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Sunday, October 25, 2009
944 - What is Wyoming`s role regarding Afghanistan?
Newspaper editors who write tough local editorials used to use a derisive term to describe those other editors who would never take a local stand. It was said those timid editors practiced “Afghanistanism,” in which they would rail away at issues far from home.
It was as if someone would never in a million years be caught writing about a place so obscure that most people could not spell it or locate it on a globe.
But, whoa, not today.
Our country has been mired in a war in this far away country for eight years. Wyoming like other states has soldiers plodding along in that distant country fighting Pushtun rebels, the Taliban, Al Qaida and apparently trying to nation build.
And that sets the stage for my first ever article written about this place called Afghanistan. My long descent toward “Afghanistanism” has finally occurred.
My conclusion is that it is time to consider calling it quits in that crazy place. We are fighting a 14th century adversary with an 18th century strategy, a critic of the war said recently. That was one of the most logical assessments said about this mess.
This same Congressman said the Iraq War made sense. You can “nation build” in a place with a middle class. But not Afghanistan.
It is a country divided into two parts. You have the capital of Kabul with three million people and then you have the vast rural area dominated by Pushtun enclaves.
This is the same mountainous countryside that brought down the Soviet Union back in 1989. Sure, President Reagan and the Pope and Poland had a lot to do with that victory. But the incredible cost of money and manpower spent by the USSR in Afghanistan for eight years was a key factor in their empire’s final demise. Look it up.
When presenting my conclusion to some of my Wyoming friends, the response was mixed.
State Rep. Del McOmie (R-Lander) is opposed:
“As someone with a grandson in Afghanistan, I disagree. Alan tells a far different story on what is happening than we get through our biased media. Fighting is heavy. His armored vehicle has taken several rounds and been involved with roadside bombs.
“Fighting is heavy. His armored vehicle has taken several rounds and been involved with roadside bombs. He had a round stopped by his riflescope before it hit his flack vest, cuts and strained muscles from the roadside bomb explosions.
“He was also in the heaviest fighting in Iraq and tells his father this is different. The enemy engages them for days at a time with few hit-and-run tactics. We are killing hundreds of them. The people who have been living in fear are very happy with the forces who are driving these tyrants out. They are fearful the bad guys will come back.
“We are not the Russians who used force to keep the people under control. We help rebuild community centers and homes. We need the additional troops the General has asked for. “
Interestingly, there has been some training in Guernsey by soldiers and airmen from all over the USA in preparation for their time in Afghanistan.
More opinions:
UW Professor Phil Roberts, Laramie: “I agree entirely with this conclusion. It looks more and more like Vietnam, despite what the proponents say.
“Interesting how, for almost 20 years, UW had Ag College professors in Afghanistan, mostly teaching wool production. I happened on a photo of a faculty family picnic there from sometime back in the 1950s. The Afghan king even visited UW at one point. How times have changed!”
A Cheyenne voice in favor of leaving is Rodger McDaniel, deputy of the Wyoming Department of Health:
“It is time to leave. All the arguments for staying are, in reality, arguments that will keep us there for another decade. And the situation will be no different then than now. This may not be Vietnam but it sure feels like the same debate.”
Most recently, Wyoming’s Dick Cheney has been blasting the administration for not being more aggressive in Afghanistan.
This has resulted in dueling veeps with current VP Joe Biden rebuffing criticism from the former occupant of his office by saying: “Who cares.”
The New York Times reports their dispute is a disagreement on national security, from how to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan to how to protect Americans from terrorist attacks.
It makes sense to keep a Special Forces presence in Afghanistan but not armies of more than 70,000 men and women.
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Thursday, October 22, 2009
WBR14 - Small town life attractive in these times
I grew up in a town that was, well it was small.
It had 316 people in it and was a way station between the three major towns in the county, West Union, Fayette and Oelwein.
This was the town of Wadena located in Fayette County, Iowa.
In the wake of the both the recent national economic meltdown and the 9/11 terrorism attack, small town life has become much more attractive to an awful lot of people. Even here in Wyoming.
Wyoming, as the country’s least populated state, is full of tiny towns like Hudson, Hyattville, Shoshoni, Dubois and all the way up to giants like Pine Bluffs or Pinedale or LaGrange and/or LaBarge (I always get those two mixed up).
Even Wyoming’s biggest cities, Casper and Cheyenne with over 50,000 people each, can’t make the list of a recent story in Forbes about the best small cities in America to do business. Smallest city mentioned had 92,000 people in it.
My town of Lander with 7,000 people does not even hit the radar screen of these folks – and most folks in America.
But, again, small town life is a good life and offers a secure life in the wake of what has been happening around the country.
And small towns in hideaway places like Little Switzerland of Iowa (Wadena) or the City of Bronze (Lander) here in Wyoming suddenly look pretty inviting to those folks used to peering out of 20-story high windows.
You can bet there aren’t any traffic jams in Wadena or Hyattville or even Cheyenne, nor are there two-hour commutes to work. It’s a good life, living in a small town.
It’s been said the best thing about living in a small town is that everybody knows everybody. It’s also been said that the worst thing about living in a small town is that everybody knows everybody!
What is life like in a small town?
Life in a small town is, well, “contained.”
To many people, my hometown of Wadena was a small town.
It was so small; I was 16 years old before I learned the name of the town wasn’t “resume speed.”
It was so small, that both “resume speed” signs on each end of town were on the same post.
It was so small, the yellow pages consisted of one page.
My wife Nancy called Wadena as “peek and plumb town.” She said you peeked around the corner and you were plumb out of town.
It was so small, we didn’t have Ten Commandments. We had six Commandments and four suggestions.
As residents of small towns will agree, growing up in a small town is a unique experience. You encounter things that maybe people in larger towns and cities never experience.
The kids in our town rode the bus every day to a bigger school (Valley High), which had been consolidated with our little school. I once computed that I had spent the equivalent of more than 60 24-hour days riding that bus.
My kid sister MaryBeth is publisher of a newspaper in tiny Withrop, Iowa, sent these twelve tip-offs that tell you whether or not you grew up in a small town:
1. You can name everyone you graduated with.
2. You ever went to parties at a pasture, barn, or in the middle of a dirt road.
3. You used to drag "main."
4. School gets canceled for state events.
5. It was cool to date someone from the neighboring town.
6. You don`t give directions by street names or directions by references (turn by Nelson`s house, go two blocks east Anderson`s, and it`s four houses left of the track field).
7. The town next to you is considered "snooty,",but is actually just like your town.
8. The city council meets at the fire hall.
9. Your letter jacket was worn after your 19th birthday.
10. You decide to walk somewhere for exercise and 5 people pull over and ask if you need a ride.
11. Your teachers call you by your older siblings’ names
12. It is normal to see an old man riding through town on a riding lawn mower.
Big deals when I was growing up including hanging around a gas station and rendezvousing at the old bridge at the south edge of town. That bridge was knocked out one summer by a fast-moving milk truck. The truck went crashing right through the bottom of it. My hometown was in the middle of big-time dairy country.
We had a “bridge celebration” the next summer to signal the grand opening of a shiny new concrete span. Hard to believe such an event would be a cause for a celebration, but we did it, all right. And it was great fun.
Some friends provided the entertainment during the bridge celebration and made up their own version of the old song “Abilene” about Wadena. It went:
“Wadeen, Wadeen (pronounced Wah-DEEN’)
Prettiest little town, I’ve ever seen.
People there won’t treat you mean, in Wadeen, my Wadeen.
Sitting on the bridge, most every night,
Watching those milk trucks drive outa sight.
Wondering if they’ll ever return,
to Wadeen, my Wadeen.”
That whole scene seems like a million years ago.
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943 - Non Indian casinos in Wyoming`s future?
Here in Fremont County, the establishment of four tribal-run casinos has created both appreciation and consternation among non-Indian business people.
If Wyoming had a Las Vegas, it would be called Fremont County.
Besides the huge Wind River Casino just south of Riverton, there are the 789 Smoke Shop & Casino (also south of Riverton) and the Little Wind Casino in Ethete, all operated by the Northern Arapaho Tribe.
The Shoshone Rose Casino, which is doubling in size north of Lander, is the fourth one and operated by the Eastern Shoshone Tribe.
The numbers associated with the casinos are huge. Some $25 million is spent each year in these casinos and more than 650 people are employed there.
By Wyoming standards, this is a big business enterprise.
But not everyone is thrilled.
A Riverton businessman complained to me recently and said he felt it was time for the state to allow non-Indian casinos to exist in Fremont County.
Let’s call my friend Zeke, since he did not want me to use his real name.
“The tribes have so many advantages over us that I think it is time for the legislature to consider allowing some non-Indian casinos to be established here,” he said.
He pointed out that under the present system, the state and local governments receive no tax or fee revenue from the casinos. “The only benefit we gain is if tourists come here and then spend a little money with non-Indian businesses,” Zeke complains.
I am not a big fan of gambling, itself, but have always defended the tribes’ right to establish gaming. The Wind River Indian Reservation was here 20 years before Wyoming became a state and the tribes have treaties with the United States government as sovereign nations.
Thus, it always seemed a no-brainer to me that if the tribes wanted to establish gambling, then they should be able to do so.
The state of Wyoming under Gov. Jim Geringer’s administration fought the Arapaho Tribe’s efforts so hard that it became the first, and so far only, tribe in the USA to go the entire distance through the National Indian Gaming Act to establish their casinos. As a result, no compact exists between state and local governments and the tribes.
And thus, of the millions of dollars spent in Fremont County casinos, nary a dime goes directly to local or state government.
While local governments in Fremont County did not outright oppose the Tribe`s casino plans, they did little or nothing to help them, even when the Northern Arapaho offered a 2 percent share of
casino revenues for that support.
Based on a consultant’s economic impact study that was funded by the Arapaho Tribe, the Wind River Casino, alone, creates a total boost of over $100 million into the Fremont County economy, annually.
I find it hard to support non-Indian casinos.
Casinos here have been a tremendous economic generator for the tribes, both in profits they can plow into tribal projects, plus increased employment for their tribal members.
For years, Fremont County has always had the highest unemployment rates in the state. This was usually blamed on the unemployment on the reservation, which was often over two-thirds of the workforce.
The casinos have reversed much of this, providing good jobs for tribal members. Those folks are now buying homes, establishing good credit and enjoying good future opportunities.
These changes have positive generational changes on the reservation and for that, the casinos have had a very positive influence, say tribal officials.
But Zeke offers some differing opinions.
He says the state should allow non-Indians to operate casinos in Fremont County as a “gambling zone or district” since there are already four here.
He also says the state and local governments would naturally get a cut from these revenues, as a way to generate new income. Zeke says those folks who oppose gambling on principle, should not fight it, since it is already here.
I told Zeke that his idea is probably unworkable and it is doubtful the legislature could consider such a plan. Plus the thought of non-Indian casinos, which would allow liquor, could contribute a lot more problems than solutions.
But Zeke still was not convinced. His final volley on the subject was the following:
“Well, maybe if the state threatened the tribes with opening casinos to non-Indians, perhaps they would relent and offer to pay some revenue to the state and local governments as a way to keep the legislature from considering doing it.”
Interesting. Very interesting.
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Friday, October 09, 2009
942 - Is I-80 really just a railroad for semi-trailer trucks?
Probably less than five percent of the traffic on Interstate-80 is by Wyoming residents.
And more importantly, probably less than one thousandth of the total weight of vehicles on I-80 is benefiting Wyoming.
And yet we are watching the spectacle of our legislators and our Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) agonize over how to keep this multi-billion dollar road in good repair.
One idea that keeps coming up is adding tolls.
I prefer to call such charges “maintenance fees.”
A special task force held hearings in seven I-80 cities about installing such charges. WYDOT has produced a wonderful video, which can be accessed on their site at http://dot.state.wy.us.
The projections of travel on this road, which cuts across the lower half of our state from Evanston to Pine Bluffs, continue to rise. More than 12,000 vehicles a day cross it now, over half of which are huge semi-trailer trucks.
Again, very little of this traffic is Wyoming people or even benefiting the people of Wyoming.
Let’s face it, I-80 is not a road. It’s a railroad disguised as a highway. Over four decades, it has turned into something entirely different from what it was designed for in the last century. Instead of providing a road for cars, it now is the main freight-hauling route across central United States.
And during a time of declining tax revenues, Wyoming’s leaders are worrying over how to pay for projected repairs to I-80.
It would be a pain to have to pay a toll to travel on Interstate 80 but that concept certainly seems to be the only way to finance billions in repairs projected for the road.
But cars, both from Wyoming and out of state, are not causing the damage. It is out of state trucks that are causing the damage. Big trucks.
So, instead of a toll, charges to travel on that road should be considered a “maintenance fee.”
One person who knows says that you could drive 4,000 cars over that highway and not cause the same damage as one heavy semi-trailer truck. John Cox, director of the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT), made that comment.
Thus, cars should pay 1/4,000th of what the toll would be for a big truck. If a semi-trailer truck’s fee is $100 then a car should be three cents. Sounds fair to me.
I-80 covers 400 miles across Wyoming, which is a pinch point where highways converge.
All those products being produced in Asia arrive on the West Coast on huge freighters and then are hauled cross-country by semi-trucks.
I-80 traffic is now more than 50 percent trucks or 6,000 semi- trailer trucks a day. Over 180,000 trucks per month make that highway scary all year long, but especially in winter.
Because that highway is here and also because it is a national connecting link for Wyoming, too, it is hard to ignore. It is truly the six billion dollar gorilla when it comes to problems that we would like to have someone else solve.
But, why should Wyoming have to pay to keep this national trail of commerce in good repair? Why should Wyoming bear the brunt of this expense, when it does not really benefit our citizens? WYDOT has long been crying foul during all this, too. They are in a lose-lose situation.
On the one hand, they are expected to keep our roads safe and in good repair and upgraded. On the other hand, the state’s federal funds are being cut and the prices for road construction have gone through the roof.
Traffic safety is one of WYDOT’s main concerns. They have added more web cams, snowplows and snow fences. The governor and legislators have added more patrolmen. And those huge message boards cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and the state has added them all over the Interstate system, too.
The numbers associated with keeping I-80 in good shape are staggering, according to WYDOT’s Cox. He says you could spend Wyoming’s entire highway budget on I-80 and still come up short.
Thus the current conversations about tolls, or what I prefer to call maintenance fees.
Of course, in the end, we do like having I-80 here. It gives Wyoming a lifeline to the rest of the country and certainly is a major tourism conduit for people from elsewhere who visit here.
But paying for its upkeep and maintenance? That should be the job of those causing the damage – thus the argument for maintenance fees by big trucks.
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Sunday, October 04, 2009
941 - Our very own special `Legends of the Fall`
Ah, fall in Wyoming.
Too bad it lasted just two hours. That is what it seemed like to me last Sunday as I was knocking the wet snow off my young trees in the middle of a 24-inch October dump.
Seems like we went from summer (it was sunny and 75 degrees the day before) to deepest winter.
But that is what we get for living near the mountains and out in the frontier.
This begs the question, did you know that the U. S. Census Bureau does not consider Wyoming as “rural?”
Yeah, hard to believe. They consider it “frontier.”
Actually, fall has always been my favorite time of year. And I usually welcome that first snowfall so that my allergies can finally get back to normal.
It is easy to love autumn for the colors. We made a quick trip to Denver last week and the yellow in the trees was spectacular. Is there nothing prettier than Aspens when they turn? Truly a Golden Miracle.
Speaking of miracles, it is hard not to gloat (although obviously a few days late) on that rare sports trifecta that happened last weekend. The sports teams that we support here in the Cowboy State (Rockies, Cowboys and Broncos) were all victorious.
• First, the Colorado Rockies clinched a playoff spot and almost won the National League West Division. I admit to being a huge Rockies fan and their play has been a delight to watch. By the time this column gets published, their playoff destiny is probably determined.
• Second, our Wyoming Cowboys went 2,500 miles to Florida and defeated a tough team, 30-28.
Do we really appreciate how great it is to have a Division One team in our state? Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota do not have Division One teams to root for. They play teams like Southwest Dishwater State. Our team actually led the number-two ranked Division One team in the country (Texas) with two minutes to go in the first half earlier this season. This is heady stuff.
A belated thanks to Tim Harkins and his crew on the UW Media Relations staff for helping me get a spot in the press box for that game back in September with the Longhorns.
While talking about Laramie people, our congratulations to Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck who was recently named the state’s most influential political reporter. A very good choice.
The Washington Post did a national listing of the best reporters in each state.
• Third, our Denver Broncos were 4-0 after toppling the mighty America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys last Sunday. These Broncs are a real team. They are 80 percent to the win total I predicted they would finish for the whole season. I thought it would be a miracle if they won five games. This season is really going to be fun.
Yeah, following these sports teams is a great fall event. I have written earlier about how much fun it is to travel around our state and listen to these sports games on the radio. Cannot imagine life much better than that.
This weekend saw lots of folks out hunting seeking the elusive elk, deer and antelope.
A Lander photog named Ted Carlson sold a lot of prints titled “Traffic Jam in Wyoming” which showed a cattle drive down Lander’s Main Street.
Well, if you get up at 5. m. in our town this time of year, you really will find a real traffic jam. The convenience stores are crowded and there are lines at the pumps. Hunters are up early and getting some fresh coffee before heading out into the frontier for their annual hunt.
One old-timer who has done this for more than 40 years said he is a little tired of actually harvesting. “I just go along for the ride, the camping and the fellowship. The fun ends when you pull the trigger.”
Sounds like he shot a few that ended down that 200-feet deep gulch that we all recall with exasperated sighs. As I write this it is easy to be somewhat concerned about these hunters stranded in our mountains under three feet of the wettest snow imaginable.
All these ramblings about fall remind me of a recent saying that I thought probably described what I really think living in Wyoming in the fall is really like:
“If you want to feel rich, just count the things you have here in Wyoming that money cannot buy.”
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