July 4, 2017
Dear Mr. President:
Cody, Wyoming is my home. Most of my friends and neighbors in Wyoming voted for you and have your back. I reckon it might have something to do with the similarity of traits you share with the greatest showman in American History, “Buffalo Bill Cody:” Charisma, Self-Promotion, and Populist Appeal. Buffalo Bill had such a following world-wide that when he planned a tour of France, all he needed to do was distribute posters that showed his portrait and the words, “Je Viens” – French for “I Am Coming.” Despite his fame and wealth, he remained a man of his word – the code of the cowboy. He also showed compassion to orphans and the poor, often letting them in free to see his show, and was especially kind to the Native Americans who worked in his show. In fact, Iron Tail became one of his closest friends. Bill Cody’s greatest tie to the politics of his time was his close friendship with Teddy Roosevelt. The two of them rode horseback together from the town of Cody to Yellowstone National Park. Teddy was a Republican like yourself, but he bucked his party when he realized the great danger of unregulated monopolies and disparity of wealth between the super-rich and working poor. His anti-trust policies were designed to help and support the common man.
I like to think of myself as a free thinking man; with thoughts that are a cross between Butch Cassidy and Crazy Horse, with some Sitting Bull, Charlie Russell, Will Rogers, and Bob Dylan thrown in the mix. I have worked on Wyoming ranches for twenty years, and been a surveyor in the National Parks of the West for twenty years. Along the way, I managed to pick up a Master’s Degree in American Studies from the University of Wyoming. My thesis was on the Johnson County War, a range war that took place in Wyoming during the 1890’s, pitting rich and powerful cattle barons against cowboys & homesteaders. A few years before the range war, a doctor came out to Wyoming from Pennsylvania. Amos Barber eventually became the acting Governor of the state during the war, but first started the first Universal Health Care practice in the U.S. It concerned the thousands of working cowboys out on the Powder River range. Each and every cowboy threw a dollar into the kitty every month, then Dr. Barber treated every cowboy that got hurt. Cowboys made thirty dollars a month (30 and found) so they were pitching in 1/30th of their salary. It would work today: Every taxpayer puts in 1/30th of their earnings. A guy making $30,000 a year pays $1000. Some rich guy making 30 billion would put in a billion. No exceptions, no credits, and no breaks –everybody puts in 1/30th. It would work. By the way, Amos Barber was a Republican and well-connected with the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.
You can’t make America Great Again. America has always been a great nation, despite its many human flaws such as folly, arrogance, dishonesty, stupidity, and greed – not to mention bigotry and hatred. All you can do is make it a better place to live for all of us. When I first learned about your interest in politics, you believed and were telling the lie that President Obama was not a legitimate president. You owe him an apology. You owe many people an apology. You owe all of us an apology for your lies, slander, and arrogance. Instead of “draining the swamp” – you went to the bottom and didn’t pull the plug, but instead brought up the bottom-feeders and monsters that surround you.
Psalm 52:
Why do you boast in evil, o mighty man … your tongue devises destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully, You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking righteousness Selah You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue. God shall likewise destroy you forever; He shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place, and uproot you from the land of the living Selah… Here is the man who did not make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness. *** I wonder whom David was referring to?
God’s Speed,
Mark Harvey
Cowboy Health Plan 