| OCR Text |
Show ChRONl'ctE MoNdAy, DectMbtR Paqe Six 7, 1987 EDITORIAL County should decide on frail l The Burr Trail has become an important focal point in the nationwide battle between those lighting to preserve the environment and those favoring its controlled exploitation. It has also become a vital hitch in Southern Utah's effort to become economically viable. Things have heated up again. Thursday night, saboteurs poured sugar in the gas tanks of eight bulldozers which had just spent 27 hours grading and irrigating a section of the trail. Friday morning U.S. District Judge Aldon J. Anderson temporarily stopped work on this section of the trail called Long Canyon, an area conservationists feel is "the most sensitive" and "the most scenic" part of the Burr Trail. Anderson stopped work so archaeological and botanical studies could be completed in conditions in the south, and because this weakened area cannot force them to consider them adequately, the matter should be decided on a local level, by Garfield County residents. All others should ignore this recent publicity stunt and keep their noses out of it. The potential damage the roadway would have to the environment has been established as minimal, one account giving it a gracious of a mile range of effect. As Judge Anderson said, the "project's impacts will not be of a significantly different kind than those that th have existed for decades." What Garfield County residents are trying to do is strike a delicate balance between their own economic survival and the integrity of the environment. No one is more painfully aware than Southern Utah residents that an intact environment also means a viable economy. Tourism provides them with whatever scant livelihood they now have. Residents have a definite interest in remaining vigilant and preserving the environment. Thus, the paving of the trail does not bode ill for the larger environment of Souther Utah. It bodes well for the residents of the area. In this case, the potential for damage is minimal, the possibility for benefit immense. Therefore, the Burr Trail should be paved if that is what local residents have decided they want. And the battle should end here. Chronicle The Daily Utah Chronicle is an independent student newspaper published during fall, winter and spring quarters, excluding test weeks and quarter breaks, by the University Publications Council. Editorials reflect the opinion of the editorial board, and not necessarily the opinions of the student body or the administration. Subscriptions are S25 a year, S10 an academic quarter. All subscriptions must be prepaid. Forward all subscription corresBuspondence, including change of address, to the iness Manager, Daily Utah Chronicle, 240 Union, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 841 12. K 1 i ro w STDRP COMMUNIST i J a relatively undisturbed fashion. Attorneys for the conservationists are currently considering their legal options. A hearing is scheduled for next week. The issue raised by all this is one Southern Utah residents struggle to deal with year in and year out. It is the issue of economic survival. Southern Utah is a very economically depressed area, one where residents are too poor to stay in comfort and too poor to get up and leave. That is why the paving of the Burr Trail is so important to them. It could provide a great deal of east-we- st commerce for an area bypassed by the Salt Lake City-S- t. George tourism super highway. But Southern Utah residents do not carry political clout to make their enough state-lev- el concerns felt by the populace of the Wasatch Front, which comprises the majority of the state. Because this majority cannot relate to the one-eigh- M MWkVV-iP'. Kent Anderson Be weary of People on both sides of the political spectrum love Ronald Reagan with a strange sort of love they love the target he provides for their easy ideologies and facile discontents. But their brand of affection could, if carried far enough, permanently rend the fabric of democracy. What politicians enjoy so much about Reagan is that he is distant, stationary, recognizable in other words, a perfect target. They can easily launch prefashioned missiles at him because he is so They can merely measure hits or misses and dispense with pent-u- p aggressions in a seemingly harmless manner. This approach to the political world revealed itself when a member of the president's own party called Reagan, "a useful idiot for Soviet propoganda." Now, in a totalitarian state, such criticism might have validity, for matters of state may very well hinge on the actions and attitudes of one man. But in a democracy (or a democratic republic like our own, where there are three branches of government to lend variety and divergence in a coordinated manner to governmental decisions), such a critique is decidedly unfair and unproductive. The person who blasted Reagan for his attitude toward the Soviets is a citizen in a democracy and a conservative activist who probably voted for Reagan. But now, when it is handy and satisfying, this gentleman can remove himself from the fray and blankly criticize, gleeful in his safe cavern of non-reacti- ve. cleverness. Blank criticism is exactly what it is. Calling someone an idiot is not incisive and does nothing to further debate. It's blankly inflammatory and acidly cries for attention. It's not valuable, worthy or credible in the least. But both political camps fling this type of criticism at Reagan constantly. People blithely sit back and chuck their cheap gripes and mental garbage at simply to appear involved in the political process without actually putting any stake in its outcome. For instance, The Nation, a magazine I often respect, is currently running an ad pushing Christmas subscriptions which shows Reagan as Santa Claus and digging into a bag full of nuclear missiles. He is depicted as the personification of happy-go-lucevil, as a Satanic buffoon. Reagan-the-figurehe- ad "Ho-ho-ho-in- g" ky Editorial Board: Kent Anderson, Shauna Bona, Andrew Hunt, Bryant Larsen, Dee NaQuin, Rosemary Reeve, Fara Warner Editor in Chief Managing Editor News Editor Editorial Editor Sports Editor Feature Editor Photography Editor Chief Copy Editor Investigative Editor Campus Editor Assistant News Editor Assistant Editorial Editor Assistant Sports Editor Assistant Feature Editor ......... Shauna Bona Kent Anderson Fara Warner Dee L. NaQuin Laury Livscy Rosemary Reeve Steven C. Wilson Bryant Larsen Dennis Romboy Lori Bona Darren Hawkins Andrew Hunt Glenn Seninger Loreen Erickson Assistant Feature Editor Assistant Photography Editor Assistant Copy Editor Reporters Business Manager Accountant . Classifieds Accounting Clerk . blank criticism But the kind of apathy this oblique and irresponsible criticism allows is the true evil, the evil of injustice. Protagonists from every political persuasion rationalize their laziness and indulge their appetites for gutless glamour by gnawing at Reagan's political hide. One buzzword currently gaining favor in the lofts of media heaven is "Reagan's America," as in, "You'll suffer for doing that in Reagan's America." This phrase seems to imply we merely lease the country from this man. In a way, it does imply we've sold out. Abdication like this, even on a small scale, is disturbing enough. But when it saturates the arenas of argument, it becomes more than bothersome. And when it grows so large it is actually mistaken for constructive involvement, it has gone far enough. Activists dig themselves ruts leading nowhere, because featureless and thoughtless opposition to a symbol enhances nothing but the amount of money you can raise or the amount of coverage you can garner. Perhaps this stylized indifference reveals a basic disbelief in the system, but that level of distrust is only matched by the level of invalid diffidence it is shaped with. Democracy is not an easy system to disbelieve, for it can encompass and grow from that very skepticism. But it is a very easy system to leave via apathy. What we really have is a basic cowardice toward involvement finding an acceptable outlet in politicized grumbling and divisive bellyaching. But finding a solution to this problem isn't easy. It's always nice to find an amenable scapegoat. An attitude as static and unproductive as this one, however, needs a solution. Having someone preach about the role citizens play in a democracy is not going to help anyone access a , solution. Cliches and regurgitated arguments are blindingly ordinary and extraordinarily ineffective. And glowingly idealistic solutions, such as "more involvement" or "reach out to someone" are mere foam in the face of an insensitive juggernaut of laziness. Perhaps there is no solution besides awareness. And one wonders if that is solution enough. Kent Anderson is a senior in mass communication and is managing editor of the Chronicle. John Pecorelli Erin Calmes Edward Ruiz Kent Condon Todd Curtis Sharon Deckert Ellen Garff W. Scott Hall Kelly Hindley Amber McKee Deanie Wimmer Robert McOmber Kay Andersen Charlene Collins Kim Bartcl Michael Allsop Collections Account Executives Typesetters Production Manager Assistant Production Manager Production Staff Distribution John Hausknecht Kris DeBry Tammie Bostick Todd Butler Sara Wilson James A. Beck Tracey L. Heinhold Michael Q. Cleary Kenny Watanabe Abbie Hall Maria Lisieski James Olsen Todd Matsuda David Orchard Christopher Stratford .... |
