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Show b 4 Emery County Prog ess Castle Dale, Utah Tuesday December 5, 2000 Commentary CONFUSED By Jim Huber POLITICALLY CORRECT Hugging trees and hunting with Most M-1- 6s PEOPLE SAT By JAMES L. DAVIS Editor, Emery County ToU SHOULD Progress Are you u tree hugger?" he question threw me off guard for a moment, partially because I take things too literally sometimes. Although I cant remember clearly (there are portions of my 20s that are somewhat a blur), I don't ever recall, technically, hugging a CONCEDE T tree. I said. dont get your meaning. I show. Polls An environmentalist. Are you an environmentalist?" Vt nV P like an environment, but no, I cant say Im an environmentalist. It seems to me that I has kinda become a religion of sorts and I already have a religion," I replied. Whv do you ask?" Well, you dont hunt or anything. Oh, that. Well I dont hunt a lot of reasons. One important reason is because I'm the worlds worst shot. In the military I had the distinction of being the only person in basic training to miss the target with ever time. And I had my four full clips to fire." for M-1- G You must be proud." Not particularly. My drill instructor seemed proud however. He made sure to point it out to everyone on base. Well, why else don't you hunt?" My inquisitor asked. Because the animals you can hunt legally I dont like to eat. So you dont kill animals?" Id like to kill my dog, but my kids wont let me." Does anyone in your family hunt then?" Not really. My dad used to, but he doesn't anymore." Why not?" lie used to hunt raccoon back in North Carolina. He told me one night him and his buddies went out with their dogs and they treed this big raccoon. Well they shot him out of the tree and he fell into this big pool of water at the base of the tree. They didnt kill him, just winged him, so they sent the dogs in after him. And the raccoon pretty much cleaned their docks. So my dad said he stood there watching this raccoon fighting for its life and he decided thut anything that wanted to live that bad deserved to, so he quit hunting," I replied. Your dad told you that?" Yep. About 4.212 times I think." "And that made you not want to hunt?" No. Not really. Hut then, when I was a teenager my dad took me to hear President Spencer W. Kimball talk at conference. I don't rememlKT the entire talk, but I do remember at one point he discussed how when he was young he used to bo pretty good at killing birds and how now the thought of it troubled him, so he asked us all not to kill the birds. Well, I already had my dad making me feel guilty for frying ants with a magnifying glass. Now, after hearing President Kimball's talk, my dad had even more ammunition." So you were brainwashed?" You could say that." Well, what animals would you hunt, if vou could?" Cattle." Cattle? "Yep, cattle. If they ever come out with a hunting season for cattle, then I might give it a try. They don't move real fast and I've seen some pretty big herds. If my drill instructor would give me back my I just might have a chance." M-ll- i, By PETER ROFF Because I work in Washington, my family expects me to have definite opinions about politics and current events. I am unsure what to tell them about this election. It was the oddest in my lifetime and, hopefully, the strangest any of us will ever see. First off, a dead man was elected to the United States Senate. Not a man who died after the election was over, but a man who voters knew was dead when the ballots were cast. The candidates condition, as it were, was turned into a virtue. As a result of this one election, the United States Senate likely ends up 0 in a tie, something the FoundFathers ing planned for in the constitution but no one every expected to see come to occur except on an occasional vote in the upper chamber. Some Democrats are insinuating that, given the advanced age and purported ill health of at least two Republican Senators from states with Democratic governors, they will take control by death suspecting that at least one of them will die before the next elections two years hence. In recognition, perhaps, of how far the country has come in the area of 50-5- -- equality between the sexes, a sitting first lady was elected to the United States Senate from a state where she was not born, did not reside, and to which she had no connection prior to her decision to run for public office. Up until now, the accomplishments of first ladies were seen through the a prism of Eleanor Roosevelt crusader for liberal notions of social justice who was an active symbol of the nation on the world stage beginning with the Second World War and Dolly Madison, a charming woman whos best known accomplishment is rescuing Gilbert Stuarts portrait of Washington from the White House before the British burned it during the War of 1812. Then there is the presidential race, which has been full of more twists and turns than an amusement park ride. Between the news network waffles over Florida and the continuous legal and political battles, the nation has been left in a state of flux; not knowing which of two men will be the next eommander-in-chic- f. Even though the state of Florida ratified the results for George W Bush, the repeated threats of legal challenges from the GorcYLIebcrman side, coupled with the unpredictable behavior of activist judges, keeps the outcome up in the air for a while longer. Two hundred years ago, before television and telegraph, such a delay in announcing the winner was the norm. Now; anyone, anywhere in the w'orld can put a plastic card into a machine and get cash from their bank account in a few seconds. And it happens millions of times a day without error. The delay in determining the winner of the race keeps the nation on edge. Such time lags are unacceptable in the area of instant everything. Before everything is done, it is likely that the Florida legislature, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the United States Supreme Court may also have to weigh in on the results in something more than a pro forma fashion. This in addition to the canvassing boards of the different counties, the presidential campaigns and their myriad of lawyers, the Florida Secretary of State, and the Florida Supreme Court. After all that, it is still not certain that America will know, for certain, who the next president is before the year changes on January 1st. Addl'd to all that, one of the two nominees suffered a mild heart attack. Allen Drury and Tom Clancy writing together could not have convinced a publisher to move ahead with such a plot, as bizarre as these events have been. In almost any other country in the world, such strange events and uncertain outcomes would be occasion for panic. It is not too hard to imagine, if this were a nation with less stable democratic traditions, the military or some charismatic political leader stepping in to fill the vacuum the results of this election has cre- ated. But this is the United States of America. For over two centuries we have enjoyed relatively peaceful transitions in the political order, free of the demagoguery and saber rattling that the citizens of other countries must sometimes endure. There are some who have said the current situation is or may become a constitutional crisis." The American constitution, and the people of the nation, is made of sterner stuff. Taking the long view; the election of 2000 will be just another interesting historical footnote that grammar school students will study somewhere down the road. This all will end, and, when it does, America will go on, remaining, as Lincoln called her, the last, best hope of earth." (Hoff writes on politics for tnited Iress Inter -- national, A well-know- jxil ideal n writer, tie has turn a commentator on Fox Sews, MSSBCand radio.) Emery County flVogrcgg VOICE OF EMERY COUNTY SINCE Administration 1 900 Classified Patsy Stoddard Sylvia Nelson Classified Legal Kevin Ashby Publisher Linda Thayn ... Office Manager Darla Lee Circulation Janies Advertising Patsy Stoddard StalT reporter Ryan Peacock... Sports writer Jenni Fhsselin L. Davis Editor Rate: 50 ernt prr ropv: $22 por yonr dihvrrre Emery counties, $27 in Itnli; $30 out of Utah per year by mail. Office Hours! Monday 8 00 to noon.; Tuesday Kndnv 9 00 s m. to 5 00 m. at 190 East p Dale, I tah Main, CIsmI finds Deadline: Monday at 10 00 a m. for Tuesdays publication. rtubarrlptlon , Fax (435) 0747-2129- ) t Editorial Display Telephone! (4351 Publication No: (CSIS Letters to the editor should focus on public issues rather than private e mail prosreamo ctv net. issued once a week at Castle Dnle, flab All personalities or entities. submissions must be verified prior to publication. The Emery County Progress reserves the right to edit letters not only to satisfy space constraints, but potential liability concerns. Periodical .1 4 I ! |