Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

I am going to weigh in on a few things that have been on my mind lately, starting with the election.

I realize people have been sounding off about the delegate system, about the fact Wyoming has no real voice in selection of presidential nominees. But, why now? Wyoming has never (at least as long as I can remember) had a say in the nomination. Our primary election is the third Tuesday in August, well after a nominee has been selected. This is nothing new.

The process in Wyoming isn’t new, although they did move things up to March to try and create more relevance for the state.

The process for the presidential nominations has always been up to the parties, right or wrong. Why the outcry now? My guess is because the races are closer than ever before, there started out to be more candidates and it seems people are more passionate about their candidate.

The process must be changed at a national level though, not with individual states or we still end up with every state doing their own thing. The country needs to decide as a whole to let voters select the nominees, just as they do with Congressional leaders, state leaders and county leaders, not delegates, not the party leadership, but the voters. Until then, we have the system that has been in place for years and we must wait until the general election to try and have a voice.

—As for Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, in my mind she’s as good as choice as any. I saw a post on Facebook that said something to the effect “like and share” if you think only presidents should be on money. Why? And which presidents? Do I look at a bill and say I don’t want any $10 bills because I don’t like Alexander Hamilton? Do I avoid the $100 bill because Benjamin Franklin wasn’t a president? No. I don’t give much thought about who’s on my money. My thoughts are on spending it and making sure stores and the banks will accept it.

Can you truly name every person on every bill? We all know Benjamin Franklin is on the $100 bill. And by the way, for those wanting only presidents, I guess he’s got to go; along with Hamilton on the $10 (although they squelched that idea to change the $20 instead).

I propose handling the paper money like they have the quarters, let’s put the same graphic for each state that’s on the quarter on the $1 bill. For the $5 bills we can have the national parks, also like the quarters. For the $10 bill we could rotate the presidents for those adamant they be on money. On the $20 I propose Star Wars characters — an Ewok, R2D2, Darth Vader, Yoda and BB-8, and then to replace Ben on the $100 let’s put the rich and famous — Bill Gates, Donald Trump (oh wait he’ll likely be on the $10), Mark Zuckerberg, Ben Roethlisberger and Oprah Winfrey.

—Now for the North Carolina transgender law. Do we really need a law. I know all the arguments for and against, but again I ask is this such a problem that we need a law? And when did it become a problem? Does anyone know how long transgenders have been around using restrooms?

How many of you by a show of hands can say whether or not you’ve shared the bathroom with a transgender person — at Wal-Mart, at Target, at the mall, at the movie, at a Rockies game, at a concert or other big venue?

That’s what I thought, so again I ask, do we really need a law.

OK thanks for letting me weigh in.