Show PUBLIC FORUM LETTERS TO THE EDITOR What is your opinion The Tle Express welcomes letters from its readers concerning any subject pertinent to the Uintah Basin While there are no r restrictions as to contents or reasonable length letters should be submitted exclusively to Lo the Express and bear the writers writer's full name signature and address Names may be withheld for good reasons if requested The bi birth rth of ofa a republic ic The greatest period of celebrations and community involvement that the basin has ever known may take place Inthe in inthe inthe the next few months as we turn our thoughts to the founding of our nation May we use this period as a time lime to renew in ourselves and our youth the great Ideals that this nation was founded on We may ask ourselves just what are we celebrating To answer this question we will need to understand understand understand un un- un- un what the founding fathers created When Benjamin Franklin was asked what the founding fathers had created he answered A republic if you can keep it And when we stand and salute the flag and voice the pledge do dowe dowe dowe we not pledge our allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands It is necessary for us to understand understand understand un un- un- un this basic idea that we are supposed to be a republic If we are going to enter into the coming year with the true spirit of celebrating our year of independence Perhaps many of us have forgotten what a republic is maybe there is no better time than the present for us to refresh our memories It may maybe maybe maybe be of interest to some that we weare weare weare are a republic and not a democracy and also of interest is the fact that we cannot find the word democracy in the Declaration of Independence Constitution of the United States or the Constitutions of the 50 states This is not because the word had not yet been invented or due to the lack of understanding of the founding fathers because they clearly understood what a democracy was as well as a republic A democracy should not be confused with the democratic process or the Democrat Party On June 21 1788 Alexander Hamilton stated in a speech It has been observed that a apure apure apure pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government Experience Experience Experience Exper Exper- had proved that no nopo po position is more false than this trus The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government Their very character was tyranny their figure deformity Samuel Adams warned Remember democracy never lasts long It soon wastes exhausts and murders itself There never was a democracy that did not commit suicide One of the members of the Constitutional Convention James Madison who was charged with helping draw up the constitution wrote Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths The founding fathers understood understood understood un un- a republic to be a nation ruled by law which requires that both the people and their rulers obey certain basic laws laws which could not be changed without laborious and deliberate changes in the very structure of that government There were limits placed upon what government should and could not do Compare this with a democracy which is equal to mob rule In reading the Declaration of Independence one may learn that the too people are restricted in their power and authority by mans man's natural rights or by the divine rights of the individual man And those certain inalienable and divine rights cannot be abrogated by bythe bythe bythe the vote of a majority any more than by the decree of a As one statesman wrote The idea that the vote of a people no matter how nearly unanimous makes or creates or determines what is right or just becomes as absurd and unacceptable as the idea that right and justice are simply whatever a king says they are Even though modern text textbooks textbooks textbooks books and many public leaders state that we are a democracy this is a republic not a democracy And as John Marshall who was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Coort from 1801 1601 to 1835 said Between a balanced republic and a democracy the dif dlf Terence ference is like that between order and chaos The founding fathers founded a constitutional republic the best of or all forms of government man has yet devised Let us keep it a republic and celebrate its birth as a republic THAD WILSON Budget hearing reporting Dear Sir In response to your news story reporting the happenings of the recent budget hearing I 1 find my suspicions confirmed your paper lacks the audacity and courage to report the details of any public event that even smells of or controversy In comment thereon might I observe were your primary objective that of paroling the alibis and truths half put forth by the elected officials pre J preparing the budget why was it necessary for you to even attend the hearing at all Why didn't you simply print a pre pre- prepared public relations release of these officials and avoid thereby the shallow spectacle of pretending you were rendering a balanced report in your paper of the events transpiring at this trus hearing At least such a performance performance performance per per- would not smell of the patent that your present effort implies In perusing your story I find absolutely no mention of the damaging facts brought forth by the antagonists in this hearing I find nowhere therein even a casual reference or mere notation a comment or the like of the persuasive arguments rendered by these dedicated citizens neither do I find factually reported the incriminating incriminating in in- criminating admissions relative re re- J tive to the bald attempt to raise the salaries of Commissioners and other elected County Officials Officials Of Of- without recurring to a public hearing as required by bylaw bylaw bylaw law yet your effusions reporting almost verbatim the alibis and truths half-truths of the officials involved absorbs almost all of the report And if you suppose that the statements I have set forth herein are exaggerated I invite comparison compari on of your story with those appearing in the other media namely the Deseret News the local radio station Certain TV stations and the Salt Lake Tribune In view of the facts I have here denoted you ought to be offended by the moral outrage and demeaned by the shame brought on the profession of journalism by your fawning to the demands of public officials in reporting your distorted version of this public hearing But be not deceived even though you attempt to exclude the truth from the news columns of your paper or undertake to prevent factual opinion in the columns of your Public Forum this matter will not be silenced but butwill butwill butwill will thunder forth with even stronger denunciations of the manipulations and chicanery of our elected officials Respectfully yours ALVIN ALVING G. G NASH Attorney at Law Commissioners salaries Dear Sir I feel it is important that people In this trus county express their opinion about the possible pay raise for the County Commissioners So here is my opinion Maybe they should get more money for the too work they do but at double the salary So they plan on working time full now Why did they not bring this ails out in the open during this trus election year Why not let the voters know that tha t they needed to work time lull and as a consequence needed more money They were talking about it among themselves at least seven months ago Why not let us know and decide if we want time full-time commissioners What can these five men do time full-time at an expense of better than a year for forthe forthe forthe the county For one thing they can raise the too taxes to pay for forthe forthe forthe the increase in their salary Why didn't these men speak for themselves at the budget tearing hearing instead d of having Mr Hammond speak for them Maybe for the same reason it was not brought out during the election that these people feel t they a are re worth more money and cannot carmot do the job in the time them loom Why not substantiate their feelings with facts what rate of pay do County Commissioners in other equitably sized counties receive Do other counties our size have five time full County Commissioners working for them Do these people actually go out on county projects and supervise them Can they make more water available for this thus county with their increase in salary So speak up County Commissioners what will we get gel for the additional money GLENDA BROWN Utah |