Dear Editor:

Thank you for the editorial in the July 23 paper. In this country, everyone has the right to freedom of speech and opinions. It also seems that theTen Commandments have fallen into the pit or, in some cases, followed very shallowly and silence is worse than shouts.

In every country on the globe one would also be very hard pressed to not find that every person has a worm in the apple. Life would be pretty grand if we all loved each other. But that is not reality.

I am the proud great-granddaughter, granddaughter, sister, niece and aunt to generations of U.S. military veterans. My family has bled for this country and served with distinction and honor. My uncles were in World War II, in Holland, France, the South Pacific at Corregidor and Guadalcanal, to name a few. I had a brother in the Korean conflict and a second brother in the U.S. Artillery. A third brother, career military, who served three tours in combat in Vietnam, was awarded a Silver Star and a Bronze. The soldiers he served with were mostly black soldiers from the South who had never drunk out of a white faucet. They all served with honor and dignity.

My family can trace our ancestry back to Pueblo Rim in the late 1500-1600. We are Native American, European, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Irish, Great Britain, Finnish and Iberians — Americans, United States citizens.

I am second-generation Wyomingite, Cody-born and Meeteetse-raised. My mother was born in Lander in 1918.

Yet, last winter I had an encounter with a new resident from Kentucky who didn’t like my private conversation and infringed by telling me to go back to where I came from. Having lived in this area all of my life, his statement didn’t bother me because it wasn’t the first time.

Growing up in small rural Anglo Saxon communities, being an olive-skinned girl, I have endured the comments since first grade. I have been asked where I came from in social gatherings, at club meetings, etc., and to be clear, they mean country. Don’t we all look alike?

My answer: Cody and Meeteetse. I never think to tell them to take a hike. I have an obligation to let them know so they don’t wallow in their ignorance of assuming an olive-skinned girl like me can’t be a country girl who likes denim and plaid and can dig a post hole, work cattle and heaven forbid, drive a tractor! I don’t wear cowboy boots, which would make me a phony! And I make darn good jerky.

For 30 years racial and ethnic divides seemed to settle down. The country was learning to respect and enjoy each other’s differences, not appropriating other cultures and traditions without true understanding, liking the people and respecting them. Life was not a Pollyanna world but society seemed to be moving forward.

But underneath there was a fire. Now, instead of trying to solve world issues, and because the world is getting too people crowded, the hate and decimation has allowed the freedom of speech to lose dignity and manners. Name-calling and hate seems to be in fashion again and the silence from the people screams.

Rita Lewis

Cody