Coffee With A View: Writings on the Wall (literally)...

Music and writing have always been my "things". I started plunking out tunes on the piano when I was three years old; started formal lessons when I was four. Around that age, my parents couldn't keep enough paper and pens, pencils, crayons, etc. If I ever ran out of paper, I started writing on the desk, the walls, the baseboards...the shelving and walls in my closet...on the fabric stapled to the box springs under my bed...on the window sill...outside the window sill.

I never really kept a diary or a journal, and don't have an answer as to why. I guess the reason might be that my parents encouraged reading books and triggering the imagination. There wasn't enough paper in the world to contain the worlds I had already created in my mind, yet the greatest adventure was lived every day. Experiencing the Nouns - people, places, and things - was enough to fill volumes..and still is.

So about mid-January, when Grace Andrus of Wyoming Media LLC approached me with the opportunity to become the Editor of the Ranger (a newspaper which was an embedded childhood icon as a delivery girl, as well as the award-winning paper of which my Aunt Betty Starks Case's legacy was as a columnist for 35 years) - something lept in my mind, heart, and soul and caught fire.

This was it. This was the job I could do for the rest of my life!

So I resigned from my employment of four years with Fremont County's ambulance service(s) - through Guardian, AMR, GMR, Frontier - (not unfamiliar with transitions, LOL!) and dedicated countless days and nights to the struggle and uphill battle in keeping the content flowing for a newspaper with an unsure future. For those with questions and critiques in their own minds, Grace truly did save that newspaper. We were both on the same page (excuse the pun, LOL) and had a vision...listened to the readership, and spent countless hours finding relevant content for all three newspapers. We were tired; our brains were on overtime, and literally shot. But the vision and mission were constant, with the communities of Fremont County first and foremost.

When WyoToday took everything over the first week of February, [whatever was left of] the newspaper employees and the public were fed a narrative that, in my gut, just felt "weird". It was explained in a way that was just ambiguous enough to swallow (given the circumstances), but also enough to wonder if that same vision that Grace and I had would carry over. It was always my hope, and as I signed the dotted line as Interim Editor, business cards made up reflecting me as Interim Editor, newspapers stating that I was the Interim Editor...I drank the Kool-Aid.

Throughout my (brief) stint as Editor, I had no news reporters. Brooke Lehto came through with some great feature articles. Even through the transition(s), we maintained a strong Sports section. Advertising and subscriptions began to pick up. Everyone loved the Community Calendar. As one who hits the ground running in whatever I do, I managed the content for all three newspapers with everything I had to give, every single day, no matter what the challenge (outdated programs, emails, systems, etc.) Our composition/layout team kept up, even through moments when they wanted to quit. We finally got it to where subscribers actually got their paper on the day they subscribed! The Wind River News finally had content relevant to the Tribes! To crank out a (semi) daily newspaper on a skeleton crew was insane, but we did it. Every day.

During this insane time (and though distracted), something was not sitting right with me. WyoToday brought someone in from the South (someone who does not reside in Wyoming, and lives out of a hotel here), started calling the shots, and little by little, I was reduced to the title of "Staff Writer"...even though my title was still Interim Editor. "Letters to the Editor" went to him. I sat in on staff meetings as Editor; everyone knew me as the Editor. I worked my ass off as the Editor...waking up at 3 AM to get pages out, covering city council and board meetings, doing what I could to review and recommend potential columnists, actually read several Letters to the Editor that never got published, etc.

When I observed meetings being held behind closed doors...when I was being cut off and interrupted in staff meetings, ignored and treated like a mushroom...that's when I started asking questions. With a history of general assignment AP reporting, copy editing/writing, columnist, editor and founder of a CA news blog for 13 years...why wouldn't I question? Why wouldn't I ask, over and over, what Grace Andrus' role was during this transition?

Who is really in control? The readership and subscribers of Fremont County? Or some opportunistic financial company?

https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/local-newsrooms-strained-by-budget-slashing-financial-firms,219808

On Friday, March 16, I was looking at the content budget for the weekender (newspaper). Mind you, I'm already exhausted; I'm like, literally scraping for content. There were some little burps going on as far as content-sharing with some Wyoming news exchanges (which were, actually and truly, above my paygrade), but for me, it was a big deal, and so this was an opportunity for me to finally voice my concerns. So I did...to Hal Welch, General Manager of Upstate Today (Edwards Media Group) in South Carolina, who is the boss of the boss of who was my boss at WyoToday (the one that continually and constantly interrupted and disrespected my existence).

Hal Welch? Not a huge deal...but I do quote him as saying to me: "I'm being sued in Seneca right now for $250,000,000...true story, over a series of articles and I've been laughing at it for 3 days. This really is not a big deal."

My response:

"Not a big deal to you...but I just covered a Riverton City Council meeting where a hike in a few dollars in utility fees affects fixed-income and senior families. They're not laughing."

When some "know-it-all" corporate interest comes in and assumes power and control of the narrative, environment and occupation of long-time, hard-working locals who have been here for literally decades...what exactly happens? I can already tell you what happens...not only on the EMS side but on the economic development side.

If these corporate entities are not fully, 100% vested in the economic development of the rural communities of Fremont County, Wyoming, they're in it for their own selves and opportunistic greed, and not the community's interests, nor what and who they claim to supposedly serve. So coming to Wyoming actually becomes a little vacation for them, so they can hunt, fish, get drunk at a local bar or other community events...get a slap on the hand, then go back to their home state, and "it's not a big deal". The gift of the silver, forked tongue.

I have been quite sad for the past month and a half...but not beaten down. I know bullshit when I "feel" it, and that's why I'm writing this today...if I could, on the walls and window sills of every single structure in Fremont County. Sure, there may be all kinds of rumors going around about me and why I left the Ranger, so let me set everyone straight:

If you heard that I went on to/"other opportunities", no. That's a complete, fabricated lie. I had no other opportunities! Zero. Like I said, I had invested my future in the Ranger/Lander Journal/Wind River News, in the vision that Grace and I had when we worked countless hours, laughing, crying, talking, etc. Hoped to make my Aunt Betty Starks Case proud, kept hoping that this newspaper would be one that the readership expected with every single issue.

So no more "interim" Editor. After finally asking WyoToday to give me an official job description as Editor in writing, they told me to consider it my resignation, to "pack my belongings, drop off the laptop and key by the front desk."  Total slap in the face for everything I did over the past few months.

(Well, I never used your useless laptop or needed your slow-ass WiFi. Shows how much you "knew" from afar in South Carolina. I got more done in my own home office). The writing was on the wall and I finally saw through the "bait and switch". Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice? I've been used and abused enough for one lifetime; you poked the wrong mama bear.

What a world we live in these days...where ego, pride, and greed are more important than life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! In my opinion, there's a dire need for more "tea parties", and I still have faith in those who truly love and support their fellow human beings. It takes a lot to snap out of it, stand up, call people out on their bullshit, and believe in what's right. The writing should be on the conference room walls - closed doors, desks, tables, chairs, window sills, etc. -  for those who continue to use and abuse those who actually live here, work here...those with the true talents, gifts, character, and integrity. It's time that we value and respect those who work tirelessly, day and night, for what they bring to their community. It's the very least we can do for our fellow human beings, to call out those with forked silver tongues and expose them for who they really are.

Carol