From the Wyoming Tribune  August 18, 2017

Lundberg: Hatred ultimately does no good for anyone

This Saturday, while driving across Montana, I heard the news from Charlottesville, Virginia.

Like many of you, I was saddened, to say the least. Outraged would be another word.

I thought “How have we come to this”? Outsiders, coming into a peaceful community and telling its people how to live, with torches blazing, hate spewing and evil in their hearts and killing innocent people in the name of a God and a country that could never survive on such terms.

Then we stopped at the Big Horn battlefield.

Oh, yeah, this is nothing new! Genocide of the Native, the original Americans to “Christianize and civilize these savages” (then-President Ulysses Grant) as we savagely killed them and took their land — land they were willing to share — and after Custer promised months before to honor their ways and traditions. I felt sick as I read the accounts.

Already by this time we had already taken countless people from their homeland, raped their women, sold their children and condemned them to a life of servitude with no reward other than survival.

I could go on about the injustice in our justice system when it comes to race … continued discrimination in the workplace, housing and elsewhere of people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, people from other countries … but I only get so many words here.

Suffice it to say that hatred, discrimination, oppression, rejection of any human being ultimately does not go well for anyone. There is no “win.”

Now Casper, is a long way from Charlottesville, Virginia. Why care? Why bother worrying, right? That kind of thing would never happen here.

Well, I’m guessing that the folks of Charlottesville could have said the same thing a month ago. Hatred, division, racism and bigotry … they are here in Casper. You know it, I know it. It’s just across the street and down the block. It’s certainly on our social media news feeds. We must name it and address it. And I denounce President Trump’s choice to actively divide the country. Surely this should be impeachable!

We need a desire to survive that recognizes the course of history. Hatred, division, racism and bigotry have never turned out well. We need a desire to survive that understands that our survival, our joy and well-being is tied up to our neighbor’s ability to enjoy the same needs and rights, hopes and aspirations.

You that would hate out there: If you want to keep “fighting’ for your mythical dream world where everything revolves around you and goes your way, you will remain miserable and angry and hate-filled. Some of you may find your sons or daughters take it to the extreme and run a crowd down with their car. A young white life scared and ruined and forever behind bars is hardly a “win.” I pray that never befalls you. If you want that good life that so many have fought for, give it up! Let go. Hate cannot win.

Now I’m a pastor, so I would be remiss in not pointing out that, according to the gospel, Jesus came to cease all hatred and oppression. You may have heard of the Prince of Peace? So please leave God out of the rhetoric.

At the Custer battlefield memorial, from one who suffered so much loss:

“In order to heal our grandmother earth we must unify through peace.”

Our grandfather Ta Sunke Witko was a man who prayed with the sacred pipe, played with the children and listened to the elders. He saw that all living things were higher than him because he knew that mankind had the power of choice to do right or wrong, good or bad. Our grandfathers told us that all mankind were created equal, and they represent the earth man with no skin color. In order to heal our grandmother earth we must unify through peace.

Pilmaye Le Uni Prya Ta Sunke Witko Tiwahe

“Thank you. We live.” (Family of Ta Sunke Witko)

Yes, I am angry, and my words hold some unfortunate venom. But I’d rather find peace for all of us. It’s the only way to truly “win” and truly be free.

The Rev. Dee Lundberg is pastor of the United Church of Christ in Casper.

 

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From the MTV News – July 2017

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From the Wyoming Tribune Eagle – January 10, 2014

Wyomingites rally for Medicaid expansion

By Becky Orr borr@wyomingnews.com

CHEYENNE — Expanding Wyoming’s Medicaid program is a just

Dee Speaking at Medicaid Expansion Rally

Dee Speaking at Medicaid Expansion Rally

action that would save lives and money, supporters said Thursday in a rally at the Wyoming State Capitol.
Upwards of 150 to 200 people who want more Wyoming residents to receive Medicaid services rallied at the Herschler Building Plaza during a blustery noon hour.
They wanted the Legislature’s Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Interim Committee to know of public support for Medicaid expansion. The committee met inside the building and discussed expansion at the same time.
The Wyoming Association of Churches sponsored the event. It attracted people from various parts of the state, said the Rev. Rodger McDaniel, pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. He is vice chairman of the Wyoming Association of Churches.
Several speakers said that expansion boils down to a question of justice. Without it, 17,000 people in Wyoming would be left without opportunities for health insurance, McDaniel said.
States are allowed to opt out of expanding Medicaid programs because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.
But 25 states and the District of Columbia have chosen to expand. Wyoming has held firm against it.
Gov. Matt Mead fears that the federal government could decide not to uphold a plan where it would cover most of the cost of expansion.
“The governor says he doesn’t want to expand because he doesn’t trust the government will pay its share,” McDaniel said. “At the same time, he submits a budget proposal to the Legislature that requires the feds to cough up $1.5 billion so that he can balance the budget.
“Never once in the history of this state has a governor or state Legislature said we won’t take federal money for highways or bridges because we don’t trust them to pay. We relied on them to pay and they have. They have never once reneged,” McDaniel said. “The idea that suddenly we don’t trust the federal government to pay is disingenuous.”
Many people at the rally carried signs covered with messages like “What equality?” “The equality state for the wealthy” and “Your hatred of Obama is funded by your citizens’ health.”
If Wyoming fails to expand Medicaid, it would cost the state almost $80 million over the next seven years to serve the mandatory Medicaid expansion population, McDaniel said.
If the state does expand Medicaid, the federal government would pick up the lion’s share of costs, he said. Wyoming would save almost $50 million over and above the $80 million that the mandatory expansion costs, McDaniel said.
“Partisan politics is threatening our most vulnerable,” the Rev. Dee Lundberg of the United Church of Christ in Casper said. “We find ourselves here today fighting for that which is just and right.”
Lundberg added that “our elected leaders are under the pressure of those who are concerned about being against the Affordable Care Act (so) that they cannot be for their own people.”
The 17,000close1 Thessalonians 1 Greeting 1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. The Thessalonians' Faith and Example We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (ESV) close1 Thessalonians 1close1 Thessalonians 1 Greeting 1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. The Thessalonians' Faith and Example We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (ESV) Greeting 1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. The Thessalonians' Faith and Example We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (ESV) people by and large are working and trying desperately hard, she added. She urged people to write letters and call state lawmakers. “These people that are making decisions for us, they have, in many ways, sold out to the highest bidder. Let us let the voice of justice and compassion be the loudest voice they hear,” Lundberg said.
People throughout Wyoming suffer now because of a lack of adequate health care, said Carol Peterson, an ordained deacon at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Cheyenne.
The Rev. Karen O’Malia of Christ Lutheran Church in Cheyenne told of two teachers at her church preschool who need medical services but can’t afford it now.
“Where would our beloved former Vice President Dick Cheney be if he had not had health insurance? I don’t think those heart surgeries were free,” she said.
O’Malia challenged Mead and the state Legislature to stand with people who have no health care by forfeiting their own health care for the next year.
“Maybe then we will see a fair vote on this issue,” she said.
Vance Green, 59, of Cheyenne, was among those who watched the rally. He was laid off from his construction job and has no insurance. His wife works, but dropped her job’s insurance because premiums were too high. Green wants to keep politics out of health care. “You can’t put a price on a human life.”
Carolyn Matteson Pascal of Cheyenne told the crowd she is enraged as a taxpayer that expansion has not occurred. “There is nothing sensible about what’s being done in Wyoming. The human toll is incalculable,” she said.