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Show Thursday, March 9, 1995 The Daily Utah Chronicle Page 7 Vt Leavitt creating unfunded mandates for cities Chronicle Editorial What's good for the goose is not always good gander. when Especially you're talking politics. Gov. Mike Leavitt has joined forces with other governors nationwide to protest the federal government's choke-hol-d on state governments. His latest critique: The feds infringe upon the rights of the states, whose power is thus pitted against the federal government. Leavitt and his crusade of governors urge restrictions on federally imposed mandates, including the possibility for states to have veto power over federal laws, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Wednesday. But what about those one step lower on the governmental totem pole? Leavitt will make sure that they remain powerless. He recently told local officials that they will not participate in the Conference of States that he, along with a group of governors, proposes. However, Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini has taken Leavitt's lead and formed a con ference for locals. Along with a group of mayors nationwide, Corradini flew to Washington to inform the National Association of Counties that they will form a Conference of local Governments. It will commence this fall. Leavitt's omission of the local government's voice in policy making is nothing new. During the 1995 legislative session, Utah's mayors proposed they have gun control laws separate from the state's to crack down on crime in the more urban areas while allowing rural areas frequented and inhabited by hunters more relaxed regulations. But the proposal was shot down by the very man who cries for increased power over the feds. It's about time Corradini and others followed their governors' example for increased power. But a conference separate from the states' is not the way to - doit Nevertheless, Corradini is on the right track Since our government is made up of the people and for the people, what better place to hear them than on a mon goal. The Chronicle is an independent student newspaper. Unsigned editorials reflect the majority view of the Editorial Board local level? State government is often too distant, too inacces ChronickLetters. Live sible to residents. That is the basis for local governments to give communities a chance to contact their leaders without having to compete with millions of others in order to be heard. But when the governor decides to tune out, city representatives are rendered powerless. And separating local from state government is not necessarily the way to regain power. We need to get back to the basics. Leavitt needs to work with city governments so that Utah can be represented at the Conference of States as a unified whole. Utah's mayors need to hold a conference within the state, along with the governor, to decide for what Utah stands. With Utah's government appearing in patches in an attempt to sway Congress, it is adding to its weakened state. Utah's public officials need to let go of their pride a little and work together toward a com- without the beef r rmCOrAEHDSCWUN, AND THEY'RE HTTW You fVd 1 Editor: IfrC 1 nTl If it's on behalf of animals, pressure groups glamorizing the abuse and slaughter of animals for pleasure and for profit can be counted on to offer opposition. The same organizations are backing "Animal Owner Rights" legislation, while blocking laws and ordinances to protect animals. If greed is the name of the game, caring people (not buying beef) can impede at least one group whose policies affecting lawmakers have a harmful impact Around the country, large numbers of legislators and local officials are, in fact, cattle ranchers perhaps the same ranchers who are trying to wrest control of land (belonging to all Americans) from our government in order to block range reform. Overgrazing and other abuses on our public lands can be directly attributed to cattle interests. When or rancher officials control lawmaking bodies, conflict of interest and ethics involved should be quesrancher-legislato- rs tioned. Those who care about animals and our public lands can also protest without being a local majority, without writing letters, picketing, or otherwise going public They can simply stop buying beef. Political changes, the result of cattle industry lobbying, may bear testimony to the triumph of greed. Beef you ate paid for the see "Griffin" on page 9 Encounter with street prophet reveals society's fate Jeff Dennion Chronicle Editorial Columnist was walking downtown when I saw a man wearing a sandwich-boar- d sign. "Repent! it said, "the millennium is here!" A little encouragement to mend my ways never does any harm, so I stopped and chatted with him. "Hello my friend," he greeted me joyfully. The blessed day is upon I us, a thousand years of peace await!" , "But I didn't think the millennium was supposed to come until 1999. That's what I read in USA Today a while ago," I said. "Have, you been following the OJ. Simpson trial?" he asked me. "No," I explained. Tve voluntar- sequestered myself, in case they need any more jurors, "The trial is what will herald in came an inventor. I made an ing discovery about a new form of energy. "I call it universal frivolous force, or FLUFF for short. With my FLUFF dynamo I'm able to capture the huge amounts of energy and attention being wasted on the OJ. Simpson flux-limite- "Wait a minute," I interjected. "I the millennium!" thought this was a religious conver"It certainly seems like the trial sion. What about repentance?" has lasted a thousand years," I con"Oh, that's just for publicity. trial ceded. "But if that's paradise, I think I prefer hell. "77ie (O.J. "No, no, you don't underis what xvill stand!" he shouted with reliin the millennium!" gious zeal.. "I used to hate the whole OJ. thing too, before certainly seems like the . . my miraculous conversion. r "I found I was the only one I knew who had zero interest conceded "But that's herald ) trial trial ft in the trial," he continued, I I if par- think prefer helL" "and I couldn't believe all the adise, time I saved. I quit watching T.V., quit reading the paper. I lost interest in my friends people People listen to religious fanatics who used to talk about the latest better than they do to physicists. On odd days I'm a scientologist" from Princess Di were now talking "I see," I said, not really seeing about these obscure legal terms. I couldn't relate. very much at all. "Now what's this "So with all my spare time, I be- - new form of energy?" d and turn it into usable energy. My invention promises to provide an unlimited source of energy. "Wait a minute," I said, remembering a few things from my physics class. "There's no such thing as a perpetual motion machine. The incontrovertible laws of thermodynamics say that energy cannot be created out of nothing." "Technically you're right," he admitted. "This energy isn't exactly limitless. But look here, Tve worked it all out on paper." And indeed he had. He produced a sheet of paper covered with He had symbols representing O J.'s weight in milligrams, raised to the power of the number of lawyers on his defense team, multiplied by the square of the number of pages of print devoted to him divided by the number of people who have never heard of OJ., and so on. He then plugged all the numbers into his pocket calculator and showed me a staggeringly large number. "You see," he said, "while energy is technically limited, the human capacity for scandal and voyeurism is not. Q.E.D." "There are still problems left to work out," he continued. "The energy seems to flow to and from Hollywood, so that is where we will have to gather for the great Harmonic Divergence." "What's that?" "Well, everyone knows the Harmonic Convergence was a flop, see "Bennion" on page 9 |