Wyoming's State Director UniteWomen.org Writes Her State Representative

Dear Cynthia Lummis,

I am a domestic violence survivor. I am a Wyoming citizen. I am a wife a mother, a sister, and a daughter.

I am concerned with your choice in the vote for the HouseViolence Against Women Act. The House's version of this bill is watered down from the Senate's. The House version does not protect many women in Wyoming that are just as worthy of safety as I am as a straight, white, citizen. It does not protect lesbians, it does not protect Native American Women, nor does it protect illegal immigrants. The Senate version protects everyone and I cannot fathom why you would not vote for it.

I think of a dear friend, Jackie. She is also a mother, daughter, sister and grandmother who lives here in your state and deserves the same protections from the law that I get. Should it matter that she is a lesbian? I don't understand. Why do you vote for laws that imply that it is ok to rape or beat her?

I live in Laramie. I pass the site of Matthew Shepard's death weekly. I think about him and others like him and I tell myself that Laramie and Wyoming both learned a lesson from his loss that we promised to never forget.

Then, you make a vote like this, and I wonder if you have forgotten.

Let me remind you. We are done with hate here. We no longer choose to participate in the most vile aspect of hatred - the tolerance of injustice.  You may not be aware of it, having spent so much time in Washington, but we do not tolerate violence against anyone in Wyoming. Not even against people who love others of the same gender. Not even illegal immigrants. Not even Native Americans.

As a former victim of domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment and abuse I can tell you that the common thread in these crimes is Power. When a woman believes that no one can or will help her, she is trapped not by her abuser but the society that implicitly condones his behavior.

The reason that I must stand up, and speak out against your vote here is simple. Choosing a law that gives power to abusers over their victims is always wrong, no matter what. To seperate any group, for any reason, as unworthy of the protection of the law is offensive to a nation that knows that all of us are created equal. It is beneath the creed of our Equality State. It is a betrayal of women. It is an assault on justice.

Miss Lummis, I understand that your party pressures you to make absurd votes like this. I understand that our system doesn't always make it easy to do the right thing. The fact is that you have to stop and ask yourself what motivation you have to vote against the Senate version of the Violence Against Women Act. Are you afraid of stepping away from the party line?

You should be afraid of the rapist who finds that he can rape as often as he wants so long as he picks victims not protected by law. You should be afraid of the husband who beats his wife and tells her she has to take it because no one will protect her. You should be afraid of seeing my name beside yours on the next ballot. You should be afraid of Saint Peter and that moment, as you stare longingly at pearly white gates, when he asks you to explain why you didn't protect the women you were responsible for.

The validity of a woman's rape, or broken nose, or terrifying abuse has nothing to do with what gender she loves, what country she was born in, or what color her skin is. Next time you get a chance to vote on an issue that protects women, please make sure that you choose to protect all of us.

Sincerely
Sarah Zacharias
Wyoming State Director UniteWomen.org

An Open Letter to Candidate Romney:

Dear Candidate Romney,

I saw you.  I saw your video.
I saw you speaking candidly and off the cuff about me.  Don’t get me wrong, I know that you didn’t mention me by name or anything, but we both know you were talking about me.

When you were talking of 47% of the population that is never going to vote for you because we are dependent victims who lazily live on government programs like food stamps, I can’t help but take personal offense.  In fact, once you decided to lump in in anybody who is never going to vote for you, you weren’t just talking about me, but many people I love, and about 90% of the people I know.

My children eat because of food stamps, Mr. Romney.  Now sir, I want you to picture a Wyoming cowgirl, a mother, a fighter, a righteous, determined, god loving woman; a Rocky Mountain Grizzly Bear Mamma that would make Sarah Palin’s makeup wearing pit bull shudder.  Picture me staring you in the eyes as I ask you, “What business have you got talking about me and mine like that?”

I am watching you run your Richie-rich mouth on TV right now, with your little flag lapel pin over your heart.  You brag that you will bring “12 million new jobs and rising take home pay.”  Quite frankly, I have no reason to believe you or your failures in arithmetic.  Even if you did manage such a feat, I’d point to the 4.5 million job head start you had thanks to President Obama saving the nation from the failed GOP policies you use as a platform, which nearly caused a second great depression.

You said that you think that 47% of Americans “think they are victims” and you even said it wasn’t your job to worry about us. 

First, I must argue you.  I am not a victim.  I have been beaten.  I have been bullied.  I have been raped.  I have been addicted.  I have been alone.  I have been poor.  I have been homeless.  I have been sick and broken.  I have chosen each and every single time to stand up and pull myself and my family out of those circumstances.  I beat every one of them without any riches to aid me.  I did that without any inheritance, any gifted stocks or bonds, any loans, any rich family, or any elevators for my cars.  I did it because, I am not a victim.  I am an American.  I am the Mom in Chief of my house and nothing less than the very best that I can provide will do.  I am the product of women who forded rivers to fetch the mail after working a hard day’s labor on the Laramie high plains.  I am a force to be reckoned with.

If you don’t believe me, you could ask the doctor who has to take fluid from my spine on a regular basis to preserve my ability to see due to a rare disease.  If you don’t believe me you can ask our Ambassador to China, Gary Locke, who personally invited me to a bill signing when I helped Washington State legislate protection for children in schools against bullying by sharing my own experiences.  If you don’t believe me, you can ask my children who have seen me struggle but always, always, provide for them.  Any one of these people will tell you, that this American is not a victim.

You call me entitled.  I devote every day of my life to bettering the planet I live in with no hope of profit.  I am sorry sir, but you calling me entitled is like the pot calling the dove black.  That isn’t going to work.  I challenge you to stand at my side and let the American public judge, which of us is entitled.  I spend every dime of mine and my husband’s earned income as quickly as it comes in, right here in my town.  Every dime I earn and spend stays in America.  I am the ultimate in job creator.  Who are you to challenge me?

You call me entitled.  Every year on April 15^th I am certain that I have shown every cent that went through my pocket honestly.  I dream of a day when I am well enough off to pay taxes.  I fantasize of the flourish with which I will write my first check to the IRS.  I would give any earthly belonging I have to be self-sufficient enough to be able to pay it forward to the society that I love.    No, you cannot challenge me Mitt Romney.  I challenge you- where are your tax returns?

I fought, I graduated at the top of my class in college, and I pursued graduate studies.  I took loans against myself, believing that this would pay off, but then in 2009 something happened. 

No, it wasn’t Barack Obama’s inauguration; it was a sudden injury to my spine that ended up revealing not one but two severe spinal diseases. .  Since then I have been unable to finish my studies or work.  I’d like to know, Mr. Romney; how many months of physical therapy, how many of my surgeries, how many of my scars must I share to prove my devotion to wanting to be better?  How many of my efforts must I submit before you’ll see me, an American Citizen, as worthy of your worry?  When you tell me to take responsibility for myself, I ask you, what after that?

This evening, when you justified your awful video, you said that you had said what you did because you were reassuring your donators that you could win this election.  I’m sorry that you have to pander to your base like that.  You seem to have sold out your soul.  You have forgotten the eye of the needle with that wealth you’ve got.  You’ve left behind Matthew 24:50.  I hate to be the one to tell ya buddy but -you are not the promised one.  The promised one understands that the 47% that you are talking about, they’re more than low wage workers and elderly people who worked their whole lives and paid into the system, they are the 100% that your God is concerned with when he said “Love thy neighbor.”  You may pay a tithe with your wallet, but it’s obvious you’ve neglected to tithe your heart.

My husband left for work at 7 am.  It is now 9 pm and he won’t be home again for two more hours from his second job today.  I spent yesterday at the emergency room; I have been waiting for two years for social security.  I do not understand.  How much more do we have to work to show you that your call for jobs isn’t enough?  You must also be concerned for the whole nation, and whether we eat, and whether we have medicine.  You must care if a hardworking, devoted family like mine is unable to survive after investing their best efforts.  How many jobs do you expect every American to take?  3?  4?

You simply must stop and consider those you dismiss as beneath you or you cannot be our leader.  It is an unwritten but widely understood rule of the presidency.  I don’t know what they taught you, when you were out there scalping businesses hard won on the backs of people like that 47% you so rudely kick around, but in the real world – we care when Americans suffer.  We care when you forget the young men and women who serve our nation by sacrificing their lives.  We care when Americans go hungry.  We care when Americans jobs are sent overseas and rich men hide societal resources in offshore accounts.  We care that we are being ripped off, even if you find profit and power in our suffering, we still exist, we still care, and we will still stand up.

See?  You called me a victim, you called me entitled, you called me a lot of other things in that video, but on every count - you are wrong.  Just by writing you this letter, I’ve proven I am not your victim.  Just by living my life of hard and dutiful effort I have proven that I am not entitled.  In fact, I consider it a duty as a citizen of this Great United States to shout loudly and proudly - “Mitt Romney is not and never will be my president!”

I warn you Mr. Romney, the one thing that I have not, and will not ever lose, is my voice.  I will sound it each and every one of these 50 days until Barack Obama is reelected, we will vote with Compassion and Wisdom, and Empathy and you sir, can keep your spite and your hate and your rhetoric and see your way out.

Sincerely, Sarah Zacharias aka The Bucking Jenny

~For more of my work please be sure to check my blog, my Facebook Page, my Twitter Feed, and my publication archives at OpenSalon.com and AddictingInfo.org.  Also, the days are counting down, click here to register to vote in your area.  The Bucking Jenny proudly supports Obama/Biden 2012.

Scientists Confirm:Weather Signals Climate Change - Even Exxon Execs Can't Deny That The Hoax Ain't A Hoax Anymore!

We are halfway through 2012 and already the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is reporting that the United States set more than 40,000 hot temperature records and fewer than 6,000 cold temperature records. It seems that maybe it is time to consider that climate change is real.
Last winter, Sarah Palin took pictures of her backyard in Alaska and boasted that the extreme snow was some kind of proof that climate change does not exist. The idea that one weather event can be used to dismiss the conclusive and definitive science that proves the existence of climate change is deceptive and manipulative. This is encouraging what I call the fallacy of observation, where a person has a particular experience and uses it to make bad conclusions about the world as a whole.
I think of a friend who smokes and justifies it by pointing out a particular grandfather who died of old age with pink lungs when I think of the fallacy of observation. We all know that regardless of the fate of that one smoking grandfather, as a whole smoking is dangerous. We understand that the entirety of human kind’s collective knowledge regarding tobacco has taught us that it is a deadly and addictive substance, even if the occasional grandpa slips through unscathed.
When facing the complex issue of climate change, we cmust not site an example of a single event that bucks the predicted trend of warming and general weather upheaval in an effort to dismiss the totality of the science offered. For this reason I have been equally leery of trying to use any given weather event as fodder to prove the conclusive existence of climate change. The fact is that the coin flips both ways.
Even though the local weatherman reports more days above 100 degrees last month than ever before, a heat wave in Denver isn’t climate change any more than Palin’s snow was an ice age In both cases we must understand that weather and climate are not interchangeable. They are two different things. Put simply, weather is local and climate is global or hemispheric. Palin's day or two of snow and extreme cold in one region pales in comparison to the fact that thousands of heat records were shattered across the nation this June when 3,215 records for daily maximum heat were set nationwide. As the numbers of houses burned by summer wildfires in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and other western states continues to climb, and the deadly heat keeps settling in towns like St. Louis where the city recently registered 108 degrees fahrenheit, the highest temperature in nearly 60 years we are seeing more than a few freak weather events and instead seeing something else entirely, a shift in climate.
With this understanding of the fallacy of observation, the fact that we must always observe the totality of the data available, and complete respect for the defining characteristics of weather and climate it is time for us to ask ourselves when a series of events is enough to cause us to make generalizations about climate.
Kevin Trenberth, who heads climate research at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research says that now is that time. He claims that patterns in extreme weather like drought, heat waves and wildfires offer proof of real time climate change. He is not the first to begin to say such things, we’ve heard different people voice that Hurricane Katrina or the tornado that wiped out Joplin could be symptoms of climate change taking a deadly grip over our planet before.
I must admit that as I drove 700 miles roundtrip across Wyoming this last weekend and I observed the smoke from all consuming wildfires swallowing wild lands in my most sacred and beloved places I was tempted to blame climate change. I have come to think that we need to carefully consider that it might be time to classify these weather events as not just singular happenings, but symptoms of a change in the known pattern of our global climate.
This is not to say that any given hurricane or tornado or wildfire is a sign of climate change, but instead that the totality of the evidence, the pattern of many hurricanes, tornadoes and fires is a profound piece of evidence in favor of climate change.
The global picture shows that over the entire planet, extreme heat records are being set seven times more often than extreme cold records. Last week, Exxon’s CEO Rex Tillerson admitted that climate change was real and signaled the end of the “climate change is a hoax” hoax as near. When he acknowledged that, “clearly there is going to be an impact” he proved that even oil executives have looked at the totality of the evidence available and decided that this hoax is no hoax. Instead of denying climate change, he shifted to belittling the threat it pose when Tillerson said that industry’s biggest challenge is “taking an illiterate pubic and try to help them understand why we can manage these risks.”
Clearly it is it is time to take stock of the evidence at hand. We have the scientific understanding of how and why our climate will change with exposure to large amounts of greenhouse gasses. We have the data to show that global changes in temperature and weather have been trending toward a warming planet. We also have the people who have the most to profit off of insisting this science is a lie, admitting that it’s not a lie. When I take the totality of these data points into account I find myself unable to deny that perhaps, it is time to admit that climate change is happening right outside my window as the wildfires burn the forests of Colorado and Wyoming till the smoke settles in right here in the streets of Cheyenne and the firefighter’s tents populate the local high school football fields of Laramie.
My father said it best I think, when we discussed the issue of avoiding the fallacy of observation in regards to climate change while shutting our windows against the unbearable heat of the day, when he said, “I’m not saying it’s climate change… I’m just saying that if you like this; you’re gonna love climate change.”
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Open Letter To Senator Dr. John Barrasso Re: Your Lies About Obamacare

Dear Wyoming Senator Dr. John Barrasso,
I just watched you on CNN’s State of the Union this morning. I want you to know that you just lied. I am a Wyoming citizen, one of those that you said doesn’t want the Affordable Care Act, and you lied. I want it. Very much so. My cousin, also a Wyoming citizen, is now covered under his parent’s plan as a student at UW because the ACA extended the age requirement for children to 26. My mother, father, aunts, grandparents and cousins are all insured because they cannot be disregarded because of a pre-existing condition.
You said that Medicaid patients aren’t being seen because doctors don’t get reimbursed. Also a lie, they do get reimbursed. Shame on you for spreading that rumor. I am a very ill woman whose blue-collar husband works his butt off and, still, the only insurance option I have is Medicaid. The doctors here in Wyoming believe your lies. They believe that they won’t get paid and that they shouldn’t have to accept me. My husband has to miss full days of work to make sure I can see the doctors I need to stay alive, to avoid blindness and to maintain a semblance of quality of life.
You lied. You said that people travel over state lines for care because of the Affordable Care Act. That is so very untrue sir. My family travels over state lines because you lie to our doctors and make them feel just in their prejudice against my poverty. I am forced to go to Colorado because there, the doctors know that Medicaid is profitable for them, and they treat me with Wyoming’s Medicaid dollars just fine. They get paid, they have fine offices with nice decor, well vacationed doctors and nurses with nice homes.
You should know that this Wyoming citizen, at least, sits in tears wondering what your Hippocratic oath meant to you this morning. Your lies, your policies and your politics literally make me sick – and I think that you know that this is the result for poor people in your state. What kind of doctor are you? What kind of Representative are you? I’ll tell you what kind – a disgraceful lying kind. You must profit greatly from your behavior, I have no idea how else you might justify it.
Sincerely,
Sarah Zacharias:
Political Writer
Mother
Daughter
Sister
Wife
Grandchild
and Voting Citizen

Wyoming Air Pollution Surpasses L.A. Due To Fracking For Natural Gas

 Pinedale, Wyoming is a small town of less than 1,500 people nestled 7,100 feet high, in the foothills of the Wind River Mountains.  From my earliest memories, Pinedale has been a the destination for family relaxation at my maternal grandparent's house.  Each summer my cousins and I roamed those streets in the and it was like a Technicolor Mayberry to me.  I remember earning coins for chores and taking my cousins to the corner ice cream shop; stopping by my aunt's flower shop for honey suckers; fleeing moose at the children's fishing pond; observing a quiet albino fawn in the shade beneath a lilac tree; hanging humming-bird feeders; wading in glacier fed lakes; and roasting marshmallows after family barbeques.  Each evening, before we'd shut the doors and not lock them, we'd take handmade chicken wire cages and place them over the flower and vegetable gardens, because deer and moose loved to eat them in the cool of the night.

Throughout my family's history in that town, big oil has been circling.  In the 1970's there were even proposals to use nuclear explosions to loosen the tough shale that housed that gas, but the community fought those off.  In the 1980's and early 1990's oil companies continued to be annoyed with the lack of ability to reach these pockets of natural gas. Finally, in the late 1990's companies like Encana were able to develop fracking processes that were able to complete the violent act that was once only possible with nuclear explosives - and thus drilling for natural gas in the Green River Basin of Wyoming began.  With the drill baby drill policies of the Bush administration that were continued by  Barrack Obama as well - the little town of Mayberry was soon overrun by the influence of big oil.  HIgh on the tax windfalls, Pinedale built a fancy swimming pool in the local school and added other amenities like a senior citizen bus route.  At first, and even still today, many residents think of oil companies positively.

I cannot agree with that sentiment.  When I went home last summer for the traditional Rendezvous Parade, a ceremony celebrating the fur trade of the late1800's I was shocked to see the once non-motorized traditional parade taken over by various oil company floats tossing toys, candy and pop-cycles with their logos into the crowd while towing snow mobiles, boats and four wheelers for spectators to ogle.  All afternoon, I heard nothing but, "This event was brought to you by Shell Oil," and I couldn't help but wonder who brought that same event to us faithfully every year for the previous hundred and fifty years.  I noticed that my grandfather's garden was as beautiful as always, but that he no longer needed to put out the wire cages because the animals don't come into town anymore.  I saw that the local grocery had sold out to a big box chain, that the ice cream shop was now a fast food place, and that the prairie just outside of town was now an RV park filled with oil workers and their trashy mobile homes.
Since they started drilling in that area it has been a documented that mule deer herds in there have dropped to half their 2001 size,  that there was a hundred percent increase in meth related arrests from 2004-2005, and that the once pristine wilderness has now been marred irrefutably by hundreds of well pads.

In addition to the cost of the loss of pristine wilderness and functioning migratory systems that support the indigenous wildlife, and the cost of drugs and societal pressures, we also have a cost to human health.  According to the EPA folks who live near the gas fields are complaining of watery eyes, shortness of breath and bloody noses because of ozone levels that have exceeded what people in L.A. and other major cities wheeze through on their worst pollution days.  
I am dismayed.  Pinedale residents, including my now elderly grandfather who wears oxygen to sleep, must breathe this polluted air.  They must do without their wildlife.  They must settle for a diesel-powered Rendezvous.  They must plan for methamphetamine addiction.  They must look back on memories of Mayberry and wonder at the justice of their tradeoff.  Was it really fair that they traded 10.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and something like $65 million in big oil profit for human health issues, environmental degradation, and societal unrest?  It seems unjust, for a place that has a population density of around 5 people per square mile to suffer as bad or worse pollution levels than L.A. - a place that has a population density of something closer to 2,600 people per square mile - especially when you consider that all that even if every bit of that gas were pumped and ready all at once, it is still only enough to fulfill the United States' need for about four months.   For that, Mayberry, it's mule deer, it's moose, it's pristine air and waters, and it's close-knit community is gone forever.
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Democracy for sale! $50!

Last week the EPA held hearings in Chicago and Washington DC regarding the first-ever rules to limit carbon dioxide pollution from new power plants.  The new EPA rule would prevent nearly 123 billion tons of carbon pollution annually.  In Chicago, the public meetings were attended by many, and a lunchtime press conference demonstrated the widespread support from local Chicago groups for the EPA rules. A local alderman, faith leader, health group, labor, and community leaders all expressed their concern over a warming world and thanked the EPA for taking this first step. The speakers were flanked by supporters in bright blue shirts and signs.
Just as when our nation decided to use the Clean Air Act to regulate the mercury levels or sulfur dioxide emissions, the coal industry is balking at the idea of following these reasonable regulations.  Unfortunately for them, coal companies don't seem to have supporters for their point of view in Chicago, so they reacted to the public EPA meetings disgracefully.  Prior to the meetings, the coal industry apparently placed adds found by the Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago, a coal group promised participants $50 to “wear a t-shirt in support of an energy project.”

Looking for people THIS THURSDAY, MAY 24 who want to make a couple of dollars for a few hours of your time.

All you need to do is wear a t-shirt in support of an energy project for two hours during the public meeting. We will be departing the Tinely Park convention center at 8:15 am for the meeting and we will be back by 1:30 pm. For your time we will pay you $50 cash and provide you lunch once we return to the convention center.

The fact is that in 2010, almost a million tons of coal was shipped from Wyoming's Powder River Basin to a single power plant in Chicago, that company made $215 in profit in 2010 from burning coal while their industry caused $117 million dollars in coal related health issues.  Fifteen people die each year because we burn coal for energy in the United States.  While coal companies reap the profits, skip over the human cost, and deny global warming... they bribe people to pretend to agree with them.
Here on the internet, in the blogosphere, on Facebook, and Twitter, we have a word for those people who are paid drones that show up to chats or internet events even though they are not interested in the topic at hand, with intentions of diverting, dividing and demoting the ideas at hand. We call those people trolls.  Some of the worst trolls lie, misrepresent facts and otherwise derail important conversations.  An example of this might be found in the comments section of any article published on the internet, maybe even this one.
These people wearing pro-coal t-shirts were paid to present misinformation in a public forum.  They specifically intended to promote the idea that there were people who support the coal industry in a grass roots movement kind of way - when there aren't.  I don't know what disturbs me more, the fact that the coal industry is paying people off in this manner, or the fact that people are taking those payments. The fact is, that both of these terrible and disturbing thoughts are secondary to the true problem here.  Democracy is for sale.  I'm not joking.  I'm not speaking in metaphor.  Democracy is actually for sale, and it is listed on Craigslist at a going rate of $25 bucks an hour.  Don't believe me?  Google astroturfing then ask yourself who's paying, who's taking the cash, and who profits.  At this point, I'd even stop and ask myself if the entire GOP isn't just one big roll of astroturf.