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Show Viewpoints The A-9 Park Record. Wed/Thurs/Fri, April 25-27, 2018 editorial The Children’s Justice Center needs a home befitting its work T guest editorial After Earth Day, people can do a lot to help environment TIM LYDON Writers on the Range In 1970, the first Earth Day began as a call for change. The nationwide day of protest erupted with all the verve and passion of the recent March for Our Lives demonstrations. But instead of asking for protection from guns, citizens were seeking to halt environmental degradation — especially air pollution. The day’s remarkable turnout helped inspire the Clean Air Act, which still saves lives and reduces health care costs today. Just as in 1970, there’s plenty to howl about, so here are a few ideas for some West-specific resolutions that I hope are drenched in the activist spirit of the original event. * Stand Up for Public Lands. America’s public lands are the soul of the West. They are what lured so many of us to this wild and vibrant landscape, and they enrich our lives daily. But today the land needs us. While Congress tries to subject land-management agencies to starvation budgets, the Trump administration trades monuments for drill rigs and pushes to sell off the land. We can recommit to the land by lending support to one of the many local public-lands advocacy groups. Their work helps us raise our voices for the places we love. * Fight Climate Change Every Day. Above all, climate change is an air-quality issue, so it’s especially fitting fodder. In the West, warming steals our snow, stresses our forests, and intensifies droughts and wildfires. In Alaska, we are losing the cold that defines our landscapes and cultures. Meanwhile, our leaders push for aggressive drilling and undermine public access to clean energy. But every day, we can do our part to fight for a stable climate, by reducing emissions at home, divesting from fossil fuels, and resisting local fossil fuel development. We can also support successful groups like Colorado-based Protect Our Winters (POW) or 350.org, dedicated to a clean energy future. * Kill Plastic. Plastic waste clogs municipal waste streams, kills marine mammals, poisons the fish we eat, and leaves our children with a toxic legacy. Research shows that by 2050, more plastic will fill our oceans than fish. But we can break our addiction to The Park Record Staff PUBLISHER ....................... Andy Bernhard Editor ................................... Bubba Brown Staff Writers ......................Jay Hamburger Scott Iwasaki Angelique McNaughton Ben Ramsey Carolyn Webber Contributing ............................. Tom Clyde Writers Jay Meehan Teri Orr Amy Roberts Tom Kelly Joe Lair Copy Editor ............................ James Hoyt Engagement Editor.........Kira Hoffelmeyer Photographer .........................Tanzi Propst Office Manager ..................... Tiffany Piper Circulation Manager ............. Lacy Brundy Accounting Manager ......... Jennifer Snow ADVERTISING Classifieds/Legals ............. Jennifer Lynch Advertising Director ........... Valerie Spung Advertising Sales ................... Jodi Hecker Erin Donnelly Olivia Bergmann Chris Roberts Sharon Bush Production Director ..................Ben Olson Production .......................... Patrick Schulz plastics. It is a good time to stock your backpack or car with canvas shopping bags. We can also join the growing efforts in Alaska, Oregon, Colorado and elsewhere to ban single-use bags. Or join broader campaigns, such as Earth Day Network’s “End Plastics Pollution” drive. * Reduce Food Waste. As a nation, we throw away up to 40 percent of our food. Let this be the year you start composting. It makes us happier people, and the dirt and worm tea provide steroids for your plants and trees. We can also get involved in local food-rescue programs and community gardens or composts. Or support municipal programs like the ones in Washington that offer curbside compost pick-up or waste-to-energy facilities. * Get Fire Wise. It is also a good time to bust out the saws and loppers to reduce fire danger around the home. This protects property and reduces the fire-fighting costs depleting public lands funding. Across the West, state and federal programs provide guidance, funding, and may even send foresters to assess fire danger on private properties. But we can also take being fire-wise to the next level. To protect communities and public lands, local governments need to hear from the public about mapping and zoning needs to inform fire-wise development. Too often, developers more concerned with profit than safety dominate local discussions. * Promote Media Literacy. It is not normal that millions of Americans still reject basic climate change science! Research and investigative journalism show how fossil fuel interests and their surrogates actively spread disinformation. Media Literacy Now promotes laws that guarantee students access to media literacy curricula that can help them discern legitimate from bogus news. Legislation has recently been enacted in California, New Mexico, Utah and Washington and is under consideration elsewhere. These laws also often address other issues, such as online bullying. * Vote. Get informed and get involved. In November, Westerners will have the opportunity to support candidates who fight climate change and protect our lands and oceans. * Get Out. Love yourself and the Earth by committing to more time outside. Unplug for even an hour to walk or run down your favorite trail. Play hooky with your kids at the local park. Teach them how to properly hug a tree, with arms stretched out as wide as they can go, young cheeks pressed against scaly bark, and a deep inward breath that fills lungs and hearts with the thrilling vibrancy of our world. Adults can — and should — do this, too. Letters Policy The Park Record welcomes letters to the editor on any subject. We ask that the letters adhere to the following guidelines. They must include the home (street) address and telephone number of the author. No letter will be published under an assumed name. Letters must not contain libelous material. Letters should be no longer than about 300 words (about 600 words for guest editorials) and should, if possible, be typed. We reserve the right to edit letters if they are too long or if they contain statements that are unnecessarily offensive or obscene. Writers are limited to one letter every seven days. Letters thanking event sponsors can list no more than 6 individuals and/or businesses. Send your letter to: editor@parkrecord.com he importance of the Summit County Children’s Justice Center’s work cannot be overstated. Since its inception in 2012, it has provided a safe place for hundreds of children who have been abused so the authorities can interview them about their experiences in a way that minimizes further trauma. It’s heartbreaking that there is a need in Summit County for such an organization. But residents should be thankful the Justice Center has stepped up to fill it. Now, the organization needs a permanent home. Currently, it operates in a small space in the Sheldon Richins Building in Kimball Junction, right next to the Snyderville Basin location of the Department of Motor Vehicles. The dedicated professionals involved with the Justice Center ensure being housed there doesn’t prevent the organization from fulfilling its mission, but it’s far from an ideal set-up. Fortunately, there’s an effort underway to remedy the problem. The nonprofit Community for Children’s Justice is raising money to build the Justice Center its own facility. After spending the last year and a half getting off the ground, the nonprofit is gearing up for a major fundraising push this summer. According to Community for Children’s Justice, the nonprofit has already raised about $250,000 and has identified three parcels of land that could work as the location for a facility. But depending on land costs, the organization will need between $3 million and $5 million to make it a reality. The nonprofit’s leadership is hopeful a single donor will step up to fund a large chunk of the project, but the community’s willingness to provide the rest of the money will be vital. In a town flush with nonprofit organizations, all championing worthy causes, this is one residents should put their weight behind. It’s an effort residents who donate will be particularly grateful for if their children ever need the Justice Center’s help. Abuse is a harrowing prospect for any parent, and one whose risk is all too real. According to Prevent Child Abuse Utah, for instance, roughly 20 percent of children in the state will be sexually abused before they turn 18. It would be nice to believe our community is a outlier. But just because we live in a wealthy ski town doesn’t mean we’re insulated from that statistic, as the very existence of the Justice Center proves. The unfortunate reality is that we’ll need an organization like the Justice Center for a long time. In return, the least Parkites can do is make sure it has a suitable home to help children the best it can. For more information about the Summit County Children’s Justice Center, visit co.summit.ut.us/595/About-Us/. Details about Community for Children’s Justice are available at ccjsc.org. guest editorial A letter to Council about importance of art TERI ORR Park City Institute executive director Dear respected council members, The work ahead of you in the next year is daunting. And the population you serve — from full time residents with families and single twenty somethings and the lessthan-all-booming Boomers — is complicated. Despite the apparent wealth of beauty and great free public services and ease of movement — the residents and the part time residents all want more of much and less of some and the result is often an un-joyfull community. There are so many moments in my job when I see the joy-full side of our community. When they gasp at the athleticism of a dancer defying gravity — when a performer hits a note that leaves the audience in awe ... when a speaker makes them uncomfortable enough they have a breakthrough — right there in the theater — about a previously held assumption they are ready to reconsider. We love all the moments when students come to shows and discover they really might love dance or a hip orchestra or the ability to ask their own question of a modern political legend. We love knowing for some folks of limited means, the nights they spend enjoying the arts — as our guests — are the most important nights all month for them. They dress up — even a bit — they are mingling with every strata of our community and they are seeing the same show in the same space as anyone else. For 20 years we have been witness to all this. And so much more. Students finding someone to hear them in a tiny space where they are being tutored for free. Students finding their voice on a red circle rug that becomes a TEDx stage and really, a global stage, sending their talks around the world to be discovered and praised. The arts — as I see them — are an essential service. For mental health. For community building. For equalizing-if only for a few hours- how we see each other and share joy. The case can be made the arts may be the future of our climate-changing town. The case could be made they are all about clean, renewable energy of human resources. The case could be made a vibrant arts and culture-based city is kinder and smarter and funnier and more creative in looking for all kinds of solutions to everyday problems. I know you all are investing in a space for the arts to thrive — which is terrific. I think the next chapter is where we see how to support what we value in the arts year round. How the arts weave into our conversations and our decision making and become a lens where the focus on an integrated community with a joy-full population is a resource our guests too, can count on. Project ABC has done an amazing job in a short, directed time frame, to understand the landscape of the existing arts programs and the needs and desires of the residents for an increased arts presence. I would urge The City to embrace space to create an arts position and department as a full time part of our government. It is time. I would urge you all to elevate arts and culture to a clear priority in a community that is becoming more angry and disconnected and disillusioned with each passing “unseasonal” month. The return on the resources extended — will add life to our lives. And what could be a higher priority than that? Note: Orr read this submission to the City Council at a recent work session. guest editorial Suicide by gun is silent American epidemic ERIC SANDSTROM Writers on the Range Six years have passed since I spent one morning with the dead body of a stranger. The scene remains frozen in my brain as though he’d shot himself yesterday, rather than back in 2012. I was a park ranger working at Colorado National Monument, preparing to lead visitors on a hike up a popular canyon. Then came the news of a dead body at a canyon overlook. Two other rangers and I shifted gears and drove 15 miles to the scene of a suicide. The body lay on the ground, face up, in the shadow of piñon pines. He was a middle-aged, brown-haired white guy, which makes him typical these days: In 2016, white males accounted for seven out of 10 suicides. He was hatless on this chilly spring day and had parked his car nearby. He’d fallen to the ground, a bloody pillow of pine needles under his head, and his jacket partially obscured the handgun he’d used. I arranged a tarp to shield his body from curious park visitors. A cellphone had dropped from the man’s other hand, and I wondered who he’d been talking to before he pulled the trigger. I felt sad — even angry — at the waste of this human life. Now, I realize that the tragedy reflected a larger issue. There is another epidemic of gun violence that seldom crosses America’s radar: suicide. Our society has come to accept mass shootings, usually by deranged young men wielding AR-15s. It’s a new normal. Within the last 12 months, shootings happened at a small church in Texas, a Las Vegas concert, a rural county in Mississippi, and a high school in Florida, to name just a few. Journalists covered the heck out of these tragedies, while ignoring the far more common gun deaths involving older men, usually depressed, who ended their lives with handguns. Suicides comprise two-thirds of all gun deaths in the United States. Most of them never make headlines. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the estimated 34,000 people shot to death every year in the United States, 65 percent of those fatalities — 22,000 — are suicides. No simple solution comes to mind. Liberals want Con- gress to outlaw assault rifles, and conservatives think arming teachers in schools is the answer. Neither idea will reduce gun suicides. A first step requires a change of focus from weapons to people suffering with depression. Suicide has become the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. These deaths cost society about $57 billion a year in combined medical and work-loss expenses. While death rates of heart disease, traffic accidents and cancer continue to decline with the help of federally funded research, the National Institute of Mental Health has reported that the suicide rate has remained constant for 50 years. Research might help to lower the death rate, but we have been unwilling to put enough federal money into it. On that spring day in 2012, I helped guard the body of the dead man for three hours, until the coroner arrived and began his investigation. He photographed the scene and then rolled the corpse into a body bag. We helped him lift the heavy bag into his vehicle. Afterward, I covered the bloody pine needles with dirt, so nobody would stumble upon what had happened there. Before the coroner drove off, he muttered, “Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” We need to admit that America’s biggest gun problem is actually suicide. During my 20 years as a journalist, I reported dozens of murders, but only a handful of suicides. Why aren’t they more in the news? We don’t cover them out of respect for the privacy of victims’ families, the stigma attached to mental illness, and the potential for copycat suicides. As a result, the public suffers from mass ignorance. As long as public officials pretend that tweeting their thoughts and prayers solves gun violence, preventable deaths will continue. Six years later, I still wonder about the dead man’s family, if he had one, and I think about how suddenly their world was tipped upside down. Who he was, why he did what he did, I never learned. Today, I’m just a former park ranger who happens to be a gun owner, trying to make sense of my country’s desire for a simplistic answer: Do we outlaw some guns or not? Life is more complicated. Let’s pay more attention to those vulnerable souls who believe the only solution to their problems is suicide. They deserve all the help they can get ... before the coroner shows up with a body bag. |