We must engage in discussions as friends and neighbors

Dear Editor,

What is Wyoming? This is different for all of us in many ways. For me, it is a refuge from other parts of the world, where things don’t always make sense.

I have lived in a few of the most beautiful places of Wyoming there are. We moved to Dubois with our young family to enjoy the mountains and be able to raise a family in a community of small-town ideals. There, I taught shop classes at the school and coached multiple sports, but there was a time I needed to move back closer to my family in Wisconsin.

After living in Wisconsin for five years we moved back to the Big Horn Basin. We had a longing for the small-town feel, Christian values and the beauty of the West. We have been here for six years. This is the longest our family has stayed in one area, and it is for a reason. We have what we want for our family. I am writing this today to do my part to keep our Wyoming dream alive.

What does this dream look like for myself and I hope most others across the state? To me, it’s lots of sporting events, where families can come together to cheer on other youth in our communities and build them up through schools that are strong. It is communities cheering together as they play rivalry games and celebrate tough challenges against opposing schools. Wyoming values family and children, and we do our best to respect our communities. 

We know our local law enforcement by name and are grateful to them for keeping our communities safe. Our search and rescue works tirelessly to find our lost sheep and give aid. It’s family movies at the Hyart Theatre that honors a historical past. It’s neighbors coming together to help others in need.

I want to keep my dream of community and sense of belonging in Wyoming. It is my dream that we can accomplish this by coming together. We live in a world of labels and ways to categorize things. Please don’t allow ourselves to be divided; we are “one nation under God.” This doesn’t mean I have to agree with everything and appease everyone, but it does mean we are all neighbors, and we want to work together. Think of us in the stands together cheering on our local youth, we have a common cause. We come from all walks of life, and it is unity. Robert Frost wrote, “Good fences make good neighbors.” We can maintain our boundaries because we work together on mending fences. This work can be hard, hot and tiresome as our ranchers well know, but at the end of the day the work is worthwhile to protect what we have.

As the state looks at budgets for our future prosperity, we are going to enter some heated discussions and divisions. I hope we can tackle the problems our state faces together. I hope you ask questions of each other and look for positive solutions. It might require you to go out of your comfort zone like I have in writing this or that might look like calling your local representation.

Be positive in your discussions but clear on your thoughts. I want to keep Wyoming as my ideal of strong communities that have great schools, safety and neighbors looking out for each other and find a way to keep the freedoms we have. Please look past labels as they will only divide us as neighbors. We all want Wyoming to be a place of belonging and a refuge.

Aric Hanusa

Cowley