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Show Page A8 iThe imrs-3- 1 ubrpenftrnt Thursday, November 29, 2001 OUR TOWN Community Comments by Sam Taylor the first locally produced cable news show m the n nation And it was totally a operation. After Les passed on, the show was taken over by Dee Tranter in the early 1 980s, and he kept the tradition alive tor many years. As the Moab cable system begin merging up, eventually into one of the largest cable TV companies in the nation, the local news continued here on Channel 6. After the most recent transfer of ownership, the future of local TV news was a question mark. This past week it was discontinued. consider that not a loss of a competitor. but the loss of a valuable community service Sure, gathering and presenting news is not always a profitable enterprise. When Emery Telecom decided to put its Moab operation on the market and cancel news, it probably made sense from a profit loss position. But it was not a favor to the community People who seek, view and need access to local news happenings, have an obligation to help pay for it. We here at The Times rely on advertising, subscription payments and newsstand sales to gather and print news every week. Electronic media have to do the same. We have found that our formula has worked for over a hundred years, even though at times it has been tough. It is our hope that whoever ends up with the local TV cable operation, they will continue local news shows, even though they are not as profitable as rolling logs,' commercials and whatever. duties in this Ob in 956 Moab electronics expert. G Uzel "Jack" Foote started up Moab s first cable television station He had started a radio station several years earlier Now since newspapers, television stations and radio stations are supposed competitors, we wondered as did a lot ot our supporters, how we didn t know how to refelt about the start-udo now, believe that a and diJ then, spond all the have should opportunities for community access tc public news and entertainment that it can get was a little excited about the stait-up- . Jack Foote and his wife Nora, along with elecdaughter Janet came to Moab to open an tric appliance store Moab Electric, and to do specialty electricians work He was also, incidentally an uncle of the woman who would later become my wife He was a friend He told me once that when he considered moving to Moab. he asked my father if he thought a business like that could succeed My dad told him that any business filling a gap in a community's fabric could be successful if the owner operators were willing to work hard and provide service to their towns Jack and Nora weren't afraid of work. They spent long hours, as did most of us Mom and Pop" business owners, making a success of their businesses An electronic genius, it wasn't long before Jack envisioned a cable television network in town in addition to a local radio station, and with the aid of some financial supporters, started one It was one of the first in the nation, and was a success from the beginning Les Erbes had just moved to Moab from Michigan, after selling a bowling alley there, to build one of Moab's first badly needed subdivisions. along with his longtime friend Fred Stoye. y Les talked Jack into letting him do a local news program on the new TV station Les did that popular show for years until his death some 20 years ago He gathered news, went out and sold commercials to make it profitable, earned in clothing and other items to promote his commercials, and endeared himself to the community particularly to the youth of the town Short' y after mid-- I my began one-ma- 1 I I I I by Ollie Harris Confessions and advice Most of the principles by which I govern my life are distillations of wisdom from across the ages. I learned them at my mother's knee and my father's hand They are expressed in documents from the Tien Commandments to the pages of the Department of Public Safety. As I've thought about all those things which circumscribe my life. Ive wondered if there are any principles by w hich I live that are mine alone, that are founded in my own experiences, and not necessarily a part of some ancient or modem cat- sjt Tuesday evening Adrien and paid our last respects to a fond neighbor and beloved educator, Merlyn Maxwell. It was good to spend a few minutes visiting with her three children, and many others who stopped by. Merlyn and her late husband Bud lived just a few houses from where grew up. They were great neighbors and great friends in a great growing-uneighborhood. More importantly Merlyn brought the joy of includmusic to hundreds of Moab school-kidstill me. remember when she appeared at ing a football practice to tell the players she needed more boys in her high school chorus. She got them, and think we all enjoyed the experience. Im sure she was Merlyn was in her am this spring, she thankful that just ready. was honored as the recipient of Grand County High Schools Circle of Honor for her contribution to education here. And was doubly honored to have been allowed to make that presentation at Commencement. It meant so much to her, and was so greatly deserved. I echism. Actually, there are two. They are on my mind because I violated both of them within the last few weeks and have had to pay the price. The first is rather simply stated. It is this: During hunting season, if you get a chance at a decent buck you should take it w ith no regard to how difficult it may be to get the meat out of the woods. It doesn't matter if it is in the depths of a nearly impenetrable canyon or across several such canyons, miles from the truck. My own experience has taught me this. You will expend much more time and energy trying to find another good buck than you would have in carrying the one out that you passed up. I violated that principle this fall. I hiked up a quaky draw in the dark of predawn, past several frantically bugling bull elk, to a saddle some distance from the vehicle. A little later, three nice bucks crossed a hillside maybe three hundred yards from me. The problem was that there was a very steep and deep canyon between us. I was not even tempted to shoot, knowing that there was no way I could haul one across the canyon and back to the vehicle. Predictably, I did not get a deer this season. I have already begun to regularly ride my bicycle so that next year if a similar situation arises, I will be in better shape and, hopefully, up to the challenge. The second personal principle that I violated says that you should never put your wife in a situa I twice-dail- p s, I who loved him I being competitors, we became fast friends almost partners Les always stopped by at our office at press time, and picked up one of the first papers off the press on Wednesdays. He loved to read our stones on his program, and he n always gave us credit According to one television personality in Salt Lake City, Craig Wirth. the Les Erbes show was probably Instead Xi Idle Thoughts from Mt. Waas of mid-90- s. I I well-know- Many Trails by Adrien F. Taylor tion where she might be blamed if things go wrong. Examples of such situations are many. Some of the most obvious include asking her to help you tow a car. Whether you put her in the tow vehicle or in the vehicle being towed, you are really asking for trouble. I once watched a man in a disabled vehicle being towed by his wife. She stopped for a stop sign. He ran up on the chain, looping it over the axle of the car. She took off from the stop sign and hit the end of the chain with a terrible jolt. He jumped out of his car and yelled at her, calling her all sorts of names. It was his fault. She was just handy to be blamed. So, how did I violate my second principle? I asked Barbara to help me put the camper shell on the truck. Before we began 1 remarked to her that I knew better than to bother her w ith such a request. I could have called my son or my Either would have been happy to help me. I just let stubborn pride get in the way. Anyway, I put the front of the shell up on two short barrels, the rear up on two taller barrels. I backed the truck up to the front of the shell and boosted it onto the tailgate. From there I began to drag the shell up onto the pickup. Barbara's job was to guide the back of the shell to keep it from sliding off one side or the other. Suddenly, everything went awry. The back of the shell slid off the left side of the truck (leaving a nice, big scrape in the paint). It was my fault. I should have picked up the 4x4 that Barbara tripped over. In the process of awkwardly lifting the shell back onto the bed rails, I spazzed my back. But, you know what? I didn't blame Barbara. I simply apologized for putting her in such a position, for adding unnecessarily to her stress. It will be a week tomorrow. The back is almost completely healed thanks to Barbs tender ministrations and several hours riding my bicycle. Best of all, I didn't say or do anything to injure the fond relationship that Barbara and I enjoy. And, I learned son-in-la- my lesson. High Country News Something from college journalism classes has come back to me these past few weeks with a kind of iromc twist, and I thought I'd share. There was a concept that had been developed by who knows7 It admonished students not to blow something out of proportion to its importance in our lives What could that term have been7 Afghamstamsm To indulge in Afghanistamsm was to make a big deal out of something as far away and as inconsequential as. well, Afghanistan expect that it's partly that attitude that has caused America ill will in some places in the world today And. of course, the world has shrunk, figuratively, in recent years, to the point where there is no place that is inconsequential to our lives Another concept that comes back to haunt me is that of the, Fog Index It was thought, and rightly so. that many publications wrote on a comprehension level above many of their readers So the Fog Index was developed (and I still structure and the comparative simplicity or difficulty of the words in the sentence, all of which were weighted to determine the level of education needed to understand the sentence. The sentence you have just read would be quite high on the Fog Index, because of all of the above. And I could have chosen more difficult words. I believe a major goal of the Fog Index was to encourage writers to use shorter and simpler sentences. Still an admirable goal. But what has happened is that much writing has been dumbed down to the point that it's not what I would call good writing anymore. With the dumbing down has come a loss of emphasis on clarity, good grammar, clean sentence I structure and even correct spelling. The Grammar Phantom points out to us, on a regular basis, where these errors creep into The We appreciate constructive criticism. We really do try to proof-reaeach other's stuff. Alas, the errors still show up, including type lice, those gremlins that come around after we are through with our work and make havoc with it. Times-Independen- so-call- d have it around here someplace), including the number of words in a sentence, the sentence CLljc (Lhnes-31nbepcnhe- nt (ITS) 6309-2000- ) Entered as Second class Matter at the Post Office at Moab, Utah under the Act Second class postage paid at Moab, Utah 84532. Official City and County Newspaper. Published each Thursday at: 35 East Center Street, Moab, Grand County, Utah 84532 Postmaster: Send changes address: editormoabtimes.com of address to: The 7UTAH PO. Box 129, Moab, UT 84532 Times-lndependen- t. or FAX Member of March 3, 1897. 435-259-77- NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION and PRESS ASSOCIATION Samuel J. and Adrien F. Taylor, Publishers Sena T. Flanders, Editor 5 Tom Tay'or . . . Zane Taylor Ron Flanders Franklin Seal Lisa Church Circulation Manager, Press, T-- Systems Manager News Writer News Writer News Wnter Michael Gosttin Sa 1,n Wrnp' Dorotiy And5'S'n l Maps Production Manager 06 re Managor'Sales Jose Design Bobbie Domemck, Jed Taylor Dann Hawk Layne Miller Betty Bailey Ron Drake Ron George Oliver Hams Ma.l Room Supervisor Distribution Churampi Ryan McDowell Backshop SalesProduction Regonal Correspondent Green River Correspondent Castle Valley columnist Columnist Columnist Sports t. Writers on the Range We need a new deal for the by Jerry Brady When the Great Seal of the State of Idaho was updated in 1957, it featured a mine, a tree and a farmer plowing behind a horse, symbols of the state's three traditional industries. How quaint. How inappropriate today. Tbdays seal would have to capture the computer chip, the printer, the tourists credit card and thousands of workers, most of them Hispanic women. Wildlife-base- d recreation is worth eight times more than mining today, while mining and timber together account for only 14,000 high-spee- d g of Idaho's 621,000 jobs. An accurate seal for 2001 might feature a line down the middle, dividing thriving cities with their modern industries from rural areas with their declining traditional industries. This picture of two separate economies emerged from a series of articles featured recently in four newsIdaho Falls' Poe Regpapers that circulate in Idaho ister, Boise's Idaho Statesman, Lewiston's Morning Tribune and the Spokesman Review in Spokane, as well as on public television and Boise's KTYB. The stories revealed that since 1973, Idaho's seven urban counties grew by a robust 110 percent. The state's 37 rural counties grew by only 1.5 percent, with most of that spurred by cities or resort towns like Sun Valley. Reporters found that rural students in Idaho are three times less likely to meet national test averages than their urban cousins, and Idaho's women are the lowest paid in the nation, earning less than $6 an hour and half the average for men. That's all the more true in rural counties. Agriculture still dominates most rural counties but is greatly changed. Between 1920 and 1960, the farms state was home to a constant 41,000-45,00- 0 4.000 farms are ranches. and Today, only large enough to receive a farm subsidy of $ 1,000 a year, one measurement of viability, of those, 789 large farms received most of the money. A single farmer, for example, can receive more from the state or federal government than a home county. A countys farm subsidies can even exceed its school budget. Yet rural Idaho was also found to have less crime, divorce, delinquency or ill health than the state as a whole. Its residents cling tenaciously to home and leave only as a last resort. Much of the state's backcountry is among the most beautiful in the nation. So what is to be done? rural West Nationally, 1 think we need a coherent policy for assisting rural areas. None exists now. As Priscilla Salant, a rural sociologist at the University of Idaho says, Truly the default rural policy has been agricultural policy, and it has failed miserably in improving the fortunes of rural America or rural Idaho." Idaho's Gov. Dirk Kempthome tried to help rural areas this year, but the legislatures idea of how to do so was to give farmers and ranchers a $13 million tax break. Only reluctantly did it find $3.9 milless lion for rural development for everyone else than its members collectively received in federal subsidies. The first $3.5 million will create 311 rural jobs. Modest tax credits, promotions and staffing will also help but fall far short of what's needed. The rural West needs what everyone else needs: better schools, good health care and a diversified source of living-wag- e jobs. The first opportunity for from come the 2002 farm bill. If the change might as final version limits payments to large farms and spends the Bush administration proposes more on the bask needs of all residents of rural communities, pays producers to protect open space, restore wildlife habitat and clean up waterways, then rural America will be better off. Cleaning up past mistakes can also be good business. Northern Idaho will get about $600 million to clean up mine pollution. Butte is being reborn on just such work. Forty million acres of Western forests will need thousands of workers to rehabilitate forests after wildfires or remove fuels built up by unwise fire suppression. But overall, we need a new deal between the nation's cities and their outbacks, one w hich is explicit about what each receives from the other. The current deal you folks in rural areas, keep providing half our food while we pay a few at the top to is demeaning and wasteful. keep going A better deal would recognize that city dwellers should help pay for clean water, beauty, open space and wildlife as well as healthy, inexpensive food. American cities and urban schools routinely adopt their counterparts in Japan, Europe and the Third World. They might better adopt Fremont County, Idaho, or Glendive, Mont In this time of homeland defense, understanding begins at home. Jerry Brady is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News in Paonia, Coloo (hcn.org). He is the publisher and editor of in Idaho Falls, Idaho. the Idaho Falls Post-Regist- |