Dear editor:
Dave Simpson’s reliance on Clay Travis’ musings about movie ratings (like Tipper Gore before him) is misplaced.
Movie ratings aren’t a government mandate, but a recommendation of a private organization, the MPAA.
It’s not illegal for a theater to let kids into an R-rated movie. It happens all the time, and policy varies between theaters.
Passion of the Christ was R-rated, and churches took entire youth groups. Appropriately, government had no say in the matter. It’s when the burden of government enforcement is introduced that a content warning looks like a ban.
When these legislative efforts that Mr. Simpson apparently backs come up, there’s one question we should be constantly asking: “is this the proper role of our government?”
Historically, the role Wyoming’s legislature was to pragmatically and efficiently address tangible problems - affecting real people - using real facts and numbers, and protect the individual’s rights to…well…be individuals.
The role was not to mandate the ideology and scope of decision-making power of people, their communities, and independent organizations based on imagined harm and abundant sycophancy.
If Wyoming really believed in small government, county commissioners in Mountain View would be entitled to make decisions about the content accessible in its county-funded library that aren’t the same as those made in Sheridan.
The trustees of Crook County School District would be able to prioritize their spending differently than Natrona County.
Athletic sanctioning bodies would be perfectly capable of making determinations about who should be eligible to compete under their banner.
Our families, communities, and organizations have never needed the legislature to make local decisions.
These part-time legislators aren't being pragmatic or making efficient use of their valuable session time when they follow the marching orders of their out-of-state organizers and stick their fingers into local or moral issues, starting fires and sowing tensions that weren’t there before.
The Freedom Caucus angers a lot of “traditional” Republicans and encourages crossover voting not because they are too conservative, but because they keep trying to consolidate governmental power over decisions better left to individuals and communities, simultaneously micromanaging and undermining the institutions that made Wyoming communities unique and positive places to grow up; like strong public education, avenues for non-toxic political participation, and a libertarian respect for the individual.
Some of us are tired of the myopic and hackneyed claims to “Wyoming values" and sales pitches for a government that wastes time and public resources attacking books, communities, and people.
We want a government that keeps itself lean but capable of providing for the general welfare, pays for good schools and highways, and otherwise keeps its nose out of community and personal business.
We want a government responsive to Wyoming problems, not problems outside lobbying groups with pre-packaged solutions insist we have. A government that understands that welcoming different perspectives into our communities makes them resilient.
One that doesn’t tell our kids what to read or their teachers what not to say . . . or, for that matter, what movies to watch.
Sincerely,
Peter Howard,
Cheyenne
