’s look at a national perspective. Consider the following:
• The USA is the world’s largest nuclear power generating country. Most folks think France or Japan is, but there are more reactors here producing more electricity than in any other country.
It takes a long time to get a new nuclear plant on line. Even despite the NIMBY (not in my backyard) problem, the companies that make critical devices for such plants have a nine-year backlog on parts. You cannot find anyone who thinks you could get a nuclear plant on line in less than ten years.
• Politicians continue to rail against all the “imported” oil we use. The implication is that we are getting this oil from people who do not like us. Not true.
The bulk of our imported oil comes from Canada and Mexico with sizeable amounts from allies Nigeria and Iraq. Saudi Arabia, our longest-serving ally in the Mideast, supplies about one-fifth the total and that noisy tyrant from Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, is in there for a small percentage.
• In his best-selling book Hot, Flat and Crowded, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tom Friedman, speaks in defense of Wyoming’s coal and its coal-fired power plants.
He writes that automobile emissions are the worst cause of global warming and says the coal-fired plants emit far less greenhouse gases than cars. He proposes all-electric cars that run on electricity generated by the coal plants until wind and nuclear can come on board.
So, let’s talk about Wyoming’s situation.
Despite anguish across our nation about the decline in our economy, one expert says there appears to be no end in sight for the current energy boom in Wyoming.
This is a bold statement but it was the conclusion drawn earlier this year by State Geologist Ron Surdan.
Perhaps the most significant statistic he uses is that the USA has 20 percent of the world’s coal and Wyoming is producing one-third of it. He sees Wyoming mines producing 500 million tons of the black stuff by 2010.
And despite the tendency to bad-mouth coal in this era of global warming, there is no way utilities can shut down their current coal-fired plants in the next decade.
Wyoming’s role in the nation and the world, when it comes to energy, is truly impressive and staggering. Today one out of every ten BTUs used in the USA comes from Wyoming. (BTU is British Thermal Unit, a unit of measure of energy.)
In 25 years with the upgrades in transportation, pipeline and transmission line infrastructure, Wyoming could produce 650 million tons of coal and four trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas per year.
“Wyoming’s energy scenario has changed drastically, rendering the boom and bust paradigm obsolete,” the optimistic Mr. Surdan contends. “During the last decade, Wyoming’s energy portfolio has expanded and diversified. Coal and natural gas production now drive the state’s economy with oil is only a minor player. Wyoming is the nation’s leading exporter of uranium.
“Most importantly, Wyoming has become the number-one domestic exporter of energy. Wyoming exports more than 10 quadrillion BTUs per year to the rest of the USA.
“Even more astonishing is that when compared to all other major energy exporters (Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia), Wyoming emerges as the leading exporter of energy to the USA.”
So, thus Mr. Surdan is one of the sources of that quote we used at the beginning of this column.
But the future is not entirely rosy. Utilities can shut off our power here, too, when demand exceeds supply. It could happen as early as next year.
I have long argued that Wyoming should invest in its own electrical power plants and natural gas facilities to guarantee uninterrupted energy for its citizens. This should be a no-brainer for our elected officials.
Some enlightened communities like Gillette are already doing it, buying a piece of a new power plant under construction there.
Unfortunately, such proactive thinking on energy is a rare occurrence in our state.
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Saturday, November 22, 2008
847 - Our Great Depression
Those of us who are members of the Baby Boomer generation grew up hearing our parents and grandparents talk about such pivotal events in their lives as the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Great Depression.
I always took comfort that those days were remnants of the past and we would not have to deal with such calamities.
But that was not to be.
The terrorist act of 9/11 certainly was our generation’s Pearl Harbor.
And now it looks like we will get to see the effects of a Great Depression first hand.
Up to now, Wyoming people have been somewhat immune to what has been happening. Our state’s energy commodities are still selling. Home prices are stable although sales have slowed. Consumer spending has dropped a bunch but is still not as bad as the rest of the USA.
And if history is any indicator, as the American economy sinks, the economy in Wyoming remains stable and a few times in the past even went up.
All national and international indicators are pointing to a very tough economic time that could easily span the next ten years or more. Our kids and grandkids (and us, too) will refer back at this period from the future as our Great Depression of the 21st Century.
Some old-timers have told me that Wyoming actually suffered its worst previous depression between 1982 and 1997. As someone who lived here during that time, I can attest that it was a tough time.
One historic article written in 1997 by High Country News writer Paul Krza described Wyoming as a state that “staggered from economic crisis to economic crisis.”
As stated before, that was a pretty good decade and a half for the rest of the country but when commodity prices sagged, Wyoming’s economic fortunes were stagnant for what seemed like a long time.
Riverton Ranger columnist Randy Tucker refers to a phenomenon called “Wyoming’s missing generation” which occurred during that time when so many working people left the state for better jobs elsewhere.
So how bad is our country’s economy?
A new movie is now revealing our monetary crisis in the same way that Al Gore’s movie shed light on the environmental one.
Called I. O. U. S. A., it is said to be the finest effort ever made to accurately explain the national debt, the country’s trade deficit and, in this filmmaker’s eyes, the disastrous economic policies of the last decade
My favorite film critic Roger Ebert heaps high praise on the film and reviews it as a letter to his grandchildren:
“There is something called the national debt. In the movie`s interviews with ordinary people, it has a hard time finding anyone who knows exactly what that is. Well, I`ve never exactly known, either. I thought I knew, and it became a meaningless abstraction, even though in 2009, the debt will pass $9 trillion. You might think of those as dollars our nation has spent without having them.
“What will this mean to you? It will mean you will live in a country no longer able to pay for many of the services and guarantees we take for granted. In 40 years, when you are still less than my age, it looks like the government will only be able to pay for three things: Interest on the national debt, some Social Security and some Medicare.”
It appears to me that people all across the country have become very nervous with their money. People are just not spending. They are all postponing big and small purchases.
Home sales are down 20 percent in Lander compared to this past month a year ago. Car and truck purchases are reportedly being delayed.
Americans have long had a contagious disease called “consumption.” My grandparents also had to deal with a disease by that name but I think it was really tuberculosis back then.
But today’s version is constant crazy spending. People just go shopping when they do not need to. This depression era has certainly put a big curb on this behavior to the detriment of the country’s economic health.
The guys in my coffee group agreed that one of the reasons storage units are in such demand in Wyoming is that people have so much stuff, the only way they can keep track of it is to store it in endless rows of low steel buildings with garage doors on the front.
Perhaps this depression will finally turn Americans into savers instead of spenders?
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Monday, November 17, 2008
846 - Global Warming and Wyoming - no more West Nile!
Wyoming may one of the last states in the country where a large percentage of the population still does not believe in global warming.
As for me, the decline of severe mosquito bites this past year sure seems like a sign that something is going on.
The years 2006 and 2007 were horrific in Wyoming for a strange new bug called West Nile Virus. Prominent people caught the bug and died here in our Fremont County and, well, this place may have been the most dangerous place in the country for this dreaded disease.
West Nile has no cure and it can be deadly, especially for people over 60. People get the disease from mosquito bites.
But not so deadly in 2008. After seeing 184 cases last year, there were just 14 this year. Amazing.
The Wyoming Department of Health worked hard to keep people informed on this scourge. And doctors around the state were on the lookout for the symptoms knowing that early detection often can lessen the debilitating disease.
City and County officials worked hard to isolate mosquito larvae and try to keep it from spreading so much.
But why so few cases this past year?
This was especially interesting to me since I live near a river and have ponds and creeks near where we live. Lots of good habitat here for mosquitoes.
But anyone who reads my column knows how I was complaining last winter about the severity of the weather. It was an old-fashioned Wyoming winter and it was tough. After 7-8 years of mild winters, we had a doozy.
So, does it take a rocket scientist (or an epidemiologist) to put two and two together and deduce that a severe winter somehow curtailed the number of cases of West Nile that infected human beings the following summer?
The Associated Press quoted WDH spokesman Kim Deti that “health officials are unsure why the number of cases dropped this year.” The number had fluctuated from year to year since 2003 with 13 Wyomingites dying from it during that time. Hundreds more got very sick and many suffered permanent disabilities.
According to the WDH web site, West Nile Virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne disease. The pesky bugs spread this virus after they feed on infected birds and then bite people and animals.
There were 65 human cases and two deaths in 2006; 12 human cases with 2 deaths in 2005; 10 human cases with no deaths in 2004; and 393 human cases with 9 deaths in 2003.
So could a reasonable person also deduce that the arrival of West Nile to Wyoming occurred at the same time we started having such mild winters, which are caused by global warming?
On the subject of climate change, one of the biggest gatherings of the year will be in Casper Nov. 20-21 when the Wyoming Business Alliance holds “The Wyoming Forum.” Topic this year is Climate Change – politics and economic realities.
Among the speakers is Bjorn Lomborg of Sweden who is critical of how the world is reacting the concept of global warming. He says many of the actions being taken by countries today are expensive and being driven by emotion rather than common sense.
There will also be reports from Senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso plus Nikki Roy of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
Also on the program are industry leaders from the energy sector pondering what their future options will be. The recent election of Barack Obama as U. S. President should also provide a lot of fodder for discussion since he supports aggressive environmental actions by industry.
If these folks do not believe in global warming, then they should have a receptive audience.
A recent poll by the Mason-Dixon organization revealed that 53 percent of Wyomingites do not believe that climate change is scientifically proven. This was based on interviews with 400 people.
In the minority, though, some 41 percent felt the benefits of taking action on climate change were worth the economic investment.
This survey was mentioned in a recent newspaper article, which also quoted Jeff Goodell, the author of the book Big Coal. He compared a dialogue of people who supported the concept of global warming and those who did not as similar to people of different religions trying to talk to each other.
On a purely personal level, it seems to me now that cold winters might be better for my health than warm ones, at least when it comes to West Nile.
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Thursday, November 06, 2008
845 - Only in America could Barack`s dream come true
Last Tuesday saw the triumph of first presidential candidate sponsored by Generation We over the last ever candidate from the Greatest Generation. It was in the form of Barack Obama winning the presidency over John McCain.
Okay, Sen. Obama really is a younger member of the Baby Boomer Generation but the voters who got him elected were the young folks who call themselves Millennials or Generation We.
Check out the video of these young folks at www.gen-we.com. It may curl your gray hair. Well, it curled mine, at least a little.
Such idealism. And perhaps such naiveté, it could be said.
Gosh, I can sort of remember what it felt like to be an idealist. It was a long time ago. But those were good feelings and great memories.
So what can we expect from this new president?
With courage and timing, the president-elect and Congress have inadvertently been handed the meal ticket they have been looking for to rebuild the country. They could do this by capitalizing on the rapidly declining gasoline prices at the pump.
It is still hard to believe that people paid $1.95 per gallon this week in Casper for unleaded regular gasoline.
Americans four months ago would have done a back flip if someone could have promised them they could peg gas prices even as low as $2.95 per gallon.
So, my suggestion is that if they had the courage, Sen. Obama and the Democrat Congress could impose a heinous $1 per gallon gas tax and then somehow put controls on gas prices to keep them in the under $3 range. If they did this, it could help give them the money they need to rebuild the country in the image they are proposing.
Everyone assumed that their idealistic plans and programs would have to be postponed because there was no money left after the bank bailouts and the huge federal programs that have recently occurred. Projects like universal health insurance, expanded education opportunities and worker-retraining programs would have to wait until the money was there.
But the plunge in gasoline prices gives them an opportunity that I personally would dread. Proponents would say that another benefit of high gas prices would be to promote conservation and facilitate the demise of the gas-guzzler.
But to have the miracle of sudden low gas prices come along at this most opportune time – well, the timing is impeccable for the new president and his Congress.
But do they have the courage? Now that is a different story.
Am I advocating such a tax? No, it will not be good for Wyoming. But for the sake of the kind of country they want to build, well, the opportunity has come knocking on their doors.
Historians will mark this election in much bigger ways than gasoline prices, though. Sen. Obama’s election is a true example of The American Dream. - that anyone can grow up and be anything he or she aspires to be in our great country. No president in our history has come as far as Sen. Obama. It makes me proud of our country.
Perhaps Sen. Obama said it best: “For as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible.”
Am I worried about our country with him at the helm? Heck yes, but he IS our new president. No doubt it will be a very interesting ride.
Here is what State Rep. Debbie Hammons (D-Worland) had to say: “The miracle of the experiment of democracy is that government peacefully is transferred with the simple act of citizens voting. Campaigning has become ugly but democracy has not.” Well said.
Earlier in this column, I talked about Generation We. According to the Gen-We website, the following is how this big group of folks describes themselves:
“Millennials are the largest generation in American history. Born between 1978 and 2000, they are 95 million strong, compared to 78 million Baby Boomers.
“They are independent—politically, socially, and philosophically—and they are spearheading a period of sweeping change in America and around the world.”
As a group, these folks tend to believe they are inheriting a world much worse than the world inherited by their parents. But despite this, they tend to be an optimistic lot.
It’s all in the video. Pretty impressive.
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