Wyoming Apocalypse

There was a recent article on the Yahoo! homepage that I found intriguing.  I usually try to avoid clicking on any of their stories because I am finding them to be such terrible fluff, filler, junk that I don't want to encourage it.  It was about a Wyoming vote to prepare for the apocalypse.  It seemed so ridiculous that I assumed it must be a small town in that lightly populated state that was the subject of the article.  Nevertheless, I decided not to click, but rather do a quick internet search on the matter.  Several stories came up including the Yahoo! article, so I clicked on it and the others.  I learned that the vote, which was very narrowly defeated (30-27), took place at the state legislature level.  Furthermore, it was not a vote to prepare for the apocalypse in the biblical sense, but rather the collapse of the federal government and the dollar.  The primary idea seems simply that Wyoming should like to be able to put out its own currency and avoid the impact of a U.S. decline.  There were other disturbing details in the first draft of the legislation, like establishing a proper standing army, air force, etc..., presumably to keep the rest of us fellow citizens out.  I have no doubt that the cowboys of Wyoming are tough, but we urbanites of the coasts are a lot tougher than they might think.  We're also fast learners and there are a whole lot more of us.  It's truly a shame to see such a mentality flourishing out West, but I think we (all Americans) need to see what it means. 

For some time after 9-11 certain friends and relatives from Ohio were afraid to come visit us in New York, which struck me as a silly, overblown fear.  I work downtown, so I was there that day.  I had to walk over nine miles to get home that day.  The smell of fires (which continued to smolder for a very long time), a very chemical smell, wafted quite discernibly to where I live, in the fair borough of Queens, the next day.  Terrible as the event was and continues to be, all of NYC, which does consist of all five boroughs, is not really a target.  Reaction, even in NY, has been exaggerated--I think as an excuse to infringe on civil liberties.  All these cameras in our city will not prevent a damn thing!  They can, however, be used to mind our (citizenry) business quite needlessly.  All this has created an atmosphere of fear that borders on the irrational. 

I suspect our fellow Americans in Wyoming, who are quite alienated from us here on the coasts, have a distorted view of life here.  First of all, a collapse of the federal government would have its greatest impact here where the most people are.  Second, Wyoming is a landlocked place that won't get very far without the rest of us, unless they really want to go back to the old days--maybe they do.  I also think their action shows their commitment to the Union of these United States of America.  Wyoming is hardly unique in this respect.  Wyoming has revealed the how deep the rift runs between red and blue states.  I would not suggest that Wyomingans are wrong to be concerned.  I would state that the problems are far more complex than they might imagine.  Globally things are shifting.  We as Americans need to come together.  Our leaders are increasingly disconnected from The People they supposed serve and until The People know what they want, it will continue.  I think it would useful if more Wyoming residents visited the coasts and vice versa.  If there were a responsible way to do it, I wouldn't mind playing host.