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Show THE PARK RECORD WED/THURS/FRI, JUNE 1-3, 2005 Viewpoints. EDITORIAL SO, ALL OF YOU ARE HERE TO SUE SUMMIT COUNT/ ON BEHALF OF DEVELOPER CLIENTS? Helmets and safety tips - a gift for graduates from Health Dept bout 200 North and South Summit fifth graders received unexpected graduation gifts last week. Thanks to a state program aimed at safely and injury prevention, the Summit County Health Department was able to distribute free bike/skateboard helmets and dispense some sound advice in the process. The helmets should come in handy as spring gives way to summer and the long hours of sunlight beckon young riders out onto local roads and trails. This year the health department targeted fifth graders in particular because they are at that precarious age when common sense may not have caught up to their quest for adventure and independence. Health educators spent time in the classrooms helping students understand how serious head injuroies can be and how important and vulnerable their brains are. Part of the lesson included how to A A-I5 properly adjust a helmet for maximum protection. For parents who don't know - the front rim should ride no more than one to two fingerwidths above the eyebrow. According to statistics cited by the Utah Health Department, helmets reduce the chance of head injuries by 85 percent and reduce the potential for brain injuries by 88 percent. That holds true for both bike crashes and bike/automobile crashes. Of course, the helmets won't work if they are buried in the storage closet or left on the back porch, so now it is up to the soon-to-be middle schoolers to wear them. That might take a bit of nudging from parents. However, if the health department did its job - the kids will be reminding mom and dad to wear their own head gear. By the way, each of the county health department offices has a small supply of helmets that they will sell at cost ($8) to children who might not otherwise to be able to afford them. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR JOHN KiLBOURN/PARKRECORD GUEST EDITORIAL Public wolf meeting Sincerely, Phil Dugas Park City Mickey Moose and the West s new frontier Editor: With wolves coming back into Utah and very likely into Summit County itself, there is an opportunity to express one's views in Salt Lake City Thursday, June 9, 9 a.m. at 1594 W. North Temple. I, for one, support wolves re-colonizing Utah with a couple packs over the next decade or two. Utah now has a Wolf Plan written up over the last year and a half and it's time for Utahns to express their views. So far, hunters and ranchers have showed up in large numbers and are not representative of the average Utah citizen. Don Peay, head of the Hunters Association has an agenda to make Utah into a "No Wolf State." My plea is to those who understand the benefits to the ecosystem haying a full range of wildlife in our state. I ^ a s ^ come. ;f ypu.ca.n..,,.,.. j - S ( . Mahatma Gandhi expressed a wider* view when he said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be measured by the way in which all its animals are treated." For other times and locations in Utah, where public meetings concerning wolves are held, go to: www.westwildcon. org/utahwolf. Response to dog incident outfitters across the West, from river guides to ranchers who rent horses and llamas, The Walt Disney Company is coming to have shared their passion and knowledge Yellowstone National Park, and already the with a select clientele. Disney, on the other hand, excels at capi"Mickey Moose" jokes have started. What's not funny is the way this venture by a multi- talizing frontiers. Most amusement parks national corporation marks a new frontier were small and local until Disneyland and Disney World made them global juggerfor the West. In a quiet announcement last month, nauts. More recently, Disney capitalized on Disney said it intended to test-launch a an architectural trend called the New "Quest for the West" weeklong vacation Urbanism to create a phenomenally sucreal estate development, tour of Yellowstone, Grand Teton and the cessful Jackson Hole area. Wyoming and Hawaii Celebration, in Florida. I wouldn't be surare the first two destinations for prised if Disney also succeeds at transform"Adventures by Disney," a vacation con- ing eco-tourism. That's good for Disney. But is it good for cept marketed to people who already take the West? Disney vacations such as cruises. The promise of eco-tourism is that it marDisney thus enters the eco-tourism market - one of the West's latest ways of selling shals market forces behind environmental itself. Eco-tourism, defined as nature-ori- causes. A Disney-in-Yellowstone requires a ented'tourism that seeks to minimize envi- vibrant Yellowstone, and so we could 'rbrrJatehtaHrhp&cts, is a frontier because it's potentially foresee a day when Disney's a ife'w? unorganized market, much like the powerful'' l<3rj%lst's call for •-strengthened Internet a decade ago. Some pioneers have endangered species laws to protect the grizproved its viability, and now a large corpo- zlies and wolves that contribute to its bottom line. (What if Disney ran tours in the ration is moving in. That's the way frontiers always work: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, thus Adventurers explore a new area, then adding its voice in opposition to drilling someone with more money and organiza- there?) On the other hand, the danger of unfettion comes in to control it. The discovery of California gold led to a rush of *49ers, but by tered capitalism is that private profits often the 1880s, most Western mining activity was come at the expense of public resources. run by large corporations. Early Western Indeed, capitalist activity on previous fronfarmers built small irrigation schemes, but tiers has led to many of our current enviafter 1900, most dams were huge, compli- ronmental problems. Many grasslands still cated projects built by the federal govern- haven't recovered from overgrazing by huge corporate cattle ranches in the late ment. Frontiers thus always attract two types of 19th century. Likewise, individual gold-panpeople -- romantics and capitalists. ners and placer miners with huge hoses Romantics love the adventure: panning for could make a mess, but it takes an orgagold, cowboying on a cattle drive, landing nized corporate body to make a Superfund on the moon. Capitalists love the opportu- site. nity to make money by being the first to figSome previous eco-pioneers have even ure out how to succeed in this new venture. soiled their own beds. Once they were orgaSo far, eco-tourism has attracted lots of nized into efficient companies, fur trappers romantics, people who love nature, want to nearly exterminated the beaver they preserve it and are excited about the possi- depended on. Timber companies in the late bility of eradicating the alleged "jobs vs. the 19th century so over cut their private lands environment" gap. Local, well-informed in the upper Midwest that Gifford Pinchot Editor: I would like to acknowledge the frustration Mr. Edward Stone experienced because of a dog off-leash causing him pain and injury; however, there are two sides to all stories. I am a dog owner who, for 20 years, has walked my dog in Park City. There have been numerous times where my safety and that of my leashed dog were in jeopardy because some wild rider ripping down the trails is oblivious to the fact that there are pedestrians sharing those very trails with them. I have been the victim of their verbal abuse: because ,.I dared , to fye .walking May I to everyone -- biker, walker and dog alike. Let's all Set responsibly so we can all share the beauty of our trails. Thank you. Sincerely, Lillian Sweet Midway GUEST EDITORIAL Energy Billrewardsfattest cats By JON MARGOLIS As you may have noticed, gasoline costs more than of yore. Some basic economics: Gasoline is a manufactured good. Its price depends in part on the price of its basic commodity, in this case crude oil. It costs more than of yore, as does natural gas. More basic economics: The price of crude oil and natural gas is high because the demand for it has risen sharply, while the supply (remember these italicized terms; they will be on the exam) has barely been inching up, perhaps because so much of the stuff that's easy to pump has been pumped. In a market economy, when demand goes up faster than supply, the price rises. Despite public grumbling, this is good; it's the way the system is supposed to work because high prices create an incentive for more production, thereby increasing the supply, thereby bringing down the price, until a new equilibrium is reached. The above-described market economy is also known as free enterprise, or, more baldly, capitalism. Political liberals approve of it, or they would not be liberals, but socialists ~ quite a different category conservatives really dig it. These conservatives - as they call themselves ~ are in charge these days. So they could and did create an energy policy. Lucky them. The system was working according to their ideology. High prices were creating incentives for oil and gas firms to increase supply. The government didn't have to do much of anything, which is just what conservatives love, though it did speed up oil and gas exploration on public lands. Nonetheless, it cut the taxes of the oil and gas companies by several billion dollars. Then it cut the taxes of coal and nuclear power companies that were also doing well, because the price of one fuel influences the price of others. The stated reason for these tax reductions was to provide an incentive for the companies to produce more. But, I hear you sputtering, according to the rules of capitalist economies, didn't those high prices already provide ample incentive to produce more? So why ~ you may still be sputtering here ~ also cut their taxes and exacerbate the federal budget deficit, which conservatives are supposed to hate? You pass the course. You have figured out the truth about the Energy Bill about to become law. (It is short offinalSenate passage as of this writing, but its tax provisions were essentially set in the Budget Bill, which has passed). The ideology behind it is not conservatism. A conservative energy policy would be market-oriented. Yes, this might include using tax breaks to create incentives not already provided by the market - for wind and solar power, for instance, or for getting folks to use less energy. Such tax incentives are in the bill. About $400 million worth over the 10-year period of the legislation. But that pales beside the $7.6 billion in incentives for producers that did not need them. So, if not conservatism, what ought one ' call the ideology underlying this strange bill? The standard liberal answer is that it is no ideology at all, more a legal corruption in which Republican politicians reward their friends and contributors. There is some evidence to support this contention. One of the last decisions the House of Representatives made on the bill was to keep a provision protecting the makers of a gasoline additive called MTBE from lawsuits, even though MTBE has polluted drinking water in 29 states. And, wouldn't you know, the companies that make the stuff have given more than a million bucks to Republican candidates. But there is no evidence that Republicans are more beholden to their big contributors than Democrats. What seems more likely is that the new breed of conservatives believes in the right of certain people - their rich and powerful friends - to be immune from the restrictions mere mortals face. Rather than have these folks break the law, the politicians change the laws so that what was once criminal or actionable becomes legal and proper. None dare call it kleptocracy. But unlike the Russian version, American kleptocracy stems not from venality but from ideology, a sort of neo-Nietzschean and anti-egalitarianism holding that the successful are superior; therefore, they deserve special privileges. Besides, like everyone else, the new conservatives, having defeated their opponents, enjoy kicking them when they're down. The fervor for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, even though the oil industry isn't convinced there's much goop down there, stems at least in part from the joy of humiliating the other guys. Jon Margolis is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service <?/High Country News (hen. org). A veteran political reporter, he writes about Washington, D.C., from Barton, VL By JOHN CLAYTON Park Record e-mail addresses Andy Bernhard Nan Chalat-Noaker Valerie Doming Jay Hamburger Patrick Parkinson Jared Whitley Matt James Adia Waldburger Anna Bloom Scott Sine Grayson West Kat James Mike Duffy Matt Gordon Chris Gill Inkama Black Joe Lair Office Manager/Front Desk ab@parkrecord.com editor@parkrecord.com ads@parkrecord.com citynews@parkrecord.com countynews@parkrecord.com education@parkrecord.com arts@parkrecord.com sports@parkrecord.com business@parkrecord.com photo@parkrecord.com photo @par krecord.com kat@parkrecord.com circulation@parkrecord.com production@parkrecord.com realestate@parkrecord.com classifieds@parkrecord.com scoreboard@parkrecord.com holly@parkrecord.com SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION 1 Year inside Summit County, $37, outside Summit County, $70 6 Months inside Summit County, $20, outside Summit County $39 Mastercard or Visa No._ Name Mailing Address Exp. Date: Mail to: The Park Record, P.O. Box 3688, Park City, Utah 84060 The Park Record welcomes letters to the editor on any subject. We ask that the letters adhere to the tollowing guldellnes:They musi Include the address and telephone number of author. No letter will be published under an assumed name. They must no} contain llbelous material. Writers are limited to ona letter every ?B days. Letters must not be longer than 300 words (guest editorials, 5O0 words) and should If possible, be typed. We reserve the right to edit letters If they are too long or it they contain statements we consider unnecessarily otlensrve or obscene. In addition, thank you letters limited In numbers to six, with regard to businesses and event sponsors. Wsz't The Park Record website at xvzvzv.parkrecord.com organized federal forest preserves to save them from their own greed. Could the same sort of fate befall ecotourism? I can picture new hotels, roads and other infrastructure crowding out the very wildlife habitat that created the need for them. I can picture each corporation saying the problem is not its hotel, but everybody else's. I can picture this not because corporations are inherently evil, but because that's the only way for them to compete. The lesson we claim to have learned from the abuses of capitalism 100 years ago is that when big corporations deal with public goods such as wildlife habitat, we need a countervailing force. And for all of its problems, the only available countervailing force is government action. Disney coming to Yellowstone doesn't necessarily mean that Mickey, Goofy, Donald, and the gang will crowd out the real animals. But it might mean thaUecotourism'S'0 adventure-frontier phase has ended. Now, it's time to figure out how to make such ventures succeed for society as a whole. John Clayton is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News in Paonia, Colo, (hcn.org). He writes in Red Lodge, Mont. The Park Record Staff PUBUSHER Andy Bernhard Editor Nan Chalat-Noaker Staff writers Jay Hamburger Pat Parkinson Joe Lair Jared Whttley Adia Waldburger Matt James Anna Bloom Contributing writers Tom Clyde Ten Orr Jay Meehan Joan Jacobson Silvia Leavitt Linda Jager Editor's assistant Courtney Herzinger Classified advertising Inkama Black Kristi Ruppert Office manager Holly VanDenAmeele Circulation manager Michael Duffy Accounting manager Kate Fischer Advertising director Valerie Demlng Advertising sales Wendy Halliday Anne Anderson Molly Ballard Cheryn McNlcol Teresa Chavez Lacy Brundy Chris Gill Annie Macdonald Editorial production Kat James Photographers Scott Sine Grayson West Production director Matt Gordon Production Scott Schlenker Jason Plawecki Kyle Burress Kim Vance Jon Smedley Becky Larsen Distribution Chris Anderson Todd Kendall Antonio Contreras Cartoonist John Kilboum Contents of the The Park Record'arc copyright © 2005, Diversified Suburban Newspapers. All rights reserved. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written consent of the managing editor or publisher. 77ie Park Record (USPS 378-730) (ISSN 07459483) is published twice weekly by Diversified Suburban Newspapers, 1670 Bonanza Dr., Park City, Utah. Periodicals Postage paid at Park City, Utah. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Park Record, Box 36SS, Park City, Utah 84060. Entered as second class matter. May 25,1977 at the post office in Park City, Utah S4060, under the Act of March 3,1897. Subscription rates arc $37 inside Summit County, $70 outside Summit County, Utah. Subscriptions are transferrable; $5 cancellation fee. Phone (435) 649-9014 or fax (435) 649-4942. Published every Wednesday and Saturday. Home delivery subscriptions in Summit County include delivery of the Sunday edition of Vie Sat Lake Tribune. There are no other service options available. |