Myth of WYO Independence

A Wyoming man was recently killed on Interstate 80 near Bufford. A semi-truck driver traveling the opposite direction crossed over the median and crashed into the about-to-be-dead man’s car.

How random. How unfair. How final. The man who died likely gave no prior thought to how much his life depended on a truck driver going the other way.

We value independence, but how much do we actually depend on others including people we have never even meet? The word “depend” signals that we rely on others and put our trust in them. The definition makes it sound like “depending” is an active behavior when most often it’s something we do subconsciously, never aware that our lives and the lives of those we love are at stake.

I drive I-80 often without giving any thought to how much I depend on others. Driving is an activity that depends on others. Will they stop or will they run that red light as you enter the intersection? Are they paying attention, texting, or talking on the phone? Have they scraped enough snow and ice from their windshield this morning so that they can see you?

Operating a vehicle is one of many ways we depend on others. We live lives of dependency and seldom think about it. We drop our children and grandchildren off at school each morning depending on others to care as much for them as we do and to teach them what they need to know while keeping them safe.

Loved ones undergo medical care or enter nursing homes where they and those who love them depend on the skills and care of others. We walk through grocery stores tossing food into our carts without thinking how much we are counting on those who harvest and process the food so we can put it safely on the family table.

We rely on people who drink alcohol to make good choices about when they’ve had their limit and on those who sell liquor to make sure customers don’t leave to drive home drunk. We depend on retailers not to sell tobacco to our children and on those who rate movies to make sure we can take our children to a film without exposing them to sex and violence.

We stake the lives of our children on child care providers to operate safe facilities and to hire employees who won’t do harm.  

We place out trust on the honesty of financial institutions where we leave our hard-earned money. We depend on the honesty and skills of lawyers and accountants we hire. We subconsciously rely on the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the drugs we take to save or improve our lives and the knowledge of the medical professional who prescribe them.

We depend on law enforcement, prosecuting and defense lawyers and juries to protect the rights of those accused of crimes and to keep dangerous people off the streets. We depend on employers to operate safe workplaces and to comply with laws designed to protect employees.

Without knowing it, children rely on adults not to leave loaded guns within their reach and the customers at Starbucks used to rely on that guy with the AR-15 not to start shooting. We depend on those who collect private and personal information and data on us to keep it away from those who would use it to harm us.

No matter how much you’ve saved for your senior years, you depend on the president not to Tweet messages or act whimsically in a way that cause your retirement funds to tank.

You can probably think of many more dependencies in your life. I depend on you and you depend on me. Our lives and the welfare of those we love are at stake. We should all give thought to the fact that depending on others requires each citizen to make choices worthy of the confidence of others.

As much as we respect independence, our lives are dependent in ways we seldom imagine.