Some see it
as a sign that the Apocalypse is upon us. Actually, it proves the radical
right’s takeover of Wyoming’s is complete.
The Central
Wyoming Boys and Girls Club proudly announced the speaker for its 2019 annual
awards breakfast is Oliver North. Club CEO Ashely Bright said he is “really
excited” about North’s appearance at the esteemed affair.
This year,
the club celebrates 50 years of service to thousands of young people. The
annual breakfast is the organization’s big fundraising event of the year. With
its main club and six other sites in Casper and satellite clubs in Glenrock and
Kaycee, it takes a lot of money to keep that ship afloat.
The annual
breakfast is critical to the club’s efforts to raise the big bucks needed to the
work spelled out on their website, which includes teaching kids healthy
lifestyles, promoting academic success, and building good character and
citizenship.
The website
says they empower youngsters to make “ethical decisions.” In selecting an
unpatriotic convicted felon to speak at an event honoring young people, the
Club is sending an unmistakable message. Hey kids, sometimes you have to do
what is unethical in order to empower you to make ethical choices.
The choice of
Oliver North to headline this event is a decidedly unethical choice. The
children who belong to the club were yet unborn when North proved himself
unworthy of the honor being afforded him by the Casper based Boys and Girls
Club.
It was the
mid 1980s. North led a secret, illegal plan concocted in the Reagan White
House. Congress voted overwhelmingly for a bipartisan ban on providing
financial support to the Contras who were attempting to overthrow the
legitimately elected government of Nicaragua. That didn’t deter Reagan.
His National
Security Adviser, John Poindexter, had a strategy to end run Congress. He
assigned responsibility to the man the Central Wyoming Boys and Girls Club chose
to highlight its 2019 fundraiser. Oliver North implemented a scheme to sell
weapons to Iran, an enemy of the United States, clandestinely raising money to
funnel to the Contras in violation of U.S. law.
Mind you,
this was only a few short years after Iran stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran
and held 52 U.S. citizens hostage for 444 days. This is the Iran whose leaders
called America “the great Satan.” And the same Iran to whom Col. North sold
weapons.
When the
illegal and immoral scheme was made public, North destroyed official records
and lied to Congressional investigators. He was convicted of three felony
charges. Later, the conviction was set aside for what can be called a
questionable technicality.
Years later,
Nancy Reagan was asked about North during a PBS interview. “I’ll be happy to
tell you about Oliver North.” The former First Lady said North had lied to and
about her husband, adding, “Ollie North has a great deal of trouble separating
fact from fantasy.”
That
qualified North to become a Fox news commentator and to have a right-wing talk
radio program.
How does an
unpatriotic, ex-con, rejected by the NRA, whom Nancy Reagan called a liar, become the man speaker at a Boys and Girls
Club awards breakfast? Neither Bernie Madoff nor Julian Assange are available.
But that’s not the reason the mantel was placed on Oliver North’s shoulders.
The Club’s
CEO is not only named Bright, he is bright. He’s bright enough to understand
Wyoming in the era of Trump and Trumpism. If Ashley Bright thought for a minute
that headlining North would reduce the revenue this event needs to produce, he
would never have hired him to speak.
These are
times that try some people’s souls, times when Republicans have a new-found
respect for those who obstruct justice and those who cover it up. In Wyoming,
there aren’t enough people left who believe their leaders should respect the
law to make a dent in the fundraising goals of this club that plans to use the money
to teach ethical decision making to your kids.
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