A famous Wyoming bumper sticker reads: “Lord, Please Give Me One More Boom — This Time I Promise Not To P*ss It Away.” Boom and bust defines the West. Some of us get caught on the wrong side of each end of the cycle. The smarter ones learn from it. They hedge their bets. They invest their money in things they can sustain. I’ve been a library administrator for almost 45 years. This is the first time I’ve worked in a district that got 50% or more of its revenue from the natural gas sector. It makes you cautious. It encourages you to save. In 2026, library revenues fell by over $830,000, all due to a decrease in natural gas valuation. In 2006, Garfield County voters approved a 1.0 mill levy for libraries. Its purpose was to build or renovate branches in each of the county’s six municipalities. The money also provided some operational support. That’s why we have six beautiful libraries, one in every town in the county. We keep them up, too. In 2027, those bonds (basically mortgages for pub...
In my last job I took a required workshop on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. One of the exercises paired me up with a young woman whose parents were born in India, although she’d been born and raised in the States. We were supposed to talk about where we’d grown up. Who did we feel comfortable around? And who not so much? She grew up in Dallas, Texas. At first, she lived in a neighborhood with a bunch of other brown children. She liked it. Then her parents moved her to a “better school.” She was the only kid with brown skin there. So she said she felt most comfortable with people who looked like her. She felt least comfortable with (looking at me) old white guys. I said I totally got that. I’d grown up north of Chicago, on the shore of Lake Michigan. My mother was consistently kind and competent. My father was often mean and drunk. I was raised on the dividing line between the Black and white parts of town so was definitely aware of race. I’m comfortable with people who are kind. I’m ...