Office holders and public figures from Park County and across Wyoming celebrated liberty and addressed some hot topics in the state during the Freedom Celebration hosted by the Park County Republican Party at Veterans Memorial Park in Cody on Saturday, July 2. 

Gov. Mark Gordon, U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, Secretary of State Ed Buchanan, State Treasurer Curt Meier, State Auditor Kristi Racines and Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Brian Schroeder attended as honored guests. Marti Halverson, who is the president of Wyoming Right to Life, was also in attendance as the event’s guest speaker.

“I love this event. I come every year since I’ve been in the U.S. Senate. I come every year and nobody does it better than Powell and Cody,” Barrasso said. 

Speeches focused largely on the freedom enjoyed by Wyoming citizens and citizens across the United States.

“Just Thursday, we laid to rest a young man, Marine Corporal Seth Rasmussen. Wyoming gives the last measure time and time again,” Gordon said. “So to the people of Cody that put this together — not only the celebration, but this fabulous park of remembrance, thank you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”

The event also featured a presentation of colors, a benediction, a laying of the wreaths and a T-34 flying salute.

Schroeder, who was last year’s guest speaker at the Freedom Celebration and is currently the sitting state superintendent, gave a passionate speech about parents’ ownership of public education, protecting the philosophical education of classrooms, and keeping “schools pure if we start breaking our dependence on federal funding.”

Schroeder cautioned early in his speech, the danger of the “culture war” in schools and mentioned controversial reading materials.

“We have library boards that are actually defending keeping books that are nothing more than pornographic on our shelves,” Schroeder said.

Schroeder has also been vocal in the past weeks about wanting to break off from U.S. Department of Agriculture funding following demands from the USDA for schools to update anti-discrimination policies in regards to students sexuality and gender identity. 

“It’s going to come to the will of the people, do they want this? And then do they want it enough to put pressure on the legislators to say get this done,” Schroeder said. “I can’t make that decision. Only the legislators can, and there’s, there’s a good number of them that want to cut ties with the feds.”

Schroeder said that the lunch funding could be a starting point so Wyoming schools don’t “have to be subject to their social engineering.”

According to Schroeder, schools already treat students with respect and dignity, with their rights being protected under the Constitution. 

The USDA’s memo addressing the updated policies, says organizations that receive USDA funding, including schools, would be required to change language in their anti-discrimination policies to include protections for gender identity and sexual orientation. New “And Justice for All” posters would be issued to schools and other orgnaizations as well. 

The final speaker of the celebration was Halverson who praised the historic Supreme Court vote that overturned Roe v. Wade and discussed next steps for Wyoming.

“Not in 6,000 years has this constitutional republic been tried before, a republic that was based on our faith in nature’s god, and the belief that all men are created equal in the eyes of God,” Halverson said. “ And now Wyoming has a chance to live up to that creed as we commit to serving the life and liberty of the unborn.”

Halverson countered the idea behind a potential lawsuit aimed at Wyoming’s trigger bill that claims abortion is a health care decision and is protected for what is described as a competent adult under Wyoming’s state constitution. Halverson also spoke in support of a bill that would prohibit the use of at home abortion drugs in the state of Wyoming but still allow their use by physicians in non-abortion instances where the drug can be useful such as aiding the passing of a late term miscarriage.

Halverson concluded her speech by encouraging those in attendance to enjoy the holiday and “carry this forward throughout the whole year. For life, for liberty, for freedom.”