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Show Viewpoints The A-21 Park Record. Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, January 20-23, 2018 editorial Sundance primed for leading role in the Me Too movement O guest editorial Park City Olympic hopeful questions monument rollback KRISTI KOPLIN Park City After growing up in an Army family that moved all over the United States, I’m proud to call Utah home. Our public lands are a huge source of this pride. I began to explore Utah’s amazing natural wonders when I moved here for high school and then to study nursing at Southern Utah University. After running track and field in college, I received a Facebook message from a teammate about trying a new sport: bobsled. Fast forward and I now live in Park City, where I am training for the upcoming Olympic Games. Being so close to the mountains is ideal for my sport and I treasure the great outdoors here in my home state. Right now I am very focused on my goal to qualify for the Games and win an Olympic medal. But at the same time, I am worried about what’s happening to our national monuments. When I saw President Trump’s recent decision to reduce Bears Ears and Grand The Park Record Staff PUBLISHER ....................... Andy Bernhard Editor ................................... Bubba Brown Staff Writers ......................Jay Hamburger Scott Iwasaki Angelique McNaughton Ben Ramsey Carolyn Webber Contributing ............................. Tom Clyde Writers Jay Meehan Teri Orr Amy Roberts Tom Kelly Joe Lair Copy Editor ............................ James Hoyt Engagement Editor.........Kira Hoffelmeyer Photographer .........................Tanzi Propst Office Manager ..................... Tiffany Piper Circulation Manager ............. Lacy Brundy Accounting Manager ......... Jennifer Snow ADVERTISING Classifieds/Legals ............. Jennifer Lynch Advertising Director ........... Valerie Spung Advertising Sales ......................... Lori Gull Jodi Hecker Erin Donnelly Lisa Curley Olivia Bergmann Production Director ..................Ben Olson Production .......................... Patrick Schulz Linda Sites Staircase-Escalante, I was shocked. Now we have Utah lawmakers like Rep. Rob Bishop, Rep. Chris Stewart, and Rep. John Curtis doubling down on this attack with proposed legislation to secure Trump’s rollbacks on our monuments. As an Olympic hopeful, I train with many athletes every day in the outdoors. We all value, use, and love our public lands. These are the places we go to get strong, find solace, and have fun. Why would the government want to reduce the public’s access to these areas? I grew up with four siblings and we spent most of our family vacations in the great outdoors exploring new places. Because we had such a large family, we camped a lot. I now find myself spending more and more time outdoors with my friends. I have so much pride for the beauty our country has to offer. We have so many diverse regions that provide almost any landscape you are looking for. Living in Utah, I find myself most connected to Bryce, Canyonlands, Arches and Zion National Parks. I dream of visiting other public lands too – the top of my list right now is the Wave in Arizona’s Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. While I am preparing for the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, I spend a lot of time outside for both training and taking a break from the gym. Many of our bobsled tracks are located in areas surrounded by public land. I love to use these places to find my center and focus on things that are the most important in my life. As I reflect on the recent elimination of national monuments with potentially many more acres on the chopping block, my biggest concern is about our country’s future and the potential loss of these natural places for future generations. Protecting these places is essential so that future generations can enjoy these places just as much as we do, if not more. I will continue to treasure and fight for the protection of our national monuments and special places like Bears Ears and Grand Staircase. America’s public lands have always been there for me. Now, I want to be there for them. Kristi Koplin is training for the women’s Olympic bobsled team is a member of Olympians for Public Lands, a group of athletes from a variety of sports and states speaking up to protect the lands they love. Learn more at www.olympiansforpubliclands.org. For the record ver the course of its illustrious run, the Sundance Film Festival has established its bona fides as a platform for filmmakers and attendees to spread important ideas and messages. But perhaps never before in its history has there been a coalescence surrounding a specific movement like this. As festival-goers began to gather in Park City Thursday for Sundance’s opening, the film industry continued to grapple with the flood of sexual misconduct allegations that have rocked Hollywood in recent months and spurned the nationwide Me Too rallying cry. And during an unprecedented moment for the festival, it has been thrust into a leading role in the fight for change. Sundance organizers, to their credit, seem to grasp the importance of the festival taking on the part. After all, the reckoning began with allegations against influential film producer Harvey Weinstein, a major presence at the festival over the years. Additionally, Sundance is the first major festival since the scope of sexual misconduct in the film industry became clear. The most important thing Sundance can do to meet the moment is ensure the festival is a place where people feel safe. To that end, expanding the code of conduct, which in the past has applied only to employees and volunteers, to govern the behavior of all attendees is a notable step. The code specifically addresses sexism, harassment and threatening behavior, and is now featured prominently in program materials distributed during the 10-day event. That’s an important symbolic overture, but Sundance has taken concrete measures to increase safety, too. The festival is partnering with law enforcement agencies to provide increased safety, including a 24-hour hotline through the Utah Attorney General’s Office to report sexual assault or harassment. Sundance also has an important role to play in shaping and furthering the conversation surrounding the Me Too movement and the place of women in the film industry. Though Robert Redford has stated in the past that Sundance is not meant to be overtly political, the festival’s brass directly addressed the wave of sexual misconduct allegations at Thursday’s opening press conference. The Sundance Institute founder said the Me Too movement has pushed the culture and the film industry to a tipping point — and, in his perspective, one that will result in more women getting the chance to share their stories. The statement will hopefully be a guiding light for Sundance as it aims to further increase diversity — according to the the Institute, 37 percent of this year’s features are directed by women, well above the industry standard but not good enough — and ensure women are given the same opportunities as their male counterparts. The festival, of course, also serves as a forum to explore the issue for the thousands of people from various backgrounds who gather here for 10 days. Discussions about the Me Too movement will take place on bus rides through town, in restaurants on Main Street, on walks to screening locations and in the panel discussions that litter the festival — not to mention the Respect Rally planned Saturday at 10 a.m. at City Park and seen as a follow up to last year’s massive Women’s March on Main. The conversations and sharing of experiences will foster more understanding of the Me Too movement. Paired with Sundance’s efforts to increase safety and promote diversity, there’s power at the festival to change things for the better. letters to the editor Reader says Treasure is “Art of the Deal” Editor: Current proposed scale of the Treasure Hill project is roughly one million square feet. Back in the 80’s the applicant proposed a project approximately 1/3 that size. City council is considering buying down the size of Treasure by 50% for 30 million dollars. If approved we the tax payers of Park City will have paid the applicant 30 million dollars to approve a 50% increase to the original size of the Treasure Hill project. Looks like the Art Of The Deal is about to be re-written. Jay Cromwell Old Town Hobson is best choice for City Council Editor: I strongly believe that Josh Hobson should be appointed to the open seat. From June to November, Josh campaigned by conducting his own non-official listening tour. He met with GMs of both resorts, directors of a number of area non-profits, and several city department heads. He has been attending City Council meetings and devouring the written packets since the 2016 election. Although Josh didn’t win the popular vote for City Council member, Josh is extremely committed to making Park City a great place to live and work – for ALL people. Josh has a unique perspective on the problems that challenge our community. He represents the typically underrepresented restaurant community, has chosen to live without a vehicle and utilizes public transportation to its full extent and knows the woes of affordable housing for a family just starting out. These three areas have been deemed critical priorities by the City and we need Josh’s voice in these conversations. Deanna Rhodes Park City Community must help farm deal happen Editor: Imagine driving to and from Park City and seeing condos, hotels and parking lots instead of the McPolin farm. Imagine seeing hundreds of homes in part of Round Valley instead of open space. Imagine walking Willow Creek park or biking Old Ranch Rd and instead of seeing sandhill cranes and open fields, you’d see into yet another backyard of someone’s house. Park City would not be what it is today if it wasn’t for the Osguthorpe family. People come here from all over the world to take photos at the McPolin farm and are in awe of the beauty. We might forget that this iconic landscape was saved because the Osguthorpes chose to sell it to Park City rather than a developer. Locals to visitors enjoy the open space view corridors along 224 and 248 including access to summer and winter trails thanks to the generosity of this family. The family has never sold any land here for development but instead worked with the city and Summit Land Conservancy to protect the land. The Osguthorpe’s are Parkites. They are fellow neighbors in our community that have given us a gift that will forever be enjoyed by generations. Now they need our help. Unless enough money is raised by Summit Land Conservancy by March 2018 the family will be forced to sell the 158-acre farm along Old Ranch Rd instead of placing it into conservancy. This is more than just saving open space. It’s about helping one of our neighbors who has helped us have access to a beautiful place. Helping the family is the least we can do. Right now SLC (wesaveland.org) has a $500,000 matching grant making your donation go twice as far. Fellow Parkites, let’s step up and make this deal happen! It’s the right thing to do. Camilla Kragius Pinebrook Photos by Kira Hoffelmeyer Asked on Main Street How do you decide what movies to see during Sundance? Kerry & Boyd Bringhurst Logan I like international films, so I usually look for those first. Cera Connors & Stephanie Valente Southern California & Brazil Connors - Whatever interests me after reading the plots, that’s the only way I get a feel. Valente - I look at past work from the directors and the content they like to get out there, and I like looking at ones from different countries. Jon Sagud & Ryan Snyder Leez Weiss Irvine, Ca & Philadelphia New York Our motivation would be to see our cameras (Canon) Whichever ones I can get into. used in a movie. See these photos and more by following The Park Record on Facebook.com/parkrecord and Instagram.com/parkrecord |