Now This Makes Sense To Me...!

I think that this move is about the best thing that could happen in politics.

It's true that this may be just symbolic in nature, but at least someone is finally taking a decent stand about things. According to this story in the Houston Chronicle, Wyoming is doing just that!

Wyoming lawmakers eye ‘cowboy ethics’ code

Associated Press
Feb. 23, 2010, 12:47PM

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Some members of the Wyoming Legislature want to instill “cowboy ethics” in state law, lest lawmakers and citizens forget the state’s western roots.


The code would stress the importance of living with courage, keeping promises, finishing what you start and saying more by talking less.

Based on the “Code of the West” outlined in a 2004 book by James Owen, a Wall Street investor from Texas, Senate File 51 galloped through the Wyoming Senate last week and on Monday lassoed unanimous approval from the House Minerals Committee.

The bill is a symbolic gesture that carries no criminal penalties and is not meant to replace any civil codes.

The full House of Representatives is expected to take up the bill soon.

Sponsor Sen. Jim Anderson, R-Glenrock, said Owen’s book captured his interest, and he was inspired to introduce the bill after seeing the December premier of a related video project, “The Code of the West: Alive and Well in Wyoming.”

“There’s a work ethic in all things that we do, particularly in government,” Anderson said.

A number of states have enacted ethics codes, but Wyoming’s proposal has a unique flare, said Peggy Kerns, director of the Ethics Center at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“It’s OK to put in statute these kinds of aspirational statements, and then of course, the proof comes in how it’s played out,” she said.

Brent Hathaway, dean of the University of Wyoming College of Business, keeps a copy of the cowboy code hanging above his desk.

I think it's a shame that some of this can't be passed on to the folks in Washington, don't you? Oh well, never hurts to dream!

Now, my friends, let's get some coffee and sit in the kitchen. Too chilly to sit on the patio, ya know?