| OCR Text |
Show pinion FRIDAY, May 26, 1995 The Salt Lake Tribune PAGE A30 OUR VIEW The Salt Lake Tribune’s Editorial Position Theclosing of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House must be viewed with a tinge of regret, for it isa concession to the ugly reality of a dangerous world. Butit also is a necessary precaution. Utahns have watchedbarriers go up in downtown Salt Lake City for the game reason. Concrete bollards now guard approaches to the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building. Streetside parking on 100 South thatparallels the north side of the federal building has been closed. Like the barricading of two blocks of Pennsylvania Avenuein the national capital, these are necessary precautions. In the name of safety, Washingtonians and Salt Lakersare sacrificing a little convenience. With the horror of OklahomaCitystill fresh in mind, and understanding the destruction a bomb madeofreadily available materials can cause, these seem like small surrenders. It is only when they are viewed within a larger context of otherlittle surrenders —“an inability to walk the streets at night without worry, the need to pass through metal detectors at airports and other public buildings — that these modest concessions begin to rankle. . Even then, one must agree — with a sigh, perhaps — that President Clinton wasright to close the street in front of the White House. In recent months, besides Oklahoma City, Americans have watched a drunken wacko crash a small plane into the side of the White Housejust below the president’s bedroom. Another unstable person fired shots at the building throughthe fence on Pennsylvania Avenue. Then Tuesday night, a man carrying a gun jumped the fence and was shot by the Secret Service. Given this coalescence of events, random though they may be, the closure of Pennsylvania Avenue seems almost natural. That, too,is a little depressing. At the same time, Americans can console themselves thattheir society remains among the most open in the world, and the People’s House (as the White House wascalled in Jefferson’s day) continues to offer unparalleled public access. The homeis not being closed to visitors, although most other nations would consider that elemental. Andpeoplestill will be able to walk by the north fence on Pennsylvania Avenue and gaze on the White House; they just won’t be able to drive by in their cars or as passengers on tour buses. Closing the street won't guarantee against oddballs taking potshots at the White House or crashing small planes into it. But it will make a car-bombattack more difficult, and that’s a gain worth the price. Olympic Spirit in Reverse Utahns whohope to catch the Olympic spirit in three weeks have just been given a perfect example of what that $pirit should not entail. They can thank a few sorry souls from Barrow County, Ga., for the lesson. Barrow County, located about 30 miles northeast of 1996 Summer Games Sst city Atlanta, was going to serve asa f¥aining ground for Somalia's Olympic track team next year. But then some Frople with an overheatedsense of pariotism resurrected the image of Somalis dragging the body of a dead Ameritan through Mogadishu’s streets a fouiple of years ago. * The resulting protests led the county’s Chamber of Commerceto vote to barthe Somalis from using county facil- ities in '96. They will have to find a more accommodating county in Georgia. It is difficult to imagine a more pointless protest. For one thing, the premise that an Olympicathlete is ostensibly a representative of his coun- try’s government cannot even be applied in this case, since Somalia has been existing in a state of anarchy. Perhaps more than any otherathletes at the Atlanta Games, the Somalis will be representing themselves more than they will a government. The incident gave IOC Vice President Dick Pound another opportunity to point out the disadvantages to staging an Olympics in the United States. Mr. Pound, who previously noted that lack of public funding at American Olympics presents an obstacle, noted this time, “It's one of the great things aboutthe United States — that freedom of expresson. It’s also one of the unnerving things.” Mr. Poundis a Canadian and thus a supporter of Quebec over Salt Lake City for the 2002 Olympic bid. The Georgia incident may have given him one moreshotto fire before the June 16 decision date, butit is a small bullet — provided by some small minds in Barrow County, Ga. ANOTHER VIEW From The Seattle Times ‘ Muddying Clean Water Act The House's rewrite of the federal Glean Water Actis certain veto bait for Pfesident Clinton. It is so extremethat it’scunlikely the Sena‘e will agree to its provisions. Sen. John Chafee, chairman ofthe Senate Environment and Public Wérks Committee, already has expressed his’opposition to the House approach. _ But membersof the Houseare so eager toelash regulationsthat they haven't time {o.ponder the impactof their legislation ou Americanrivers, shores and wetlands, secondary sewagetreatment would result in contamination of beaches elsewhere. The inability of some counties to control agricultural pesticide and fertilizer runoff could endanger fish and wildlife in estuaries hundreds of miles away. All it takes is one weaklink in the system to increase the real costs of environmental degradation on others — including industries that are dependent on clean water, such as tourism andfisher- much less worry about what moderate One purpose of the 1972 Clean Water Act wasto end regionaldiscrepancies. Industries should not be allowed to move from state to state shopping for weak environmental laws. Yet, that's precisely what the House's rewrite of the Clean Water Act would encourage Poorerstates, counties and cities inevitably would be enticed into accepting pollution for the promise of jobs. States and communities that value environmental protection would be placedat an economic disadvantage — even though they may have to live with the dirty consequences of non-enforcement upstream. An unthinking, anti-regulatory ideology now drives the House. If that ideology is allowed to prevail, Americanswill live in a very different landscape long after the current crop of politicians is out of office. Senators think. +HR961 would relax industrial waterpollution controls, open 50 percent to 70 percent of the existing wetlandsto development, require that government compélisate landowners if property values d&dline by 20 percent due to wetlands prytections, and reduce sewage-treatent requirements. House members defend their action as ameffort to give local and state goyernnfepts a greater role in regulating pollutera: The trouble is, water crosses state lines. Without strong and consistent fed- éfal oversight, the ecological health of efitire regions could be jeopardized. Failure by somestate governments to regulate industrial polluters wouldaffect the. health of all communities downsttPam. Refusal of somecities to pay for - les. TheSalt LakeTribune s > r4te > S UTAH’S INDEPENDENT VOICE SINCE1871 PUBLISHER Dominic Welch John F, Fitzpatrick (1924-1960) EDITOR John W. Gallivan (1960-1983) James E. Shelledy EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR Jerry O'Brien (1983-1994) Harry £. Fuller,Jr. PAST PUBLISHERS KEARNS-TRIBUNE CORPORATION, 143 8. MAIN ST. SALT LAKE CITY, 84111 = Protecting the White House “15 SENATORDOLE... HE WANTS TOMAKE SURE WE. CAN STILL GETA MOVING VAN IN HERE...” THE PUBLIC FORUM Letters from The Tribune's readers Wilderness Isn’t National Park Brooke Jennings (Forum, April 30) incorrectly comparednational parksto wilderness. In national parks, they build paved roads to most points of interest, have flush toilets, build visitor centers and sell curios to tourists. In wilderness, they lock the gate and throw awaythe key and you don’t enter unless you are on foot or horseback, whichis unfeasible for Grandma and Grandpa, families with young children or handicapped people. Youalso cannot fairly compare economies created by adjacent national parks to economies created by wilderness areas. They havetotally different aspects; one invites people to comeandvisit, the other asks them to stay away. The mountainsand canyonseastof Salt Lake are absolutely beautiful. Maybe we Where to Write @ When submitting letters to the Public Forum, please include yourfull name,signature, address and daytime telephone numbers. Information other than your name and the city in which you live are kept confidential. @ Keep it short, Concise letters deyeloping a single theme are morelikely to be published. @ Pleasetype and double space. @ Letters are condensed and edited. @ Becauseof the volumeof mail received, not all submissions are published. @ Mail to Public Forum, TheSalt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110. @ Our fax number is (801) 2372022. should declare them wilderness, shut down the resorts, and let's see if your economy booms. I believe wilderness has a negative impact on local economies. William Vogel (Forum, May 2) asks that we create a wilderness and then, downtheroadifit’s deemeda mistake, changeit back. Interesting approach, but have youever heard of the federal government admitting to a mistake? Faceit, if wildernessis created, it will never be undone. Peopleliving closest to Utah’s wilderness treasures fully understand their true value both aesthetically and ecoically. We don’t want them devalued by making them wilderness. We want to enjoy them along with our children, grandchildren and parents. If wilderness is created, can you guarantee our water rights? Can you guarantee that air-quality standards will not be madethat might be detrimental to power-plant operations? Can you guarantee equal access for everyone? Fortunately, these treasures are on federal land, our land, which we all should protect and enjoy equally. ROGER WARNER Mayor Castle Dale Q Insult to Russian Sacrifice More than 27 million Russians perished in World WarII. With fierce fighting from Sept. 4, 1942 until Feb. 2, 1943, when some 91,000 Germansoldiers (of the 250,000 that made uptheelite German 6th Army) surrendered at Stalingrad, the Russian Army, at the sacrifice of 150,000 of their ownsoldiers andcivilians, broke the back of the German Army and made V-E Day possible in May 1945 rather than much, muchlater, In Leningrad, more Russians perished in the 900-day German blockade than the combinedtotal of American and English soldiers lost during the entirety of the war. And now, when the rest of the world gathers in solidarity to mark the defeat of Nazi Germanyand theendof one of the mostvile and loathsomeerasto visit the human race, how does The Salt Lake Tribune note these heroic Russians and the integral role they played in Germany's demise? By accusing the Soviets of perpetrating crimes on Germany, trumpeting in the front-page headline on May 7, Soviets Rape Thousands of Germans at War's End.” One can only ask the purpose of The Tribune's editors in emphasizing such & Cold War stereotypifying article. Are they really that malicious and only interested in continuing the Cold War? Or are they just callously insensitive to Russia, herlosses and world peace? Or are they “merely” astonishingly ignorant? GENE FITZGERALD Salt Lake City Gun Sense The revelation of Robert McNamara that government policy responsible for the Vietnam Warwasa terrible mistake hardly comesas a surprise to anyone with commonsense. Thepolicy clearly failed. Unfortunately, the families and loved onesofthe 58,000 victims are not helped by his confession. Perhaps 10 years from now,politicians also will confess that blind adherenceto the National Rifle Association on gun controllegislation also wasa terrible mistake.It is a policy that has clearly failed, andwill continueto fail. But in 10 years, we could have another 400,000 victims. And their blood will be on the hands of every politician, both state and national, whoparticipated in this classic example of the death of commonsense. Gun control works superbly in Canada, acountry with the samefrontier tradition as the United States. Our neighborto the north could hardly be considereda police state, and still has a substantial number of hunters, marksmen andguncollectors. Canada’s success is accomplished with stringent, but well-crafted, gun laws and gun owners willing to cooperate. We could do the samein this country, All it would take is common sense. RON MOLEN Salt Lake City a Wilderness Roads Onthe frontpageof the May 7 Tribune is a photographof an Eco-Challenge competitor drinking from a desert pothole. This is a picture that delivers a message. It demonstrates somethingthat the residents of Southern Utah have known for generations. There are some places in Utah where wateris so scarce, the heat so fierce that a man maynotbeable to carry enoughwater to survive. Even the worldclass athletes, with huge mobile support teams, were reduced to using water from potholes and possibly contaminated streams to make it through the course. Someof them became dehydratedandill from lack of water or using water from contaminated sources. Closing the public access to immense areas of Utah with the Wilderness Act will make someplaces forever inaccessible to a very large percentage of our population. People with disabilities, older citizens andvisitors to the state will all be effectively locked off of the public lands. Only those who can physically carry the gallons of water needed to survive in the desert will be able to penetrate the back country. Inexperienced or unwary visitors to the region could under ordinary circumstancesfind themselves in serious trouble with little chance of help from others. What upsets me and many others raised in rural Utah is that manyof the proposed wilderness areas such as those in the San Rafael Swell always have been accessible by roads, roads that are now arbitrarily closed by the Bureau of Land Management. The Mexican Mountain Wilderness Study Area, for instance, has a roadto it from both the north and south sides of the San Rafael River.It also is servicedby its own airstrip. From theflat above Mexican Mountain, you can see and hear Interstate 70, Utah Highway 6 and the railroad. Less than a mile in any direction from the WSAis a network of dirt roads that have been used by area residents for decades. Congress should only approve wilderness areas that meet the roadless description in the Wilderness Act. TED THOMPSON Salt Lake City a Reports Unfairly Characterize Emery County Wilderness Plan News coverage of Emery County's wilderness proposal and resulting Forum letters would give the impression that the county commissioners have reacted pre- dictably without giving much thought to the issue, Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the Emery County Commission has beeninvolved in public lands planning for nearly two years, has established a public lands council to address public landsissues and has held a series of meetings with stakeholders and the general public. The man-hours devoted to the dePelcrmpat of this proposalare innumerale. ‘The resultis a wilderness proposal that is an innovative approach to the protection of wild lands in the San Rafael Swell, In discussing the proposal, the press and wilderness proponents have ignored that Emery County is recommending protected status for more than 513,200 acres of primitive and semi-primitive lands, This is more than 18 percent of the land in Emery County, an area larger than Salt Lake County or the High Uinta Wilderness, an area larger than somestates. ‘The Emery County Commission and the Public Lands Council believe there are management methods which protect the wild lands of the San Rafael Swell more effectively than federal wilderness reserves. Webelieve those lands can be protected in a logical way that also protects the quality of life for residents of Emery County. We are committed to guaranteeing both protections — wild lands and quality oflife. Thereis evidence that wilderness designation negatively impacts surrounding lands, upstream water rights and economies. The evidenceis also clear that despite legislative language, many wilderness managementdecisions are madein the courts. The Emery County Commission proposaloffers every protection to wild areas offered by wilderness (and even better protection in someinstances) while eliminating those threats. Further, we contend that wilderness is a poor managementdesignation, even a non-managementdesignation. Importantly, Emery Countyhasalso offered to vigorously assist in the managementof the protected areas To portray the Emery County proposal as a knee-jerk reaction against wilder. ness designationis to ignorethe realities of a truly innovative approach to a com. plicated issue. TRACY JEFFS Chairman Emery County Publi¢ Lands Council Castle Daley. |
