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Show Page 4 Tuesday, August 3, 2004 The Signpost Phone: 626-7121 Editor-in-Chief: Natalie Clemens Slow the H2O flow, farmers Over the last three years, Utahns have been fed a flurry of public service announcements cajoling them into conserving water however possible. As a whole, this is good advice: water only as much as necessary, choose plants that have adapted to a desert climate and consume less moisture, don't waste water on driveways and streets, and so on. Utahns have been largely receptive. The surest sign of this is in the social stigma that has become attached to water negligence. Groups with a sense of neighborhood unity and mutual obligation are more likely to make small sacrifices for the sake of others or the future. Public service messages help instill such unity, and help people understand that there is more to being a good citizen than obeying the law. Unfortunately, they may be targeting the wrong citizens. Many Utahns would be surprised to learn that only about 13 percent of the nearly 5 billion gallons of water used in the state every year is apportioned off for the public water supply. The rest is used for irrigation. This may not be a fair comparison; crops need water to grow, especially in the desert, and people need crops. But these are largely alfalfa, used to feed cattle, not people. This is a huge consumption of a precious resource that goes toward a small fraction of the state's profit margin. Why so large? Many attribute the numbers to Utah's water rights laws. Since farmers with water rights are given water based on how much land they need to irrigate, and not based on actual water mass, those who update their irrigation systems to save water—with sprinklers, for instance — lose the extra; they are not able to put it toward further irrigation on expanded land, or sell the surplus. Therefore, the law does not provide incentive to farmers to be civic-minded about the amount of water they use, or to build pipelines to carry water more efficiently so that less is lost by drainage into irrigation ditches. Imagine a university department that, because of the ease of the Internet and computer filing systems, found that it grew in efficiency and didn't need a full-time secretary, but hired one to sit behind a desk doing nothing, because if the department admitted it didn't need the position, it would lose salary funding, and if it needed the position in the future, it would have to go about the hassle of re-applying for a spot on the budget. Or worse yet, the department refused to use computers in that office, in order to make its secretaries useful. Utah farmers' excuses for not updating their irrigation methods liken to this example. The civic duty of a community getting through desert drought should be enough incentive. To be fair, not all conserved irrigation water could be converted to public use; much would run into the Colorado River or evaporate off. Still, none of the state's considerable water conservation efforts include even considering the potential of such a conversion. Ordinary citizens save a pittance at best on their water bills by following Utah's "Slow the Flow, Save H2O" campaign, yet the response has been remarkable. The public did not need stringent regulation or economic incentive to do the right thing. They just needed a call to arms.If they can ration their drop-in-the-bucket portion of the state's water allowance, farmers should do the same. Until they do, they should be subject to the same indignant scorn that citizens muster when neighbors and municipal buildings water the streets. —The Signpost Editorial Board Managing Editor Editor Editor Copy Editor Features: Editor Editor Business Editor F%oto* Editor rapniba Editor Editor Manager j Manager Advisior Distribution Publisher Fa* _ . Natalie demons Maria ViJlasenor Shane Farver Ryan How& William Hampton Roy Pyatt Cofteen Batehetor Candice DafItn Mb Wittiams Samuel T, Ptett David Adams Devor* Crus Georgia Edwards Allison WGS& William Hampton Dr. Randy ©26-7121 626-7641 626-7655 626-7083 ©26-7659 626-7621 626-7105 626-7624 626-6358 626-7661 626-635S 626-6359 626-7974 626-7499 ©26-7974 626-6464 626-7401 - TheSiQtipiosrifi^pubHoHBid'evdry Monday, Wednesday, and Priday during me semeBteit Subscription: is $& * semester. ThefiVstfcopy 6f Th6 SfjjrVf>6ist ls>freei each additional copy Is $.50. •• The Signpost 13 a student publicawcwi, written, edited and drafted by Weber State QhlVersity studetife. Student fees partially furtd tHe printing of this publication, Opinions or positions voiced are not necesserily endorsed by-the university: •* The SionpdSt wolborftes letters t&tr»6^editor: Letters rrtU6( include riorne. addresak telephone number and the writer's signature. Anortyrrious letters willnot be printed! •;.. The Signpoet resars/es the right t6 edit letters for reasons of space and Ifbel and afs*> reserves the right to refuse to print any leiter. Letters should rtbt exceed 36<J>words. SKh^; letters to the editbfiai office irt S\i& 267, rnail tdiUheSlgnribftti W^rie^^SVeltia University; (fyti&w Ufm. &44QB-2-\tO, rEdHttrin-(^tefi rim!all;the^i^post@ Hey, 'girlie men': Lighten up muscle-head, not some Boston brainiac. That's OK. He's not the first politician to come from Hollywood or from Muscleville, USA. (Remember Minnesota's Jesse Ventura? He's Californians were treated to teaching at Harvard now.) "Terminator Eye for the Queer Guy." Despite his limitations as a novice Predictably, the PC Crowd got their politician, Arnold has managed to keep undies in a bunch. a 60 percent approval rating by working Oh.TheAhhnold. Maybe it'sbecause hard to streamline California's bloated we both were bom somewhere else government. One of his campaign — sometimes, the ethnic humor gets promises was to get the budget to the lost in the translation. But 1 get it. Most people on time — a perennial problem people got it. there. Well, the budget is three weeks When California Gov. Arnold late and there are rumblings that his Schwarzenegger called Sacramento latest remark probably will delay any Democrats "girlie men" at a Saturday resolution even further. rally to press them to end the i mpasse on Apparently the "girlie men" are a bit his mean-and-lean state budget, hardvengeful. Silly, silly boys — oops, don't headed donkeys kicked up a fuss. State mean to be sexist — and girls, too. Sen. Sheila Kuehl called the- governor's The girlie men's hurt feelings aJso remarks "blatant homophobia." Mark serve another purpose. The fuss Leno, the chairman of the Legislature's distracts attention from the core of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual andTransgender Caucus, said Arnold's goofy assertion what really matters to a side show about about girlie men was "as misogynist as nothing in particular. Because to focus on what Arnold was saying in its entirety it is gay." I don't mean to be pithy, but people, exposes the nonpartisan universal truth please, get a makeover. Consider the about government run amok: "If they don't have the guts to come source of girlie men — or is it girly men? Whatever. Hans and Franz know out here in front of you and say, 'I a "girlie man" when they see one. don't want to represent you, I want to Remember the skit on "Saturday represent those special interests, the Night Live"? It was a spoof of Arnold's unions, the trial lawyers, I want them bodybuilder days. Mans and Franz to make the millions of dollars. I don't would use the term to refer to weaklings want to represent you,' if they don't — yes, a sexist reference to women. It have the guts, I call them girlie men." Arnold could have called on was hilarious precisely because it was coming from two pathetic fellas who Michael Moore to come up with more measured success by the pounds they sinister names and plots. Instead, muscle-head that he is and lacking an would try to lift. original thought, Arnold relied on an Instead of playing along and old comedy script that poked fun at challenging the governor to himself, no less, to lighten the mood. "pu-ump them up," California's The real deal is this: Democrats feel Democratic leaders look silly in their threatened because Arnold has been defensiveness. It's amazing, too, that serious news going to Democratic swing districts to networks would try to decipher, decode seek support for his agenda In an election and debate Arnold's latest goofball year, that's a proclamation of war. attempt at humor. Hell hath no fury like girlie men I mean, get a grip. He's a Hollywood scorned. By Myriam MarqueZ Knight Ridder Tribune SEND YOUR LETTERS TO THESIGNPOST@WEBtR.hDU |