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Show Web site: letters i Davis County wwrw.clippertoday.com ertaIkciippertoday.com Thursoay,Februarv.13, Qre!t 2003a Theres simply no value resolution to an anti-UN known Don Bush, for and appreciation him as a person of integrity and conscience. We strongly disagree, however, with his effort to have the Legislature pass a nonhinding resolution to pull the United States out of the United Nations. Given the current state of alfairs at the Security Council, we can understand the sentiment, just not the action. And for several reasons: First, this is a national issue, not a local one. Although the legislature has a right to send a message wherever it wants, this type of resolution smacks of meddling with foreign affairs and should be left to the federal government. A better idea would be to have our US. Representatives and Senatois carry the message to Washington. After all, representing us there is what they were elected to do. We elect our Legislators to represent our local communities in state matters. Second, given that the Southern Utah town of LaVerkin became a national laughingstock after declaring itself a UN. free one, this is not a good time to provide more ammunition nationally about Utah's eccentricities. Such a resolution would accomplish viitu-all- y nothing except make Utahns look even more peculiar. Third, and most important, the United Nations is m danger of anyway, lire George W Bush admmistiation has already spoken openly of the Security Council becoming irrelevant if it fails to take action. Instead of people worrying that the United Nations is becoming too powerful, they should worry that it is on the verge of becoming another League of Nations. Many of the woi Id issues that We've the United States has had to take the lead in should have been handled by the United Nations. The United States risks great danger in pursuing the war on terrorism alone. The United Nations, on the other hand, has shown itself to be virtually derelict in this regard. The United Nations should be aggressively taking the lead in getting countries all around the world to unite against all f orms of terror, hunting down and rooting out terrorist cells wherever they might hide. This would avoid retaliation against the United States by terrorists who would realise they are hunted outlaws by the entire world. But because of conflicting interests among member nations, what should have been a clear-cu- t mandate for the f Jriited Nations has revealed it to be a paper tiger. There are many things wrong with the United Nations. There are many of its pet causes that people of conscience truly cannot support. But the real danger at this point is what the Bush administration has already dared express. If the United Nations proves that it cannot act deci-si- v ely o er Iraq, it will also prove that no one needs to pay it any respect. While we may not miss some of the U.Nis questionable projects, we will sorely miss a forum where the nations of the world can at least try to talk out their differences. Lor decades, there have been factions that have agitated for getting the U.S. out of the United Nations. If things dont change, the United Nations will soon find it has become an antique unwanted by any roadshow. If that happens, anti-U.advocates my gel their wish not because the United States will have deserted it, but because it fell under its own weight of inaction. Don't blame my kid Disappointed with Clipper editorial IMlfTTEK 1 L Don't tax C.U. members' profits Editor: Is the role of government to interfere with private enterprise? Should government power be used to force one organization to comply with the wishes of another organization? This seems to be the objective of the HB 162! If taxes are imposed upon a credit union, will it still be a credit union or will it be a bank? If a it credit union is a organization, how can it be taxed? Who in the credit union is getting the profits?" The answer is no one, because they have no paid board of directors or stock holders. The owners are the members, who are paid by service and receiving better non-prof- else. Its human nature. It's also greedy and leads to bad public policy and a loss of accountability. We see it all the time. Yes. we want economic development in our city but don't build that near my neighborhood! Sure, we want more discias long as pline in our schools the teacher or administrator doesn't throw the book at my kid! Don't tax me; tax the other guy! Wal-Ma- rt (1) be signed, (2) keep under letters chided for even reporting the incident. Since that episode, educators have taken a grimmer look at hazing, although penalties seem to be lukewarm when star football players or important students are involved. Last week, hazing hopped on the front page once again, with two high school wrestlers in Mount Pleasant removing the pants of a male sophomore cheerleader and shaving the boys pubic hair. The two attackers who may be charged with criminal assault were initially given a stem warning and a slap on the hand by the school's principal, although community concern and a possible lawsuit eventually led school administrators to declare the two ineligible for the region and state wrestling tournament. This should have been an easy 295-225- 1 1061-122- Hand-delivere- R. Gail Bountiful, Utah 84011-026- 7 ext. 119 or 120 d: 149-18- wish-was- hy semi-week- ly ar Clipper. It was like walking into quicksand, my personal cons, cerns, particularly about including hydrofluor- silico-fluoride- EDITORIAL Rolf Koecher Tom Busselberg Russ Riggs 10-fol- d. It is my personal opinion that if we are going to fluoridate the public water supply we should use sodium fluoride that meets the high purity grade or reagent grade until more thorough testing of the silicofluoride compounds can be done. As to the Clipper's editorial, my personal conclusions are that the editorial was either sloppy journalism or shows a personal bias. Lloyd Selleneit Sellencit & Associates Research Editors note: Because of the lag time between writing printing and distribution, information can change by the time it reaches readers especially during a rapidly moving Legislative session. We called press officials at the capital justprior to completing the editorial. They verified that the information was correct when written. With respect to research about fluoridation, a Clipper researcher (who initially leaned against fluoridation) spent nearly 80 hours in research during just the first two weeks of our investigation. What followed were hundreds more hours of research over many months and the compilation of hundreds ofpages of data. Experts from all over the state and nation were interviewed, reporters were sent to Brigham City to investigate their decades of experience with fluoridation and even residents of Hereford, Texas, ( where the benefits of its natural fluoridation were first discovered) were questioned to determine their status after generations of fluoridation. In addition to writing dozens of articles, the Clipper published a report spanning four full newspaper pages listing both the pros and cons to dozens of fluoridation questions. This was published (with the full cooperation and review both by fluoride advocates and opponents) as a special section shortly before the 2000 vote on fluoridation. "If a window of opportunity appears, pull down the shade FAX UNE 1 14 Executive Editorext. 126 News Editorext. 118 Sports Editorext.129 Office Managerext. 113 dont - Tom Peters 295-304- 4 PRODUCTION Hayes Powell Production Managerext. 123 ADVERTISING Gene Milne, Advertising Managerext. 137 CIRCULATION Roy Millard OFFICE Annette Tidwell in our water have increased Quote of the day Publisherext Stable silicic acid compounds being used ed 295-225- 1 Y I ed ADMINISTRATION $25.00 per year. Mailed: $35.00 per year. on ISSN: Publication No. (USPS published Tuesdays and Thursdays at Bountiful, Utah. Periodical postage paid at Bountiful, Utah. Address all correspondence to P. O. Box 267, Bountiful, Utah 84011-026- Subscription rate: 50g per copy. case. But as I said at the beginning, all things are personal. At least one of the parents is angry that their son is being penalized; after all, the principal had first told the boys to fess up and everything would be fine and dandy. The mother of the one boy told a newspaper reporter that her son was being singled out for punishment and the town was being mean to her darling boy. In other words, those dam schools need to get tough on disruptive students. But if my own son is caught assaulting another, well, that's different. Davis County is not immune to this approach to accountability. An assistant principal called me into his office last year to decry' parents supporting their sons and daughters for ignoring school parking regulations. (Oh, I know the school needs to watch the parking, but my son is a good boy. I mean he needed to park illegally so he could make it to seminary class on time.) Yep, give a ticket to those but spare my son. other rascals And, in a similar vein, don't tax you, dont tax me tax the guy behind the tree. MAIN TELEPHONE Clipper Publishing Co., Inc. P.O. Box 267 words in length, (3) nail the other guy! Davis County Clipper Circulation Department: 300 author's city, and (4) give the writers telephone number. We reserve the right to edit all letters for length or content. For letters arriving by vve will use the author's address in lieu of a signature. By Bryan Gray 1370 South 500 West I have been a credit union member for over 40 years, and my father was a credit union member and officer before me. There have been no problems between the banks and the credit unions until the last few years. Banks are making plenty of profits, so why don't they leave the credit unions alone? There is surely a place for each, i.e. banks and credit unions. Let us stop the arguing and move on to more important issues like helping the economy, so there are plenty of good jobs not by taxing and to go around taking away jobs that now exist! Don Olson Bountiful list the Tie My kid is a good kid; the real problem are those junky friends he or she hangs out with. We see this us vs. them in the current debate over taxing large credit unions and once again last week we saw it in a high schcxil hazing assault. I lazing has a long tradition in public high schools and college fraternities, but it achieved frontpastatus during the last ge-news decade when a Skyview High School athlete was stripped naked and bound by other football players for viewing by the victim's prom date. Faced with media attention and howls for parents, the imbecilic Skyview administration failed to penalize the handful of attackers, deciding instead to cancel the football season. Tie result was that all athletes, including the victim, were penalized, and the victim was rates. eztalk policy All must The views expressed in this column are the opinion of the writer and not necessarily those of the ownership or management of this newspaper late U.S. Speaker of the Tip O'Neill used to his colleagues that all politics are local." Pay attention to the local coffee shop jabber and the neighboihood poik and even the barrel project most glaring scoundrel would get reelected Similarly, Utahns are increasingly saying all events are personal. Incidents and proposals should be judged primarily by how they impact our family or our industry regardless of the benefit to or effect upon anyone lower Editor: Oh, the power of the pen! I with the am disappointed editorial attack of Rep. Clippers Roger Barms HB 64. I have always credited the editorial staff at the Clipper with doing more thorough research on an issue before taking an editorial position. Their statements about the fluoride bill are Barms inaccurate, misleading, and they contribute to a personal loss of faith in positions they have taken on this issue and may take on issues in the future. 1. The fluoridation bill is a voters rights bill, not a fluoride bill as claimed in the editorial. 2. The bill was amended five days before the editorial to provide the elections shall take place on even years. The five-yeprovision was no longer in the bill as the Clipper editorial stated. 3. The Clipper editorial statement that this bill only applies to fluoride and if this idea is good for fluoridation, it should be good for other types of voters, as well. is grossly misleading! The existing state law does allow initiatives to place other issues before the voters. This bill is in response to a decision on the level of the Second District Court pointing out a flaw in the state law. It allows the fluoride issue to be placed on the ballot to see if the voters want fluoride. The same law provides no means for the voters to ever again vote to see if they wanted to remove fluoride. Given the above inaccuracies, the Clippers editorial statement that months of research have convinced them that there is little scientific basis against fluoridation gives me cause to question how thorough their research was. One year ago, I offered to donate some time to researching the fluoride issue. What I thought would be four or five hours ended up being 40 or 50 hours of research, with conclusions different from those of the Rosalie Millard Circulation Managerext. 120 Subscriptions Managerext. 119 |