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Show A6 Ihursday. October 14. JU04 EDITORIAL BOARD Albert J. Manzi, President & Publisher Randy Wright, Executive Editor Donald W. Meyers, Editorial page editor John Castelli, Public adviser Christian Harrison, Public adviser Sam Rushforth, Public adviser , Nancy Hutchins, Public adviser EDITORIALS IN OUR VIEW Amendment 2 should be rejected n't he surface. Amendment 2 seems straight-- forward, and I kxks it like a boon for Utah's U Higher Education Sys tem. In truth it's dangerous and ought to t)e rejected by voters. The amendment allows the state s and its colleges to lecome in private companies in re-- , turn tei hnologv develoed in Utah I he schools have s( hiMils already leen re eivmg stock for selling .technology and patent rights, hut the practice raises constitutional Issues l"his practice should n)t he expanded. It should cease. I tali's Constitution bars the state V stxk-holder- from purchasing stx k in private companies, a prohibition that has in place since statehood in 1H! The reason for the clause is twofold: f irst, it prevents,! he state, from risking public money on questionable private ventures. Second, it prevents the state from favoring one company over another for In-e- the result is a serious conflict of interest. Consider this hypothetical: Researchers at the University of Utah come' up with new technology that makes it easier to ship nuclear waste, and the patent is traded for stock in a power company that happens to be a member of the Private Fuel Storage consortium. (PFS is the outfit that wants to store nuclear waste on the Goshute reservation in Skull Valley.) The state has so far been opposing the PFS plan in the courts and through legislation. But in this scenario, the state, as a shareholder with a profit motive and with the university needing all the moncould be influey it can get enced to make a decision that is in the university's interest and not in ' the public interest! This Ls a problem with virtually any company in which the state is LETTERS invested. Amendment 2 can only result, "in the long run, in putting the state in an awkward position. For example, it could lead to charges of insider gain Amendment 2 removes an trading if the state were to sell wall Ix'lween government stock in advance of some regulatowhich is supposed to represent ry move that would hurt the value and priof a company in which it holds an everyone without favor vate interests The authors of the interest. state's Constitution were correct in State institutions should not be funded by stock deals that were barring the state from stock pur- made with no citizen input. They bases, and we should not now re- should be funded by taxes that are lect that w isdom with Amendment i debated in public and approved by While the stock market is a relivoters. able investment m the long term, it The prospect of deriving profit can be quite risky when it comes to for the state from the intellectual individual transactions. I'or in- - ' products of state universities is tanso much so that discusstance, people thought Enron was talizing a safe investment, only to find out sion should continue on the subject to find a way that it might be done loo late that its accountants had cooked the books and the stock without breaching an important was worthless. barrier between public and private When you receive stock, you're sectors. Setting up a private foundation to handle the stock and disacquire an interest m the compatribute the dividends to the colleges ny's performance. Kven if the stuck is of t he nonvoting variety, something like the way the the bolder still has a vested interest state's peasion fund is handled in commercial success. might be worth exploring. in this But Amendment 2 doesn't do the When that stoc kholder case the state - also regulates job, and voters would be wise to rebusinesses in w hich it is invested. ject it. Ask yourself hard questions Before you vote, ask yourself: Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Do you feel more secure in your civil rights? Is it easier or harder to make ends v meet now? Do you now sometimes have to do without in order to pay for medical scriptions? Is your employment situation better or worse than it was four years ago? ' Informed voting is our birthright. Do hot sell it for a mess of pottage. Above all, do not let fear of terrorism paralyze your honesty with yourself. I Brent Richard Jacob, Lindon . this country prepared for the troubling dearth of flu vaccine is hardly a g(xd omen, particularly Ijeeause British regulators say that (heir American counterparts had advance notice of their intention to ban IK million doses of British-madvaccine lx)uud for I S markets, and indeed they appear to have had time to buy extra doses themselves.. I' S officials deny having advance know ledge and say that they thought problems at the British plant were tinder control. It is apparent that those at the highest levels of the U.S. government were taken by surprise, a clear indication that information does not flow up the public health bureaucracy as swiftly as it ought to. . This is no trivial problem, because bureaucratic flexibility and rapid information flow will be needed if the world is suddenly e ' confronted with a viru- particularly lent form of flu, possibly originating in the strains that killed millions of birds in Asia last year and that have spread to humans in several recent ly d(x.umented cases. Scientists have long feared a repetition of the flu pandemics that killed more than TiOO.OOO Americans in 19,18 and 7l),(MX) in 1957. Knowing of these predictions, officials at the Department of Health long-lastin- X READING UST MAN' ANi P!57!NGUISHti PPV8UCH U6&.A H TOPS IN YOUR. YOU OT7ZAl r CHBCK .jsPv r JrY dates. Letters written by candidates will not be published. Letters should be no longer than 200 words. All letters must be signed by the author and include a phone number for verification pur-- . poses. Anonymous letters will be discarded. The Daily Herald will accept letters ' related to the general election until 5 p.m. Oct. 22. Letters received after that time will not be published. The Daily Herald will letnot publish campaign-relate- - im Oct. 29. 1 II I , II 11 1 k I Vicfei Martin, Clearfield unjustly takes fruits of public's labor Initiative 1 On Sept. 19, a front page article in a Utah newspaper stated that Utahns overwhelmingly want to spend more tax dollars to preserve open space. A poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates of 915 Utah residents shows that 65 percent of those polled would vote for increased sales tax to fund a myriad of items from land use, parks, open space, local facilities and museums. Since when do 915 residents represent the millions of people in Utah? I am sure that farmers and ranchers, and land owners in general are tired of government telling them how to use their land, and then to add another tax and bureaucracy to an existing bloated government is to heap hardship and persecution onto the backs of Utah's tax payers. Thomas Jefferson said, "... a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." Initiative 1 is nothing more that a dressed up socialist agenda to take the bread of labor at the point of a gun called taxes. I Allan Hales, Salem ' How to comment dhlettersheraldextra.com aliens' interests in Congress Fax 344-298- Provo, UT 84603. I Letters must include the author's full name, address and sion. Spurred by possibility of Cannon's and Bush's amnesties for illegal aliens passing Congress we're flooded by illegals, 2,000 daily from Sasabe alone. Does Cannon represent workers? Harvard Economist George Borjas found average American men's earn0 due ings fell $1,700 between to immigration. The $55.5 billion yearly sent home by immigrants should be spent here to create new jobs for Americans. Does Cannon represent taxpayers paying billions yearly for social services for illegals including public education? .. 5 to Mail to P.O. Box 717, Rep. Chris Cannon took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution including Art. IV Sec. 4 to protect the states from inva- 1980-200- m II tfAfwAcoNsnium. I IMS? hZg3ESl moA... jj r WfS;r iV f M imTHINKlT resents. . daytime phone number. t We prefer shorter letters, 100 and 200 words. Letters may be edited for length. I Writers are encouraged to include their occupation and other personal information. I Because of the volume of letters, we cannot acknowledge unpublished letters. I Letters become the property of the Daily Herald. Bruce Tinsley n I Hi&rrveg&N , Jr.". I favoring less immigration by more than 75 percent? Does Cannon represent victims like Mrs. Cruddy whose Lehi husband was murdered by his illegal employee? Of felons in federal incarceration, 25 percent are illegal aliens. Last summer Cannon's Web site listed hundreds of ethnic and business organizations profiting from illegal immigration. This included 8,000 immigration lawyers to be paid as "arbitrators" when his bill passes. That's who Cannon rep- Cannon only represents illegal MALLARD FILLMORE Garry Trudeau Ml rwfiN d ters after Utah County pays $5,421 for each illegal alien student. Does Cannon represent Hispanics polled by Hispanic Magazine who responded, like mainstream Americans, letters to The Daily Herald welcomes letters from supporters of political candi- d SN75AT! mm loumalstaf ami alides2004AWl 41enefi'(toc 4 2S32109fct43862 09$ ttl II i.i letter policy state-of-the-a- rt termiomcoNsmu- HONEST voces seats I BET. elections '.'. oujRBP.pouoeemms p " and Human Services have just begun funding the research and production of new vaccines as well as new antiviral influenza drugs. They are also working on developing a "surge capacity," in the form of spare chickeas, whose eggs are used to produce vaccines, in case it suddenly becomes necessary to make large quantities. Unfortunately, thus capacity is not yet in place. Less clear is whether the system would be able to cope with the burden that a virulent influenza epidemic would place on the govern-ment'- s laboratories, which would have to Isolate and analyze the new virus and swiftly produce vaccines and drugs for it. Congress' fondness for budget "earmarks" means, for example, that some scientists fear they will not have the flexibility needed to switch their resources rapidly from one project to another. Together with other specialists, Nancy J. Cox, director of. the influenza lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, has called for the creation of a genetic analysis lab dedicated solely to flu virus. But Congress and HHS could, if they focused on this problem, establish a more flexible, better-fundesystem within the CDC, even if they are not ' ready to fund a large new lab. Although this isn't a problem many people have yet f,ocused on, they will if a virulent flu virus strikes. By then it may be too late. D00NESBURY W -- die-har- Create a better health system to light flu virus pandemic? Is Thisinflucua autumn's about candidates for office name-callin- over-the-to- ' Public must learn all they can I am glad to see the comments from our Utah candidates. They are all for education funding and not making Utah a dumping ground for atomic waste. I have them memorized. What else are they for or against? -- There is a cry to cut taxes and some pride themselves on helping ease our burdens. Whose burdens? When it comes to local costs and taxing people that can least afford it, they are silent. I remember when one party used to UVSC student leaders trashed exclaim, "Vote for the man." Now they say, "vote for the party." I like to know community by inviting Moore a candidate's occupation, other than a "There is a fine line between a lively career politician. This tells me a lot g about where his or her interests are. political debate and outright I know they are all good family men and mudslinging that would turn off d even and women and honest, but will they 'Jerry Springer' fans. Sadserve my interests too, or just pretend ly, too rpany candidates and their supto? As voters we need to be more inporters are crossing that line." g "... it creates formed on what is going on around us damage to the political process." (Herald editorial, and less about other less essential matters. Sept. 6) I Lamar Olsen, Orem Do the Herald editors really believe this, or is this just shallow, insincere rhetoric? Don't assume Amendment 3 On Sept. 25 the editors gave a Buffalo will pass without your vote reactions to Chip for Michael Moore's visit. Perhaps some Protect the definition and institution of marriage by voting for Amendment 3 have reacted in extreme fashion. Howon Nov. 2. ever, it is unfortunate that the process All of you folks who think it will pass ever got this far. The and think you will pass on voting, don't. invitation to Moore, Get out and exercise your constitutional has betrayed and trampled the public trust. Why were UVSC student body ofright to vote. I know that the majority ficers and administration so insensitive of Utah supports this amendment, but we need that majority to get out and to community values? vote on Election Day. Moore's rhetoric is an affront to the ideals of civility and honest disagreeThis.amendment needs to pass and with a large majority. We need to send ments. The Herald's editorial was an appeal a strong message to the rest of the to conduct the political process without country and encourage our fellow citizens to defend marriage. mudslinging. I Just as the composition of water is. propose three more Buffalo Chips: the first two to UVSC student body offiH2O, the composition of a marriage is a man and a woman. Show your children cers and administrators for their disreand grandchildren that you are interestspectful stewardship of the public trust. ed in their futures by supporting this amendment. Encourage your friends and neighbors and those 18 and older to' out and support Amendment 3. get Herald I Jennifer Coletti, Provo MEDIA VOICES From 77ir U'uniiiiIom Post, Oct If. HID I propose one go to the Herald editors for not giving Buffalo Chips to UVSC and for not being true to their own editorial. Mark Strong, Provo I before casting ballot ,fltr,1It r I V2. "4 I' ,i ;v c iii i 1 1 r M I i ibi Ml I i I a OL.,1 Ifwvr" I ri in , I till I rr T-- ' I IjI we; |
