Supporting mental health care is not ‘woke.’ It’s the Wyoming way.

Every election cycle, candidates make their rounds and talk about the issues they think matter most. This year, one of the things I have heard over and over again at people’s doors, at meet-and-greets, at community events and in everyday conversations across Wyoming is the topic of mental health.

Not as a talking point or some trendy issue of the month — as a real problem affecting real Wyoming families. 

I have heard from parents worried about their kids. I have heard from people who have watched friends, coworkers or family members struggle. And like many Wyomingites, I have been touched personally by the kind of tragedy that can come when someone loses their battle with mental health.

That is why I get frustrated when I hear people try to turn mental health into another cheap political argument. Somehow, if you support doing something about it, you are “liberal.” If you think Wyoming should invest in treatment, access or prevention, you’re called “woke.” If you believe we should at least try to help people before they end up in crisis, suddenly you are soft or reckless with taxpayer money.

I do not buy that for a second.

There is nothing “liberal” about believing a Wyoming kid should be able to get help before anxiety or depression takes over their life. There is nothing “woke” about wanting a veteran, a rancher, an oilfield hand, a teacher or a young mother to have somewhere to turn before things spiral out of

control. And there is nothing “conservative” about shrugging your shoulders at a problem this serious and pretending the answer is to do nothing because solving it might cost money.

Mental health is not a slogan. It is not a culture war issue. It is not something to be mocked because it does not fit neatly into somebody’s political brand. It is a real challenge in a state where isolation is real, access to care is limited and too many families know exactly what it feels like to get a phone call they can never take back.

Now, I am not naive enough to pretend there is a silver bullet here. There is not. Mental health is complicated. Suicide prevention is complicated. Some programs will work better than others. Some investments will pay off, and some will need to be fixed or replaced. That is the truth.

But since when did Wyoming become a place that backs away from a problem just because the answer is hard?

If someone in your family had cancer, would you tell them treatment was too expensive, too uncertain or too politically inconvenient? Would you say, “Well, there is no guarantee this works, so I guess we should just save the money”? Of course not. You would fight for every option, every treatment and every chance to keep that person here.

That is how I look at mental health.

We are not guaranteed a perfect solution, but every Wyomingite ought to be guaranteed a chance. A chance to get help. A chance to be heard. A chance to find treatment before it is too late. A chance to stay here for their family, their kids and the people who love them.

I have said before that if we can save even one life, it is worth the investment. I still believe that. Not because I think government can solve everything. It cannot. Not because I think every dollar spent automatically means success. It does not. But because I know doing nothing has a cost, too. In this case, that cost is measured in funerals, broken families and lives that could have gone differently if someone had gotten help in time.

Want to have a conversation about accountability? Good. We should. Want to make sure money is spent wisely and programs actually work? I am all for it. That is our job. But there is a big difference between demanding accountability and using words like “woke” or “liberal” as an excuse to avoid the issue altogether.

That is not leadership. That is laziness.

Wyoming has never been at its best when we sit around pointing fingers and congratulating ourselves for saying no. We are at our best when we face problems head on, trust our communities and get to work. We do not need to copy every bad idea from Washington and we do not need a blank check approach, either. What we need is the same thing Wyoming has always needed: common sense, local leadership, strong families and the willingness to tackle hard problems without turning everything into a political performance.

If you want to represent Wyoming’s future — especially the future of our kids, — then you ought to have the backbone to say this clearly: Mental health matters, and helping people is not weakness.

It is not “woke” to care whether kids in our communities can get help before they fall through the cracks. It is not “liberal” to think a struggling father, a stressed-out mother or a teenager in crisis deserves a shot at getting better. It is not reckless to believe Wyoming should do what it can to keep its people alive.

That is not a left-wing value. That is not a right-wing value.

That is a Wyoming value.