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Show How hard is:it to do some research before you head to the polls? Call campaigns, read the newspaper or a voting guide or watch a debate on television. Listen to both sides and make an informed decision. The Salt Lake Tribune ran five editorials encouraging voters to vote “no” on Prop. 5. Even the more conservative Deseret News opposed the initiative. They could not support a constitutional amendment limiting voter rights, no matter what the issue was. Despite, all these resources, voters still showed up to the polls uninformed. Voters gobbled up the television campaign that flashed a few scenic photographs of an - elk with her children, trout streams and a bald eagle. The voice-over called voters to protect these animals and their habitat. Their “Vote Yes on Prop. 5" message became a hypnotic rallying cry for those wanting to protect Utah's wildlife. This was an outright lie. Hunters and anglers were pushing the campaign, if they were honest they would have had to show an elk's head mounted on the wall, a stuffed bald eagle and a gutted trout. I am not calling for a ban on hunting, but I am calling for an honest agenda. Be a hunting activist, just don't call yourself a wildlife protector. But they could not be honest and win their campaign at the same time. No one would have voted to change the constitution if they showed hunters shooting at mama elk, a bear dying of exposure in a body trap or a scared cougar shot down from a tree where it was finding refuge from barking dogs. But truth in their campaign was not an objective, only winning. Like a prairie fire, CALLING IN THE ‘STARS’ & EMPEROR MIKE A few basketball “Vote, Yes on wildlife the word spread across high-profile people supporting Prop. 5 also gave them a needed boost. Jazz star, Karl Malone donated to the campaign and kept his yard decorated with On Prop Five” signs. Just because he can play ball, doesn't mean he is an expert issues. Malone is a hunter and wanted to insure no one would take away his the West... You want an cating experience that "I f 9 you i never Lorget! right to the cougar hunt. Then Bob Bennett and Governor Mike Leavitt both proclaimed Prop. 5 was a good place to start reining in the initiative process. But really what are they so afraid? Before passing Prop. 5, 14 initiatives made it onto the ballot in the last 38 years. Voters passed ONE: the 1976 ban on fluoridating water. “There are many parts to our government that are best managed There's on ly one se : living legend in Moab, Utah... ; . a> by representative Stef democracy, as opposed to pure democracy or a populist approach to democracy,” Leavitt said in an October press conference endorsing Prop. So, if our governor doesn't really like the people of approval, why does he bother with democracy? office? Shouldn't those same voters be able to pass 5. passing initiatives without his stamp Wasn't it the voters that put him in a law through the initiative process? Fi r Expect the best at Buck's. He should be able to bypass all those little obstacles that get in his way. Why doesn't he just crown himself emperor? Didn't that work out pretty well for that little guy in France? : : It would be perfect. Emperor Mike Leavitt wouldn't have to worry about power wars with pesky things like the populous or even the Attorney General. The Empire of Utah ighway 191 435.259.5201 Serving Dinner Nightly _www.moabutah.com/bucks/ State Liquor License e, could close its borders. It would finally be free of the chains and burdens caused by outsiders‘and the Feds. And they could blindly follow their leader, an idyllic Utah version of a blue blood. Special interest groups would no longer have to bother convincing the populace of anything. All they would need is the approval of our newly crowned monarch. In Prop. 5’s case, they could have saved all that campaign money to kill a few cougars, bait : CONTACT US VIA E MAIL AT: some bears or shoot some bald eagles. zephyr@lasal.net THE WEB ADDRESS IS: www.canyoncountryzephyr.com Alexandra L. Woodruff, aka "The Woman of Mystery,” lives, works, and grows more cynical with each passing moment in Salt Lake City. FARM IN DANGER | Moab's Canoe Specialists A diverse community in the small town of Bluff, Utah, settled in 1880, has inspired a cooperative effort to purchase the Curtis Jones Farm and place it in an agricultural land trust. This will protect our rich rural heritage and open spaces. It will keep this hay and melon @ Aly farm in production. canoe company l.c. BLUFF CITY HISTORIC PRESERVATION P.O. BOX 76 BLUFF, UT I WANT TO HELP SAVE THE FARM. ASSOCIATION Even on the river, even on that great chemical al Go 84512 = (so to speak) without our Zephyr Please send me more information. Name Address Here is my Donation $ sae RENTALS = The Bluff City Historic Preservation Association holds 501(c)(3) status under the federal tax SALES code. All donations are tax deductible. Labyrinth & GUIDED TRIPS CANOE SCHOOL Stillwater Canyo ns \ Gateway t on the Dolores 702 South Main Street (801) 259-7722 (800) 753-8216 |