Wyomingites: We are better than that!

I shall visit my mom for Thanksgiving. She’s pushing 94. She was a WWII hero. She riveted wings while pregnant with me. All the men her age in our family were heroes, too. They fought Nazis and “Japs.” But, that is not the only reason I celebrate on 11/11. 395 years ago her ancestor, William Bradford, set foot on what is now called Cape Cod.

The Mayflower was damaged and overloaded with religious refugees. They were trying to escape the wrath of British monarchy so they could have a church and not meet for prayer in secret. They bravely put their chins in the wind to a place unknown.

That first winter about 20 percent of the New Plymouth pilgrims died. But, on the following fall harvest in 1621, Bradford presided over the very first Thanksgiving. It was not so much a feast of bounty. It was to thank the Lord for survival None would starve and freeze to death that following winter.

Since then, my family had heroes in the Revolution and all the other wars.

These days there are refugees in overloaded, broken boats in the Aegean Sea. The inhabitants of Greek islands are complaining they have not more burial plots for all the corpses washing up on shore. They had put their chins into the wind to unknown fate.

Wyoming is no stranger to pilgrims. Wyoming was populated by people who came from the East in prairie schooners. They faced many unpredictable and lethal risks. Still, they put their chins into the wind. Many Wyoming families have war heroes.

I’ll need to drive to Casper via Shoshoni to get to DIA. As I do, I will be reminded again that there is plenty of room in Wyoming for those tough enough.

Now, I am told, there are those among us with knees knocking in fear of the possibility that a terrorist may be among Syrian refugees, some of whom are Christians. I, for one, have no fear.

To my fellow Wyomingites, this: We are better than that!

Ron Jones