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editor@newslj. com
Our View
Pay attention
As the election inches closer, transparency within governmental
entities at all levels is more important than ever. Across the country, in
papers big and small, there are stories of secrecy and corruption within
municipalities of all sizes.
In Wyoming, stories and editorials have been written covering
issues of secret meetings and a lack of transparency in city and county
governments including Gillette, Cheyenne and Cody. Here in Newcastle,
the News Letter Journal has been less aggressive in its approach to
addressing government transparency, but now we feel it is important to
inform the community that this needs to change.
These “secret meetings” that are held behind closed doors, with no
proper notice to the public or the press as required by law, are an abso-
lute abuse of power. Whether it is addressing an entire police department
in Cheyenne, the supposed offensive Facebook posts liked by a city
council member in Gillette, or to determine who would be the best fit to
replace a retiring police chief in Newcastle, the public should be privy to
not only the decisions being made but the reasoning for these decisions.
I When government officials go out of their way to make decisions in
secrecy, you can be darn sure it is because they know that what is being
done may not be what the citizens want, or would expect.
You, the people of Newcastle, Upton, Osage or Weston County, have
the ability and the right to provide the checks and balances of local
government — the officials elected by you — to make sure that their
decisions are not going unsupported or unanswered. This can be done
by attending meetings, questioning when things seem wrong and by
becoming an educated voter.
When it comes to addressing these topics of transparency, the News
Letter Journal can only do so much. It is up to you, the citizens and the
voters, to demand and assure that elected officials in our communities
continue to work for you and not against you.
We encourage all of you to attend meetings when you can, ask the
important questions, and assure that you get the answers you deserve. In
this electronic age, reaching out to your officials is easier than ever
—
and of course there’s alWays the good ‘ol telephone.
Government and elected officials are chosen by you, and it is their
job is to do everything possible to assure that they are doing right by
you, the citizens, and you should hold them accountable for their actions
at the ballot box as well.
Need to talk to a
. gpublrc servant?
" l 'i'WCmounty Commission Members’ contacts:
Ed Wagoner, (Chairman) 746-2108
Marty Ertmah 746—2351
Tracy, H373 746-8398
T9" 31”; Ba " an; j , 756-2561
*' . 468—2381
k (county'Clerk) 746—4744
' wwwmestongovwcom
Letter to the Editor ....................... ...... ..
Wear a mask
protect thy
neighbor
To the Editor:
“Ask not what your country can do
for you, but what you can do for your
country,” was President John Kennedy’s
motto.
Personally, I cannot believe the
ignorance or selfishness of as many of
our citizens who refuse to wear masks.
Medical experts have
explained repeatedly
how many illnesses
and deaths could be
prevented if all of us
cared enough about
our fellow citizens
to comply with this
simple intervention.
You may have the
legal right not to wear a mask, but you
do not have the moral right to kill your
neighbor! We call ourselves a “Christian
country” and we are named the “United
States of America.” Obviously, we are
neither. God help us!
— A. Patricia Bock
What would
Jesus do?
To the Editor:
The purpose of this letter is to
support and concur with the sentiments
expressed by Patricia Bock published in
this paper a few weeks ago. There are
those in this country who have a very
deluded and perverted understanding of
the Bible and the Christian religion, so
as to somehow believe that God gave
them the right to not wear a medical
safety mask. “I get my rights from God,
not the government,” they say. True
enough. But where in the Bible does it
give us the right to endanger the lives of
others or rebel against our own elected
government by refusing to wear a mask?
—:--Also, lately nowhere, of course.
“What would Jesus do in our situa-
tion?” is a good question to ask about
the mask wearing requirements. Would
Jesus be so inconsiderate of the health
and welfare of those in his society as to
disdain to wear a mask if asked to do
so? Of course not! The real Jesus of the
Bible would cooperatively comply with
such a reasonable and prudent request.
And there are at least two other very
Biblical reasons that genuine Christians
will willingly wear a mask when
required or asked to do so:
The first is that the Bible requires
that God’s people use reasonable safety
equipment to protect the well-being of
others. We see this principal illustrated
in Deuteronomy 22:8.
“When you build a new house, you
shall make a parapet for your roof, so
that you will not bring bloodguilt on
your house if anyone falls from it.”
This verse teaches clearly that if a
person failed to provide or use a piece
of safety equipment that resulted in
injury or death to someone, they would
be held responsible by
God with bloodguilt — a
sin that was always so
serious that society could
impose the death penalty
if it chose to do so. The
modern moral applica-
tion to those who refuse
to protect others by not
wearing a medical mask
is plain and obvious.
Secondly, the New Testament plainly
tells Christians to submit to the authority
of civil rulers unless to do so would
cause them to transgress some other
moral law in the Ten Commandments.
“Every person is to be in subjection to
the governing authorities. For there is
no authority except from God and those
which exist are established by God.
Therefore whoever resists authority has
opposed the ordinance of God; and they
who have opposed will receive condem-
nation upon themselves.”
(Romans 13:1-2)
Obviously then, any true and
authentic Christian will, one, cooperate
with the governing authority and their
representatives and wear a mask when
required or asked to do so since wearing
it certainly does not violate any other
Biblical principal morality. And two, a
real Christian will be considerate of the
safety and feelings of others like Jesus
would be and wear a mask even if he
is quite sure that he himself isn’t sick.
(And the scientific fact is that any person
can unknowingly be an asymptomatic
carrier of the disease whether he knows
it or not.)
Therefore we conclusively reiterate
that any so-called Christian who says
God has given them the right not to wear
a mask has concocted an idea of God
purely from his own imagination, which
in reality has nothing to do with the
unselfish Jesus of the Bible who always
put others first, not his own selfish con-
venience as these mask resistors
are doing.
For a better world,
Leonard Lang
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July 23, 2020 3
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Wyoming. Our entire staff takes
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Stop in Monday—Friday
Shoshone Forest: a national forest that yurns to burn
uring a normal hot
summer fire season,
a gorgeous red sunset
and haze in the air scare the
I fear that it will burn up.
Who would be affected?
Folks in towns including
Lander, Riverton, Dubois,
heck out of people the Wind River
in my part of Indian Reservation,
Wyoming. We Thermopolis, Worland,
live next to the Cody, Powell, Lovell,
Shoshone National Greybull, Basin, and
Forest. Meeteetse, to name just
Lately, the air a few.
has been so perfect We all know
and pristine, Bill Sniffin the major reasons:
you can almost My Wyoming Firefighting efforts
see 100 miles.
It has not been
this haze-free for
years. But based on how dry it
is, all this can change quickly.
Precipitation this spring was
the lowest in years and it is
already getting tinder dry.
The Shoshone National
Forest is so remarkable that
it was the first national forest
created by Congress. The
mountains in this 2.4 million-
acre reserve in west-central
Wyoming are the tallest in the
state. The views in the area are
breathtaking, and I am lucky
enough to live within 5 miles
of its border.
But like most people who
live close to the Shoshone,
have successfully
prevented blazes in the
forest over the past 60
years, leaving huge amounts of
deadfall. Add to that increased
visitation by campers, hikers
and horseback enthusiasts,
plus the subdivisions that have
cropped up close to the forest —
it is recipe for an inferno.
And then sometimes, there
are those oddball situations
you can’t predict, such as the
huge Colorado fire which was
started a few years ago by a
Forest Service employee who
was upset over a letter from her
husband. So, she burned the
letter and thereby ignited the
forest, destroying 100,000 acres
before the fire was subdued.
A fire in Sinks Canyon a
few years ago was caused by
arson. Another of the more
damaging fires in recent years
was a controlled burn that got
away from the firefighters. It
damaged several cabins.
Seems like a lot of folks
here in the time of COVID-l9
are headed to the back country.
Please be carefial.
Back in 2002, my brother
Pat and I were headed back to
Lander from Jackson late in the
evening when an out-of-control
wildfire was burning between
Thermopolis and Riverton, near
Wind River Canyon. It was the
Kate’s Basin Complex fire, and
it would go on to burn 180,000
acres.
We stopped the car near
Crowheart Butte. We stood
there in the quiet watching a
mountainside send plumes of
fire into the night. Even though
we were 50 miles away, the air
smelled of smoke. One fireman
would die in that blaze; another
was severely injured.
As we stood there, I had
this eerie feeling that behind
me was the potential for a
much worse fire. I recall
looking over my shoulder
at the huge blackness of the
Shoshone National Forest
and the Wind River Mountain
Range.
Not a spark of light. When
would it erupt into flames?
The sight in front of us was
awesome and frightening.
Two decades later, the
Shoshone still has not burned.
But this year does not bode
well. We had a dry spring, so
grass is turning brown early.
June and July have been hotter
and windier than usual. It could
be dry as tinder in some places
up there. Despite brief showers
recently, the stage is set for
serious fires all over Wyoming,
but mainly in the Shoshone.
Many of us will never
forget when Yellowstone
National Park burned, with
fires starting in late July and
burning into the fall of 1988.
As a pilot, I welcomed the
chance to fly over the two-mil-
lion-acre National Park to see
the carnage. I took along pilot
Larry Hastings and veteran
photographer Mike McClure to
shoot additional photos.
The park is actually a little
smaller than the Shoshone
Forest but on this day it was
gigantic. And it was mainly
obscured with smoke from one
end to the other. Every so often
you would see huge plumes
of fire jutting up through the
smoke. Each plume was like a
geyser except that it was
pure fire.
That flight was a hellish
experience and we were
choking on the smoke. What
a sight.
To me, that image will
be in my brain forever. And
when I think about that flight,
it reminds me of what the
Shoshone Forest will look like
when it goes up in smoke.
Let’s hope my worries do
not materialize. I am holding
my breath literally.
Bill Sniflin is a retired
newspaper publisher who has
penned a number of books
about Wyoming. He appeared
for author’s receptions at both
the Weston County Library
and News Letter Journal last
December: Check out addi-
tional columns written by Bill
at wwwbillsniflincom, and find
volumes from his coffee table
book series, which have sold
over 30,000 copies, for sale at
the News Letter Journal.
Deadline for letters is noon on Friday
at 14 West Main Street,
Newcastle, Wyoming
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