Park Record | 2020-06-24 | Page 8

A-8 Wed/Thurs/Fri, June 24-26, 2020 The Park Record Utah’s oldest voter turns 107 Red CaRd RobeRts By Amy Roberts She says she has never missed casting a ballot CONNOR RICHARDS The Daily Herald PROVO, Utah (AP) — Provo resident MacCene Grimmett has cast a ballot every single election since she’s been old enough to vote — and that’s quite a few elections. MacCene, who has lived in the same dark red-bricked house in northern Provo since 1953, recently celebrated her 107th birthday. She was the oldest active voter in the state in November, when county elections officials came to her house and helped her cast her vote on an iPad. “And I voted right there,” MacCene said, pointing to a russet reclining chair in her living room, which is filled with pictures, keepsakes and memories from past decades. “I’ve voted every year ever since I was old enough.” MacCene’s political activity stems from both a passion for local politics and a love for humanity in general. “I’m very interested in our politics,” she said, quickly adding, “I just like people. I’m very interested in people.” But an impeccable voting record is hardly MacCene’s greatest accomplishment. The mother of five children — all daughters — has traveled around the country and to South America with President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and even received a special invitation to Nelson’s birthday last year. In 1946, she was the first pianist to perform with the Chauntenette’s Women’s Chorus, despite never being formally trained as a musician. “She was such a good piano player, which she learned early in her life from her great grandmother,” said Dixie Grimmett, her daughter. One time, MacCene played piano to accompany a Brigham Young University music student who was performing live as part of her thesis. A man in the audience was impressed with her performance and asked if she needed a job, landing her a gig as a secretary for BYU’s Physical Plant Department. Her secretarial work eventually caught the attention of school President Ernest L. Wilkinson, who asked MacCine Grimmett to be the university’s payroll director. “She thoroughly enjoyed it because she just liked numbers and accounting,” Dixie Grimmett said. “And she was there 30 years being payroll director.” MacCene was even around to see the university transition from bookkeeping by hand to digitized accounting. “So she became the payroll director before they ever had com- puters and was there when they installed computers,” her daughter said. “And she helped build whatever the first program was.” That’s not MacCene’s only connection to BYU. It was at the university she met her husband, Richard George Grimmett, while he was attending the school on a basketball scholarship; he passed away in 2003 at age 90. MacCene, who never had enough money to attend BYU herself, would always help her husband with his homework. “He wasn’t a very energetic student to study with,” Dixie Grimmett said about her dad. “But he was a good basketball player,” her mother interjected. MacCene has held a handful of other jobs throughout her long life. As a teenager, she worked with her mother in the kitchen of Hotel Roberts on University Avenue in Provo. She also worked for the United States Steel Corporation during World War II while her served as an engineer in the Army. She worked in the Utah County Clerk/Auditor’s Office and as a proofreader for the Daily Herald, which her daughter said “she didn’t like very well.” MacCene — a grandmother to 18, a great-grandmother to 26, and a great-great grandmother to four (with four more on the way) — has seen a lot of changes in Provo since she first moved to the city from Lewisville, Idaho, at 8 years old. “Oh, it grew,” she said. Guilty plea in adoption scheme LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY — A former Arizona politician pleaded guilty in Utah Friday to human smuggling and other charges filed in an illegal adoption scheme that stretched across three states and involved women from the Marshall Islands. Paul Petersen, a Republican who served county assessor in metro Phoenix, has also struck a plea agreement with Arizona prosecutors on state Medic- aid-fraud charges. He’s expected to enter a similar plea in federal court in Arkansas next week. Petersen was charged with illegally paying women from the Pacific island nation to come to the United States to give up their babies in at least 70 adoption cases in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas over three years. Marshall Islands citizens have been prohibited from traveling to the U.S. for adoption purposes since 2003. He pleaded guilty in Utah to three counts of human smuggling and one count of communications fraud, all felonies. Scoreboard Summer Sports Sailing Park City Sailing Association Tuesday Night Laser Series 6. Julie Bartlett 7. JR Dethorn 8. William Rusconi 9. Ed Gorfinkle 10. Dave Staley 11. Meghan Bouman 12. David Rennie 13. Morgan Dethorn 14. Emily Augello 15. Jacklyn Hallett 16. Tom Hughes 25 26 30 32 39 40 41 41 50 54 63 Score Results – June 16 1. Paul Swan 3 2. Jeffrey Kluge 8 3. JR Dethorn 10 4. Geoff Hurwitch 11 Recreation 5. Tom Vollbrecht 14 Sports 6. David Rennie 22 7. Karl Paulsen 23 Golf 8. Scott Vermerris 23 9. Meghan Bouman 26 Wasatch Ladies Golf Asso10. Will Warlick 29 ciation 11. Julie Bartlett 29 12. William Rusconi 32 Individual Competition - Net 13. Lucy Woolsey 35 Fours 14. Tom Hughes 36 Results – June 16 15. Keegan Buffington 36 Score 16. Jacklyn Hallett 38 Flight 1 1. Terri Goodall 38 Results – June 9 Score 2. Barb McCleary 39 1. Tom Vollbrecht 17 Flight 2 2. Will Warlick 18 1. Laura Marshall 37 3. Buster Pike 21 2. Marcie Gines 38 4. Paul Swan 23 2. Mary Ann Woods 38 5. Geoff Hurwitch 24 2. Susan Peay 38 The women brought to Utah to give birth received little or no prenatal care, prosecutors said in court documents. Their passports were also taken while they were in the U.S. to assert control over them, authorities said. Petersen’s attorneys had previously said he ran a legal adoption practice and was unfairly vilified. A member of The Church of Jesus Christs of Latter-day Saints, Petersen completed a proselytizing mission in the Marshall Islands, a collection of atolls and islands in the eastern Pacific. AIR-O-HVAC 28, ANPAC 18 Low Gross & Low Net Results – June 9 Flight 1 Gross Winner Barb McCleary Net Winner Susan Peay Flight 2 Gross Winners Marci Gines Doris Swanson Net Winner Rosemary Brewer Score Results – June 12 Arches 15, AIR-O-HVAC 3 Bankou 19, ANPAC 18 88 Arches 16, Co-Jo 4 Bankou 24, AIR-O-HVAC 8 73 C&E Stone 16, Co-Jo 4 Frontier Woodworks 23, ANPAC 10 108 Frontier Woodworks 22, 108 C&E Stone 21 South Summit Aquatics & Fitness Center 74 Standings Arches C&E Stone Bankou Co-Jo Frontier Woodworks AIR-O-HVAC ANPAC W 4 3 2 2 2 1 0 L 0 1 2 2 2 3 4 Adult Softball Results - June 19 Co-Jo 28, Bancou 21 Arches 19, Frontier Woodworks 3 C&E Stone 21, Bancou 18 Co-Jo 17, Frontier Woodworks 8 C&E Stone 27, AIR-O-HVAC 15 Arches 19, ANPAC 6 Please forward submissions by noon Sunday for Wednesday’s edition and by noon Wednesday for Saturday’s edition to scoreboard@ parkrecord.com Compiled by Joe Lair As per district policy, Park City School District will be destroying special education records and 504 files of students that graduated or aged out in the 2016-2017 school year. If you want these records, please contact Susan Barbisan at 645-5626 ext 2952 or [e-mail] by July 1, 2020. Tulsa, TikTok and teens It’s been several months, long before quarantine and COVID were part of our daily vernacular, but I distinctly remember standing in the produce aisle at the grocery store picking out peppers and feeling like I was suddenly a stagehand at a recital. A group of teenagers had started dancing near the bananas. There was some giggling and just enough choreography to confirm the performance wasn’t entirely spontaneous. A few phones recorded their moves. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I had just had a chemical peel and did not want to be the random red-faced bystander making a cameo appearance in this video, so I quickly turned down the next aisle. Later, a friend of mine who has young teenagers informed me this not-so-impromptu dance party had likely been uploaded to a social media platform called TikTok, something she was only aware of because her kids were also prone to dancing at the grocery store. “It’s OK you don’t know about it,” she assured me. “You’re too old.” Aside from my age, my distinct reluctance to break out into song and/or dance in random public places might be another logical reason this app hadn’t been on my radar. It seemed kind of pointless to me, so I didn’t give it any additional thought. At least not until this weekend when news broke suggesting teens on TikTok trolled the president by reserving tickets to his Tulsa rally they never intended to use. The exaggerated RSVP list topped out near one million ticket holders, exciting everyone in the admin- istration. But just over 6,000 people showed up for the rally and Sean Spicer wasn’t around to insist the crowd was actually much larger than it looked. In all, the stadium wasn’t even half full. While many are calling the effort to reserve tickets a teenage “prank,” I’d argue it was activism. Orchestrating such a widescale call to action and managing to keep it under wraps is nothing short of impressive. When I was in high school, my group of friends couldn’t even pull off a sur- Aside from my age, my distinct reluctance to break out into song and/ or dance in random public places might be another logical reason this app hadn’t been on my radar.” prise party. We ordered a cake for our friend from the bakery where she worked. She ended up making her own cake and writing her name on it. That’s the kind of simple-minded thought we had at 15. Today’s teens might not be old enough to vote, but damn if they can’t make a statement. Or keep a secret. Because there was no RSVP capacity, and seating was firstcome, first-served, it’s unlikely we will ever know for certain how much of the more than half-empty stadium was due to this coordinated effort, and how much was due to a myriad of other things — like people realizing over 120,000 dead Americans, Great Depression levels of unemployment, and nationwide protests against racism and police brutality all have one common denominator. Regardless, one thing we definitely do know is an event that was supposed to be the ultimate ego boost for Trump turned out to be the political equivalent of the Fyre Festival. It was a complete flop. And that’s just the attendance. It gets worse when you realize what the president actually said to those adoring fans who equaled roughly the population of Nephi. “Here’s the bad part, when you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases,” Trump told the crowd. “So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down please.’” Those same people later tried to defend the comment as a joke, which doesn’t exactly make it any better. Either the president made a joke at the expense of more than 120,000 dead Americans, or he actually tried to slow testing during a pandemic. Which makes about as much medical sense as telling women if they stop taking pregnancy tests, they’ll stop being pregnant. Until this weekend, I might have claimed the president’s logic made about as much sense as dancing in front of bananas, but now I know better. Amy Roberts is a freelance writer, longtime Park City resident and the proud owner of two rescued Dalmatians, Stanley and Willis. Follow her on Twitter @amycroberts. WRiteRs on the Range By Asta Bowen Looking hate in the eye in a Montana ski town In western Montana it would seem we’re a long way from the movement for justice and peace that has gained new thunder since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. We’re no strangers to injustice here, where societal woes too often land on Native American shoulders, and no strangers to inequality, where upmarket vacation homes overlook the many school kids in need of lunch assistance. And we have our share of political divides, tempered a little by the “live and let live” culture of the West — or maybe just diffused by her wide open spaces. Yet even in our community, confrontation is upon us. Protests beget counter-protests, emotions run high, things happen. What happened here was nothing like the incident in Buffalo, New York, where a 75-year old man fell and was badly injured because police shoved him backwards. When an officer went to the victim’s side, he was pulled back into formation; after those who had engaged with the man were suspended, their whole unit resigned in protest. What happened here was also different from what we had seen earlier in Coral Gables, Florida; there, when marchers reached the police station, officers were waiting on the steps; a dialogue took place, followed by a prayer where the police joined protesters in taking a knee. What happened here was much less dramatic. On a fine afternoon in the pretty ski town of Whitefish, a group was gathered to raise signs of support for Black Lives Matter. One large angry man descended on the scene, cursing in people’s faces and grabbing at signs, as the group chanted “Peaceful! Peaceful!” Within minutes a policeman had escorted the man from the scene. But amid the commotion, one image burns bright: We see the intruder from behind, towering over a young black woman, as he gets in her face. Her sign, “Say Their Names,” has dropped to her side, but her feet are planted firmly. She has just put up her sunglasses, meeting his assault with a steady, silent gaze. Though the encounter lasts only a moment, the impression is enduring. Her name is Samantha Francine, and she embodies the change we need. As we adjust to life under pandemic, it is time to accept that yet another plague is upon us, and that is the disease of dehumanization. We condemn first and ask questions later — or never. We judge on sight, we dismiss and damn; we polarize and partisanize until the rift has grown so wide there is no reaching across. We’ll use almost any story to justify our rage, like the claim that blood running from the ear of the old man lying on the sidewalk in Buffalo was a cleverly staged with tubes, or that the Coral Gables protest was illegitimate because A, it wasn’t black-led, and B, the group had communicated with police in advance. (Organizer Oshea Johnson laughed and said he’s been black since birth, but yes; when the police called, they talked — and in a hopeful sign, are still talking.) Samantha just held her ground, looked the man in the eye, and listened. She explained why: “I grew up with a single white father who taught us from a young age that things were going to be different for us just because of the color of our skin. He would constantly remind us that ‘no matter the threat, always look them in the eye so they have to acknowledge you’re human.’ In this moment, those are the words that went through my head. When I lifted up my glasses, he saw me. I saw him.” From the news, it’s easy to think that the revolution under way is only taking place in cities. But like coronavirus, this other plague is everywhere — most obviously online, in Twitter feeds and Instagram comments — but most dangerously, headed for our hearts. Mine too, I fear, which is why I am writing this, and why I am leaning on Samantha’s stance for strength. Swipe-and-judge is here, and it’s going to take more than a mask to cure. So let’s stop, plant our feet, look each other in the eye and listen to one another. Wherever we do so, be it Buffalo, Coral Gables, Whitefish, or our own back yard, that might be the revolution that really matters. Asta Bowen is a contributor to Writersontherange.org, a nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She is the author of Wolf: The Journey Home and a former columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She lives in northwest Montana.