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Show a : f i y f :: t : v TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT By Jim Stiles Four Yean Late- rOn both the local and national level, this is die most uninspiring, boring election campaign I have ever seen. In Grand County, I cannot find anyone who even knows who is running for office (four County Council seats are up for grabs). Four years ago, this place was erupting with excitement as we prepared to vote on a referendum to actually change our form of government (We did). But this one is turning out to be a yawn-eAnd I dug up the November 1992 issue of this publication from my archives here at Zephyr Towers to see what I had to '92 presidential elections. I was, if say about the you can believe it, aglow with enthusiasm. I was tempted for a while to reprint parts of it, just to prove that I can be an optimist ticket from time to time. I proudly endorsed the Ginton-Gor- e and looked forward to a brighter America for us alL.. r. then-immine- nt WelL.things didn't turn out exactly the way I'd hoped, although I really don't blame Clinton. It seemed possible to me at the time that The Good Life in America might assume a new meaning. That President Clinton might inspire us to see a fundamental change in the way we prioritized our needs and the things that truly desires. That we might start fulfill our lives. Adlal Stevenson, the Democratic candidate for president in 1952 said at the time, "We must not be so concerned with improving our standard of living, as we should be with improving our standard of life." Forty years later, I thought there was a fighting chance we might be moving in that direction. I don't know why I was sO optimistic, but that kind of utopian thinking has just not come to pass. America, and much of the world now, is as obsessed with an insatiable thirst for economic growth and five quest for material satisfaction as it ever was. Or more so. The end of the Cold War has given us the Consumers' World. American culture is affecting (infecting?) the most isolated corners of the planet McDonald's hasn't just come to Moab...they're everywhere. But as I said, I don't blame Clinton really. He's probably the most brilliant politician since Franklin Roosevelt, man who knew better than to try to lead the American people to a place they do not want to go. And that is the dilemma. We don't want to hear about how bad things are. Look how far Dick Lamm got; he didn't stand a chance anyway with Little Ross in charge, but who wanted to hear the truth from a man who was known in his own home state as Governor Gloom? Neither major political party is willing to address the real crisis that our country and our planet face a burgeoning population for more on this subject , see "More Rats in a Box" on page 22) that will surely deplete the world's natural resources and devastate the quality of life that we all hope to maintain or improve. Yet, it's a subject that isn't even addressed, much less debated. A recent Gallup Poll asked Americans what their 25 greatest concerns for the future were. Population wasn't even listed; yet every concern cited by the interviewees was an effect of It's an issue that our culture just cannot come to because the idea that growth could ever be a bad grips with, is unthinkable to us. Losing the Viet Nam War was thing unthinkable arid we practically drowned this country in the blood that was shed in it So this time around, I find myself voting, not so much to change Anvrica, but for specific issues that I am reluctant to give up on. I feel like the little Dutch boy sticking fingers in the dike that's about to give way, trying to decide which leaks need plugging first. ovcr-populatk- I know that a Republican in the White House will probably wilderness bill in mean the end of any hope for a decent-size- d Utah. It means a return to the Reagan-Bus- h mentality on choice (or the lack of it) for women. It means the cancellation of family planning funds to Third World nations that have legalized abortion. It means the development of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration and development It means five gutting of the Endangered Species Act It means a government that often foils to listen to its heart in the decision-makin- g process. And it means the empowerment of the most frightening minority in American life today the Radical Religious Right All this means that if I lived in a state where the outcome of the presidential vote was in doubt, I would once again pull the lever for Bill Clinton and A1 Gore. Despite the barrage of vitriolic garbage that they've endured from the likes of Limbaugh k Co. for fiie last four yean, I still believe in their bask decency and honor. I even think that deep down, late at night, they agonize over a very frightening future and their inability to mention it, much less to propose solutions. But dammnit they're decent and honorable politicians and we, the American people, will simply not tolerate the unvarnished truth. So they don't give it to us. have an interesting Here in Utah, five because candidate is almost certain to advantage; Republican the last Utah state Democrat to was LBJ in 1964) win (the carry and by record majorities (Reagan took over 70 of the vote in '80 and '84, and Clinton finished third, behind Bush and Perot in '92), we can vote for whoever we damn please. We can vote our conscience and not the lesser of two evils, and be free from worry that a wasted vote will throw the election to the other guy. I'm seriously thinking about casting a write-i- n vote for Ken Sleight, legendary river runner, proprietor of Pack Creek Ranch, and a contributor to this paper. I may very well jump on the Sleight Band Wagon because, if elected, he most certainty would dismantle Glen Canyon Dam and drain Lake Powell, and his ascent to the presidency would scare the pants off the Bureau of Land Management Wouldn't that be something? All those BLM people running around with no pants? Sure it's a pipe dream, but..what five hell If I'm going to dream, I want to dream BIGI Visiting Our Big Slater City If Moab has a sister city, it has to be Jackson, Wyoming. We may never quite reach the level of madness that Jackson has achieved in the last 25 years, but I know we'll do our best Jackson has the advantage in that it lies just south of Grand Teton and Yellowstone Parks and has a winter ski season, although they apparently have as much of a public relations problem with their bitter cold winter temperatures as we do with our blistering summer heat. Stories that a man's urine stream freezes in midrelease up there on Rendezvous Peak may be an exaggeration, however. In spite of the disadvantages, Jackson is everything our Chamber of Commerce longs to be. Massive development, but done..ver so tastefully. They have a K Mart on the south end of town (the end seems to keep moving every time I return), but it's built to look like Fort Apache, with a parking lot full of Indians in sport utility vehicles I suppose. The Kentucky Fried Chicken sign is only allowed to be twelve feet above ground level and the Colonel is wearing a cowboy hat, so it's not offensive at alL Spare me...please. What used to be South Park, a vast expanse of meadows and alfalfa fields is now a vast expense of subdivisions and condo developments. The main road into Jackson passes to the east and above five valley floor of South Park, so travelers look down on hundreds of roofs. It occurred to me that any county commission worth its salt should have passed an ordinance that requires those home owners to have sod roofs; it would have been a lot more effective than the Colonel in a cowboy hat Jackson has all the franchise restaurants, and countless motels, and curio shops that Moab boasts, but Jackson has, oh so much more. It has a London Fog outlet, and an Orvls store, and bars that serve real liquor, and real estate prices that make Grand County's look depressed. They realty have it alL What they don't have anymore, not realty, are true blue cowboys. Jackson used to be full of theixunow its full of it. The town still puts on its big "shootout" every night, but it's actors for cry In' out loud. For performed by Hollywood-traine- d many years, a long time ago, the principle bad guy in this nightly massacre was an clown named Clover Sturiln. Legend has it, his wife made him give up the rodeo because she thought it was too dangerous. He went to work in a saw mill and was promptly blinded by an errant splinter took the whole eye out ex-rod- eo |
