OCR Text |
Show A-17 www.parkrecord.com SAT/SUN/MON/TUES, NOVEMBER 22-25, 2008 Confirmation of stellar j udge doomed by hardline Republicans he Utah Senate, dominated by hardline gun-rights Republicans, cast a misguided vote this week when it denied Judge Robert Hilder's bid for a position on the state Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals, one level removed from the state Supreme Court, would have benefited tremendously from Hilder's wisdom and fairness. Hilder, who lives in Silver Springs, has consistently proven himself an exemplary member of the bench. His life story - son of an alcoholic father in Australia, wayward teen and, finally, focused lawyer and judge in America - is inspiring, and his background would have been welcome on the Court of Appeals. Hilder, who rotates in and out of Summit County as a district-level judge, has admirably navigated his way through tense local cases, including the separate tragedies of the Wayment and Turner families, both of which ended in shocking deaths. But the local cases that involved Hilder were irrelevant in the Senate this week. The senators instead were focused on Hilder's decision in a politically charged case about guns at the University of Utah. The judge, in our estimation, properly sided with a ban T on concealed weapons on the campus. He infuriated Utah's gun-rights zealots, however, and, apparently, doomed his chances to ascend in the judiciary, It is disappointing that senators would use a decision meant to protect college students and campus visitors as a reason to reject a judge. The Senate vote was by a close margin, with 16 senators rejecting him and 12 voting for Hilder. Summit County's two senators split their vote, with Republican Allen Christensen voting with the majority and Kevin Van Tassell, another Republican, casting a vote in favor of Hilder. We are encouraged by Van Tassell's support. The senator, whose vast district includes Park City and the Snyderville Basin, broke with the GOP on the vote. His reasoned thinking will benefit this part of his district as he continues in his government service. Christenserfs vote with the majority, though, was predictable. Hilder, who remains on the bench as a district judge, will be welcomed in the Summit County courtroom when he rotates back to the local court. However, we would rather be congratulating him on his ascent to the Court of Appeals. LETTERS POLICY GUEST EDITORIAL Park City's Team Staples needs your help By Brent Lange, Salt Lake City I am a long-time friend of the Staples family. Dona and Mark have lived in Park City for the last nine years. They have five children ranging in age from 9 to 19: Piper, Courtney, Max, Sydney and Kiley. Many of you may know them as "Team Staples." All five kids are avid ski racers. In fact, Kiley made it to the United States Ski Team three years ago and Sydney and Max are not far behind! This summer a terrible tragedy struck the family when Mark died suddenly in July. Mark was my best friend. I have known him since I was seven years old. We grew up together in Kaysville and started our families together. Family was everything to Mark. So was his love of the mountains and ski racing. When Mark wasn't in his scrubs in the O.R. as an anesthesiologist, ne Jwas suite'djip" GUEST EDITORIAL and on the hill. Mark shared his love of skiing with each of his children as soon as they were old enough to walk and they all fell happily in love with alpine ski racing! Bountiful was home for the Staples family, but it was a long way from Park City, a place he knew he needed to be closer to if they were to get the best training available. Mark .was determined to do everything possible to realize the dream. Ski racing \^as the yarn that weaved their family togjether. Mark was dedicated to the idea yiat his children could achieve success in ski racing all the way to competition at the World Cup and Olympic levels. He lived to see the beginning of the dream come true when his eldest child, Kiley, raced in World Cup events for the U.S. Ski Team in 2007. Mark's death has left a huge void for the Staples family both emotionally and , financially,: For everything .that Mark gave to his family while he was alive, he unfortunately left them with nothing after he was gone. The Park City community and the family's church have stepped up generously to provide some stability and keep Dona and her family in the Park City area and on their feet. After nearly 19 years of being home with the children, Dona has started a new job. It's an adjustment on top of all the other adjustments she is being asked to shoulder. But there are five children to provide for and just day-today living is expensive. She has had little time to raise the funds necessary to keep her kids skiing and racing - even at a basic level. The Park City Ski Team board of trustees has been working with Dona to apply for third-party grants and otherwise provide her with some time to figure out what will happen this year. ..J'<nave watched Dona wrestle with the fact that she may have to tell her children that they can no longer afford to ski race. It is gut wrenching. So I am writing to the community asking for help. I realize that I am asking a lot. Ski racing is an expensive sport. There is a challenge grant of $7,500 currently on the table. If we can raise an equal amount we will give these five kids an opportunity to maintain a small part of continuity in their lives through this season. While there may not be a way to continually provide for their racing, my hope is that we can find a way for them to do so this year. The one important connection that these children had with their father was ski racing. If you want to help Team Staples, please contact George Woods Baker, the president and chair of the Park City Ski Education Foundation, at (435) 658-0087. Thank you. - Neo-Con Judicial Confirmation Process 101 By David E. Rosenbloom, Park City SATIRE I* Wednesday, in what was surely the most straightforward, surefire judicial confirmation gimme in the history of this pretty great state, the eminently qualified, and most widely respected judge in the Third District, Robert Hilder, was blindsided by a cadre of Republican senators who, for the first time, employed a radical confirmation process aptly named "Neo-Con Shuffle" that purports to measure the comport and reactions of a candidate while lies and rotten vegetables are lobbed at them, and then, ultimately makes use of a standard blackplastic Magic Eight Ball to render the final decision. Although Hilder reportedly scored fairly well during the vegetable melee, his performance appeared to wane during the blatant-lie phase of the program after a series of unexpected legumes were added to the assault, which left him bloodied and dazed. Additionally, it appears certain influential Republican senators were still recovering from various surgeries that may have left them uncomfortable during the confirmation process, leading to a surprising lapse of judgment, especially for Senator Buttars, widely known for his generally unassailable, highly intellectual methodology. Buttars, who had only narrowly been returned to the legislature after the drinking water of West Jordan was reportedly laced with Versed, a powerful memory suppressant used during surgical procedures, led the assault. Buttars, as some may recall, sponsored a bill last year that would have eliminated the questionable theory of "evolution" from school curriculums and replace it with Buttars' profoundly scientific "serpent and apple" theory. Rumor has it that Buttars was also in a foul mood after narrowly missing a nomination to People Magazine's annual ''World's Top 20 Sexiest Men" and intimating that George Clooney used payola to secure what should have rightly been Buttars' spot. Some who viewed the confirmation reported that trouble for the nominee begati early, when Buttars misplaced his copy of "How To Confirm Judges for Idiots," and was forced to rely instead on two alternate texts: a dog-eared copy of Stalin's "Recipes For Character Assassination," and Pol Pot's erudite "The Pocket Guide To Easy Justice: Click, Click, Bang!" a book that some regard as suffering from poor translation. Additionally, Buttars seemed somewhat rushed when he erroneously believed that a "lynch mob" was waiting outside, after Buttars called the confirmation a "black-robed baby" with a "dark, ugly demeanor." Ultimately however, Buttars successfully swayed his glassy-eyed Republican minions to join him in voting down the candidate, after changing out of a suit to a toga and grape-leaf yarmulke, and quoting from Foucault's "Power and Truth - Reader's Digest Edition." Senator Hillyard followed, although his demeanor may have been altered by a recent surgery where his spine was completely removed and replaced with a gelatinous flexible prosthesis. Hillyard alternated between painting the candidate as an enemy of the union of Church and State, and "a parishioner who is sometimes late for church on Sunday." "If a person is late to church, we have no guarantee that he'll be timely to court," stated Hillyard. The senator then The Park Record welcomes letters to the editor on any subject. We ask that the tetters adhere to the following guidelines: They must include the home (street) address and telephone number of the author. No letter will be published under an assumed name. Letters must not contain llbelous material. Letters should be no longer than about 300 words (about 600 words for guest editorials) and should, if possible, be typed. We reserve the right to edit letters if they are too long of if they contain statements that are unnecessarily offensive or obscene. Writers are limited fo one letter every seven days. Letters thankIng event sponsors can list no more than 10 individuals and/or businesses. SEND YOUR LETTER TO: EDITOH@PARKRECORD.COM The Park Record Staff PUBLISHER Andy Bemhard Editor Nan Chalat-Noaker Staff writers Jay Hamburger Pat Parkinson Joe Lair Adia Waldburger Greg Marshall Andrew Kirk Contributing writers Tom Clyde Tpri Orr 1 C7i 1 w i 1 Jay Meehan Joan Jacobson Larry Warren Steve Phillips Editor's assistant Alisha Self Copy editor David Hampshire Special sections editor A.M. Stofko ADVERTISING Classified advertising Cristin Hicks Kristina Pentz wandered off into the parking lot where he just avoided being clipped by an errant, and quite silent, battery-powered golf cart. Not to be outdone, Senator Waddoups launched into invective suggesting he was uncomfortable with Hilder's "aggressive defensive demeanor" during the hearing, which he later explained by saying: "We are testing these nominees to see if they can sit still during the castra-a-tion process, I mean, uh, confirmation process. The real test here is to see if they can retain a perfectly docile demeanor while they are drilled repeatedly with blatant lies about their character and actions in specific cases using personal memories rather than employing the actual transcripts from the cases, and frankly, he was a bit too defensive for our tastes." Waddoups also chastised Hilder for his decision in a case where, based on a "Six Degrees of Separation" theory of causation, he was shown to be responsible for global warming, political instability in sub-Saharan Africa, and the failure of pandas to successfully mate in captivity, although zookeepers from the Hogle Zoo later disputed the panda problem. For the record Asked around Park City Office manager Circulation manager Accounting manager Advertising director Advertising sales Kandilee Snyder Lacy Brundy Kate Fischer Valerie Deming Lori Gull Jennifer Musial Arwa Jundi Erin Donnelly Lynne Giuffre Blair Gordon Pamela Graves Photographers David Ryder Scott Sine Production director Matt Gordon Production Scott Schlenker Ann Marie Kloogh Anastasia Vartakova Sarah Ely Pat Hamaker Amy Barrus PRESS ROOM General Manager Head Pressman Pressman Controller Office Staff Bill Olsen Don Ferney Jimmy Elkins Valerie Waite Sandy Trost Ethel Bradford Mail Room Marilyn Case Ray Scoggins Distribution Matt Conrad PHOTOS BY SCOTT SINE Who are you rooting for in Saturday's football game, BYU or Utah? Zach Taylor, Park City Utah. My blood bleeds red. I've always been a Utah fan. But to be honest, it's all about Weber State and Mutcher. (Park City High School graduate Kyle Mutcher is a lineman at Weber State.) Max Edmiston, Park City Utah. I don't know why I want them to win, I just want them. Scott Smith, Park City Utah. Just because. Peter Anthony, Park City Elaine Calhoun, Park City Utah. And you can't get me to tell you why. Utah, of course. I woul^i like to see them get into a BCS bowl. They are just a fun team to watch., • , |