One of the many Taylor Swift songs I love includes a reaction to a seemingly angry or aggressive person on social media. “And I’m just like, ‘Hey, are you OK?’” Swift sings in response.

I’d like to pose that question to a couple of people here.

Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray gave me a call last Wednesday to complain about a news article we wrote about his Evanston town hall earlier this month. Here’s about how it started:

Gray: There are several blatant inaccuracies in that story … do I need to get my lawyer involved?

Me: How about we take a deep breath?

He didn’t like that — bullies never do.

Sometimes I think of my dad’s face turning beet red, beads of sweat beginning to form on his warming face as he reached for a yardstick or belt to punish me or one of my six siblings for doing something he didn’t like.

Later in childhood, this scene made me laugh — uncontrollably at times — while thinking that he should just calm down. My perception of my dad soon changed from a mean, raging authoritarian, to a fat, silly man-child throwing a tantrum — usually over something equally as silly.

Laughing at someone I had deemed a whacko in a state of lunacy didn’t help my cause immediately, as you might imagine. But I think it eventually made things better than they otherwise might have been — at least for my peace of mind.

I didn’t, however, laugh at Chuck Gray when he replied to my inhalation suggestion with: “Well… uh… you should take a deep breath,” even though it sounded like a schoolyard comedy inside my head. I take complaints seriously.

Gray griped about two or three things he thought we got wrong in the paper. Turns out we — I, rather — did get one thing wrong while I was editing the story (see page A4 for correction).

One of Gray’s complaints is that we quoted him as saying, “The right of the people to break laws is in our constitution.”

Weird thing to say, right? I think so. But I’ve listened to the recording 50 times and it’s clear to me. When I first read it in the story, I questioned it, even though the reporter who wrote it is very competent and very good at her job. She said she wrote what she heard that night at the Strand and thought it was odd, so, she listened to the recording 10 times to confirm it.

However, Gray told me he said, “The right of the people to make laws by initiative is in our constitution.” That makes more sense, sure. But it’s not what he said.

I’ve played the audio for or sent it to about 20 people in the last couple of days. Not one of them heard “make.” They went into it blind, too. I didn’t suggest what he might be saying.

Fourteen people said they heard “break.”

The thing is … people misspeak all the time. I do. You do. Everyone does; we just don’t notice it, usually. I believe this was an instance where Gray simply misspoke. Simple mistake; happens to everyone. Will he ever own up to it? Of course not.

I suppose I could give him the benefit of the doubt and agree that he maybe said “bring,” as four people told me they heard it. But he would have to be saying it in a weird way and using it in a strange context that didn’t make immediate sense to at least 14 people who listened to the audio.

But Gray doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt from me, especially since he declared war on the media. Not war on big, bad CNN or MSNBC, but on our local community newspapers.

If you were at the meeting or have listened to it, you know that Gray is nothing short of obsessed with the media. His speech was all over the place except for one thing — he always came back to poo-pooing the media, even local newspapers, taking a childish, unwarranted jab at the Kemmerer Gazette during his Evanston event.

Somehow this guy has me pining for the days when Karl Allred was next in line for the governorship.

So, Chuck, I must ask, “Hey, are you OK?”

We need fewer, not more — and certainly not louder — extremists like Gray. We need leaders who lead, not divide.

And (gulp!) they can be Republicans!

We have many of those people in this community today. The current leadership of the Uinta County Republican Party is a prime example of conservatives who put their community before some out-of-state or national political agenda. They’re proof that you can be a western, rural conservative without being duped into conspiracy after conspiracy until you don’t know up from down.

Gray is stoking the fiery stove of hate.

The Taylor Swift song I mentioned earlier is called “You Need to Calm Down,” and I’d also like to direct that at you, Sec. Gray. Chill out, man. No one’s out to get you. No one’s out to get your loud and obnoxious followers. You need to calm down.

Especially because that hate has spread to Evanston and carried on through what should be (but really isn’t) a surprising source — an elected official.

So, I’ve got to ask: David Bennett, “Hey, are you OK?”

Do you know how ridiculous you sound invoking the Revolutionary War and Civil War during public meetings? Any awareness there?

“Get a rope,” Bennett said during one meeting. If that’s not an attempt to bully, I don’t know what is. Must be a tough guy, though. More likely? Bored in retirement, he’s got some cowboy fantasy playing in his head where he rides in on a horse, guns a blazin’, ready to free Uinta County from the libs.

Whatever is going on, he’s either saying these brainless things in public for attention or he’s lost some touch with reality.

Bennett is a trustee for Uinta County School District No. 1 and a former high school principal. Readers of this paper might remember the time he indicated during a local school board meeting that he broke conceal-carry laws for years while principal. If Evanston’s school board hasn’t already, they have an obligation to discipline him — whether in public or private — and demand he shape up. They owe it to you as citizens.

Any self-aware official would have realized the mistakes they’ve made and how that reflects on the board and the district and apologized before resigning.

Either way, David Bennett, you need to calm down.