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Show Political groups are avaricious? To the Editor: As I mull over some of the salient issues of the last several weeks and the official reaction thereto, I am unavoidably required to conclude that the political affairs of our County, City and other units of local government are under the grasp of a political machine, a machine whose actions loom as avaricious, grasping and arbitrary as any in the land. Such a conclusion might come as a surprise to certain citizens of the community who have been brainwashed into supposing that metion of political machine refers to Tammany Hall, the late Daley Machine of Chicago and the like. Yet when we untangle the machinations in at least three facet of local Government and note the official action taken on the same; how can we avoid noticing the bald implications of avarice on the part of the manipulators and the suppiness of the officials relating thereto. I refer particularly to the wanton attempt by the lawmen of Uintah County and Vernal City to foist their attorney fees upon the taxpayers for a purely private litigation, and again to the somewhat underhanded attempt to sell the local hospital to a corporation at a cost which amounts to a covert subsidy to the above corporation and rip-off of the taxpaying citizens of this community, and finally it is equally noted in the pressure tactics employed by the promoters of the valley-wide sewer project in attempting to use open and overt compulsion to force property owners to purchase a sewer hook-up once the sewer line is constructed adjacent to their property, all deviously employed as manner of extortion to foster the avaricious endeavors and wanton cupidity of certain minority interests to the harm and detriment of the commonweal. All of these have the trademark of political chicane in the most blantant and undisguised fashion. And equally apparent in the suppine and groveling manner in which our representative units such as the County Commission, the City Council and the supposedly elected officials of boards and commissions com-missions of other units of government yield to the arbitrary demands of the ruling "clique" that actually control matters in this community. Indeed one hardly enters the Court House or the City Offices without sensing the shameful distain with which these civic institutions bend to the open pressure and covert favoritism toward certain quite vocal and vociferous interest of this community. And one needs only to have been on the opposing end of some of these issues to note the degree of intimidation, extortion, and downright coercion that " a person must be exposed to because h ; commits the unpardonable sin of questioning wanton presumption of certain public officials. Equally reprehensible is mystifying curtains of cover-up and secrecy that are resorted to in order to veil the censurable actions of our public servants ser-vants from bona-fide and just public disclosure. And it is not necessary to give countenance to the "pharasaic rationalizations" that are put forth either in the form of "red-herrings" or "diversions" to avoid a straightforward straight-forward confrontation of issues that would bare the unsavory aspect of the actions in the first place. And as I muse upon the matter candidly, I wonder how long the just and honest citizens of this community must pay deference to this sordid clique of officials without shrieking outrage, outrage so loud that it will become a clarion that will alert certain so-called stolid members of the communication media to undertake an airing of the malodorous perverions that are undertaken un-dertaken under the guise of political expedience in this community. Indeed it becomes quite apparent when one reflects upon the self-serving lexicon of this "clique", that expedient is but a synonym for avarice, naked and bold. And the sad thing is that evidences that have surfaced are but a "malodorous spume" that would be mild to the "cess-pools" of corruption that lie hidden and unconcealed. I am well aware that in making these charges, like all other citizens who speak rather vocally their mind on public issues, I am to be denoted as something of "an untouchable" to be dubbed as a "troublemaker" and the like. But how long can one remain deaf to the whisperings of the conscience when such whisper shrill admonitions to the soul, one can only remain silent in such a circumstance to the ultimate torture of all sense of civic decency, until one alleviates the situation with declamations of outrage. Respectfully yours, ALVIN G. NASH |