Blue Wing Complex, Shawave, 2020.
2020 finds many of us avoiding holiday gatherings, holding on to the traditions we can, and creating new holiday traditions as we celebrate far from family. The Facetime or Zoom call holiday meal is on many a “new tradition” list! Please, avoid becoming part of the next wave of covid. Stay safe. Stay strong.
One of our holiday traditions at Wild Horse Education is “the letter” written by our founder, Laura Leigh, “to Mom.” These letters began in 2010 with a video message. While fighting for access to roundups and holding, she was embroiled in three different court battles. As a journalist she had been offered “red carpet access” to document a roundup in northern Nevada. There was a catch: she had to go alone, leaving representatives from advocacy behind. She chose to fight for all, not for one.
She was told not to discuss the cases, that it was not appropriate to talk about them, but she could talk about what she was feeling. So she discussed what this journey “felt like.” Writing from the road, edited on a broken old laptop, she wrote home to her mom and made a video. A personal message for the holiday.
Our readers enjoyed that first rough note home. We revisit the note each year.
2010
2020, Letter to Mom.
Mom,
In my wildest dreams I could not have predicted a year like 2020. Leaving the Eagle roundup in February and getting t-boned, my truck destroyed, and then covid-19. All of our work was further complicated by an election year. But we have hung in there and made it through.
We were able to do some good work this year. We continued to expose what is wrong and push against greed. We stopped some abuses at roundups, filed complaints against corrupt officials, fought for water against big industry and continued the push to gain open and transparent management.
The 50th anniversary of the law to protect our wild ones is right around the corner. We have had 50 years of a “poker game of managers” giving away the resources our wild ones need to survive, blaming the horses for degradation and then removing them and opening up backdoors to slaughter. Government cronyism, and a lack of backbone, needs to end. Maybe this will be the year?
We have a great crew now. We have teams truly devoted to this fight, and to learning. I am so grateful to each and every one of them. We have come a long way since those early days, WHE is now truly a “we.”
Stay safe mom. I think of you always.
WHE Holiday Traditions:
WHE volunteers: the year 2020 in pictures
Countdown to 2021: The Publics Top Ten on WHE
If you have kids visiting over the holiday or just stuck at home? WHE has our free activity book from WHE Kids!
Our year end digital magazine is almost complete. We will be sending the link to our full color photo album, the year in pictures, out to all of you that have supported us through your actions, and contributions, soon.
Our year end match is here. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $5K. Year end funding is vital to keep our teams working in the field, educating Congress and in the courts.
If you are shopping online you can help Wild Horse Education by choosing us as your charity of choice on IGive or Amazonsmile.com
Categories: Wild Horse Education
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