Common Sense?

Sixteen inches of snow in the last 24 hours, I’m driving to the train station. I had to use my 4 wheel drive, as our car could not navigate the deep snow on the unplowed roads. Driving past a small city cemetery at 6:30 AM, I see 3 city snow plows cleaning the roads in the cemetery. Thinking this might be not the best use of the equipment, given the traffic attempting to get through the roads, I called the city mangers office and was put in touch with the “head of that department.” He explained to me that the trucks were stored at the cemetery building, and it “made sense” to clean those roads while they were there. I questioned this, as it would be preferable, I thought, to make the roads safe for drivers going to work so they can pay the taxes that in turn pay the snow crew’s wages. His response? “Well, the drivers have to get the cemetery roads cleaned sometime that day and it is policy to clean the cemetery first.”

It doesn’t make common sense to me. How about you?

Letter to the Editor, November 27, 2010

Tearing pages out of the Utah Constitution on the Senate floor? That’s what Senator Chris Buttars (R-West Jordan), did to illustrate how the bill to approve Utah’s acceptance of the federal gift of funds for education shreds the Legislature’s constitutional responsibilities (“Utah lawmakers fail Constitution 101, Tribune Nov 19). I would expect this type of behavior from a spoiled 4 year old, but not from a distinguished Senator in the elevated state of Utah!


I wrote that letter, and I am very proud of it. The “argument” Senator Buttars and other republicans in the Utah Legislature gave was that this federal money came with strings attached; and they are correct, one string was attached. The string is, the money HAS to be used for education, it can not be diverted to other uses, nor can these funds be used to replace state funds currently allocated to education. (This same “string” applied to all states that applied for the funds.)

Senator Buttars and his colleagues in the Utah Senate claimed that this action, placing the money into the education system without our legislature’s ability to control it’s diversion, “destroyed” Utah’s sovereignty over education in the state. However, the Utah Constitution provides that no action may be taken by the State Legislature that runs contrary to any law passed by the Federal government.

For more information on this issue, please see my post on September 15 “Confusion at the State Capital.”

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s a picture perfect Monday afternoon in mid-November. The weekend snow has covered my valley in a blanket of virgin-white snow, and the ski-buffs, snowmobile and tourist industry are happy and hoping to be well fed. I have, personally, a much quieter view. The snow will provide much needed early year water, which will help us through another dry season here in the desert; and the calm and peace that descends with the white powder is a welcome respite to the constant pounding of rushed-up construction jobs that have filled our ears and will again mar our roads next spring. That perennial orange and white “flower” that litters our roadscape will soon wilt into slumber, and we will be able to travel safely, if perhaps with caution, through the winter scene.

Winter to me is constantly a season of re-birth, of perhaps re-thinking where I am and where I am going. It is time spent in quiet contemplation of the mysteries of the universe, and of the earthly relationships I have today. Life is good, and life, fortunately, will continue with or without my aid and approval. This is a season I look forward to, most especially for it’s time spent in solitude, not only in my snowshoe treks through the mountains I love so much, but also for the time spent in my chair, meditating on the wonder of this world. For as much as the Almighty has seen to send the animals to winter quarters and rest, He has sent me to places of beauty and forgiveness. He is telling me to review the year just past, to forgive and forget, to grow, love and enjoy.

Relative to His design, I spent time today enjoying the glorious day, the sun on the mountains fresh with snow, even as the next storm graces the Oquirrh mountains with clouds. From a vantage point high on the East side of the Salt Lake Valley, I looked with tenderness on my home, on my life. It is time now for me to be kind to myself, as He is being kind to all His world. He is giving, through the winter snow, life itself to a high desert, and I am grateful for that. He is giving me life renewed, a chance to begin anew the journey through life, and again I am grateful.

Life, and the journey it gives us, is to be enjoyed! And today, for some peculiar reason, I am enjoying and reveling in the onset of Winter, the renewal of quiet, contemplative times; a time to remember and give thanks for all the wonders and glories that have been shown to me, that I have been allowed to enjoy.

Thanksgiving, that unusual and peculiar American holiday, is a scant few days away. What ever you are thankful for this year, celebrate it, and enjoy in your own fashion. I will be thankful for all that I am receiving, and thankful for all that is yet to occur. I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and a joyous year to come!

TSA (Thousands Standing Around)

So, TSA administrator John Pistole says the “new enhanced” security measures that include patting down a person’s groin and buttocks are necessary to deter terrorist bombing threats. And he can safely point to the fact that no more airplanes have been hijacked in the United States since 9/11 as proof that his agency is working in our best interest.

But that begs the question, how many bombs has TSA found? How many people have actually been threats to the safety of air travel since 9/11? Certainly, if TSA has made arrests and obtained convictions, they should be able to provide us, the traveling public, with numbers and information as to the threats they have neutralized. Oh, yeah, now I remember, if they tell us, it will aid the terrorists.

I recall, a few years ago, being in Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, AZ, talking to a WWII navy vet who had just been to a ship’s reunion. He and I talked at length about the naval battles of WWII (I’m a history buff, ok) and I was interested to hear his stories. It’s time to board a CanAir Regional jet to SLC, only 12 passengers checked in. He was singled out for additional security check and told to remove his shoes. He replied, due to war injuries, he cannot remove his own shoes without assistance. TSA would not let me, or any other passenger, assist him. I asked TSA to call a supervisor; the reply was, “I AM the supervisor!” This ..conversation..went on for several minutes, until a bike cop stopped by to determine the reason for the confrontations. When it was explained to him, he simply removed the vet’s shoes and told TSA to let him pass, then assisted him in putting his shoes back on.

I was embarrassed; for our country, for the sailor. We expected these brave men to give up their lives, yet TSA could not show any courtesy to the vet. And now, we are expected to have our groins and buttocks fondled “for national security.” I fear this is out of hand.

Oh, and those millimeter scanners that do not store images? Check MSNBC for the latest updates regarding images being sent out on the WWW from a check point. I’m sorry, but until TSA is willing to show us how they have saved us from terrorists (and they may have, they just are not talking) I am going to put this agency up for the republicans to eliminate for cost cutting measures.

Fear, in and of itself, is not a position to build upon for public trust. The boogieman is out there, trust us, and we will protect you?????

Here’s a better idea: tell us what you have accomplished, give us names, numbers, and damage prevented, and let the American People decide if the cost/benefit ratio is acceptable. The American People are not dumb, they are not stupid, and they expect results for dollars spent. Show us what you have accomplished; let us judge you upon your merits.

The Utah Compact

A simple one page document that can set the tone for civil discourse regarding the immigration issues. If you have not done so, please go to www.utahcompact.com and read this position paper. If you feel it is a positive step in the immigration discussion, sign it!

Pledge To America

The elections are over and past, the pundits and columnists are having a right jolly good time telling us what it meant; this victory for the right, the defeat of the President’s “agenda” and the progress it represented. They certainly have to earn their pay, so they will continue to blather on for some time to come. But I’ve not heard the hard questions asked or answered.

The incoming Speaker of the House, and the Minority Leader of the Senate have both stated on Sunday morning talk shows that the most important goal they can achieve in the next two years is to be sure that President Obama is a one-term President. Funny, in the Pledge to America the Republicans were so proud of making, and that they used to help convince the American People they were the party that can make it so, that was conspicuously absent from the plans they showed us. In the Pledge, they talked about plans to: (1) create jobs, (2) cut out of control spending, (3) repeal and replace government takeover of health care, (4) reform Congress and restore trust, and (5) keep our nation secure. Not a word was used to imply the goal of making sure President Obama has only one term. Not one word.

Talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words; Mr. Speaker and Mr. Minority Leader need to show the American People they can govern better than their party did during times when they had control of the House, Senate, and White House. Here is an example: on page 32 of the Pledge, a paragraph is donated to the statement that “for the first time in modern history, the House failed to pass or even debate a budget…”. Mr. Speaker and Mr. Minority Leader should study the recent history, for under Clinton in 1998, and under Bush in 2002, 2004, and 2006, no budget was passed. This is not the only statement I question in this Pledge, but it is an example. I also find it interesting that in this document, government waste is discussed; but this document is a study in waste in and of itself. It is, as printed, 49 pages long. Only 22 pages have text on them. The balance is “pretty pictures.”

Over the next several weeks, I will be posting my views on the various plans laid out in this Pledge. I will also be keeping tabs on the actions the Republicans take in the House, and the Senate, to perform the promises Pledged to America.

Christmas In November

There is a child in all of us, a child who wants that TV-picture perfect Christmas morning; amazed at the glitter and show of all the packages, so neatly wrapped and placed strategically around the tree, knowing that if the wrapping is so nice, so new, so perfect, than what is inside must be just what we have wanted, desired but dared not hope for, since the Christmas ads started to invade the Sunday papers and all the television shows. (Full disclosure: in my youth, it was the mail-order catalog Christmas “wish books” that prompted the Christmas morning dreams.)

Christmas Eve, that wonderful night of hope and anticipation! Children small and large believe that this year, the new bike, the engagement ring, the new car, will be under the tree in the morning. The expectation, that this year we will get what we most desire; and with it the nagging thought, if the bike, ring, or car is not there, we will bravely and cheerfully accept the presents offered, and begin again to wait for next Christmas.

To the child waiting the magic day, every trip to the mall for the past few months has been a glorious adventure! Santa is waiting for us to climb upon his lap and tell him our fondest dreams; the lights and decorations are even prettier than we remember. The latest fad items are on display, and we just know that they will be under the tree, that Santa Claus will not fail us. The elves have been busy, working overtime, promising delivery of the dreams and the joy that special gift will bring. We’ve been counting the days, sometimes even the hours, until we can unwrap our gifts and acclaim our pleasure at the perfect present.

Was November 2nd our electoral Christmas Eve? Americans went to the polls, expecting the Kris Kringle of our personal political dreams to deliver on the promises that have been made through the past many months of campaign rhetoric and sound-bite promises. Editorials, web-sites, position papers and pledges may have replaced the colorful wish-books of childhood, but the effect is still the same. We know what we want, this year, this cycle; we have been guided to it by the masters of political posturing and focus groups.

It’s now “December 26th”, the wrapping paper has been discarded, and the toys are scattered about in disarray. We have talked excitedly with our friends, and now secretly covet the gifts they received that we did not, much as they covet our perfect presents. In the malls, Christmas is now on sale, ½ off or more. The fad item that was so hard to find, and priced so high, is now abundant and cheap. The decorations are down, and it is back to business as usual.

As every child knows, Christmas, like the 2nd Tuesday in November, will come again.

V-Day, the First Tuesday of November

Today is V-day; the day we as a people in the United States get to voice our opinion. It is the day when the government is truly of the people; for this is the one day we can encourage our elected officials to “stay the course” if we like what they have been doing to this point, or we can “throw the scum out” should we not like their previous actions. A challenger is always a shot in the dark, we may have heard the speeches, read the position papers, etc., but until he or she is in office, we don’t have a firm idea as to what they will do.
This off year election has given us some of the loudest rhetoric, and greatest volumes of money spent, in 50 years. The number of sound bites, and the venom attached to a great majority of them, is incredible, even deafening. Candidates and their support groups, acknowledged and hidden, have chosen in the main to run not on their own records or ideas; rather, they tell us what the opponent has done, or will do, “wrong”. Fear has replaced hope; fear of those that don’t look like, or believe the same core religious doctrine, or come from a different background as “we” do. Pessimism has surpassed optimism, and left that grand ideal in the dust; a collective voice that asked the best of everybody now speaks of how bad it is and how much worse it will become. Gone, and I hope not forever, is the belief that this is the greatest country on Earth. The ideal of growing and improving, in respecting the diversity of our neighbors as a people, as a country, has been vanquished; we now fear our neighbors, our leaders, perhaps even ourselves.
Fear is not an inbred characteristic, watch a child as a prime example; they have no fear. We teach them to be afraid; it starts with the “Big Bad Wolf” of childhood and grows into the “Big Bad Other Person”, that person or group of which we have no understanding, no empathy, and certainly no sympathy. From Roosevelt through Reagan, we focused on the Soviet Union and other communist countries as “the enemy”; as our source of fear. Now that boogieman is gone, and our enemies are not countries or states, but individuals in stateless groups. Today, we focus on the music, the prayer mat, the color of the skin or the language natively spoken as we search for evil. Our politicians, and their handlers, know this; they constantly mine the data, search the demographics, and read the opinion pages to determine how in any given market to ratchet up the fear level in a particular population group in order to “drive” voters to the polls.
It does not have to be this way! You and I, fellow citizens, do have voices, we do have tools at our disposal to frustrate the pollsters and political advisors. The first tool is TODAY, the day you vote and let your own learned opinion show up at the ballot box, at the outcome of the election. Fortunately, it does not stop at close of voting tonight. We have a collective duty, a collective responsibility, to remind our elected officials on a regular basis of the promises they made, of our concerns and issues here at the kitchen table. You and I can keep up the pressure on them, we can communicate with them on a daily basis if we desire; let them know what we think. The “letter to the editor” page of your local paper is one way, phone calls and emails to their offices is yet another. Get involved today by voting, stay involved tomorrow by reminding them of the pledges they have made. It is OUR country, We The People have every right to determine how we are governed. Don’t let your country down; instead, vote, and stay involved.