Opinion

Learning about Native Cultures

Publisher — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Learning about Native Cultures

Publisher Sat, 09/05/2026 - 07:00

The Carbon County Traveler

Mike Armstrong

While at the Sinclair Music and Arts Festival, there was an amazing demonstration of native American culture by the “Little Sun Drum and Dance Group” out of Wind River.

Sandra Iron Stone spoke eloquently of tradition, culture and family.

I was entranced during the whole presentation.

Concerning understanding regional native American culture, I am extremely lucky to have Chili Rollinson as one of my longest and best friends in Wyoming.

I don’t get to see him quite as much as I did back in my younger days when I first came to Carbon County, but he is still dear to me and I treasure when we talk.

The man is beyond an encyclopedia of knowledge about indigenous tribes that lived out West.

If a person wants to know the real stories and history of native Americans in this region, Chili is the person to talk to.

More than once, he enchanted me with stories of how the area I live in now had quite the history of early Americans.

I find it fascinating that the hot pools of Saratoga have the history it does and how the land was sacred.

I have always been a bit of a history buff, especially concerning cultures before conquerors came in.

In Hawaii. I learned how the natives were literally taken over by a machine gun.

When the islands were “discovered” there was real competition between Britain and the United States for control. It was settled by Polynesians sometime between 1000 and 1200 A.D., and was home to many independent chiefdoms. In 1778, British explorer James Cook was the first known white to arrive. The early British influence is reflected in the state flag, which bears a Union Jack. European and American whalers and entrepreneurs soon came, and through the introduction of diseases the native Hawaiian population declined from possibly one million (it might be more like half of that) to less than 40,000 by 1890. Those residents with pure Hawaiian blood are very proud of their heritage. The island nation was recognized as a nation.

The Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown against Queen Liliʻuokalani that took place on January 17, 1893, on the island of Oahu. The coup was led by the Committee of Safety, composed of seven foreign-born permanent residents and six Hawaiian-born people in Honolulu. There was no Hawaiian army so the Committee asked for the U.S. Marines. Marines and sailors were sent to protect the new government. It is actually very sad. Although Hawaiian warriors did not have the weaponry, natives wanted to fight the American military. The queen would not allow it because a gatling gun was aimed at the palace (Hawaii is the only state to have a palace) and she knew her people would be slaughtered. The Committee established the independent nation of the Republic of Hawaii, but their goal was the annexation of the islands to the United States, which occurred in 1898.

The monarchy is still there and I once served a princess who came to the place I was working. She was nice.

There is no love for the “Howli (white man) on many parts of the island by polynesian residents, especially pure bloods. While I lived there, a movement was there trying to free Hawaii from America.

It was very interesting to learn about this old culture.

While living in Taiwan, I had a friend who worked with the aboriginal culture that was small, but still in existence on the island. There was a village one could visit that showed the ways of the people. Most of these Taiwanese lived in the jungly mountains. If it was not for Cheryl, I doubt I would have known they existed. These people took a hit over the centuries, from European powers–Portugal claimed it first. The island was a refuge for Chinese pirates too,

To be truthful, I was in a cultural overload, learning Chinese language and culture and trying to survive, I didn’t dive into all the facets of the first settlers of Taiwan.

When I lived in Australia, I learned about the aboriginal history and culture to a point. It was mostly through their art. I have some really great paintings and wood carvings that explain much of how connected they are to certain animals and the earth. But the situation was similar to Taiwan, in that I was learning a new culture to live in, so learning indigenous history came in spurts.

It doesn’t mean I was not fascinated by it when I learned something, but I don’t know as much as I probably could have gleaned.

I credit much of my interest in cultures that are native to when I was in 4th grade.

We had just moved to Arlington, Virginia just outside Washington D.C. from Houston, Texas.

My 4th grade teacher Mrs. Alne thought learning about native Americans and their roles in American and Virginian history was essential and we were never too young.

I learned about the Powhatans, the tribe where Pocohantas came from, in our Virginian history class. I think I was especially keen to learn about them because I was born in Newport News, Virginia and lived in Hampton, which is down the road, until I was four.

The Powhatans whose historic territories are in central Tidewater Virginia, where both cities are located. The Powhatan people spoke the Powhatan language which is a member of the Algonquian language family.

Conflicts began immediately between the Powhatan people and English colonists; the colonists fired shots as soon as they arrived (due to a bad experience they had with the Spanish before their arrival). Within two weeks of the arrival of English colonists at Jamestown, people had died.

Since it was 4th grade, the story of Pocohantas and John Smith where she saved his life was taught to me like many. If one delves back into the years 1607 and 1608, the account may be embellished, because John Smith was trying to get funds from different royal courts. Still, I was hooked on learning about native Americans and their role in this country’s history.

There is so much to learn and there were so many tribes that played a part in how the United States evolved.

That is why when I get the opportunity to see native American culture performed as I did in Sinclair last Saturday or get a lesson from Chili, I pay attention.

I am also extremely grateful I had teacher like Mrs. Alne because she was right about never being too young to learn about history.

Votes and Ballots

Publisher — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Votes and Ballots

Publisher Sat, 08/29/2026 - 07:00

Let's Talk

By Henry Nicolle

Hello again to my friends and neighbors in Rawlins and in our Carbon County communities! The primary elections are over and the general election will be held November 3.

In prior essays, I have complained about what I see as a lack of individual involvement and participation in our government. We need to be better informed, in my opinion. Words have meaning. If you possess an unclear understanding of word meanings, your world may be defined by frustration, annoyance and exasperation.

Often, words are misinterpreted because their meanings have changed over time or because they are rarely used in ordinary conversation. Take the word “vulgar.” Today, common conversation often presumes “vulgar” is an allusion to indecent, obscene or profane expression. Historically, however, “vulgar” could also refer simply to that which was common or ordinary, particularly the language spoken by ordinary people.

Another example in our contemporary word usage might be the political use of “sanction.”

When the United States government “imposes sanctions” upon countries or organizations, the term commonly implies some kind of economic or political penalty imposed by government to coerce a change in conduct.

Interestingly, “sanction” can have nearly opposite meanings. It can refer to a penalty imposed for violating a rule, but it can also mean official authorization or approval. Context, therefore, matters.

Here are a few other examples of terms and words which pertain to our 2026 election cycle.

Have you voted? If so, you are a voter. Wyoming law also uses the term “qualified elector” for a person who has established the necessary qualifications to exercise the right to vote.

A ballot is the medium used by a voter to record choices in an election.

Today, ballots can take different forms and voting systems can use different technologies. Wyoming elections use paper ballots that can be read and tabulated by voting equipment.

A vote is the act of making a choice in an election or decision-making process.

Casting that vote is at the discretion of the individual voter. In the 2026 Carbon County primary, less than half of registered voters participated in voting.

Voting is traditionally a secret process, separating the voter from his or her vote. In prior periods, a Yes/No vote could be determined by the concealed submission of a representative colored token. A black ball could signify a vote against a person or proposal.

I suppose you have heard or used the term “blackballed”?

That is where the expression originated.

Now consider the numbers from Carbon County’s 2026 primary election:

County population used for this comparison: 13,942

Registered voters: 6,435

Ballots cast: 3,138

Using those figures, approximately 48.8% of registered voters participated in the primary.

Here is another way to consider those numbers.

If a hypothetical contested race or issue were decided by 51% of the 3,138 ballots cast, approximately 1,600 voters could determine the outcome. That represents about 11.5% of the county’s total population using the population figure above.

Of course, not everyone included in the county’s total population is eligible to vote, and primary elections generally determine which candidates advance to the general election rather than deciding every office. Still, the comparison illustrates an important point: When voter participation is low, a relatively small portion of the community can have a significant influence on the choices presented to everyone else.

That should concern us.

This is self-government, but self-government requires participation.

Your vote is more than symbolic. It signifies that you care enough to make a choice. Choosing not to participate is also an individual right, but when large numbers of eligible voters stay home, those who do participate naturally have a greater influence on the outcome.

We all have opinions. Most people, like me, have many opinions. They have value, particularly when we have the courage to voice them, discuss them and listen to the opinions of others.

Your vote is one among thousands, but it does count.

Use your voice. Discuss and compare opinions. Become informed. Participate.

Let’s talk!

Henry Nicolle

307-321-4505

admin@smalltownopinion.com

The American Who Touched so Many Worldwide

Publisher — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0000

The American Who Touched so Many Worldwide

Publisher Sat, 08/29/2026 - 07:00

My dinner was almost done and ready to be plated. It was this last Tuesday and I had just spent the day in Rawlins doing interviews and having a fairly full day meeting people.

I went outside to my patio to finish watering plants before sitting down to eat. I had the radio on and I was pouring water on my tomato plant; the news came on to tell me Dolly Parton died.

I was stunned.

Probably like the majority of Americans, if not the majority of the world.

I had just seen a blurb on a news feed the other day about her getting better with some health issues.

I remember thinking, “I didn’t even know she was sick.”

I finished my watering and put my dinner on hold.

I had to call my sister.

Michelle sometimes will not listen to the news for a couple of days because she gets unhappy with what she hears and wants a break.

Fair enough, but I knew she would want to know of Dolly Parton’s death. She was a big fan, like myself.

I called and as expected, she was extremely saddened.

We talked for a few moments about this iconic, world-class person, and then got off the phone, lost in our own thoughts about this amazingly decent person.

I have never seen her in person, although I would have liked to, but she has been in my life since I started listening to music.

I love country music, but it was not always so.

Dolly Parton was one of the artists that transitioned me over from when I thought it had little redeeming for my ears.

Don’t get me wrong, I was a huge fan of Bobbie Gentry (still am), who is considered country to a degree, but it was Dolly Parton, with her song “Here you come again” on her album called Dolly Parton, that opened my mind that country music might be worth listening to instead of turning the dial when I came across it on my car radio.

I would not call “Here you come again” exactly the best country song ever recorded, but Dolly Parton’s voice snagged me.

I started paying attention to all the songs she did.

That meant paying attention to her.

As I read about her and Carl Dean, her husband, and how they shared a marriage that defied what many celebrities put forth to the world, where she became famous and he purposely stayed out of the limelight, I thought they must be cool folks.

I watched her movies and liked the ones I saw.

I saw her in interviews and I found her warm and funny.

The more I watched her, the more I liked her.

I liked that she was not really political, but she spoke her mind in a down to earth manner and was not shy about letting people know her views about being kind to one another.

I remember her work with Emmy Lou Harris and Linda Ronstandt when they made music together for a couple years.

It came out when I was married and the music is associated with the happy times I had during my marriage.

The song “I Will Always Love You” was made more famous by Whitney Houston because she does a great job, but I really like Dolly Parton’s version. I think it is because I learned she hung onto the rights of the song when most artists might not have. Elvis Presley wanted to sing it but his management demanded a 50 percent cut and she refused.

She showed a remarkable entrepreneurial intuition that made her a strong business person. It turns out that by keeping the rights, it made her millions each year from so many artists that covered it besides Houston.

I admire her backstory of coming from extreme poverty, one of 12 children, and how she never forgot her roots.

As much as I enjoyed her music, and I really do, her films (Joyful Noise is probably my favorite–which came recommended by my sister) and the way she built a business empire out of nothing; it is humanitarian work where I feel the true loss of passing.

I had read about her support to different minority groups and knew she was generous with millions she earned, but it was the Imagination Library Project that cemented my intense respect for this human being.

Imagination Library was one of her proudest philanthropic ventures, realizing her dream that “all children should grow up in a home full of books.” One in six U.S. children under the age of five receives free books from this fund, according to the website.

I saw it in action when Principal Jackie Jones had me come to Hanna Elementary and see children get books from this program.

I have read that Dolly Parton started this project because her father could not read or write, but she found him to be one the smartest men she knew. Dolly Parton wanted to leave a legacy of helping children be literate. It started in the county where she grew up and has spread to not only throughout the United States, but also Ireland, U.K., Australia, and Canada.

Since its inception in 1995, the program is made possible through a unique partnership model in which funding is shared between The Dollywood Foundation and hundreds of Local Community Partners. Today, the Imagination Library mails over 3 million high-quality, age-appropriate books each month directly to children’s homes. Every enrolled child receives one book per month from birth to age five—at no cost to their families.

Dolly Parton’s favorite book in the program was “The Little Engine that Could”. I find that very telling.

I have read a lot of tributes to her and I understand why so many people from all over the world feel compelled to write some words about this remarkable person.

The ones I have enjoyed probably most have been listeners on You Tube listening to her songs as a memoriam.

Some examples have read from ordinary people:

“If everyone followed her example of living: leading with love, compassion, and tolerance, fiercely protecting what is essential to your own well-being (her publishing rights, for example) and giving as much as you can in service to others less fortunate, we can make the world a better place. Let’s all be Dolly and heal this world.”

“We can never repay you for all you gave us, Dolly. This world will never be the same without you. Words truly are the poverty of expression. We will always love you.”

“Her death has been the only death of a famous person that has hurt. She was an earth angel.”

She really did touch people even if they did not know her.

The song “Coat of Many Colors” has a line in it that says, “We are only poor if we chose to be,” and it resonates with me personally.

Good things, bad things, happen to us all. It is how you look at life. The case of this song, the family had no money, but they had love and Dolly Parton realized the family was blessedly rich.

Dolly Parton had money and she did so much with it to make peoples’ lives better even though she did not know them.

Jeff Bezos gave her $100 million to distribute how she saw fit. He picked the right person.

When COVID was going strong she gifted $1 million dollars of her personal finances to Vanderbilt University to help with the Moderna trials that led to a vaccine.

When Hurricane Helene hit in 2024, she was there to help. Parton donated $1 million of her own money, and her local businesses and the Dollywood Foundation matched it to bring the total to $2 million for flood survivors and the Mountain Ways Foundation. She helped coordinate semi-trucks filled with drinking water and turned Dollywood into a drop-off and collection center for food, water, and essential supplies. Her efforts targeted hard hit parts of East Tennessee, Western North Carolina, and the Appalachian region that she frequently referred to as her home.

When watching her, I found her self-depreciating and a real spirit that praised God for her good fortune.

President Donald Trump could not have said any truer words when he told the nation he was ordering lowering the American flags half mast at federal buildings because it felt the “natural thing to do.”

The person Dolly Rebecca Parton may be gone from this world, but she lives on in so many ways.

She won’t ever be truly dead because of all the wonderful things she has done.

I take solace in her passing remembering that.

Your Vote Counts but Is It Enough?

Publisher — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 01:30:00 +0000

Your Vote Counts but Is It Enough?

Publisher Sun, 08/23/2026 - 03:30

Let's Talk

By Henry Nicolle

Howdy Rawlins and Carbon County communities! The mid-term elections are over. Did you get out and vote? Did your selections prevail? Good for you, if they did. If they did not, “Oh well.”

The general election is scheduled for November third. Better luck then, even if it only means voting (or not) for somebody else’s “winner”. Sloppy seconds is the best that limited democracy has to offer, I’m afraid.

It has been said that the people of our communities should be passive, that our elections, inefficient as they may be, are our permissions delegating self-rule. Our common fortunes or prosperity, our vices and virtues are caused by the influences exercised upon us by our elected and appointed officials, their law, their legislation and their institutional bureaucracies.

All our individual interests, faculties, desires and possessions being under the absolute discretion of our representatives, whatever the issues, we do not decide for ourselves. Our representatives and institutions decide for us. In our institutions and representatives reside the thought, the foresight, all progress and the principle of common society.

Between elections, we are only along for the ride. I suppose it must go unsaid that the examples of higher offices in bureaucracy of institutional governance tend to display the consistent ingratitude, hypocrisy and greed inherent in privilege and discretion of office. Regardless, we are advised, “Happy are the people to be ruled in such a wise manner!”

In my opinion, the world works as we experience it working. If we prefer to live guilelessly, we should probably not complain too loudly. If the “I don’t know and I don’t care” attitude continues to dominate our private philosophy, the superficial security, prosperity and comfort we have long enjoyed may play out more abruptly than we expect.

Here in our remote Wyoming-American “outback”, we can afford to be comfortable in our self-reliance, ‘git it done! and fix-it! mindset.

We campaign, we vote; we ignore the futility of the process. We don’t have time or interest. We have more important things to occupy our interest and energy. We can’t fight city hall. It’s not our concern. We can’t do anything about it anyway; why waste the effort? Don’t worry. It will all work out in the end. (Yes, that is reliably what I am told.)

There’s more. If all the foregoing is true, if we must accept the futility of attempting to make our own decisions, why bother with votes even if you think (rightfully) that your ballot actually counts for nothing practical? Your vote was at least symbolic, signifying that you still care, even if you are afraid to voice that opinion in public.

Bear with me for a moment while I put on one of my tinfoil hats. Where is the morality of our vote if the United States federal government destroys other societies and kills millions of people, while putting the blame on our vote of approval and at our expense?

I don’t know. Do you know? Or do you simply not care to know? I do know a little and understand less. I am not happy with this. So, I talk and write about these things.

My opinions have little conversational traction. I am often reminded that I could gather more flies with honey than vinegar. Well, perhaps that is true advice. But I do not equate my friends, neighbors and associates here in Rawlins and our neighboring towns with flies. We all have opinions. Most people (like me) have many opinions. They all have value. They all count, if we have the courage to voice them!

Your vote, if you use it, counts for very little, but it does count a little. It is a deliberate, however tiny, step into the public forum of opinion. Use your voice. Discuss and compare opinion.

Let’s talk!

Henry Nicolle - 307-321-4505 admin@smalltownopinion.com

Pigs, Pork and One Wild Night in Taiwan

Publisher — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 01:30:00 +0000

Pigs, Pork and One Wild Night in Taiwan

Publisher Sun, 08/23/2026 - 03:30

The Carbon County Traveler

Mike Armstrong

When I was young and used to visit the farms of my different cousins who lived in Virginia, I was exposed to a fair amount of livestock. Dairy cattle and horses prevailed as what I was around the most. I guess chickens too since I was sent out to collect eggs a few times.

I did not see many pigs.

Maybe I don’t remember them, but given how large they are, I think I would have remembered being around them. I remember seeing rabbits, goats and sheep.

I never gave it much thought about not seeing pigs, although I love ham and pork cuts, so you would have thought I would have asked.

Anyway, I did not see many pigs growing up.

While living in Hawaii, I was told to be careful in some areas because feral pigs were known to roam. Locals would point out their tracks and scat when I was in the forest. These places I am mentioning were not on the tourist beat.

But even while going on a hunt once, I never saw any pigs. The hunt in Hawaii was interesting even if not successful. I should mention, we basically got rained out because of monsoonal downpours. It is slow going in the jungle under those types of rains. Plus there were dogs used for tracking and they could not really get a scent in the rain. I know the hunt had some type of permit or license because hunting pigs is a bit of a cultural thing. The group I was with was hunting with bows. I practiced shooting at some targets before heading out that day, but like all hunting, if you are not skilled enough to get an ethical shot, you don’t hunt. I was along for the ride, more or less. A ride that got rained out.

It was in Taiwan that I had one of my scariest, some might even say, death-defying times in my life, and it had to do with pigs.

Because of this instance, until I started going to the Carbon County Fair each year, I was not comfortable being around pigs, although I am not scared of pigs themselves.

At the Carbon County Fair, I was out walking around to get some pictures that aren’t the usual and I came across Baggs resident Katie Gibson cleaning a pig for her son.

It was a great conversation. I watched in a bit of wonder as she cleaned the pig. It was not because she was doing anything I had not seen before, but my mind went back to that dark night in Taiwan.

Like I said, being around pigs triggers this event in my mind.

First, Taiwan loves pork. The island consumes 900,000 metric tons of pork a year. It is said the average is between 79 pounds and 86 pounds a year per person in Taiwan. People eat more pork in their dishes than beef or chicken.

When I first got there, I was told to be careful of restaurants where I ate and make sure they were not places that used black market pork.

Black market pork is meat that was not killed in an abattoir or a meat packing plant.

Not having the health inspections to worry about, the illegally slaughtered animals were much cheaper to buy. There was also a risk of getting sick.

I ate in safe places because, as a Westerner, my diet had to adjust as it did and staying away from dicey food places was smart.

Now Taichung, Taiwan is a city of 3 million that is in a valley, surrounded by large jungle mountains. Unfortunately, the pollution is so bad that the mountains are never seen from within the city. Well, that is extreme to say never. In my 11 years of living there, I saw the mountains twice after typhoons had come in and blown the pollution out of the valley. The mountains are stunning with their lush emerald green shining trees covering the land, but I only saw them from the city twice.

I knew these jungly mountains existed because I hiked out in them all the time. A couple of friends had houses in the jungle that I visited. Asian cities and towns have people who live on top of each other. There are few single home units in cities and towns, although there are townhouses; more condos and highrises than anything. A place in the jungle was almost like being back in America. A home with land around it was special in Taiwan and, as I mentioned, most Asian cities in general.

After about six months or so of living in Taichung, I knew quite a lot of the jungle roads outside the city. I only rode a motorcycle and I knew to be careful at night, because the roads, while well paved, did not leave a lot of room in the lanes and were quite windy.

I had a DT motorcycle with huge tires that I rode jungle trails often. The first couple years living in Taiwan, there were not a lot of Westerners living in Taichung. I would say maybe two dozen.

We led a daring lifestyle as I look back. Going out to party on heavily fortified beaches was one thing we did. More than once I can remember a military patrol telling our group we were trespassing on land not accessible to the public.

Taking jungle rides at around midnight was another sort of crazy thing we did.

One night there were five of us that decided to go off on a trail that had not been explored all that well. We just wanted to ride in the jungle for a little bit before going to bed.

The trail was not wide and we were being a little dangerous going the speeds we were and passing each other in the dark, but I don’t remember feeling scared.

That changed when we came to clearing that was being used by a group slaughtering pigs.

There were dogs barking, as we came into the area.

There were floodlights all around the clearing and I saw pigs hanging from trees being gutted or their throats slit.

It was almost like a scene out of a horror film.

There was a pen of pigs and besides the dogs barking, there was the squealing of pigs filling the air.

There were about 20 men in this compound and they had big knives, almost swords.

It was an incredible scene to come across in the middle of the jungle.

I was the last motorcyclist to enter the clearing and by this time the men killing the pigs were starting to chase my friends with their knives.

There was no doubt they meant us harm.

Because I was the last arrival to this scene, it was a bit surreal as I saw motorcycles getting chased with men waving knives, gutted pigs in the trees, dogs barking and a few pigs running around. There were also big kettles on fires.

I don’t know why I stopped to take it all in, but I didn’t stay stopped for very long as a few men started to come towards me with their knives. I was on the edge of the clearing, so I knew it was time to get back into the jungle. By this time, my buddies were starting to buzz past me yelling to get out of the place.

I don’t know how I even got my bike turned around so fast. I escaped as the men came running towards me. There were more men coming who had been chasing the other bikes too.

I was the last to get out of there and my concern was if we were going to be chased on bikes.

We were not.

My group of friends waited for me at the road where the jungle path criss-crossed.

I was the last to get there and the last of us to be accounted for.

By now it was about 3 a.m.

We went to a 7/11 and grabbed some beers and sat on the corner and told our stories. Some of my buddies came really close to getting hurt by the swinging knives.

I could not forget the images of the hanging pigs with their throats slit out of my mind along with the men running at me.

One friend did have a dog attack his leg, but no damage was done.

We finished our beers after toasting “just another night in Taiwan.”

That night is still vivid in my memory in many ways when I think about it.

And I do.

When I am around pigs.

I know when I go to the Carbon County Fair, it is likely I will see pigs and my memory of that evening will return.

But now at least, I am comfortable around these farm animals and that evening is just a story I have lived to tell.

The Art of Listening

Publisher — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0000

The Art of Listening

Publisher Sat, 08/15/2026 - 07:00

Something to Chew On

Virginia Parker

I’ve been asked many times how I come up with ideas to write my column. There are several answers to that question. I’ve always enjoyed people watching, and there’s always someone interesting to watch or listen to. However, I think listening is probably the number one catalyst when it comes to ideas for my column. This got me to thinking about listening and how people listen, so here is my take on the art of listening. Last week I talked about how the world has gotten very loud. So loud, in fact, it seems to drown out real conversations, connections, viewpoints, and just plain old funny stories.

There’s a big difference between hearing someone and listening to them. We hear things all day long. The television in the background, vehicles going by, airplanes and helicopters overhead, dogs barking, and so on. Hearing isn’t listening. Listening requires presence.

It’s been my observation that listening is a neglected skill. Active listening doesn’t simply mean waiting patiently until it’s your turn to talk. The majority of people listen, but are preparing a response long before the other person finishes. It seems we are already loading our own story into the chamber before they are finished.

For instance, if someone says, “I had the strangest thing happen yesterday…” Somewhere in your brain, you are already thinking, Wait till you hear what happened to ME! Active listening asks us to do something different. Stay with their story, look at them, pay attention. Ask a question because you are interested in their answer, not because you’re waiting for an opening to talk.

“What happened next?”

“How did you feel about that?”

“Why do you think that happened?”

“What was it like back then?”

Next comes the most important action you can take: be quiet and let them answer. When they stop talking, don’t rush to fill the silence. Wait a second or two; silence is very powerful. Many times their first answer is what someone thinks they’re supposed to say; the second answer could be quite interesting.

Silence gives people permission to share.

For some reason, we have become very uncomfortable with silence. A few quiet seconds in a conversation can feel uncomfortable; somebody must say something, anything to fill the void.

However, silence isn’t necessarily empty. Sometimes silence says: Take your time, I’m interested. You don’t have to hurry because I’m still here and I’m listening.

And occasionally, after that little pause, a person will say, “You know, I’ve never told anybody this before…” Or, “I haven’t thought about that in years.” That’s when you know you’ve moved past conversation and into connection.

Everybody knows Something you don’t.

This may be one of the greatest reasons to listen. Every person you meet knows something you don’t. Think about that.

The person sitting beside you may know how to rebuild an engine, deliver a calf, bake bread without measuring anything, read the weather by watching the sky, survive a terrible loss, raise six children, run a business, train a horse, care for a dying parent, build a house or make a marriage last fifty years.

Someone else may have lived somewhere you’ve never been, or survived something you’ve never experienced. They may remember a world that disappeared before you were born.

If you do all the talking, you’ll never find out.

I’ve met people from all kinds of occupations and backgrounds over the years, and I’ve come to realize that almost everybody has an interesting story. Some people just need someone willing to hear it.

Listening is how we preserve history.

This becomes especially important in small communities where living historians with fascinating and important stories walk around among us every day. Some sit at your kitchen table, some are at a café counter or standing in line at the post office. Maybe they’re driving down a dirt road or sitting on a porch.

People who remember buildings that aren’t there anymore, businesses that changed hands, families who settled here, floods and fires and terrible winters, celebrations, scandals, practical jokes and characters nobody could invent because nobody would believe them.

When those people are gone, some of those stories disappear with them, unless somebody listens. That’s one reason I love asking older people questions. “What was this place like when you were young?” “Who lived there?” “What did you do for fun?” “How did you get through that winter?”

You don’t have to be a historian to preserve history; you just have to be interested and listen.

Listening can change our minds.

There is another benefit to listening that may be a little uncomfortable: finding out we are wrong, or maybe realizing that the world is more complicated than we thought. It’s easy to form an opinion when we know only one sentence of their story, but get an entire paragraph and it can be quite an eye-opener.

When we really listen to people whose lives are different from ours, we begin to understand why they see things differently. Not just older people, but everyone. Understanding doesn’t necessarily mean agreeing with someone. I can listen carefully to someone and still disagree with them. That doesn’t mean you can’t be friends and respectful. Let your world get a little bigger.

Not everything needs to be fixed.

This may be the hardest listening lesson of all. Sometimes people don’t need advice; they just need someone to talk to. Someone tells us they’re hurting and our instinct is to fix it.

“Have you tried…?”

“You should…”

“If I were you…”

“Well, here’s what I did…”

We mean well, but sometimes there just isn’t anything to fix. Sometimes somebody is grieving, or scared, or exhausted. Sometimes life simply hands us something very difficult and there is no easy answer. In these moments, advice can get in the way or listening. What they may need more than anything is another human being willing to sit with them and listen. Saying very little.

Listening can be a form of kindness, because for a few minutes we’re saying, “Your story matters more than mine right now.”

Curiosity makes life bigger.

Listening has enriched my life in ways I probably didn’t appreciate when I was younger. I’ve learned things I never intended to learn, I’ve heard stories I never could have invented, and I’ve laughed until I cried.

I’ve heard about first loves, terrible jobs, great horses, bad decisions, narrow escapes, childhood adventures and family legends that get better every time they’re told. I’ve discovered that ordinary people are rarely ordinary once you know their stories.

Maybe that’s one of the secrets to an interesting life. Maybe you don’t necessarily have to travel around the world, you can just sit at a table with someone who’s lived a completely different life, or stand in line with them and simply say, “Tell me about it.”

Then listen. For a little while, you get to see the world through somebody else’s eyes, and be enriched in ways you never expected.

A writer’s greatest tool: people.

People sometimes imagine writers spend their time searching for ideas, but ideas are not scarce. They are literally everywhere. Walking past us, sitting beside us, talking while we check our phones.

A writer doesn’t always need a great imagination, just better ears.

So when someone asks where I find things to write about, I could give them a complicated answer about inspiration, observation and creativity, but the answer is much simpler.

I listen. I love to talk and laugh, but I ask questions too. I pay attention, and I try to stay quiet long enough for the rest of the story, because silence isn’t always empty. Sometimes silence is where the story has been waiting all along.

I listen at coffee. I listen in stores. I listen when somebody starts a sentence with, “You know what I remember?” I listen to people talk about cattle, weather, children, gardens, dogs, marriages, old cars, fishing holes and winters that apparently lasted from September until June and required walking uphill both directions. I listen to old and young, men and women.

Somewhere in all of that is usually a story, but I’ve learned something important: you have to give people enough room to tell it.

Why I resigned from the Library Board, Part II

Publisher — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Why I resigned from the Library Board, Part II Publisher Sat, 08/15/2026 - 07:00

Dear Editor,

A decade or so ago I heard some troubling things about the way the Board of County Commissioners was handling the Library System during its last budget crisis. I don’t remember what my beef was, but I reacted by passive-aggressively canceling my account with a business owned by one commissioner who was particularly outspoken on the matter. She called my cell and demanded to know why.

Then we talked a while, and “I came away with a different point of view.” Despite what I’m about to say, I still believe she genuinely cares about the Library System, and is doing what she thinks is best to save it.

Over the last 13 months, I spoke with her frequently. She offered advice, ideas and a can-do attitude. She and I agreed that it’s best to “choose grit instead of quit.” She even helped us get a grant that helped save Hanna and Medicine Bow’s branches. We’ve talked (and yelled) for hours and even hugged it out. Her involvement could be frustrating, though. She had a habit of praising me to my face and blaming others (but never herself or the BOCC) for our difficulties. She’d thought the Friends groups should pony up, and the towns needed to put some “skin in the game” if they wanted to keep their libraries. She thought the towns had the money (they don’t). But then she’d blame me and the Library Board behind my back.

In our last conversation, the morning I resigned, we talked about a plan the Board had set forth in our last budget proposal—which was smaller than what we got last year because the BOCC told us it had to be. We figured that with $159k from the BOCC and more than half of what’s left of the System’s rainy-day savings we could keep the core staff that are necessary for the System to work as a system: the director, IT/courier, acquisitions manager, and programming manager positions. All branches rely on these positions, not just Rawlins. We told the BOCC that if they only gave us so much, we would need help from the towns, Friends groups and grants to staff their branches. I still don’t know how the Board plans to pay for front-line staff (the people who check out your books) in Rawlins. On average, front-line staff cost the System about $25 per hour that a given location is open. We had no choice but to ask Friends groups, towns, and grants to fund their branches in fiscal year 26’-27’ to the extent they can afford. But we continued to remind the everyone, especially the BOCC, that fundraising is not a sustainable funding model.

She told me our proposition was wildly unpopular, and most of the towns thought we might as well have shut them down—they were considering quitting the System and running their own municipal libraries like Sinclair. She said several had already approached the State Librarian about joining the WYLD consortium as independent libraries. I’m not going to go into the details, but that’s easier said than done. She said I might as well quit trying and let the towns figure it out—she said Sinclair people are “happy as skunks” with their unstaffed repository of donated books.

But when I talked to these people, they said, basically, “No, that’s her idea, not ours. We don’t want to go it alone.” Then the other day, I saw her do it in black and white. She responded to a Facebook comment from a person who thought all of the locations were going to be open only 5 hours a week. She said:

“This is NOT ACCURATE information. Representatives of the Library Board, without official approval of a budget from the Library Board, asked the County for $159,000, to fund only the main branch in Rawlins.” The branches, she continued, “would have to fundraise on their own for their staffing by securing donations from local funding sources. The amount determined by someone was $25/hour. There is no way these funds can be raised in all the outlying communities, so it was essentially the Library Board closing them without making a formal decision to do so. The County Commission bought into, literally, the $25/hour proposal giving $30,000 for only the outlying libraries to be used for their staffing needs.”

She is also incorrect. The model we proposed is specifically designed to support the branches, not to benefit only Rawlins. What would be the point of keeping all of the admin positions if we really expected the branches to close? We were not closing branches without making a formal decision. We were warning the BOCC of the consequences of their decision to repeatedly tell us to expect even less than we got last year.

Their so called “donation” of $30,000 did not come out of their personal pockets, it came out of their appropriation with strings attached. But they do not have the authority to order the Library Board to spend any amount on any branch other than Rawlins. Besides, 5 hours a week at every branch would actually cost $39k ($45k if you included the Rawlins), but the math isn’t the problem. It’s not the BOCC’s job to craft the System’s budget. Just like it’s not the Library Board’s job to ask why the BOCC’s emergency fund is over $1M and growing, or why they have money for this or that, but their 25% loss of revenue somehow translated to a 53% budget cut to the Library System.

The BOCC’s order that the Library Board use $30k of an historically small appropriation to spend directly on branches means less support for those branches from admin staff that has already been cut back to the bare minimum. For them to give us less than we need and then say, “it’s not us closing branches, it’s the Library Board”.

I know she and the other Commissioners care deeply about libraries. In public they say they think the Library Board can find a way to keep all branches open on a shoestring. But in private, they’ve each given me some version of “funding seven libraries is not sustainable for the County; ‘they’ [County leaders in the 80’s] shouldn’t have built so many libraries in the first place.” I call on the Commissioners, especially the ones up for re-election, to say the quiet part out loud. The Republican Primary is August 18. I might reward Travis Moore and John Johnson for their candor with my vote, but they’re running unopposed, so it doesn’t matter.

Nobody wants libraries to close, not even the book banners. People want to control their libraries because they love them. But nobody wants to take the blame when we have to sacrifice public services people love for public services they need, like an ambulance that can take you 80 miles per hour down a smooth road to a local hospital when you’re having a heart attack.

Instead of pointing fingers, let’s focus on what we can change. Let’s start by voting “Heck NO” to Ballot Initiative #1 (which would reduce property taxes another 50%), and “Heck YES” to renewing the 5th Penny sales tax. Property taxes are why we have local governments, schools, libraries and everything else we take for granted until it’s gone. But even if Wyoming says “no” to Ballot Initiative #1, the Freedom Caucus will try to abolish property taxes in the next session.

Please register and vote. And please encourage people you know around Wyoming to vote for people who care about rural Wyoming, not Freedom Caucus extremists who will cut tax revenue just because. If you’re not sure who’s who, Common Sense Republicans for Wyoming PAC (www.commonsensewyo.com) has a list of candidates worthy of support. Our local slate for state offices (Davis, Thayer, & O’Toole) are not listed there because they are unopposed and not Freedom Caucus. Let’s vote the Freedom Caucus out statewide. And let’s stop bickering, and work together—for our kids’ sake—to keep our libraries open.

Sincerely,

Adelaide Myers, former chair of the Carbon County Library System Board of Directors

OP ED by Governor Mark Gordon: Wyoming Doesn’t Need More Mud Slinging

Publisher — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0000

OP ED by Governor Mark Gordon: Wyoming Doesn’t Need More Mud Slinging Publisher Sat, 08/15/2026 - 07:00

My friend and erstwhile opponent in the 2018 Primary for Governor approached me a few days before election day and said, “Mark, I might actually beat you.” He had good reason to think that. It had been a hard campaign.

His entrance into the race had been a surprise to the entire field, but he approached it with grace, humor, and enthusiasm grounded in his faith. He earned his spurs, so to speak, by traipsing all over Wyoming with the rest of us, walking parades, answering questions at forums and debates. Campaigning is tough for anyone but this 79-year-old man, it was clear, had demonstrated he had the stuff it takes to be a strong leader.

I took his comment seriously. By then he had Chuck Norris backing him and Donald Trump Jr. Foster Friess was a fierce competitor, eventually gaining President Trump’s endorsement shortly before the primary.

Foster and I agreed to keep the race above board – and I believe we did. Sure, there were some clumsy and ineffective 3rd party shenanigans towards the end, but neither of us ever condoned them.

Foster was always a gentleman, as were Sam Galeotos and Taylor Haynes. All were among the first to offer help to a new Governor with so much to learn from each. I am grateful because I know it isn’t easy to offer a hand after such a hard-fought election . It sucks to lose and it really hurts.

This election, similar to the one two years ago, has amplified the sorts of big city, big money, nasty half-truths and flat-out lies or falsehoods that have become all too common in other states. It’s not the Wyoming I know.

Here we respect the Code of the West, and most candidates always worked to discourage that sort of campaigning. They understood it was offensive to Wyoming people, who pretty well know right from wrong. Contrast is one thing, but bearing false witness is taboo for a population that appreciates all ten of the Commandments.

Where has that sensibility gone? This election we have been abused by cynical political operatives whose stock-in-trade is to twist facts and foment suspicion with incomplete, dishonest tales and misinformation. Especially galling are out-of-state political operatives who get paid big bucks for duping voters. I hope their vilification is misplaced in the Cowboy State. Wyoming voters are honest and they care.

I believe voters will see through the baloney that passes for politics elsewhere and will come to rest on those candidates who know what they are talking about, know and care about Wyomingites and know what is important to Wyoming – jobs, family, the economy, and our way of life.

Ask yourself, is this candidate talking mostly about someone else, or, as they should be, are they listening and talking about the things that will keep our core industries vital, our way of life secure, our kids safe, and our communities whole? Ask yourself if what they are saying is valuable to your community, to your family, to your grandchildren – or is it just political blather and mud?

Ask what a candidate has actually done to make the state better and why. Ask for details.

I say enough with the name calling, the false information, the nasty for nasty sake. Enough with the schlock that uses Wyoming voters as fundraising bait. Let’s elect people for who they are and what they will do, not for what some mysterious, never-heard-of-them-before organization ginned up to make voters mad. Let’s elect people to represent our interests, not puppets who parrot consultants’ talking points.

Ride for the brand!

Mead Talks about Health Care in Wyoming

Publisher — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Mead Talks about Health Care in Wyoming

Publisher Sat, 08/15/2026 - 07:00

By Mike Armstrong

Reporter, Carbon County Comet

When Wyoming Senate candidate Samuel “Sam” Mead came to Hanna two weeks ago, he put forth his stance that Public Lands belong to Wyoming residents and future generations. He has come out strongly opposing the Seminoe hydroelectric storage pumping project, which is not popular with Carbon County and Natrona County residents. Congresswoman Harriet Hageman has come out in support of the project and the two candidates stand on different sides although both are Republican.

Mead is a sixth-generation rancher and his family founded Wyoming Whiskey. He also worked for Blue Origin for a couple of years making rocket parts.

A critical problem he sees damaging Wyoming and the nation is how broken the health care system is.

“It has to be fixed,” Mead said. “It is a real problem and hurts many people and their families.”

Many politicians give lip service to the health care problem, acknowledging it is not working well, but seldom do they put forth a plan.

Mead said what he is advocating is a start.

He feels a first step has to be taken and he has outlined what he thinks can be done. He calls it The Insurer Communication Protocol, a practical first step toward lower-cost, more competitive health care.

“Wyoming families and healthcare providers are being squeezed by a system that is expensive, confusing, and unnecessarily difficult to navigate. Patients often cannot determine whether a service is covered, what it will cost, or why an insurer denied it. Doctors and hospitals must work through different portals, forms, billing rules, prior-authorization systems, and appeals processes for every insurer. Rural providers, already operating on narrow margins, spend time and money fighting administrative problems instead of caring for patients.

The Insurer Communication Protocol, or ICP, would create one common national framework for communication between insurers, patients, healthcare providers, and state regulators.

ICP would not create a government-run healthcare system. It would not set national prices, eliminate private insurance, or prevent hospitals and insurers from negotiating rates. Instead, it would establish a common language so the existing healthcare system can operate more clearly, efficiently, and competitively. ICP would establish basic national standards for how insurers communicate important information, including:

whether a patient is covered;

whether a provider is in network;

whether prior authorization is required;

what information must be submitted;

when the insurer must make a decision;

what the insurer will pay;

what the patient is expected to owe;

why a claim or authorization was denied;

how the decision can be appealed;

what happens when a patient changes insurance plans.”

Mead continues.

“Today, much of this information is buried in lengthy contracts, proprietary computer systems, unexplained billing codes, and insurer-specific paperwork. ICP would require it to be provided in a clear, standardized, secure, and machine-readable form.

That would allow a doctor’s office, hospital, insurer, or approved patient application to exchange information directly without repeatedly entering the same information into multiple systems.

The goal is simple: Patients and providers should be able to understand what an insurance plan covers, what it will pay, what the patient owes, and why a decision was made.”

Mead points out what ICP will not do.

“ICP would not standardize healthcare prices or medical decisions. Hospitals, doctors, and insurers would remain free to negotiate reimbursement rates. Those rates could continue to reflect local conditions, patient volume, quality, geography, workforce shortages, and the cost of maintaining essential rural services. States would also retain authority to regulate insurance within their borders.

The federal government would establish a basic national floor for communication, security, portability, and accountability. Wyoming could continue to adopt stronger protections above that baseline, including its own rules for prior authorization, appeals, network adequacy, and rural access.

The system would therefore operate through one national communications framework, with state-specific protections and locally negotiated rates.”

Mead points out problems ICP would solve.

“Doctors frequently must obtain insurer approval before providing treatment. Every insurer may use a different form, portal, list of requirements, and review process.

Under ICP, a provider could receive a clear answer identifying:

whether authorization is required;

what clinical information is needed;

when a decision is due;

whether the request is complete;

who reviewed it;

why it was approved or denied;

how to appeal.

Straightforward requests could be approved automatically. A final denial involving medical judgment should remain accountable to a qualified clinician, with consideration for the actual availability of care in rural communities.

When a patient changes insurance plans, active authorizations and supporting records should transfer with the patient. People undergoing cancer treatment, surgery, rehabilitation, or management of a chronic illness should not have to restart the entire process because their insurance card changed.”

Concerning claims, billing and denials, Mead said, “Providers often receive vague denial codes that do not clearly explain what went wrong. Staff must then call the insurer, search manuals, correct paperwork, and resubmit the claim. ICP would require a denial to identify the actual reason, the rule that was applied, the information considered, and the process for correcting or appealing the decision. This would reduce payment delays, administrative costs, and the need for specialized staff devoted to navigating different insurer systems.”

Mead said there would be price and coverage clarity.

“Price transparency should be a result of a clear transaction. Before scheduled care, patients should be able to receive a reasonable explanation of:

whether the service is covered;

whether the provider is in network;

the insurer’s expected payment;

the patient’s estimated responsibility;

any authorization requirements;

available alternatives.

This would not require every hospital to charge the same price. A rural hospital may legitimately have higher per-patient costs because it must maintain emergency staff, equipment, and essential services for a smaller population.

ICP would make those differences visible instead of simply labeling every higher rural payment as waste.”

Mead goes over administrative overhead.

“Healthcare workers still spend enormous amounts of time on phone calls, faxes, manual data entry, and insurer-specific portals.

ICP should be implemented under one strict rule:

No new requirement should take effect unless it replaces an existing form, portal, fax, phone call, or duplicative reporting obligation.”

Mead is conscious of protecting rural health care.

“Wyoming’s rural hospitals and clinics cannot be treated like high-volume urban facilities. A rural emergency room, maternity unit, ambulance service, or surgical capability may serve relatively few patients while remaining essential to an entire region. Its value includes being available when it is needed.

ICP would allow insurers and policymakers to distinguish between: the cost of providing an individual service; and the cost of maintaining essential healthcare capacity in a rural community.

That distinction would support a more fair reimbursement and make it easier to identify when a hospital needs a readiness payment, rural adjustment, or other support to preserve local access.”

Mead acknowledges the work to be done after getting ICP up and running.

“Health insurance is largely organized state by state. That protects state authority, but it also creates administrative walls that make it expensive for an insurer to enter a new market.

An insurer operating in another state must account for different benefit rules, prior-authorization laws, appeals procedures, reporting requirements, provider contracts, and consumer protections.

ICP would make those differences manageable.

Federal and state requirements could be expressed as compatible regulatory modules. An insurer could use one national operating system while automatically applying the laws of the patient’s state.

For a Wyoming resident, Wyoming protections would still apply. Wyoming regulators would still oversee how the insurer treated Wyoming consumers. Local hospitals and insurers would still negotiate local rates.

But the insurer would not need to build an entirely separate administrative system simply to offer coverage here.

That creates a realistic path toward a second phase:

Neighboring states could first develop reciprocal arrangements allowing qualified insurers to enter one another’s markets while accepting the destination state’s rules. This could be particularly valuable in Wyoming, where residents often travel across state lines for specialized care and insurers may already work with regional hospital systems.

Once the communication system, state overlays, local networks, and consumer protections are proven, Congress and the states could pursue broader reciprocal licensing.

A qualified insurer could operate nationally while remaining subject to:

Research the Money

Publisher — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Research the Money

Publisher Sat, 08/15/2026 - 07:00

I have talked about working on Capitol Hill when I was in my mid-twenties for a famous political analyst and two senators. I learned a lot about politics during those years and I guess if I had not gotten divorced and just wanted to get away from my life in Washington D.C., there is a chance I would have stayed in the political arena.

My last job in the city was working for the international director of the largest labor union in the world.

When I told my boss I was more or less just chucking everything and moving to Hawaii, I remember him saying, “What are you going to do, be a surfer?”

I replied, “That has great appeal to me right now.”

I moved to Hawaii and did learn to surf.

During my years on the Hill, I saw things that went down that were not exactly ethical and probably illegal, but I try to remember the positive versus the negative due to my nature.

The first time I really became exposed to how money corrupts the legal system was in Taiwan.

When I came to the island, I had a tourist or visitor visa that was good for 60 days. I could not work, but I could go to school to learn Chinese and if I did that, my visa could be extended without having to leave the country (yes, I consider Taiwan a country). I just had to go to a police station and face a policeman.

Back then, quite a lot of schools that taught English did not want to go through the trouble of getting a teacher a working visa. To keep the foreign teacher, there was an industry of Chinese schools that would vouch that you studied at their school. You paid a fee and went to certain police stations and your visa would be extended by the police that worked there. I did it a couple of times, but I hated facing the police. Plus I would be quizzed on my Chinese, which was a little unsettling since my language skills were poor.

Eventually I decided it was better to take a vacation every two months and see Asia rather than pay these schools for classes I did not go to.

Then when I started working with bars and restaurants, and including owning one, I learned about the “red envelope”. Fire inspectors, health inspectors and police who made sure your place would not get hassled all got cash in red envelopes.

That was just how it was.

I have not been in Taiwan for some years and I believe the red envelope custom might have been eradicated as the country and governments got more modern.

In China, I witnessed a communist leader of a province/city get a massive payoff from all these businesses that had attended a monster function. I represented Jim Beam and was sitting with him. I don’t really remember why I was in the room with him, but I saw people coming up to him and giving him massive stacks of 100 yuan bills. The 100 yuan is the largest denomination in Chinese currency. It is worth about $15 bucks.

He had his assistants bag it up in suitcases.

Traveling in Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand, I saw instances of money being handed over to government people to get things done.

I thought the United States was nothing like these places.

I still like to think that.

But I am starting to question that maybe political offices are for sale. I read Ballotpedia Daily and occasionally there is a story of an elected official doing something illegal that shakes my faith.

When I worked on the Hill, money was power for sure, but I don’t remember it being so pervasive as it is today.

I think Wyoming politicians are a better breed than many coming from other states.

I grew up in Maryland where Governor Marvin Mandel (1969 to 1979) was convicted of racketeering and Governor Spiro Agnew pleaded no contest to illegal activity while governor and resigned being Vice-President under Richard Nixon.

I can tell you Marylanders were quite cynical about politics for a while.

What I do not like that I see trending in politics, and it is not illegal, is money being poured into Political Action Committees (PACS) and Super PACS to both parties.

Maybe because I lived in countries where I saw how money corrupted politicians, I am a bit more sensitive.

I check Federal Election Commission filings during elections because I want to know where a politician is getting their money. I also want to see how much they are getting and how many of those individuals are from the state. I think it is very telling if a politician is getting a lot of money from out of state versus money being donated from in-state.

It is so easy to find this information and I think it should be a part of research for voters of any candidate that is running for national office and even the local legislature. If I see a district where someone is running and there are more Californians donating than Wyomingites, I have to stop and think why this is happening. Is there a company or business that has a vested interest?

I have witnessed that money is a major driver in politics and in the U.S. I believe it is worth not only looking at what issues align with me, but also going to the FEC website and looking at the candidate filings. You put in the candidate’s name and it will give you all the donations that are individual and PAC, the amount and what state they are coming from.

I believe this is important, although if a page has more out-of-state donations on it than in-state, especially on the national level, maybe the politician has resonated with many people on the national level. That happens and it can be a positive thing. Sadly, it can also mean too much influence is coming in from out of state that might not be so great.

That is why I encourage everyone, before they vote, to look up candidates on the FEC for the filings of candidates.

Issues are important, but so is the money supporting candidates.

I suggest checking it out before you vote.