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Show A6 Wednesday, January 23, 2008 Vernal Express 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 in good taste and not libelous or vindictive. Letters may be edited for length. All etters must be submitted exclusively to the Vernal Express and bear the full name, signature, phone number and address of the writer or writers. Letters Tor the sole purpose of expressing thanks to individuals or groups will not be printed in this forum. Submissions may be mailed to 54 N. vernal Ave Vernal UT 84078; faxed to 435-789-8690 or sent by e-mail to editorvernal.com The name or names of the persons submitting etters must appear on all published letters. Letters express the opinion of the writer or writers and are not necessarily the opinion of the Vernal Express. o-p I N i o N WHAT F0XW0RTHY WOULD SAY ABOUT UTAHNS 0 ro n o n o o j mil i w iiiiiiMiHf mi in in 'inn' gm VERNAL Bcpress I., vC" By Kevin Ashby Express Publisher With all the new people coming to the Basin to live, visit, praise and complain, it is good to understand what they are thinking. I was sent what is claimed to be a "Forget Rednecks. This is what Jeff Foxworthy had to say about Utahans" email the other day and whether or not it is actually from Foxworthy or not, there were a few items that were nailed on the head in describing Utah culture. And not to mention that it has been cold here lately! Here goes: If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September to May, you live in Utah. If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you live in Utah. If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you live in Utah. If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed the wrong number, you live in Utah. If "vacation" means going anywhere south of Salt Lake City for the weekend, you live in Utah. If you measure distance in hours, you live in Utah. If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you live in Utah. If you have switched from "heat" to "AC" and back again in the same day, you live in Utah. If you install security lights on your house and garage but leave both unlocked, you live in Utah. If you can drive 75 mph through two feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you live in Utah. If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you live in Utah. If the speed limit on the highway is 75 mph - you're going 80, and everyone is still passing you, you live in Utah. If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are rilled with snow, you live in Utah. If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction, construc-tion, you live in Utah. If you find 10 degrees "a little chilly" you live in Utah. DRIVING THE POLITICAL MACHINE By Les Bowen A h Express Associate Editor It's legislative time again. Last week I started contacting contact-ing our legislative representatives to get a feel for what's happing this year in the Legislature. In the process of talking with a few of them, I was reminded once again of how broken our political system really is. Don't get me wrong. I think legislators accomplish a whole lot. And quite often, they find issues that are of interest to their constituents, especially at a local and state level. But other times, the political system fails to accomplish anything until the big dollar gets behind it. There just aren't enough votes otherwise. Take for example a bill sponsored by Sen. Kevin VanTassell to create incentives incen-tives lor businesses with surplus power from solar cells to sell that power back into the electrical grid. The bill makes a lot of sense. Rocky Mountain Power is running but" of it's" supply and is having a hard time keeping up with the state's demand. And busi-' nesses that can generate a lot of solar power on their expansive roofs are ideal for placing solar cells. But this isn't the first time this idea has been thrown around the state. And it should have happened a long time ago. I credit VanTassell for seeing a time when this type of measure can make it through the legislature. The bill wasn't online yet for me to read as I'm writing this, but I like what I've been told so far. I hope it passes. It's been long overdue. But why wasn't this bill passed earlier? Did we have to wait until the utility company and participating businesses were on board? Were there simply not enough votes until that happened? There are plenty of homeowners and progressive progres-sive small business owners that have had surplus solar power for years. A few have successfully sold their surplus power back into the grid, which is allowed under existing Utah law. But there has never been an incentive for doing so. Lawmakers should be swayed more by what is in the best interest of their constituents than they are about the interests of big businesses and interest groups. V FOR ALOTL&SfflNEYj lif-.fi V AND A UK VMEOFJ 1 trH- , - c;y- m : ! .vV' : o nil LI (- Alcohol and the public safety complex Dear editor, I watched many hours of football, this past week and there is something that truly disturbs me. I didn't count; but there were a minimum of 20 commercial ads that portrayed how glamorous it is to drink beer and liquor. The ads make it look as ifyou just haven't lived unless you are partaking of these products - or you're not one of the beautiful people! They all end with a two-second reminder to drink responsibly. Now; we clueless taxpayers taxpay-ers in Vernal, are being told that we need a $50 million jail - oops - safety complex. When are we going to wake up? What we really need to is a prohibition on alcohol of all forms then we'll need that $50 million jail - oops - safety complex! . Lets face it. The system sys-tem is broken. History has shown us that prohibition absolutely does not work. So why are we trying to enforce a prohibition on contraband drugs? The so-called "war on drugs" is a 30-year-old joke, that is going further behind every day. We need to end the hypocrisy; and either make all poisons; (alcohol, meth, heroin, cocaine, tobacco etc.) illegal or legal. If legalized - the taxes on these products will be paid by those who insist upon using them. As it is the clueless taxpayer is footing the complete sha-bang; sha-bang; and nothing to show for it, but a bigger, totally inefficient inef-ficient bureaucracy. None of these products would be any more available to anyone of any age, than they are here today. You and I know that none , of this is going to happen. You' want to know why? Follow the dollar. Red Hatch Vernal BLM favors energy Dear Editor, In December there was an article telling about an incident inci-dent in which a rancher. Bill Robinson had several head of his sheep killed by some reckless vehicle driver. This man was upset with the BLM in which he feels this government govern-ment agency is favoring the oil and gas drilling companies over livestock ranchers in their management of federal fed-eral lands. I agree with this man and after considerable thought, I've felt compelled to write this letter. For several years now I have seen it coming where some of these agencies who are supposed to properly and fairly manage federal lands are inclined to play favoritism in their managing policies. A few years ago one of the last major sheep operators here in Ashley Valley shut down his operation that had been in his family 100 years due to their so-called rules and restrictions. Yes, agencies that were supposed to help him, actually helped put him out of business. How sad this was. It was mentioned in the local lo-cal papers how the BLM considers con-siders and weighs the values of longterm benefits against those of short term. I assume this person is implying about the oil and gas drilling now going on compared to those livestock operators still in business out that way. If that is the case, then this individual evidently doesn't remember or perhaps per-haps he wasn't even born back then when there were dozens of sheep outfits being be-ing run throughout this vast area, during the winter and spring. Something else he doesn't remember that there was a time, in fact for many years that the sheep industry along with that of the gilsonite, was mainly what kept Uintah County going. Countless numbers of families depended depend-ed on these industries for jobs and this in turn meant success suc-cess to many local businesses. In fact it was the sheepmen who started Vernal's first banks. If some of Vernal's outstanding business people of years past could talk, they'd damn well tell how important the sheep industry was for our community. Men like Ray Ashton, Rice Cooper, Russell Montgomery and Jess Cheney to mention a few. There are some out there who remember these fine men and , the wisdom they had. How sad it is that more attention at-tention and higher priority is given to things like the black footed ferret and hump back chub than is given to one of this county's great industries like the sheep business. They declare the ferret and the chub as endangered species, well to my way of thinking, it's the sheep outfits that are endangered. If you think otherwise, then compare the number of herds now to those 50 years ago. So just where are the values and fairness that some of these agencies are supposed to implement? I am not implying that gas and oil isn't a very important business, because it most certainly cer-tainly is and we need it by all means, but I'm sure if federal lands are managed right, that both it and the livestock concerns con-cerns can coexist and this is whatwewant.Youknowright is right in any language and I just feel that Mr. Robinson isn't being treated right. I know that those directly responsible for the death of this ranchers sheep is the driver of the vehicle that hit them and hopefully that person will be apprehended and have to pay for the costs. Chances are that person was drivingaunitbelongingtoare doing work for an oil or gas company. Its to bad that more caution and obeying traffic rules doesn't take place here. One thing for sure is that every driver should be aware of livestock along these roads . And finally it is my hope that the B.L.M. will in the future have more consideration for the livestock owners and treat them as equally and fairly as those involved with the gas and oil business. George Long Vernal Be heard on Wild and Scenic Rivers Dear Editor, A meeting has been set for Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. at Western Park on Wild and Scenic Riv-" Riv-" ers. Please c"ome"arfd protect '"your1 water rightsf " " '. So often I hear people say (and I've been one of them), "It doesn't matter what we the people say or do, the powers pow-ers that be go ahead and do what they want to." They were talking about this latest flurry over the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. There are still many people out there who look at you and say "Wild and Scenic Rivers? What's that? Never heard of it." Water is our lifeblood and they've "never heard " of the latest assault on our water rights. I'll try to be nice and call the environmentalists by a proper name but the facts are: It doesn't matter that the Uintah Basin is in the middle of a drought, it doesn't matter that water is our life blood out here. Why should it matter to the EPA and supporters sup-porters that the home-grown folks who settled this area in 1905 have worked their hearts out to build a home and scratch out a living? Now we must pass the "Wild and Scenic River Act" because those "green" people want "free flowing streams" with no obstructions, no dams, no power plants no use of the water ...just sit and listen to it gurgle. They even want to tear out the dams that have been built at such sacrifice. I know how hard it's been to build reservoirs and waterways wa-terways so we'd never have another period of drought like the '30s. I remember the bony cattle being driven to what became known as "Bone Pile Hill" in LaPoint where they were shot because there was nothingto feed them. My dad helped build some of those reservoirs with a team and craper. I know what the end of a shovel is too. Last year there wasn't enough water to irrigate ir-rigate the hay we needed so badly and now we have this frigid winter and ifyou think this snow is going to solve the problem ... it isn't. ,. ... The State of Utah. has, at a. great deal of expense, compiled a record called "Drought in Utah, Learning From the Past, Preparing for the Future". We all need to read it. Dorothy C. Luck Lapoint TttE OPERATIONS WNE INVOLVED AN INTENSE GROM? ,HCU5E-TO-VQUSE v 1 I I I I II II i 1 lilfl H BUT ENOUGH feCUTTVE CAMPAIGN MA BarrW Llii H.Jc i "lBZ?i1pM WW ,l BERTHA BUTTERBEAN Caught on camera? not likely By Dm Coldvich Guest Writer I happen to be the proud owner of a 5.1 megapixel mega-pixel 3x8 zoom, multiple-mode digital camera cam-era complete with a 1 GB SD card and USB capabilities. I don't know for sure what all of that means, and I may never learn what all those zooms and modes are, but it is nice to shoot as happily as I want until I fill up that SD card. It is nice to organize all of those pictures into neat computer picture files, which I can hide if I want to, and I want to. It is nice to be able to import those photos into a photo sty ler and fix them a bit here and there - like give me a whole new set of teeth. But the best thing about the digital camera, which function I learned in a hurry, is this: If I get a bad picture, I can delete it in one-10th of a second. Poof and it is gone. Oblivion - never was - into the digital trash bin. Those pixels will never again be in their original order, and no one will ever know what a horrific picture I just took and erased. Before I could push the magic button and bleep the rotten photos, I had days like this: There are three rolls of exposed Kodak film setting on my kitchen counter. I guess maybe today I'll get up the nerve to take them to the film developer, whoever he may be. I'm glad he is anonymous; heaven forbid that he recognize recog-nize me from my pictures. On second thought, there isn 't much chance of that. My reluctance to put my film on the line and into the hands of "the developer" comes from the picture (no pun intended) of him that I have in my head. I imagine some guy in a darkroom pulling a strip of film from some cakepan full of chemicals,putting my negs on a light board and then laughing laugh-ing his guts out. So I know that this film-developer guy processes film for 40 hours a week; he must have seen everything, but still when he gets Butterbean film, he is incredulous. He calls a co-worker into the darkroom and says, "Look at these pictures. Can you believe it? Someone took a picture of his thumb. And here is his foot. And here is half of his kid. And here is the bottom of his birdcage. And there is the side of his garage on a dark night. And this looks like a closeup of a cotton ball. See, this looks like a laundry basket full of socks. Mind you, this is all on just one roll of film. Now I've seen it all." Sadly, I think that someone says this about every roll of film I take to be processed. So I don 't give the same guy a chance to get to know me too well. I hop around from one store to another, and whenever possible I write on my film envelope in the car and put it in the "drop box" when no one is looking. Iam afraid that someone will try to look me up. "Let's check out this person who takes the world's worst pictures. Maybe he is really an undercover agent pretending to be bad at taking pictures so no one will suspect the he can really capture a face from 100 feet with a camera pen. " Well, I take a little comfort in the fact that I come from a whole family of "photographers." "photog-raphers." None of us knows how to hold a camera straight, let alone still. Or how to use the flash or change the mode. However, there are in the family two members who couldlooselybe called "quasi-photogenic" "quasi-photogenic" which means that they are occasionally recognizable in snapshots. But we persist, which is not to say we usually have a camera in hand when someone does something wonderful. But sometimes "on accident" we get two or three good pictures, not on a roll, but on an SD card. And we love our pictures. We send them by e-mail and snail mail. We carry them in our wallets and show them to anyone who will look and laugh without malice. We post them on the refrigerator refrigera-tor -"Photo of the Week." We blow them up poster size. We make them into postcards and actually send them. Sometimes one or another of us has delusions and says, "I could send this photo to Outdoor Magazine, and I bet they would publish it." I read once that there were hundreds of photographers covering the 2004 Winter Olympics and that among them they had taken something some-thing like 155,000 photos of all of the events. From those someone selected just over 100 to make up the official photo publication. Maybe my "keep" rate isn't so bad aRer all. |