footnote

i got a new purse today and in the process of assigning things to pockets and compartments, i dumped three other purses out on the kitchen table.  and as i sorted and purged, i made a huge pile of coins.  i wish i'd weighed them.  it's no wonder my shoulders hurt all the time and my number one criteria for the new purchase was:  lightweight.   (as if the weight of the purse itself was ever the problem.)

i couldn't help but notice the variety of quarters accumulating on the table and on a whim i started setting aside the state quarters.  45 minutes later, after three purses' worth of coins and two dresser-top piggy banks, i counted quarters from 39 different states!  (and oddly enough, two states had two quarters each, with different designs.  i don't know what that's all about.)  

in my appreciation of the individuality of each coin and the creativity of some, i noticed something that stopped me in my tracks.  yesterday i wrote about two very special states and their lack of respect for their citizens.  i didn't reveal the states, (though there was a link if you made it to the end and bothered) but now i think i must.  consider this a footnote to yesterday's editorial on the subject. 

"The Equality State"

any idea which one that might be?  you'll never guess.  

wyoming.  

you know, the land of cowboys and indians.  there's even a cowboy riding a bucking mustang on the coin, to jog your memory.  i couldn't for the life of me imagine what that motto was referring to.  admittedly, i know nothing of wyoming; but when i think of cowboys and indians, equality is not a word that comes to mind.  at all.  

when we settled wyoming, there were five Native American tribes occupying the plains there:  Arapaho, Shoshone, Ute, Crow and Cheyenne.  only two remain, Shoshone and Arapaho, and they share a single reservation.  

equality, indeed.  

apparently the nickname was given to wyoming because they were the first to grant women the right to vote.  yee haw.  even as a voting american woman i am again disgusted by this state and find their use of the word equality an insult to the principle itself.  

d:  again...wyoming, show some respect!  

b:  39 out of 50 is pretty damn good

g:  learning a bit of our american history, no matter the disgust factor