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Show PAGE 12 THE ZEPHYRJANTEB 1992 beyond reality by Jack Campbell Grand County, Grand Uea ' s remember listening during the Why do we allow aome Ilea to go unchallenged? Reagan era, aa his Ilea were exposed in back to back film clips, where he first said one thing and then the opposite, and yet people could not accept that their President was lying to them. Tell a big enough lie, and people have trouble doubting IL One of my favorite really big lies, was in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, where he asserts that if everyone Just tries to maximize his own economic self interest, then somehow the greater community good will also be achieved. This "Invisible Hand," while supposedly reaching for the common good, was later found to be reaching for the poor to the man's wallet. The doctrine of the Invisible Hand was so conveniently it was it after Is in two more hundred than still cited years selfish, that gospel first written. In the Tale of the Emperor's New Clothes, it took the insight of a child to see that the Emperor was NOT clothed in the finest, most gossamer fabric ever woven, but was simply naked, the victim of fraud. Those of us living in Grand County are constantly being asked to accept certain lies as part of our social fabric of reality. After awhile one gets weary of listening to the folks who only want to make money off the public lands, tell us how much they have always loved the land, how they are really in their hearts environmentalists. Let's ask them for a little more honesty in public. I self-servi- ng free-enterpri- se The State and Federal Lands are Bankrupting Grand County? our County Commissioners to our state senators, we are told by all that the amount of land held by the Federal and State agencies Is keeping us in poverty. Why do we let them tell us this crap? The employees from the National Park Service, Forest Service, and BLM all contribute substantial incomes to our local economies. These are stable, permanent Jobs not affected by the boom and bust economic cycles that cause so much social harm In southern Utah communities. . While we all have serious reservations about the tourist Industry, we still have to admit that it Is paying a lot of peoples' bills at this time. The tourist Industry in Grand County Is entirely supported by the public lands. The entire resource that the tourist ' industry has to sell to tourists Is the scenery of the public lands and rivers around us. Except for minimal permitting fees, this is virtually free. No, that's not true. The federal and state agencies actually PAY US for letting us have the benefits of the public lands in Grand County. We get PILT (Payment In Ueu of Taxes) money from both the federal and state agencies for the land they have In Grand County. It's an outrageously good deal that we've got Not only do we have all the Incredible benefits of the public lands, but someone actually conned the fools Into paying us for what they're giving us. And our County Commissioners are hard at work, spending our money, trying to destroy this good deal. Even If you only care about money, the federal and state lands are a good deal. Not only do they pay PILT money to the county treasury, but we get property taxes from any commercial activities like oil wells and gas pipelines. And we don't have to provide services to them. Maximum benefits and minimum costs. Jeep Safari, Fat Tire Festival, the river trip companies, and Just about all the shops and motels in Moab ere dependent on the public lands for their existence Privatize the state From lands in Grand County and put up NO TRESPASSING signs and subdivisions, and who would want to go on a Jeep Safari Trail through the Sand Flat a condo development? Your tax dollars are being spent for exactly this purpose! Your County Commissioner David Knutson Is lobbying the State Land Board to sell even more of the land crossed by Jeep Safari Trails, land used for the Sllckrock Bike Trail for both mountain bikes and motorcycles, special canyons enjoyed by thousands for hiking. As I write this, Dave is on his way up to Salt Lake City to speak before the State Land Board for the express purpose of advocating a course of action that will have a much more severe Impact on the "Fins and Things" Jeep Safari Trail and the Sllckrock Bike Trail than anything In any wilderness proposal by any environmental organization. Why can't we see that all of us have much more to lose (whether Jeeper, biker, hiker, bird watcher, etc.) from the ridiculous war being waged by the County Commissioners against the public lands, than from anything else? If our County Commissioners had any sense at all, they'd be trying to Increase the mount of Moral land In Grand County, to trade State Land In Grand County to other counties, so that the sale of State land here does not block the trails used by Jeep Safari, mountain bikers, motorcyclists, and hikers. This would make us all wealthier, not only economically, but In the much more Important value areas as well. But not our Commissioners, they're up In SLC trying to convince the State Land Board to sell off the Jeep Safari Trail called "Fins and Things," part of the Sllckrock Bike Trail, and Morning Glory Arch. Thanks, guys. Loving After awhile it gets hard to listen to another Louise Liston, another southern Utah county commissioner, tell about how much they "really" love the land. Peculiar and strange language these folks have evolved down here in the desert Maybe the rest of us newcomers Just don't yet have an ear for the dialect I Anyway, after listening carefully to them for a few years now, still haven't heard them use the word in any way that doesn't translate directly Into money. Loving the land means to care about how much money you can graze, gouge, pump, or cut out of it Loving the land means allowing the BLM or Forest Service to force you to take your cows off the public land Just barely before you've destroyed the resource. Loving the land means chaining it in pretty patterns so that the damage won't be quite so obvious in 20 years. Loving the land means damming every possible canyon so that more alfalfa and hay can be grown for the cows that should be in Iowa. Loving the land means cutting all the old growth forests to convert these "decadent" stands Into "healthy" young tree farms. Loving the land means humanizing and managing and manipulating It until there Is none of Its uneconomical desolation we have left wildness left And our children shall inherit the dreary to them. There must be some old time locals out there who still love the open country they have grown up In. There must be some folks who will regret the lost vistas that our County Commissioners are so anxious to turn into subdivisions. There must be some who would rather see the old ranches remain, and not be converted Into condos and tourist traps. There must be some who give more meaning to the word "love" than how much and how much profit they can derive from the object of their "love." It muat be a money strange experience to be "loved" by these people. MAN-lpulat- our County Commission cared about the children In Grand County surely there would have been at least a small effort expended on their part to Improve the school systems. Nothing Is more Important to prepare children for the harshly competitive Job market In the future than their educations. Our County Commissioners will spend hours and hours, make field trips and Inspections to try to open a few miles of some worthless road. They've spent hundreds of hours and thousands of taxpayers dollars trying to reclaim control of the federal lands in Grand County. They're spending hundreds of thousands of dollsrs on boondoggle projects like the Equestrian Center and the Book Cliffs Road when that money could be used for the schools or other needed community projects. Instead they spend time discussing whether they can take even more money away from the schools. But If Job training Just means teaching the kids to operate a backhoe or a bulldozer, then schooling Is a waste of county funds which could be better spent trying to get more public land to be bulldozed. The environmental protection laws, which are considered to be so onerous to southern Utah, try to ensure that there Is something left for the kids In the future. But our County Commissioners seem to be exclusively Interested In getting as much aa they can If ATtf Howdy'. IAAwAGER SIVAY ed For Our Children's Benefit? .. all-ti- the Land? HARTLEY AMp JHd IP SI0W&Y Aixwice$ Ttere a$ oor t i r$ WELL- - 596NT, Ari CP A Money LA WE AWr Ap ) 74 South Main o Moab, Utah 0 259-SUB- S |