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Show Free Press - Wednesday, August 5, 1998 Page 2 Opinion Don't on Utah: A Bet The problems of polygamy more? It is one of the thorniest issues facing Utah's mists keep a low profile. From time to time, rivalry between the various polygamist government and law enforcement community. factions has erupted, sometimes But growing incidents of resulting in violence, but in domestic abuse, incest and those cases the courts have oppression have created a situa- acted swiftly and decisively. tion that requires a strong Where the practice has remained peaceable, governresponse aimed at eradicating the social ills created by the ment has taken a hands-of- f current practice of polygamy in approach. this state. But the isolated nature of The problem, of course, is that Utah's practicing polygamists the practice of polygamy has a has created new pressures and new problems, problems that long tradition in Utah. In the early days of the LDS Church, it cannot be ignored in a society was one of the compelling facthat is increasingly sensitive to tors that motivated the Morthe social ills that result from mons to leave the United States domestic violence, child abuse and seek refuge in the "inhosand incest. Tales of young girls forced pitable" valley of the Great Salt Lake. into polygamous marital relaOf course, the Great Basin tionships with close relatives became U.S. territory, and for are commonplace. Polygamist the next 50 years, the Mormons societies are so closed and so secluded that abused spouses fought an ongoing battle with the federal government over the have no access to the resources available to many other victims practice of plural marriage. of domestic violence. Many forget that Abraham Lincoln was elected on a platform Even worse, tales of widededicated to eliminating the spread practices of incest are slavtwin scourges of society emerging from several of the ery and polygamy. polygamist cults that populate When the LDS Church issued the state. the Manifesto, and officially All of this is carried on under abandoned the practice of plural the guise of religious freedom, marriage, it didn't end the pracdespite the fact that the practice of polygamy is expressly tice, but merely pushed it forbidden in Utah's State Conunderground where it has survived for over 100 years in pockstitution and by the federal "fundamenets of laws of the land. What we are talist" religious groups who left learning now is that polygamy the LDS Church rather than is not a victimless crime. Utah's law enforcement comgive up polygamy. Over the years the courts and munity needs to develop an active strategy to bring relief to polygamists have reached a comfortable arrangement. The the victims of polygamy. The courts don't actively prosecute practice of looking the other plural marriage, and the polyga way is no longer adequate. I listened with interest the talk show airing the day that the Powerball numbers were going to be announced. Apparently several Idaho towns, particularly those in close proximity to the Utah border, were being inundated with residents of our state who were hoping for a little piece of the action, in this case, millions of dollars in the lottery. The talk show host was interviewing the owner of a convenience store just over the border, and it was the owner who proffered the nickname bestowed by residents of The Gem State for the wayward residents of The Beehive State who like to cross the northern borders hoping to cash in. By the same token, no pun intended, perhaps someone should have coined a catchy little phrase to describe the significant number of Beehivers who buzzed down to Mesquite to frequent the adult bookstore when it enjoyed its 15 minutes in the spotlight. Zealous protesters, some of whom were bused in from Southern Utah, not only marched up and down in front of the store but wrote down the license plate numbers of the cars of the people who were trying to patronize the store. In fact, the Las Vegas Review Journal said that a suit filed store by the owner of the said that "police traced the owners and gave this information to other Salute to a scoutmaster ell, now-defun- ct parties." It is interesting that the group responsible for the picketing was called HOME, which stood for Help Our Moral Environment, because I would be willing to gamble that some of the customers, as well as the protesters, were from home. The beehive is just as convenient to The Equality State, and ripe for a slogan such as "Hey, Utah! Run up for the Downs." You can believe that Beehivers don't ed Steven Foster, Director of Camping for the Utah National Parks Council, Boy Scouts of America, would like all parents of scouts to personally thank their scoutmaster for his service to their son. As the summer camping season approaches, scoutmasters will voluntarily give more and more time to the scouts they serve. To all scoutmasters in the council, the following salute is dedicated. In almost every community in America, you'll find this man. He is engaged in one of the most exciting tasks around: He works with young men and in case you haven't been around youth lately, they are still the most energetic, imaginative, enthusiastic people to ever grace the earth. He is an indoor worker who teaches how to get along in the outdoors a practicing expert in a variety of minute-size- d details. He arms his charges with ideals, tents, cooking kits, and fervor and guides them in adven State Mixed-u- p What do you know about the Lotto-da- y Saints? Would you like to know Polygamy. self-declar- Pretty, go to Wyoming Downs just to horse around; they are taking their hard-earne-d money and putting it into the Wyoming state coffers. Not that I am suggesting that The Beehive State espouse gambling, but it is interesting that the Utah half of Wendover is dying while the Nevada side seems to thrive. Why would residents want to live in the "Wend" half when the grass looks greener "over" there. The only thing sillier than the concept of so many residents hitting our border neighbors of Wendover (slots), Malad (Lotto), Evanston (horses) and Mesquite (porn), is the denial that it is not happening. Okay, there might be one more silly thing. A few years ago, a former Utah state Attorney General wanted to do away with all of the advertising within the state for the gambling operations across the state lines. It's bad enough that these other states get money from our residents to pay for education and other social programs, but when our own companies advertising entities, gas stations, tour cannot cash in, then operators, etc. we've really created a multi-edge- d sword that cuts us up in several ways Titanic of its nude and love scenes. Their advertising made it clear that this particular version had been edited; in my opinion, they made no attempt to deceive anyone or push their values onto anyone else. As a result, many people felt that this streamlined version was more in keeping with their standards. If someone had been forced to watch this modified presentation, I could see a problem, but the demand created the supply and the theater filled a special niche. The two sides seemed to be working well until the third leg of the triangle, the film distribution company, pitched a fit and pulled the plug. As long as they were getting revenue for the showing, and as long as were clearly notified the theater-goer- s that this was an edited version along with the proper legal disclaimer, then I don't see why there of course should have been any problem., My personal disagreements with movies is that, first, movie ratings do not portray an accurate picture of either the content or the value of a movie (Sleeping with the Enemy, Ordinary People and Saving Private Ryan), and second, movie makers too often throw in extraneous garbage to sensationalize otherwise potentially blasclassic films (the uncalled-fo- r and the in Phenomenon, phemy extremely tacky bedroom scene in The all at once. Some Utah residents are still talking about the local effort to clean up some questionable portions of a hit movie recently. Personally, I think all three sides of the equation really missed the boat. I actually admire Towne Cinemas for doing what they did. The owners like to present family-friendl- y entertainment, and I think they wanted to do just that when they chose to edit Competition) . So now the question is being asked why local theaters can't run the sanitized airline or television version of movies, especially if local demands warrant it. Movie makers could easily make one to show in the two versions other 49 states and a separate one for The Beehive State. Of course, we could still buzz up, down, over or out to one of our neighboring states, where we could by a lottery ticket or a chance on a horse during intermission. Titanic issue is clash of art and enterprise "I see they're closing down the local movie house for editing a film without checking with the distributor." Big John took a sip of his Dr Pepper, waited for the caffeine to clear his morning headache, and looked at me expectantly-W- tures to prepare them for life ahead. He leads boys by awakening their enthusiasm until they run ahead of him to do the job. He comforts them in perilous times with his presence and sta- bility. He teaches citizenship by letting them run a camp in the wilderness. If he quits, moves away, or passes away, his is one of the most difficult jobs to fill. Yet, if he does his job well, his only pay will be the deep personal satisfaction of knowing that he has contributed beyond measure toward developing the kind of citizens we consider ideal. Astrong man, who knows where he's going, and an extremely popular man in the eyes of this is the future generations man known as the Scoutmaster. Foster adds, "To all Scoutmasters and former Scoutmasters the staff of the Utah National Parks Council says thank you for all you do for young men." - -- I said, not really. They just pulled the movie; the movie house is still in business. "Titanic, huh? It could use some editing." he said. "It felt like they'd filmed the three-hou- r sinking in realtime long and a bit overdone. What did they cut out? The boring part with the ship sinking and sinking and sinking, or all that running around forever in the water?" . No, it was the nude stuff. You know, where the girl played by Kate Winslett, lets Jack sketch her in the nude. "Oh, like they do in Springville, you mean?" Right. But this isn't Springville. Not that there is anything wrong with Springville. "So, why the editing?" Well, some folks wanted to see the movie, but they wouldn't go to a film with a naked girl in it. They were happy to find a place willing to edit out the scene with the naked girl so they could see the rest of the film, I explained. "Some folks? Haddock, you can't change art just for some folks. This is sensitive stuff. This is censorship. Didn't they know they were going to get in trouble?" I don't know if they were going to get in trouble, but I hardly think it was censorship. After all, you could see the theater in American Fork found a way to wring a few more dollars out of one g of the biggest movies in the history of film after the bigger theaters had all made their own. And they did it by bringing the film to a whole new audience who would never see the movie otherwise. Paramount should be praising Towne Cinemas, not dropping them like a hot money-makin- film intact at any other of several theaters, and their plan was to show the edited version for a week and the unedited version for another week. No one would be deprived of the chance to see Kate Winslett au natural unless they wanted to. That's not censorship is it? "Oh, I don't know. Just because you can get a book with reproductions of paintings of naked people in the Provo Library doesn't given somebody the right to cut out those same reproductions in the American Fork Library, does it?" Good question. "So, lots of folks were going to see this 'edited' version of the film then?" Yes, they were flocking to see it, and bringing their kids, too. This was a great film about a major historical event, and if they could see it without the nasty stuff, they wanted to. In fact, the theater had just extended the run of the edited version because it was so popular just before Paramount pulled the plug. "And sent the Titanic down the drain again, huh?" Yes, and I think it's a shame. After all, what you have here is a conflict between art and enterprise. This little potato. "What do you mean?" John asked. Well, Paramount is not pulling just the Titanic. It has voided its distribution contract with the theater altogether. The message is clear. Mess with Paramount and you will get burned. "But the theater did have a contract to run the film as they received it, didn't they?" Yes "And they violated that contract when they edited Titanic,' didn't they?" Yes "Well, you can't do that. And now everybody knows it." Maybe. But I think it's a shame. You give people what they want, and all you get for it is a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Heck, I even hear that BYlTs Varsity Theater is going to have to stop editing their movies, too. "Well, don't feel too bad, Haddock. Everybody who missed the limited run of the edited Titanic' will get their chance soon enough when the movie shows up on network television in a year or two." True. But then they'll have to sit through the commercials. "Commercials. Now there's an opportunity for some creative editing." Reader's Forum turer and distributer in Salt Lake until Hutch's gives service Editor: Recently we were surprised to see water in an unfinished part of" our basement. It was quickly traced to a leaking water heater. We phoned Hutch's Appliances where we purchased the old one five years ago and were told Hutch's no longer sells water heaters but ours was still covered by warranty. a long story short, ing but the run around from the manufac To make Bret Hutchings got involved. In about three hours we had our new water heater. Hutch's is a great place to do business. We have also purchased two washers, a dryer, and a dish washer from them because of their good prices and uncommon service. We are not related but they treat everyone like family. Let we go noth- Editor Where's the supervisor? Where's the Editor: Telephone Numbers Advertising 8750-466- A 309-50- mTTiie member ol NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION & L.UIT ron MVXW 59 West Main American Fork, Utah 84003 Brett Publisher Managing Editor City Editor Subscription Deadlines Classified Circulation News iewtaliiews 1 1. ParaSkrloV here's supervisor? Published weekly by (ISSN No. (U.S.P.S. No. I think the Utah County citizens should let Paramount know how we feel about their actions in prohibiting Towne Cinemas from showing an edited version of Titanic. Their address is Paramount Pictures, 834 S. Plymouth Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif, 90005-373Let our voices be heard! Trixie Williams Bezzant Haddock Russ Daly Marc price $24x per year Periodicals Postage Paid at American Fork, Utah POSTMASTER: Mnd iddriu chmgt to WWnt Main. American Fork. Utah 14003 Advertising . . Tuesday, noon Display Advertising Monday, 5 p.m. News Monday, 2 p.m. Missionaries Monday, 2 p.m. weddings Monday, 2 p.m. Calendar . .Monday, 10 a.m. Letters to the Editor . . .Monday, 10 a.m. Obituaries Tuesday, 11 a.m. Community inspector? The workers have lost the plan for 5th East. The sidewalk goes up and down like a kiddie ride at the carnival. The fire hydrant is almost buried by the roadside. But worst of all, they didn't see the existing curb by the Circle K and put another one out in the middle of the road! It is a disaster. This eliminaged the right turn lane. Oh, no! Stop the scrapers! Stop the dump trucks! Stop the workers! We need somebody to help straighten out this miss. Marilyn Harley We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must include the author's name (printed AND signed) and a telephone number. We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, punctuation, taste and length. Letters are welcome on any topic. HOW TO By Mail P.O. Box 7, American Fork, UT 84003 In 59 Person W. Main, American Fork REACH tl S By Fax 756-527- 4 By editornewutah.com : |