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Dear Casper,
The quest for the division and “othering” of millions of Americans has hit a boiling point, and we’re all getting burned. It’s time to decide: are you going to turn the heat up or take the pot off the stove? Will you be complicit in the dehumanization of your fellow residents and the erosion of our country, or will you stand up and speak out for the democratic ideals that are meant to define us as Americans?
It is easy enough to forget that life is political, whether we like it or not. Either we are privileged enough to not be immediately impacted, or we are too overworked and scared to be engaged. Or maybe you fall into a third category, unable to shut off your awareness, spending extra energy trying to make a difference for all of us. Regardless of which group best describes you, the reality is this: our lives, our privileges and rights, our wages and costs, and the future of this country and the children who will inherit it rely on these current political choices.
Political parties aside, we must consider the ramifications of what our current administration is actively working for. Each individual transgression may seem insignificant, but together hurts us all. Will we continue to allow the degradation of our earth, our freedoms, and the quality of our lives for the sake of pride and party affiliation?
Human rights are universal, not granted by any single government. While our government does not grant our rights, it should function to protect them. Instead, our government is:
- Destroying public lands through privatization, deregulation and dismantling the national parks system.
- Overpurchasing foreign beef at the expense of small local farmers, as well as removing incentives for clean energy, deregulating and defunding programs that help farmers succeed and initiating the sale of farm land to China.
- Creating an “Anti-Weaponization Fund” with little regulation or oversight, worth $1.776 billion funded by our taxes.
- Suppressing the release of the full Epstein files, declining to prosecute alleged abusers, perpetuating the pedophilic rape culture so deeply ingrained in our culture, and protecting systems of oppression and the people in charge of them.
- Continuing a futile war without congressional approval or citizen support, allowing those in power to personally profit while costing billions of taxpayer dollars and countless innocent lives.
- Destroying free speech protections through legal action, FCC control, intimidation and violence towards protesters, and insinuating that speaking poorly of the president will be considered slander.
- Removing privacy protections and due process rights, diluting community safety by expanding legislation to monitor citizens, and using geofencing to obtain information on whole groups of people, merely based on their location.
- Changing the definition of terrorism to create enemies out of your neighbors, friends and family who advocate against fascism.
- Attacking education through defunding, stripping civil protections, utilizing manipulation and fear tactics against universities, implementing school vouchers, and advocating for anti-intellectualism and book banning.
Writing in solidarity for a better Wyoming future,
Emily Alleman
Casper
