At the 3rd Thursday Street Festival in downtown Sheridan last month, someone told me something I haven’t stopped thinking about.
Opinion
She asked about the challenges the Wyoming Business Council and other institutions faced during this year’s legislative session. She suggested low voter turnout in the 2024 primary election might explain it. I asked whether apathy caused the 27% turnout. She said, “I think it was trust.” She must have seen the quizzical look on my face, because she continued, “We used to trust that the people running for office had our best interests in mind, and we used to trust that they would listen to what really mattered.” I saw disappointment on her face, but also resolve.
We’ve heard this same theme in listening sessions, ice cream socials, pancake breakfasts and happy hours across the state this summer. I keep thinking about it because it isn’t cynical. It isn’t angry.
It’s a recognition that Wyomingites expect more. They want leaders who listen to what is happening in their communities, understand the consequences and then act.
In that serious 3rd Thursday conversation, juxtaposed by a festive community, I could sense the woman’s frustration that she couldn’t connect with the people making decisions shaping her city. Where the gap between what she knew and what got decided was widening.
This summer, the Business Council is doing our part to understand and ultimately close that gap. We’ve held conversations in over 32 locations, and we’re still going — not to present a plan, but to build one together. We’re asking people what Wyoming’s economy looks like from where they stand, what’s getting in the way and what we should be doing about it. Thousands of Wyomingites have weighed in, both in person and online.
I expected to hear frustration, and I did. When we asked them to describe our economy in a single word, two words came up more than any others: “stagnant” and “potential.”
Read those together, and you have the whole story. Wyoming is full of people who can see what is possible but are frustrated that we are not getting there fast enough. That’s not apathy. Apathy doesn’t show up to be heard. Apathy doesn’t drive an hour to a listening session or spend a lunch break telling a state agency what’s broken. What we found instead was a state full of people paying close attention, waiting to see if attention runs both ways.
What struck me most about these conversations — and it’s a little humbling — is that over and over, people thanked us for listening without getting defensive. For asking a question and then being quiet long enough to hear the answer.
That’s the real issue. Too many of us stopped believing the conversations happening around kitchen tables, in coffee shops and throughout our communities ever make their way into the rooms where decisions are made. Younger Wyomingites said it most directly. They are trying to build careers and lives in their home state while quietly concluding their voices are not being taken seriously. That’s a warning.
On Aug. 13, we asked nearly 600 Wyomingites how much they believed that what they say shapes what gets decided. The top two responses were “some” (39%) and “very little” (29%). Those aren’t accusations. They are a measurement of exactly how much distance we have left to close.
For Wyomingites who have concluded that showing up doesn’t change anything, I would ask you to test that assumption. Speak up. Attend the meeting. Send the email. Ask the hard question. Vote. Then keep paying attention after Election Day.
There is a difference between not being heard and choosing not to speak.
But the government has an obligation, too.
Listening cannot become another exercise where we collect comments, thank everyone for participating and then move on. If we ask Wyomingites to give us their time, experiences and ideas, we owe them something in return: action, accountability and an explanation of what happens next.
In the coming weeks, everything we’ve heard this summer will go where it belongs: into the rooms where decisions are made and in front of people with the authority to act.
So here’s where I’ve landed. Wyoming doesn’t have a trust problem, not really. Wyomingites still love this place fiercely, and you can hear it in every hard thing they tell us. What Wyoming has is an action gap: a distance between what people say and whether it changes anything. That gap is the most fixable problem we found all summer, and closing it is the most important work in front of us.
Whether those we elect to listen take action remains to be seen, but what I know for sure is we’ll be carrying the message of the “Team of Thousands,” and those in office will have a hard time ignoring it.
