OCR Text |
Show Editorials SALT FLAT NEWS, FEBRUARY-MARC- 1971 H, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR -- Inquiring Photographer "THE QUESTION Are you satisfied with the present' emphasis the State ng of Utah is giving in the Wendover area for dry land recovery of manned spacecraft. pp-moti- . WHERE ASKED Salt Lake City PESERTlNNND THERE.W the frontier stateline, and then the smith sands ...AND OVER HERE 1HE W ENDOVER id it THE ANSWERS NEWS AWAKE, MY LITTLE ONES photos byR. Goldborgor A great many people were startled recently to learn that a decision on the location of a space shuttle will be made this year. This idea has been tossed about for more than nine years, and thus has become old hat. The time for coasting is over. Floridians, Californians, and New Mexicans are going after the spaceport, and Utah cannot afford to coast any longer. The people of Wendover have overwhelmingly indicated their desire for the spaceport here. The forces of economic development in the state have stirred. The Governor has acted swiftly to appoint members to the spaceport committee which was created only last week by the legislature. The Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce has appointed a space shuttle committee. The sleepers are awaking. The Salt Flat News will be reporting how fast they move, who is faltering, and who is dragging his feet. viefnmiizing mm While the legislature was recently contemplating the appropriate animal to represent Utah, it was wryly suggested that this animal be a dead sheep. This aspect of legislative humor goes beyond the chuckle stage into an area of realistic credibility duly noted by the current influx of national media to Garrison, Utah, where a medium number of sheep passed on from devouring a common, though noxious, weed. Ranked just two notches below Cambodia by Walter Cronkite, Utah was the latest victim to the Vietnamization of America. Bullions of Americans who watch the daily world roll by while awaiting dinner were given the privilege to again equate Utah with oil slicks and other gooey political quagmires like Southeast Asia just before the world turned off for meatloaf and other domestic treats. The irony of reporting Utah with the same banality of known social ills like oil slicks and Vietnam is that Utah is not a social ill; ask the average family in Weehawken, New Jersey, or Gainesville, Florida, who would place Utah somewhere west of Texas and east of California. This family could now care less to visit the place, thanks to the doomsday attitude of reporting a sad occurrence. Sheep die all over the United States, but in Utah it Is a national disaster because of a past fiasco known to many as the Dugway Gassacre. It is pot uncommon for persons planning to travel through Utah for the first time to write the Travel Council and inquire as to whether to bring along a gas mask. Obviously these persons really believe that travel through Utah may be hazardous to your health while rushing to get to Southern California, where blue skies literally cause a celebration, though not without the usual rash of complaints from certain residents. The concern that generates such national coverage is the science fiction approach taken to deny or explain what has happened. This particular approach, feigning fright and uncertainty though ladling in common sense, brings us together only in a way Dr. Strangelove could appreciate. Even on a local scale, this approach is apparent in the sdentific unexplanation the governor of Utah and the state veterinarian gave to the national press during a hasty conference after the initial findings into the cause of the dead sheep were confirmed. The conference, well attended from the New York. Times on down, lacked proper visual aids and cross reference documentation to pacify a nervous press looking for the irrational and unexplainable. Words alone, no matter the source, do not quench the flames of doubt, especially in a scientific conflagration. After the press conference adjourned, the vibrations of doubt generated by a few were felt by many, As a harbinger of credibility, doubt in the press is a dangerous seems rational weapon, especially in a world where the incredible as and the rational absurd. Credibility could be defined the common denominator of nonbelief. This doubt was very evident when Terry Drinkwater of CBS News in Los Angeles queried the mind of Governor Rampton about why it was made up in relation to being satisfied that the sheep had died from eating a noxious weed. Mr. Drinkwaters goading the governors mind shows a perfect case of networkosis vaguely akin to halitosis, though more in living color than the latter. so A note worthy of mental digestion is that Vietnam is not much a war against Communists any longer, but against credibility. ' to the nation as sheep are to Utah. Credibility-i. KEN LLOYD, district man-- , ager, 20th Century Fox: It would Dear Editor: I would like to toss my compliments into your cocked hat. Your paper is a delight and its usefulness and aesthetic value are not embodied solely in its irreverent irrelevance. It also makes for a dust cover for my coffee table. By the way, I was raised in Tooele and your portrayal of Tooele in the article on Faye Gillette was close to home (pardon the pun). Hes a good man in a good town. Carry on, gentlemen. With a lot of luck and a few insane literary critics, your paper could well-designe- Dear Editor: Please enter the enclosed three subscriptions (we think its great to send out of state). Keep it going we enjoy it. Sincerely, Mr. & Mrs. M. Earl Wood, Sr. d be blasted into journalistic smithereens. Sincerely, Tim St. Clair Tooele, Utah ' Tooele, Utah Dear Editor: Mio guerido, amigos. Often have Ive been told, rather Ive heard it said that some people dont know straight up from backwards, and just couldnt find their way to an outdoor restroom with the la direccion escribir on their boot heel. Hereby I suggest you have your speedmetors checked for accurate and buy yourself a compass so youll know in what direccion youre really traveling. Dear Editor: The distance in miles from Salt Lake City to Wendover, I congratulate you on your which Ive traveled so many enterprise. After reading a couple of times in different autos and trucks Ive lost count. The speedissues, I, too, have begun to pay metors of all vehicles registrated attention to what happens on one and twenty-si- x hundred of the Salt Flats! the longest miles Ive traveled. Good Luck, You are twenty-si- x miles short in Sincerely, your estimation. By the point of John Cowles, Jr. the compass and geography President Wendover lays to the west of Salt Lake City, not south. For a Minneapolis Star and Minneapolis Tribune good lesson in its true direcction, leave Salt Lake City some summer afternoon an hour before sunset toward Wendover. Gracias un mil certainly help the economy of Utah. I dont know what the states doing about it, but I. think its a good idea. (anonymous) CAROL ZARKOV, Pharmaassistant-- , Salt Lake City: I dont think I really like the idea of it. Theyve got other places they could put their money. They should use money for the people . . . programs to help people in general. cists TOM EMERY, Salt Lake City: think we have any business doing anything in space until we solve our problems on I dont earth. . BRIAN HARRY, Salt Lake City: I think it would improve things a lot. We could handle it, and we would start to advance ourselves in this state instead of worrying about the state fish or bird. NEWS SUBPOENAED IN VENUE MOTION The NEWS was a recent participant in a change of venue hearing in Salt Lake City after a story mentioning the case under argument appeared in the December, 1970, issue of the monthly . newspaper. The change of venue motion was introduced by the attorney for one of two men charged with murder in Tooele County, - s 3 ED ELLIS, Salt Lake City: I think the state should try to get more employment, but I doubt if this would help. The attorney claimed the NEWS story on Faye Gillette, retiring Tooele County sheriff, mentioned the arrest of his client in a manner which could be prejudicial to a prospective juror. The NEWS was one of several witnesses subpoenaed. The change of venue was granted and the case was tried in Salt Lake City. WENDOVERS PICTURETPAPER DOUBLE ISSUE THE SALT FLAT NEWS is published twelve times a year by the Salt Flats Publishing Corporation, a Utah corporation. GIVES DEPTH Editor Richard Nahum Goldberger Feature Editor Richard Menzies This months NEWS is a double issue to provide you with the most comprehensive look at bid and the Utahs spaceport ' of sheep at death mysterious Utah. Garrison, This giant issue will be accompanied by an extra issue, another special, to be published this summer. Subscribers will still receive 12 issues for a subscription year. . 6 Contributors WiU-Luc-as Don Young Brian Record Business Manager Jesse Green - P.O.BOX 11717 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 84111 |