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Show .Vernal Express, pitas PubKc 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. (there's) M ' jr Disturbed by Dear Editor, As an avid off-road enthusiast, enthusi-ast, I was disturbed by the Jan. 18 article "ORV group proposes trail system." This article is very one-sided and paints ORV users as a bunch of lawless hooligans hoo-ligans and a plague on society. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that the vast majority of off readers are honest, upstanding citizens. We love the land, pack out what we pack in and respect others we encounter along the way. In the article, Jaque Hobbs states that she has seen trash and dead animals dumped in the Doc's Beach area (sometimes (some-times called the Sand Pockets). This is true, it has been going on for as long as I can remember remem-ber and is sad. But for Ms. Hobbs and your article to infer that off-roaders are responsible is wrong. Ms. Hobbs also states that she has "been shot at." I do not remember reading about this shooting in the Express. Surely that would be big news in any community. Again, I say to accuse off roaders of this act is a bunch of hooey. Ms. Hobbs says that she has been 'harassed by motorcycles going past at 80 mph." My friends and I have been riding Doc's Beach for over 30 years and have met many horse riders along the way. We immediately kill our engines, have a short, friendly conversation, ask them where they are going, let them pass and head off in another direction. direc-tion. Never have any cross words been spoken. These encounters are always cordial. 80 mph? Come on, Ms. Hobbs, Doc's Beach Dear Editor, After reading your front page article concerning the Doc's Beach riding area, I feel that the author is not very well informed. I would like the people of the Uintah Basin to know that this area has been in use by recreational users for 35-plus years that I know, of. Not just since the restrooms and info, boards were installed recently by many volunteers and an eager young men working work-ing on his Eagle Scout project. The area in question is mostly most-ly sand, slickrock and juniper trees and is suitable for year-round year-round recreational uses. The area shows very little damage from all users since one strong windstorm can rebuild trails created by OHV's, horses and hikers. If this are is closed, except for a few designated trails, accidents and confrontations confron-tations between users will be frequent. We have lost access to more than 50 percent of the area due to private and clo 2 BIFFER F WILD HORSES WHICH CONSIST OF afeOO HORSES 4 SCATTERED AOlOSSTKESm ORV article even pro races rarely exceed 40-45 40-45 mph. Does Ms. Hobbs have a radar gun? She certainly has a vivid imagination. Harley Jackson says, "it (ORV use) is so bad I cannot graze my cattle." This statement state-ment sounds dramatic, but is vague and really explains nothing. noth-ing. Mr. Jackson also says that 5 percent to 10 percent of riders rid-ers use the trail and the rest go wherever they want Exactly why is this a bad thing? Hikers, bikers, ORV Riders and horse riders should be able to go where they want. Doc's Beach is made of up sand, rocks and cedar trees. You cannot wear out sand, tracks are erased by the next wind or rainstorm and any encounter with a tree is almost always won by the tree. Environmental impact is almost non-existent. The area is incredibly durable and resilient. resil-ient. It is perfect for recreational recreation-al use. There are many areas where outdoor travel should be confined to trails and pathways path-ways to protect the ecosystem. Doc's Beach is not one of them. Concentrating users on a single sin-gle trail should be dangerous. Increasing encounters between users and leading to inevitable collisions. Giving users the choice of multiple trails (game trails, etc. disperses traffic and impact and also increases safety and enjoyment. There is room for everyone. The eye catching front page photo, captioned "ORV use on Red Mountain Trails is not confined con-fined to trail," is misleading. The area shown in the photo is the designated parking area riding area sures. In addition, the wash to the west of the Taylor Mt. road, near the "Reflectors," is so trashed due to the illegal dumping of trash and dead animals, that most users avoid this area completely. I would challenge everyone to pick up after themselves and others. I would also challenge the BLM and Utah State Parks and Rec. to spend at least as much time investigating and prosecuting these illegal dumpers as they do issuing citations to unlicensed unli-censed OHVs. In response to the imported cartoon, please stick with Roy and Scarecrow's cartoons, only a "moron" would infer that local cattle are cannibals. Also, I try to remember my helmet when I do one-handers on my four wheeler, or was that my motorcycle, or was that my horse. Please remember that "Morons" might also draw liberal lib-eral cartoons. John R. Hatch Vernal BJfiTACO wT&ajBww yu i v i ENT HERDS u I j (designated by the BLM with restrooms and info boards), and was cleared out by heavy equipment years ago. The idea of designating trails for specific "user groups" is ludicrous. Division of outdoor lovers into "user groups" could only lead to animosity and bickering bick-ering between these groups and wouldn't do anyone any good. Perhaps that energy would be better spent organizing trash cleanups. After all, outdoor enthusiasts all really belong to only one group, people who love and enjoy the outdoors. Different people naturally select different means to access the outdoors. Whether they use horses, ORVs, mountain bikes or foot. Trying to limit trails to select users would open a huge can of worms, could never be fair, and would create harsh feelings between people who all have something in common, enjoying the outdoors. With the increasing popularity popu-larity of outdoor use, along with increasing population, yes, there are concerns to be addressed. But the answer is in education, cooperation and common courtesy, not dividing divid-ing outdoor users among themselves. them-selves. Mr. Editor, you have the responsibility of providing truth and facts to the public and letting them form their own opinions. This article was based on wild accusations, baseless stories, half truths and vague statements. It might make a good editorial, but falls far short as a feature article meant to inform the public about an important issue. Kerry Crofts Vernal Constitution Party Dear Editor, As a new member of the Constitution Party, I am writing writ-ing to share a little bit about it. The Preamble states: "The Constitution Party gratefully acknowledges the blessing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as Creator, Preserver and Ruler of the Universe and of these United States. We hereby here-by appeal to Him for mercy, aid, comfort, guidance and the protection pro-tection of His Providence as we work to restore and preserve these United States. This great nation was founded, not by religionists, reli-gionists, but by Christians; not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been and are afforded asylum, asy-lum, prosperity and freedom of worship here. The goal of the Constitution Party is to restore American Jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations and to limit the federal government to its Constitutional boundaries." I am glad to be part of a political polit-ical party that is not ashamed to admit that this country was founded on Christian principles. prin-ciples. I think the only hope for the ills that beset this great land is to return to those principles. princi-ples. I am also glad to be part of a political party that honors the Constitution and doesn't treat it like an outdated artifact. SonyaRay Vernal The Left-Wing by Bill O'Reilly With all the problems the Bush administration admin-istration is having in Iraq with surging oil prices and the media ham Bill O'Reilly mering the president pres-ident 247 on just about everything, every-thing, you would think liberalism liber-alism would be getting some traction in North America. But apparently it's not. Polls show that Americans support conservative Judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court by a wide margin, Canada justglected a conservative' conser-vative' prim minister after 13 years of liberal rule, and the president's terror warrior poll numbers dwarf those of any Democrat, despite all the controversies con-troversies over eavesdropping and interrogation. So what's going on? The answer to that question ques-tion can be best summed up by a new Gallup poll that says that 51 percent of Americans will not vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton under any circumstances circum-stances should she secure the Democrat nomination for president. pres-ident. So, evidently, it doesn't matter mat-ter what Mr. Bush is doing, most Americans don't want the most well-known liberal Democrat in the country sitting sit-ting in the White House. That's a tough situation for the left. All the Bush-bashing in the world does not seem to be making liberal candidates more attractive. And the bashing bash-ing might just be the problem. For example, the four Bush-hating Bush-hating columnists at The New York Times, Maureen Dowd, License fees Dear Editor, It never ceases to amaze me how our resident license fees seem to just keep climbing with no end in sight. We, as sportsmen and sportswomen, just keep electing people into the Legislature who keep putting put-ting it to us. We as residents pay almost ten times as much for a limited entry elk as Colorado residents do for their elk. And I believe almost every state around Utah has a normal nor-mal resident fee, but not here. Why? Because of the residents electing non-hunters into the legislature. Yet, just recently we had $1 billion left over from I w 4 Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert and Frank Rich, have written an astounding 148 anti-Bush oped op-ed pieces in the past 13 months. That represents 47 percent of their total work output. I mean, how much loathing do you need? Why doesn't the Times just put a "We Hate Bush!" banner ban-ner on its op-ed page and have everybody take a long lunch? This kind of overreaction to a sitting president actually creates cre-ates some sympathy for him among fair-minded Americans. After a while, the cacophony of hatred from the left is just numbing. And it's also mean. American women, particularly, do not respond well to nastiness. Do you think Ted Kennedy's attacks on Samuel Alito and the subsequent tears from his wife helped the Democrats? Do you? To be fair, Republicans made the same mistake with all the Clinton bashing. After a while, it just became boring. But that was then, and this is now. We are living in a much more dangerous time. All the polls show that Americans remain uneasy about terrorism terror-ism and their own personal security. And in this area, the Democrats poll far below the Republicans. That's because the Dems do not put forth concrete solutions to vexing problems. What's the liberal solution to the chaotic illegal immigration immigra-tion situation and the porous southern border? How would the left handle Iran if it continues con-tinues to develop nukes? And on Iraq, the Democrat message is mixed. Hillary wants to win it; Howard Dean says we can't achieve victory. When it comes to cohesion, the Democrat Party rivals the Balkans. the taxpayers, the same ones who are paying way too much to hunt here at home. We're also paying these people to keep jacking up our prices. The people blame a lot on the Fish and Game, it's not them, it's the Legislature. Why can't they take what it takes to run the DWR out of that billion bil-lion dollars and reduce our tags to resident prices? I would urge everyone to call a congressman con-gressman and give them an opinion about how to spend a little of their money. I believe we are the only state in the West where the sports people pay the entire bill to run a state agency. That's not right. Randy Massey Vernal Blues Finally, the left-wing media unknowingly hurts the Democrats, the very party it wants to promote. By making celebrities of loons like Cindy Sheehan and Harry Belafonte, the press spotlights the radicalism radical-ism on display on the fringes of the Democrat Party. Republicans and conservatives conserva-tives hoot down Ms. Sheehan and Mr. Belafonte all day long, but liberals are largely silent. Believe me, that silence does not go unnoticed by independent-minded Americans. And the Democrats have little chance to regain power in America without a substantial number of independents shifting shift-ing to their cause. But right now, that is not happening, and I see no liberal strategy on the horizon to change the situation. At this point, the champions of the blue states are, indeed, singing the blues. 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. New pastor selected for Vernal church A retired telephone company employee from Colorado has been selected as the new pastor of the Kingsbury Community United Church of Christ in Vernal. Jim Vierra will replace David Popham, who left Vernal last month after eight years as pastor of the church. "This is almost unheard of," said Bill Johnson, a church member who was on the search committee. "You can go months and even years without finding someone." "He is in a second career mode," Johnson said. "He wanted to become a minister so he went to seminary school. The timing is such that he was just ready to look for a church, as we were ready to look for a pastor and it just connected." Vierra, who was an associate associ-ate pastor in Lyons, Colo., will come to Vernal on a 90-day trial, which will allow him time to decide if he has made the right decision. "It is a great opportunity for him in the pastoral scheme of things," Johnson said. When Popham left the community, his wife Kerrie Shayhan, who had been the Vernal Area Chamber of Commerce office manager also left While Popham has been gone, the Church has been led by parish member Joel Grider. Grider also owns a karate studio stu-dio in Vernal. 6 V |