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Show A10 Wednesday, Januaryj5jp06 .Vernal Express, rDDrQD(Q)D1 Public Forum Letters to the Editor What is your opinion? The Vernal Express welcomes letters from its readers concerning any subject pertinent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions on contents, if not libelous, vindictive vin-dictive and in good taste. The letters need to be a reasonable length, two typewritten double spaced pages Letters must be submitted exclusively to the Vernal Express and bear the writer's writ-er's full name, signature, phone number and address. Letters for the sole purpose of expressing express-ing thanks to individuals or groups will not be printed in the forum. Letters may be mailed to P O Box 1000, Vernal, Utah 84078, faxed at 789-8690 or through email at editorvernal.com. The name or names of the persons submitting letters must appear on all published letters. All letters let-ters are subject to condensation. Letters express the opinion of the writer and are not necessarily necessar-ily the opinion of the Vernal Express Editor. Rural lifestyle Dear Editor, I would like to applaud the statements made by Kevin Elliott of the Forest Service in the Vernal Express last week regarding an upcoming public meeting which read, "My expectation expec-tation is that we can revise our forest plan in two to three years in such away that still places an emphasis on public involvement involve-ment We need the public's help as we chart a new course of direction for the Ashley National Forest." We all should be at this meeting Jan. 25 at 5 p.m. at the Vernal City Offices and work together to protect our rural lifestyle, culture and conservation con-servation efforts in preserving our environment on rural land. My family has enjoyed efforts of rural community people and Forest Service planning in the Yellowstone areas, and we have seen that the rural people and government can work together, but there are still those who want to eliminate the rural public pub-lic from public land. History clearly demonstrates that environmental groups and urban societies have always held the aces in the environmental environ-mental deck of cards for the last four decades. Seventy-seven percent of the American urban citizens are owners of only 3 percent of American land but their influences control 94 percent per-cent pi, American lands that are classified as rural lands. These rural lands are where millions of rti$al people live and these ( ! lanmust provide a rural life-' style and culture. These urban' societies and their groups don't even recognize the rural role of America and their culture. Governmental programs have often made it easier for environmentalists envi-ronmentalists and urban soci-' soci-' eties in the past to push their western land agendas, and they are half way there. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution which guarantees equal protection pro-tection under the law for all Americans has not protected the rural people of America. Here are some of many government govern-ment programs that have really hurt the lifestyle and culture of rural people: Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, U.S. Forest Service Roadless Area Conservation Rule, Scenic and Wild Rivers Act, and the so-called so-called "taking liberty" agenda attempt to create land for wild-lands wild-lands and has lack of concern for private property rights. There are numerous effects of the above laws and acts on western land. Mining in Montana is about non-existent, acreage of trees in the western U.S. at risk of severe fire: 67 million, wood processing facilities facili-ties closed since 1970s: 415 in five states; number of board feet milling capacity lost: over 17 billion, number of jobs eliminated elimi-nated in logging and mills: over 48,000, total jobs eliminated in U.S.: approximately 144,000 jobs; oil development and gas drilling has been curtailed for decades, lack of new oil refineries refiner-ies throughout America, declining declin-ing wildlife herds in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana because of the Endangered Species Act, constantly relocating endangered endan-gered species and only allow-1 allow-1 ing delisting with limitation, which has upset the eco-system western land, not allowing or limiting electrical generation facilities for electrical distribu-- distribu-- tion power lines in the future and inhibiting grazing rights . for ranchers and their personal property rights. If these arbitrary government govern-ment acts and regulations limit the future of America and remove or contain the rights of rural communities in America, it is highly probable that the very efforts to protect the envi- ' ronment and rural culture will eventually cause its decline as indicated above. ' , Glen J. Mecham Dry Fork . Final resting place Dear Editor, Just over seven years ago, we moved to the Uintah Basin. We bought a small home with a three-acre pasture in Uintah County where we had no family and no friends. That situation changed rapidly. rap-idly. The Basin community opened its arms to us, welcomed us and made us feel at home. That includes Vernal, Roosevelt, Naples, Jensen, Ballard and Uintah County. The kindness of the people and the beauty of the area seeped into our hearts and no other area will ever replace the affection we feel for the Uintah Basin. It is with great sadness that we have left behind the Basin and the people who live there. The Vernal area was our adopted adopt-ed home and we planned to live out the rest of lives there. Being a family-oriented community, we know that you will all understand under-stand why we had to leave. Our daughter has a disabling syndrome syn-drome and cannot be left alone. While she would have preferred to move to Vernal, she must remain on the Wasatch front where her husband's work provides pro-vides health insurance and her doctors are readily available. It is with heavy hearts that we say goodbye to the Basin. But we carry with us many wonderful memories. Molly Ivins Dear Editor, Thank you for your inclusion inclu-sion of a Molly Ivins piece on your opinion page in last week's paper. It really shows that your paper is trying to be faithful to the long tradition in the United States, and one of the basic protections pro-tections of our freedom. That is of course a free press that tries to show all sides of an issue. We need always to reject those that preach hate and divisiveness. It is always those that promote their own brand of political bullying bul-lying that subverts the people's right to view different opinions. Bill O'Reilly's columns obviously obvi-ously support a certain political politi-cal opinion and Molly Ivins' columns another. I think it is important to note that if you read their columns there are quite a few issues they agree on and there are many issues they disagree on. I know personally I sometimes have agreed with some point or other from both of them and sometimes I have disagreed. I think we have all seen that the politics of personal person-al attacks, name calling and the hate for everyone that doesn't believe exactly as they do, by some people in this country in recent years, has hurt us as a nation. I think that most readers can determine for themselves what they believe and what they don't believe, but each of us having that choice is what will in the end save the freedom of the greatest nation in the history his-tory of the world. Thank you again. Michael J. McHale Jensen Virginia is grateful to the Vernal Express for giving her the opportunity to write not only the news, but also an editorial edito-rial column titled "Gin's Gems." She continues to be surprised and pleased that people actually read what she wrote. She appreciated appre-ciated all the comments on her column, both positive and negative. nega-tive. Richard is grateful to the business community that supported sup-ported him in his work as the executive director of the Vernal Area Chamber of Commerce. They provided him with not only challenges, but friendship and community spirit. We will both miss the many fine people who became and will remain, dear friends. We are originally from North Dakota and the Air Force has provided us with the opportunity opportu-nity to experience many places and to make many fiends. None compare with the affection we feel for the Vernal area, the Uintah Basin and the fine people peo-ple who live there. This community helped us through the difficult periods of our daughter-in-law's cancer, our son's death and our daughter's daugh-ter's progressive disability. These terrible things happened to our family during our years in Uintah County. Perhaps we would not have survived them had we been someplace else and had not had the benefit of the good people in our adopted home. We have been gone only a short time but we already miss the Basin and its people. We will return to visit. Someday we will return forever as we have chosen the area as our final resting place. Richard and Virginia Harrington Roy, Utah Ice rink heat Dear Editor, We would like to thank the people of Uintah County and Western Park for the nice indoor skating facility. But, why isn't there any heat? Our family uses the rink for open skate, church parties and hockey. We have heard a number of people, not just hockey parents, complain about the heaters being turned off. It makes it difficult dif-ficult to enjoy watching the kids when you have to go outside to get warm. The hockey teams we're playing play-ing are from the Wasatch Front. Whole families travel to Vernal and eat and sleep here. But then they are greeted with a cold rink and not enough seats. This is especially difficult for seniors and little children. Can't we a least turn on the heaters that are there? We would like to extend an invitation to County Commissioners and City Council members to come to the ice rink and watch a hockey game dress warmly. Cathy and Jerry Johnson Vernal SO BUSY THAI WC noKr KKiosAWWirH Vermont justice by Bill O'Reilly Ralph Page is a problem. The 35-year-old Vermont man has twice been convicted drunk driving, Bill O'Reilly and now faces charges of theft and assaulting his girlfriend. He's a typical low-level offender offend-er who shuffles around causing trouble and clogging up the justice jus-tice system. On Jan. 17, Page ambled into Judge Patricia Zimmerman's courtEoonnto answer charges : that, he punched a woman in the face. Apparently, Page did not like hearing the charges against him and screamed out, "this is f-ing bull--." That annoyed Judge Zimmerman, who promptly found Page in contempt of court and sentenced sen-tenced him to 60 days in a Vermont jail. Nothing wrong with that, but listen to this: That 60-day sentence is the same amount of jail time another Vermont judge, Edward Cashman, awarded 34-year-old Mark Hulett. But it is here where the Vermont justice system collapses. col-lapses. Incredibly, Hulett pled guilty to a variety of felony sexual assault charges against a 6-year-old girl. Over a period of four years, Hulett, a friend of the girl's mother, confessed to raping the child in her own home. It was a methodical and brutal series of actions on Hulett's part, and it has devas tated an innocent little girl. But when it came time Roosevelt On Sunday, Jan. 16, Uintah County Sheriffs Department was dispatched to the Book Cliffs area on an oil work over rig accident. Due to the remote location of the rig Air Med was dispatched to medivac the patient the hospital. hos-pital. Investigators believe that a ;omptimps WE GET v w w - mam to sentence Hulett, Judge Cashman suspended all but 60 days of a potential life prison stretch, because Cashman wanted Hulett to get "treatment." "treat-ment." At sentencing the judge said: "I keep telling prosecutors, and they won't hear me, that punishment is not enough." So here's justice in the state of Vermont: Cursing at a judge merits the same prison time as repeatedly raping a 6-year-old girl. If Hulett had committed the same crime in Florida, he would now be serving 25-to-life in the penitentiary because that state has passed mandatory manda-tory minimum sentences for felony battery on children. But Vermont has no such mini-mums. mini-mums. So Mark Hulett, child rapist, is set to walk free on March 4. The philosophy of our nation is "equal justice under the law." Obviously, the abused little girl and her family did not get justice by any measure. Clear-thinking Clear-thinking people understand that true justice requires that the punishment fit the crime. But Judge Cashman does not understand that. His sympathies sym-pathies are with the rapist, and he did not even attempt to hide that fact. Because of Cashman's outrageous sentence, you would think Vermonters would be calling for his gavel and robe. You would think. But you'd be wrong. Most of the state's liberal newspapers are supporting support-ing Cashman. The far-left Brattleboro Reformer editorialized: edito-rialized: "Lengthy jail terms, without rehabilitation will not man injured chain came loose on a rig deck which caused the 500 lb. deck to fall onto the employee crushing crush-ing him beneath it. Co-workers were able to remove the deck off him and summoned emergency emer-gency help. Investigators with the Sheriffs Department don't believe that any negligence accomplish anything." Really? How about keeping child rapists away from children? chil-dren? Doesn't a lengthy prison term accomplish that? Vermont's shameful story is being played out in other places plac-es as well. But it is in this tiny state, the second least populated popu-lated behind Wyoming, that a horrendous violation of human rights is taking place. Yet we have heard nothing from former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, or Sens. Leahy and Jeffords, or social activist Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, which is based in the Green Mountain State. Also, the ACLU is silent as well. Meantime, an abused little girl will likely live out her life in anguish and confusion, her low-income family is devastated, devas-tated, and the crazy left media believes Judge Cashman is the victim of unreasonable "demagogues." "dema-gogues." They say the skiing is great this winter in Vermont. But I'm not going. There's something some-thing in the air there that I cannot can-not abide. Veteran TV news anchor Bill O'Reilly is host of the Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor" and author of the book "Who's Looking Out For You?" To find out more about Bill O'Reilly, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers writ-ers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. This column col-umn originates on the Web site www.billoreilly.com. COPYRIGHT 2006 BillOReilly.com. in accident was a factor in the accident; however, it is still under investigation. inves-tigation. The victim was identified as Greg Bowker of Roosevelt. "With all of the rigs and oil field traffic in the Uintah Basin we are fortunate that we are not seeing more of these injuries," stated Sheriff Rick Hawkins. t ..... it |