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Show OPINI Al0 THURSDAY Aras. 3, 2003 WWW SL TKGROOM OurView NoBurning Need f burning an American flag were not a powerful way to send a message, to engage in political speech, then no one would do it and no one wouldcare if they did. simple statute that accomplishes the samelevel of protectionfor theflag. Maybe, But Bennett’s contribution to this debate has beento give senators with good agree with one another about the hearts and weak intestines afall back position, to support his less radical solutionand so have an excusenot to back Hatch’sas. sault on Amer! freedom The symbolic speech of trash ing nationalicons is well-known to history and, when weare on thesideof thosedoing the trash. ing, Americanstendto think it is great fun. Whenthe Soviet Unionfell people from Berlin to Kamchatka celebrated through symbolic speech, burning Soviet flags and toppling statues. As U.S. soldiers move moredeeply into Iraq, smashing statues andother im: ages of Saddam Husseinis a very effective way to break through the languagebarrierand send a powerful message about what best path, but agree that destroy theyare about ing a flag is something that shouldfall outside the bounds of protected expression. Hatch thinks a constitutional amendment is neededto over- American troops also have been put on noticethat theyare not to symbolically raise any Americanflags, Iwo Jima-like, as a symbolof victory in Iraq. It looks too much like conquest. It uses a flag as a political statement, which thosein commandof men-at-armsareright to prohibit. for tactical reasons But using a flag to make a statement remainsthe inalien. ableright of the rest of us. If we forget that, it will bedifficult to explain to the newly mintedde. mocracies weare about to create just what real freedomis. But because setting a copy of Old Glory alight clearly is, in the mindsof great many Ameri cans, an expression of opinion that either resonates or sickens, there can be no questionthat it is an act of political expression It is disgusting, abhorrent, dis respectful, maddening and just plain stupid. But it is political ex pression nonetheless, and there. fore protected by any reasonable readingof the Bill of Right And nobody should be messing around with the Bill of Rights Not evenin wartime. Especially not in wartime Utah's two delegatesto the US, Senate, Orrin Hatch and Bob Ben nett, are backingrival plans to eviscerate that right. They dis comepast Supreme Court rulings that consideredflag burning pro- tected political expression. He feels that, with Americans displaying a spike of patrioticfeel ings during the current war, his amendinent hasa better chance of passage thanthepast three timeshetriedit Bennett thinks he can avoid tinkering with the Constitution, a laudable goal, and come up with a Invitation to Mayhem he Utah Legislature spent alot of timelast session arguing over reformof the public schools. In the midst of this debate, the lawmakers passeda bill that virtually in vites people with concealed. weapons permits to bring their guns to school. Some might call that a reform, but wedo not be lieve most Utahns would For openers, it runs counterto common sense, which argues that for thesafety of children, the state should do everythingit can to discourage people from bring: ing firearms into schools, Gov. Mike Leavitt signed the bill last month, giving the excuse that the new legislation wouldn't really change anything. We beg todiffer A veto wouldhave forced the Legislature to reconsider this dangerous bill, and perhaps to do what it should have done in the first place, namely, to banall firearmsfrom schools. There could be reasonable exceptions of course, such as for law en forcement officers, but suchex ceptions should not include the 52,000 Utahns whocurrently hold permits to carry concealed weap ons. pene: But the Bureauof Criminal Identification reportedlast year that not all Utah concealed-carry permit holders are law-abiding citizens. Four peoplein thepast eight years hadtheir permits re voked for committing murder,at least two using the guns they were carryinglegally. Another permit was revoked forat tempted homicidewith afire arm, andyet another wasin jeopardybecauseof a pending homi cide case. Apologists pointedout that the overall crime rate among permit holders was lower than in the general population, but that is mal consolation whenthese peopleare the only privateciti zens with carte blancheto carry guns in schools. The backersofthebill, led by Sen. Mike Waddoups, R. Taylorsville, claimedthat it was neededto eliminatea conflict be tween the concealed-carry law, whichsays that permit holders may carry guns “throughout the state, without restriction” (ex cept for the secure areasof air THE PusBLic Forum Car Washes Randy Horiuchi to fine homeowners who wash their cars at home. The April 2 edition of the paper included news that the County Council had decided to takea longerlookat theissue, ‘Theoriginal article suggested that homecar washes use more water than commercial car washes, This claim comes from a biased Mark Goddard who owns the eight Supersonic Car Washoutlets in Salt Lake County ‘Thearticlefailedto mentiona report done by the American Water Works Association that showed that a home car wash, if done responsibly, would use30 gallons per vehicle, while com Commercial car washes, there fore, use at le a8 much water as washing your car at home, and sometimes over three times more. Rusty Jones Provo | did a quick calculation using sta- Phone Number: 401-257-207 ‘Tribune Fax: 201-257-0525 E-mail: jetters@sltrib.com tistics from the World Bank Web site (www.worldbank.org). The $75 bil- (Peasesend text only, attachments will not the poorest 58 countries combined. be opened) Mail: Public Forum, TheSalt Lake Tribune, P.0, Box #67, Salt Lake City, Utah #4110 Letter Guidelines: TheTribune welcomes letters of up to 250 words on topics of general interest. Letters mustincludefull name, homeaddress and day and evening phonenumbers, Only the nameand city of residence are published. Letters may be editedfor length, grammarand accuracy Dueto volume, not all submissions are published, mercial car washes, depending upon type, use between 40 and 100gallons per vehicle. What $75 Billion Buys How to reach us A recent Salt Lake Tribune article described a proposal by Salt Lake County Councilmen Joe Hatch and Observant Citizens J am at a loss here. I need yourintel. lectualliberal readers totell me,please, whytheir moral outrage is soselective. Tell me whythere were no worldwide protests when the thugs of Slobodan Milosevic were systematically raping tens of thousands of women in Tell me why there were no world. wide protests when Saddam gassed thousands of his countrymen. Tell me why there was no moral outrage as the Taliban executed women on the soccer fields of their nation’s capital. Tell me why there were no protests when the for the reward Soviet Union, and later Russia, butchering Chechnyans. If they tad not called, Elizabeth would probably still be out there wait. Whereis the moral outrage about the deplorable conditions in Kim Jong: ing to be found. Evenwith the nameof Brian David Mitchell suspect, nel ther the police nor anybodyelse knew whereto find him. Thank God for ob- servant citizens. Sue Witsiams Sandy were Bill Clinton sent Americans to their death in Somalia? Is it hypocrisy or simply innocent, selective perception? 1 did not in my mind support this menced| pray that the coalition will be An Awful Precedent victorious. (Tribune, March2), in which he writes Still, | would like tobe enlightened. Dan Perenson Sandy law, SenateBill 108, claim that schoolchildren have nothing to ports, courts, jails and mental hospitals) and another law that forbade the possession of weap. ons and explosives in schools. The lawmakers should have eliminatedthe conflict by adding schools to the list of places where fear from the law-abiding citi permit holders may not carry zens whohave passed the crimi nal background check and rudi mentary training course neces sary to holda concealed-carry Sen. Patrice Arent, D-Holladay proposedsuch a bill, which was defeated It is shocking that lawmakers would openthe schoolhouse doors to tens of thousands of peo- his/her opinion than admit he/sheis wrong? And whatof those who are unwilling ple carrying guns, If this is re to change their opinions from favoring form, count us out the war? Don't they fall under that same news programs. | will continuetodo so, At this momentI believe, without a doutt, that the actions of the Bush ad. ministration are wrong for a multitude of reasons. | have the right to believe that, and I havethe rightto say it. At the provision? lagree with the minority against the war, but 4 precedent has been set, an are serving in the war effort are ex. tremely brave individuals whoare do- awful onein which thepresidentof the United States now has theultimate veto ing what they think ts right. I don't blame them for the situation at hand. I The proponents of the new permit. In fact, the proponents go further, insisting that the pres ence of these armed peoplein schools will deter crime. Uran's Iyoerrxmet Vowce Since 1871 The Balt LakeTribune Past Publishers Serer F Vererarmiey (1924 190) Jones Wi Gaanrwnn IO 1 Sommer Paves (1988-10004 Dereon Wincw (hig p0C, Thee Salt Lake Tritvorse 6 Mai Sh elt Cathe ity (eae mg08 Wessaw Deas Sewciserim Editor 4 td Editorial Page Vitor Vane Ano anes Véiter Tew Perererece that those who are unflinching in their resolve and opinions must obviously be weak-minded, because, as he quotes from Somerset Maugham, “Like all weak men helaid an exaggerated stress on not changing one’s mind.” Because someoneis not blindly sup. porting the war in Iraq, must that per. son bean inherently weak thinker? Be cause someone opposes this war, does it mean that person is automatically 4 simpleton who would rather defend over any world dispute and will wield that veto with an iron fist Iraq ts ruled by a terrible man. Bat why not simply have the man in power killed rather than risking the possibil. build a moon base, and send an unmanned probe to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star, and build a space plane that won't explode now and again. Wecould build a 360-mph magJev train system connecting a number of major U.S. cities, Wecould build a wind and solar power generating system that could power New York City and much of the rica, and the populated islands of Galapagos, and all the remaining old growthforests in the United States, Wecould get fuel-cell powered vehicles on the road five years sooner than projected. We could ensure that no one in the United States ever needs to go hungry again. Wecould eliminate most of the world’s actual weapons of mass destruction by providing economic in- centives to destroy them. With the change left over, we could put in place a permanent system for early detection of near Earth objects and ways to protect ourselves from them. Youcan seethe irony here, since we have instead spent the money on making war. ‘Tm Exsxine Draper Il’s North Korea. (I understand one can no longer hear birdsong, because people are eating the birds, they are so hungry.) Where were the protests when war, but for whatever reasons it com: I write in response to Cal Thomas’ column, “Those Who Oppose War Will Chide U.S. for Being World’s Bully” With the $75 billion (six times NASA's entire annual budget), we could put an expedition on Mars or Kast Coastforever. We could purchase the remaining rain forests of Madagascar, Central Af- Enlighten Me Bosnia and Croatia, not to mention the mass murders a la Saddam Hussein. There seems to be some question as to who gets the reward money for find: ing Elizabeth Smart. The two couples who took action and called the police after recognizing Mitchell should, without doubt, be the top recipients lion we are spending on the war is equal to the Gross Domestic Product of Not Black and White Recently I have heard many people say that if a person opposes the warin Iraq then they are unpatriotic and are not supporting our troops. Wheredoes this comefrom? It makes no sense. Opinions are not black or white. | have learned as much as I can about the situation in Iraq by reading, listening to radioreports and watching A Hidden Agenda i read with interest that the Salt Lake County water districts are finally going to add fluoride to our drinking water, even though it will be almost three years after the vote. | also read with interest that Councilman Russell Skousen, whoclaims to have no political agenda on this issue, also that we vote occasionally to approve the fluoridation issue. Would Mr. Skousen propose that we vote every four years on taxation, chlorination, animal control and the other various county or city government functions? Of course not. This would put an unacceptable financial burden on the county government and the activist groups in favor or against any given issue, Come on, Mr. Skousen, you have a political Agenda, and it’s anti fluoridation. Let's put this right-wing red-herringto bed and accept that there is no communist hidden agenda in fluoridation. Fluoride provides a level of dental protection to our children, just as surely as other government actions such as police, seat belts and car seats provideprotection to other key citizen groups. same time, I believe all the people who blame the Bush administration for pushing this military action, and I blame Congress for not stopping it What kind ofdemocracy is this ifwe caninetolerate freedom of speech (and thought)’Let's all support our troops in ity of many civilian casualties” Because the United States does net condone the asameination fA foreign waders. But aren't we going for the same results with the bombings? Isn't the ultimate goal to remove him permanently? now, saving their lives, as well as the lives of countless innocent Iraqi civilians. Journ Rowaxp Tangrre Awpkta Ropaiaury Salt Laake City our own wiry, and allow others to do the fame, To me that means asking our government to bring our troops home Keer C, Oventy Draper Good Riddance ‘This is in response to the contro versy over om leaving the Crossroads mall. | say, let Nordstom move out of the Crossroads mall and pat in a WalMart or a Target store there. It is # prime location for either of blocks away. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Let Nordstom move to Gateway and we will see who gets the last laugh Ammen Baws Salt Lathe City |