WHEATLAND – There are some Wyoming residents that want all of the state’s businesses reopened. Before May 1.
Two Wheatland men, Jim Kumelos  who is a property manager and Bob Donaldson who manages a ranch are so passionate about the shutdown that they have made the trek to the state capitol in Cheyenne to send the governor a message via a peaceful protest April 16 and again to be part of a larger protest April 20.
The protest lasted one hour and both Donaldson and Kumelos said that there was not a lot of people on the streets or going into the capitol as they figured it was shut down.
“We had tremendous support from people driving by,” Donaldson said, “honkin’ their horns and giving us the thumbs-up. We’re not criticizing our governor, as he has a heck of a load on his plate.”
In the peaceful protest, both men agreed that the effort was made to go a step further than just venting to a few people locally. They wanted to try to get others to be aware of the dangers of an economic shutdown.

“I wanted to go there to make sure that we don’t lose our rights over this thing,” Donaldson said. “We have constitutional rights and the right to work and the right to assemble. Because Wyoming is so low on their numbers on this epidemic, we should be leading the field. We should be the example of how you go back to work, how you keep the economy open.”
The men also spoke about the power that has been taken away from the majority of the people by bureaucracy.
“If you study bureaucracies, you will find that every bureaucracy will inevitably implode society,” Kumelos said. “It’s going to happen. I thought I’d outlive this but there is a definite tie-in with bureaucracy here, and they are in control right now.”
Both men have strong opinions both on the pandemic, the origins of it and the possible collapse of the economy in the United States.
“China said that they would take us over without firing a shot, “Donaldson said. “The virus starts there, they shut down all domestic travel in China, but they left international travel open, so if that doesn’t tell you something, nothing would.”
The representation of the Wheatland men started the ball rolling as Monday’s protest, organized by the group “Rally for the choice to work” organized the Monday rally at the capitol. According to the organization’s Facebook page, “This rally is for individuals who believe that the current orders from our Governor are not only unconstitutional, but they are harmful to our state and to our nation. The Wuhan virus situation will not be remedied by an either/or solution. We can keep both our jobs and our health!”
“I felt that I needed to be there to represent what I stand for and my family and I’m concerned about my children,” said Donaldson who did not carry a sign, but waved the American flag. “I was willing to stand there and fly the flag. Anything I wanted to say would be said in that American flag. I thought I couldn’t bring a better sign than this.”
Both men agree that they would love to hear more from the Governor on local television versus getting a majority of information about what is going on in New York and in other areas.
“The whole thing’s been hyped up,” Kumelos said. “Originally the projected that 2 million Americans were going to die, and then they revised the numbers, and now they are saying it’s going to be less than 50 thousand.”
The big questions that came to the streets of Cheyenne and from the men in Wheatland were, “why would you shut down Wyoming when the numbers are so small, and why are you treating us like New York?”
“I did the numbers,” Kumelos said. “It calculates out to 0.0038%. We’re not denying that there is a virus out there, but the numbers are so low, should we all have to stay home? I think everything should be reopened for the sake of the economy and I believe it has to happen before May 1.”