Cookies for Community; Crumbs for Congress
It is time to hand out some cookies and the first dozen go to the 75 who showed up at the Worland Community Center last week to listen and engage in civil discussion about the future of emergency medical service in Washakie County.
I counted the number of people, not counting representatives from SafeTech Solutions or county elected officials. It was a strong presence from the community to provide input.
Thank you for coming out and offering ideas and asking great questions.
• Cookies to Commissioner Terry Wolf, Rep. Martha Lawley and others who offered up answers for the public.
• Cookies to the many volunteers who staffed the volunteer ambulance service for many, many years, taking care of Washakie County residents and travelers and a dozen or more cookies to the Ten Sleep volunteers who continue to staff their ambulance service and serve their community. Your service to our communities does not go unnoticed and is appreciated.
• Cookies to Cody Regional Health for providing ambulance services for many communities in the Big Horn Basin that were in need of someone to provide services — Basin area, Worland area and most recently Hot Springs County.
• Cookies to the many people, businesses and organizations that helped make Halloween a fun holiday from the scarecrow contest decorating city streets, to the costume contest showing adults enjoy Halloween as well and to the hugely successful downtown trunk-or-treat and trick-or-treating.
• Cookies to Rep. Lawley for securing a mobile food pantry distribution during November (see related story on A1) and to the Washakie County Ministerial Association for allowing families to come to the Washakie Food Pantry on Big Horn Avenue twice a month, instead of the usual once a month.
These efforts are all to help our community members struggling with food insecurity. Food Pantry Director Jen Beasley has reported to the Washakie County Community Resources Committee the past few months that they have been running out of food because so many families are hurting right now. This was before the federal government shut down and before SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits ended due to the shutdown (as of Nov. 1).
Cookies also to Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon for declaring a public welfare emergency and allocating $10 million in state emergency funds to be deployed to charitable organizations and churches which have food banks, pantries, and mobile food pantries that distribute food to Wyomingites.
CRUMBS
Along with cookies, there are also crumbs. The crumbs go to our federal government starting with President Trump, who despite a judge’s ruling to require the federal government to use emergency funding for SNAP benefits, posted on social media “SNAP BENEFITS, which increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous term in office... will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”
But crumbs also go to senators and representatives for not working on a solution to get the federal government open, for not working on a budget and for thinking of party before people.
Maybe a cookie or two to the Republicans holding firm to not change the filibuster rule that requires 60 senators to vote on legislation instead of a simple majority. This rule, no matter who controls the White House or Senate, requires compromise and working across the aisle and bipartisanship is good for this country.