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Show page A4 Tuesday, September 17, 1 Davis County Clipper 996 In our opinion Wfc Wft, Offi! Pres. Clintons Utah wilderness proposal is monumentally stupid VWP vt ... IK to tW tfe My family owns a cattle ranch in Southern Utah. Our cattle graze on public lands and have for more than 100 years. It is beautiful land, near the Escalante River in the Circle Cliffs area southeast of the town of Boulder. Wolverine Canyon, Horse Canyon, Colt Mesa, The Lampstand, The Onion Beds beautiful and strange names for beautiful and strange places. For years, we have welcomed everyone who wants to travel k'hllkGfc. A EAWwi tt P02itt If in the area. Backpackers, campers and bikers have all enjoyed the stunning beauty of Southern Utah and their lands. Thats right, their lands. The land in the Escalante Canyons area belongs to all of us. Which is precisely why I can not, and will not ever support any kind of environmentalist movement. I swore I would leave it alone. I vowed to never write about the conflicts in Southern Utah, and in the rest of the West. It is the most emotional topic in my life. There are times I become so angry I can not think and thats not a good time to write about anything. But I have watched as a handful of environyes a handful mentalists have bullied the people of this state into believing the best thing to do with the land is lock it up, kick out the hunters, ATV riders, ranchers and dozens of others to preserve the land. Ive felt sick to my stomach when environmentalists have burned the cabins and killed the cattle of our neighbors, taking food off their tables and shoes off their childrens feet. I cried openly when they burned our cabin a place with 100 years of tradition in my family completely destroyed one violently hot afternoon. Ive watched our state legislators submit a plan for wilderness (a concept I support fully) to congress only to have it shot down by a handful of selfish Utahns and Eastern senators. And now, Bill Clinton has devised a plan to stop all development in a 1.8 million acre stretch of Southern Utah that he has never even seen. That is hogwash. President Clinton wants to take a huge chunk of Southern Utah and turn it into a national monument. Current uses (including grazing) would still be permitted, but future development would be stopped. Has he been to the area? Has he talked to the people who live there? Has he studied the impact his decision would have on Utah? Does he know what it would cost Utah kids in school funds (much of the land is School House Sections land designated for raising funds for Im not a liberal, not a conservative, just a thinker One reader said she had trouble figuring out whether 1 was a conservative or a liberal. My response was that most rational, thinking people cannot be excluinto either sively pigeon-hole- d philosophical camp. For instance, conservatives and liberals can equally appreciate the following story making the rounds: Utah schools)? . Has he laid awake at night worried about his world coming apart? Has he seen the haunted and worried look in ranchers eyes, wondering what they will do to keep themselves alive? Has he stood in the ashes of a hundred years of family tradition and wondered how someone who claims to love peace and the environment could do such a horri-- 1 ble thing? Of course not. Like all environmentalists, Bill Clinton is a selfish man. His only He knows Utah will never go his way, so concern is being he doesnt worry about how we feel. He knows California supports environmental schemes of this flavor (as long as they are in Utah, not California) and he knows they may give him a few votes if he locks them up a playground. Forget democracy. Forget fairness. Forget the people whose lives he will screw up. Theyll probably vote for Dole anyway. The environmental movement is based on selfishness. Theyll tell you they want to protect the land. Save our Canyons, scream the bumper stickers on sport utility vehicles. Save them from what? Save them few whom? Why for environmentalists, of course. For the most part, theyre . young and strong. They can hike into their 5.7 million acres of wilder- -' ness. Theyll have a place to enjoy nature. Forget children. Forget senior citizens. Forget the disabled. Forget people who would like to use their land for ATV riding, or cattle ranching, or just a pretty drive. Forget anyone who would like to enjoy the view from a car. Those people dont count. Wilderness is important. I know that. Protecting the scenery and the land is important. I know that. My family has always known that. That's why we have always welcomed anyone who wanted to use the land as equals. It seems a little boy wanted $100 and prayed for two weeks for the monetary treasure. When nothing happened, he decided to write God a letter requesting the In money. When the U.S. postal authorities received the letter addressed to GOD, USA, they shipped it to the White House so where President Clinton impressed, touched and amused instructed his secretary to send the boy a $20 bill. The little boy was delighted with the $20 and sat down to write a thank-yo- u note to God. Thank you very much Lord for sending me the money. However, I noticed that for some reason, you had to send the money and, through Washington, D.C. as usual, those jerks deducted $80! Yes, liberals and conservatives can both chuckle at the story. So what am I? believe government does not use our tax dollars very efficiently. Call me Mr. Conservative. However, 1 also believe that I taxes are the admission fee pay for living in a civilized we coun- try. So call me Mr Liberal. I believe its wrong to use abortion as a form of birth control. That would be me, the conservative. But I also feel the government should not intrude on a womans medical decisions. That would be me, the liberal. I question the need for gay clubs in high schools. Yep, I'm a conservative. But Im firmly in support of laws forbidding discrimination against gays and their partners. Yep, Im liberal. I dont believe strict gun ownership laws will have much effect on crime. Sign me up for the Conservative Digest. But I also dont believe the 2nd Amendment gives citizens a wholesale right to arm themselves for every occasion and tote firepower wherever they darn please. So reorder my subscription to the Liberal Reporter. I admire Barry Goldwater. Pssl...I'm a conservative. I also admire Jimmy Carter Hmmm...I guess Im a liberal. Im opposed to socialized medicine. Conservatives wisdom. applaud my However, Im also in support of the government funding catastrophic medical insurance for every citizen. Liberals applaud my knowl- edge and compassion. So am I a liberal or conservative? It depends. But I do know one thing. ..At any party or social event, the liberals look like theyre having a lot more fun. your opinion Birth of Constitution was also birth of freedom Editor: This September 17th marks the 209th birthday of our Constitution. In the closing years of the 18th century the American colonies won two victories which are so important to our lives today. In 1781 on the battlefield at Yorktown they sealed a military victory which gave us our freedom, then in the summer of 1787 in the halls of Philadelphia they won a political miracle, a struggle which enabled us to survive triumphantly today as a free people. We are the oldest government today as other nations have changed trying to make a better form of government for themselves. The 55 men who framed our constitution were from all walks of life, Elder statesmen as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin contributed very little to the debate but greatly to stability and inspiration of the assembly. Thomas Jefferson, perhaps the most brilliant American of his day could not attend as he was on diplomatic duty in France, however his influence was felt through research and letters to his friend, James Madison. There was most influence from a few truly great men: James Madison. George Mason of Virginia, Roger Sherman from Connecticut, James Wilson and Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania. Alexander Hamilton of New York spoke little but influenced much. The 55 contained a college president, a banker, a merchant, a great teacher of law, a judge, a mayor, a clergyh man, a state governor and a surgeon. were foreign born, two were graduates of Oxford, one from Scotland, and others. What this mix of men did was create a miracle which every American can take pride in. Their decision to divide the power of the government into three parts; legislative. Executive and judicial was a masterful stroke, as was the clever way to protect the small states by giving them each two senators and the interests of the large states by apportioning the house of representatives according to population. These men truly created a miracle and found hidden principles which free men have wished for through the One-sixt- years. This puts a heavy burden on the citizens of this nation, to study and leant of the responsibilities to preserve our rich heritage. Our Constitution demands a moral, religious and virtuous people to preserve our freedom and the American way of life. George Washington in his farewell address wrote; of all the dispositions and habits which leads to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. ...and let us with caution indulge in the supposition that morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principles. It is substantial ly true that virtue and morality is a necessary spring of popular government. Morality is essential in our public officials. Education of our youth and the foreign bom is essential to the preservation of our Republic and well informed citizens to make an intelligent vote. We must resist this creeping trend toward a socialistic state. Freedom is not free. Each generation must do its part to preserve this precious heritage. May God help us in our efforts. Kathryn Hess Sego Lily Chapter, DAR Constitution Week Chairman. Growth of government is America destroying Editor, Constitution Week is upon us. Id like to make comments about our Constitution and the state of the nation. America's founding fathers established the first government strictly limited by a written constitution to a short list of things it could do. The federal government was authorized to do only what was specified in the Constitution. State and local governments and the people themselves, acting outside government, were supposed to do whatever else was necessary. During the centuries before, the peoples of the world had been ruled by an assortment of rulers, a few kings, ministers, chiefs, parliaments, senates, assemblies, war lords, gangs, etc. The rulers made demands upon their subjects and the subjects were powerless to refuse. The government was Our Constitution and Bill of Rights, limiting the power of the federal government, made the United States a country unique in the history of the world. Over 200 years ago the experiment was begun to tame the monster that had enslaved so many people for centuries. It was clear to the founders that government is a monster. George Washington said, Government is not reason: it is not eloquence. It is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. The founders knew that some government was necessary to provide for the common defense and to ensure domestic tranquillity. But they knew how dangerous it was to give the government the power to tax, to forbid, and to compel obedience. The Constitution was the most successful attempt ever made to keep the dangerous servant from becoming the fearful master. America became known as the Land of the Free and people everywhere envied Americans for the liberty they enjoyed. The Constitution authorized the federal government to use coercion for certain purposes but because coercion tends to breed coercion, government tends to grow. Most of the time growth has been gradual. Year by year, the federal government has taken a little more of our resources and freedom. During the Civil War the federal government began to disregard the Constitutional limits. The concept of individual rights was bypassed and citizens became "resources for the prosecution of the war. It set the precedent that the federal government may do whatever it finds necessary its needs overrule the Constitution. In the first two decades of the 20th century, politicians established the principle that the federal government should actively intervene to solve apparent social problems and direct the economy. In 1913 the Income Tax became a permanent part of our lives. It gave government an unlimited source of funds to finance more growth for itself and an excuse to pry into every aspect of its citizens lives. The passage of the 7th amendment freed senators to be elected by popular vote. The founders had arranged for senators to be chosen by and beholden to state governments, part of the system of checks and balances designed to keep any element of government from becoming too powerful. By entering World War I, the government threw out American's traditional neutrality and replaced it with a policy that made every foreign conflict America's concern, no matter what the cost in American wealth, freedom and lives. The New Deal, the Great Society, and other 1 programs further expanded the governmental powers. Since the 1930s no area of American life has been considered off limits to the politicians, and many of the programs have nearly destroyed the of many citizens, leading to an increase in crime, illiteracy, and the trading off of values that used to bless us for some kind of security. The rapid growth of the federal government, and sometimes state and local governments as well, destroyed the qualities that made America unique and transformed our country into something like an old world nation. America has almost become a nation of obedient serfs, paper pushers, victims, whiners and antagonists. Now we are just another nation in which the citizens live at the sufferance of their rulers. I don't know what we ordinary citizens can do to remedy the situation, except try to voice our opinions if we care enough about our Constitution, and hope that enough of us will do so to get the attention of the politicians and make a difference. God bless and help America. Theda W. Judd Sego Lily Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Week I |