Some of us with deep roots in Wyoming were raised to vote for the best candidate rather than party. As a kid, I stuffed campaign envelopes for Republicans and Democrats. My parents supported people from different parties and taught me to be proud of Wyoming for electing excellence in character.
Opinion
So, it made me feel sick when the attack postcard against Cody mayor and House District 24 hopeful Matt Hall arrived in my mail. Kind of like watching cheatgrass make its way over our foothills, it twists my gut. The card was full of red flags — polarizing propaganda that should not find a purchase in our common-sense culture.
The flyer claimed that Mayor Hall was woke. When I hear “woke” used these days, it sounds like a polarizing term, the tar and feathers of a conservative criticism of liberals. It was meant to deliver a fatal blow to Hall’s candidacy without a single piece of local evidence to support the charge. So how did it happen that the word “woke” is used to divide people into “us” vs. “them?” It is odd that being awake is considered bad.
Woke began as a term used by American parents out of concern for their children. Black kids were in danger of being treated with cruelty or disrespect that could hurt their souls or escalate to threaten their lives. Their parents would tell their kids to “stay woke” when moving in public. These parents knew that their children could not be carefree — they had to always cultivate situational awareness.
This is an American term, born out of the American experience. I feel for any parent who knows that their child has a target on their back either for their class, the color of their skin or the shape of their eyes. Looking at American history, “woke” means that a person is aware that Americans walk in this world with different degrees of power. That parents need to arm their children with caution according to the targets on their backs.
If we look past the cheatgrass of an anonymous flyer that calls someone woke and examine our roots, we remember that when Wyoming wrote its constitution it was the most woke state of the region. It gave women the right to vote. To be from Wyoming meant to work for equality.
The flyer also photoshopped a picture of Matt Hall kneeling next to top Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. When propaganda ties a lifelong Republican like Hall to Pelosi, it’s just hogwash. The people writing the smear have no local evidence to criticize. In the cut out of Mayor Hall on the mailer, you don’t see the police chief who was next to him on that day the photo was taken, and who spoke with integrity and strength about the responsibility the police have with their powers to use force.
The authors of the flyer don’t know us, nor do they care about us. They are mocking the idea that black lives are grievable and tarring Hall for showing respect for a legal principle of justice for all here in Cody.
It’s time to return to our roots. Otherwise, the Wyoming we were raised in politically is going to get taken over with this empty cheatgrass. It debases our local memories and community spirit.
Certainly one of the better opinions I have read in WyoFile. One can never express their position, beliefs, values or principles with a single word. This is particularly true in America, where the meaning of words can shift like the wind in Wyoming.
I would never let a political mailer twist my gut, because I know that the political slick is intended to appeal to the lowest common denominator. These are put out by all sides. Many of my friends will use “woke” to say something about a candidates political leaning. Just as many who may respond to this opinion would say that I support the “Freedumb” caucus. The one word political pejorative, is rampant in a more politically contentious world.
Here is a list for you:
Conservative
Radical
Liberal
Moderate
Far-right
Republican
Democrat
Lies
Truth
In a political slick, those words mean nothing to me. I always do my own research.
I see these words in a political slick and it never will twist my gut. I collect them, put em in an envelope of the seasons political mail (Primary 2024). Probably will have all of that delivered to Suzy at the Wyoming Archives upon my death so that the history is preserved.
The only way you will know where someone stands is to talk with them. listen to their words and read their writing.
This political season, I got the strangest piece of campaign mail. A one page letter in an envelope. It was written by the candidates wife. It was essentially a love note. Granted, there was a passing one sentence reference to her husband running for a legislative seat. But the point of the letter was her love for him.
A few days later, I am talking with that candidate and he asks me, “what did you think of the letter?” I said I read the letter and said “it was the strangest damn piece of campaign mail I had ever gotten”. I asked him if he heard from people in the neighborhoods he walks to talk with voters, if he had feedback on the letter. He said YES. He said the feedback was positive and it really turned a number of voters opinions. I, of course, saved the letter with a ton of slicks and other political nonsense.
Keep doing what you are doing Mary. Don’t let a single word twist your gut. Know yourself, and try to know the candidate. They will often let you down anyway.
By the way, the candidate with the love letter… won a very contentious race… by a just a few votes.
When I looked up the biblical meaning of “woke” I found that it meant ‘being awakened to the plight of your brothers.’ Seems to me that this would be what a politician would aspire to if they were in service to their constituents.
Anytime I hear a Wyoming Republican bragging about their party having a strong grassroots base, I presume that’s Cheatgrass…
Politicians that lie to the public should be impeached.
This is what happens when one party is dominant for too long. Regardless of party.
“It is odd that being awake is considered bad.”
This is about as insightful as remarking that it’s weird that conservatives oppose liberal policies since “liberal” means to be free. Who would rightly oppose freedom, amirite? Weird.
Let’s not pretend the mailer was criticizing Hall for being awake. Instead, being “woke” in the context of the mailer means harboring certain mainly progressive ideas such as that 1) the history of the world is best understood through the lens of oppressor/oppressed (Marx) 2) the USA is systemically racist (as opposed to a nation that systematically tries to eliminate the human evil of racism by its fundamental ideas) 3) people from different races cannot possibly understand each other and must be separated and referred to by distinct political communities (and to the extent a black scholar – Coleman Hughes, Glenn Loury, Thomas Sowell, John McWhorter – criticize “woke” theory – they are simply not actually part of the real “black community” – a group defined primarily by white liberals) 4) men can be women 5) the scientific method is on par with an individual’s “voice” (don’t question black voices!) ; “lived experience”, “traditional ways of knowing” 6) he or she who controls the meaning of words controls the universe (hence all the renaming stuff – women are “birthing people”, “woke just means awake”, etc.) 7) on and on.
I received a similar mailer too picturing Matt kneeling in the middle of a blacks live matter demonstration and although it seemed like a cheap shot, the ideology put forward in those demonstrations, the symbolism behind taking a knee – these seem to be eminently proper items of civil discourse. It’s not as if the flyers criticize Matt for skiing in jeans or something. And believing that someone supports black lives matter seems like a fair inference to draw when the person is seen at a black lives matter demonstration making the gesture adopted by the black lives matter movement to show solidarity with the movement. Some people have remarked “everyone was kneeling!” but it’s not like Matt was at dinner with friends who happen to be satanists and is pictured politely clasping hands as they pray to satan while Matt inwardly prays to leave. A political demonstration is something one does not usually accidentally wind up at, much less so taking the gesture adopted by the demonstrators.
The black lives matter movement is seen by many, esp. conservatives, to be fundamentally and conceptually wrong. And from my own perspective, the movement has actually had a retrogressive effect in two key respects 1) it’s hardened the view that officers should be entitled to qualified immunity. (Racism , excess budgets, weaponry do not motivate police misconduct nearly as much as a complete lack of accountability.) 2) equal protection of the laws (most BLM supporters believe that if our law recognizes races and makes difference among races (i.e. present discrimination), past discrimination can be minimized.)
If participation was a mistake or regrettable, it seems easy enough to state that. But this opinion piece seems more disappointed that some Wyoming voters would consider a person’s alliance with BLM (a movement of vast social and political consequence) a disadvantage, rather than disappointed with probability/sufficiency of the inference to be drawn from the mailer. It’s also interesting to begin the piece with the importance of choosing the best candidate regardless of party. I think Matt is only facing a republican challenger, so the comment makes me wonder if this piece is actually just expressing regret that voters have correctly identified Matt as the more liberal/democratic candidate, in part because of a photo taken of him seemingly supporting a movement that most Wyoming voters criticize? Photos count as evidence, don’t they?
Wyoming politics is the worst. Even our so-called federal reps are disingenuous. Mr. Barrasso says he and Trump will stop migration at the border. How funny. Mr. Barrasso has been a senator since when, 2007? Why didn’t he stop it then. Hageman and Lummis are election deniers, disrespecting the voters.
Well said, Mary.
The politics of hate and name calling continues to divide us. Empathy and love for your fellow man is demonized in this ugly new world.
Thank you, Mary, for your wisdom.