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Show Pgc2A If I Jane 26, 1998 The Summit County Bee Could ThkH fh World Apathy is Not a Virtue ams W, PowtU The Kibmi City recently in open houae for the public to inspect the new general plan they hive devel- oped. Although this plan fleets inyone planning on living in the area hi the coining yean, only few landowners and developers decided to show up. It's this apathetic attitude that causes problems between the people and the government feat leads them. Without public comment, how can city or county officials do their jobs, which ia to serve their community? The people vote diem into office (die number of voters each election continues to dwindle, at its besL..or wont) and then seem thy to expect them to make the right or best decision without their own personal input. We all have ideas about what we want to see with the future of the community, but most of us wont voice these ideas until after a decision is made, after a mistake has been made. Then, and only then, well let our opinions be neara.1 Unfortunately, this doesnt work. At least, notwelL came home one Imagine if your day saying plans were underway at hia school to offer a class on the proper pronunciation of swear words and how to use them effectively. No loving parent would miss the public hearing concerning that plan. Governmental decisions are no different. and personal, They may not impact you but ia the grander scheme of things, everyone is i loo-apa- up-clo- se affected.. It's your city, your county, your state. Let your voices be heard. I understand how hard it is these days to y, make time. With stress coming from the last thing you want to do isait But if you through a Tioring council meeting. want your city, which you evidently love or you wouldnt be there, to maintain its appeal, you have to do something. Sure, you don't have to go to every meeting, but at least get the facts, discuss them with family members and voice your opinion to the Council members or the mayor. Theyre here to serve you. Get to know them. Tdl them what you want to see and dont want to see. Let them know how theyre doing. Believe me, thats what they want to bear, good or bad. , Instead, many just mumble under their breathes, bickering to friends and family how into big of a mistake it wu to vote office. Yet when a chance to talk comes about, they don't They dont want to be looked down upon, they dont want to be the sour apple in the every-which-wa- so bucket Bang only 23, 1 have continually heard how "doesnt care, or has die "what- -' my generation everatti tude. After being in empty meetings for the last six months, I think its not just the youing with this attitude. Its running rampant in my town and yours. There will always be problems with government But by discussing your ideas, these problems will lessen in time. So get out there and tell them how you feeL Not just about the things immediately impacting you, but anything you have on your mind. If you cant think about yourself, at least consider the next generation and the problems the young will face if you Just Stuff by Jan Writing a column can muddle ones sense of time. The writing of die column itself isnt muddling. Rather, it's the dealing with the doggone deadlines tint can cause chrono- dont logical confusion. For instance. I'm writing this column the evening id Thursday, June 18, for publication in next Wednesdays Wave (I have a Friday deadline). Fathers Day has not yet happened, so I cant write about the cute presents my boys made for their dad I havent seen them yet. I can't tell you how much Kraig liked his Fathers Day gifts he hasnt seen them yet Yet meaning while Im writing this column, not while youre reading it By the time you read this. Fathers Day will have been and gone and all die dads in town will have tucked their new tica and new socks away in their drawers (And Kraig will have loved his presents!) Consequently, in order tti'"throw a bouquet" to fathers before Fathers Day, and not end up a day late and a dollar short, I bad to write about Father! Day almost two weeks in advance. But its that way with every holiday. Theres no way tcTwrite about it retrospectively without takiftg great p poetic license and lying my head cSL (But Ive been known to be a pretty good liar!) Imagine writing on Dec. 29 what a great New Years Eve you had! What about the weather. Im writing this column the Thursday after die tremendous storm we had Wednesday that dumped snow in the .mountains and left the valleys all but submerged. But, in five days, when you read "Just Stuff," who knows what kind of weather we will have just had. Sure as I write The weather outside is frightful," and discuss the freezyfrost, well have had four days of unsea Ml M About it First Seek the Cause Leon Sknlstef This rise of terrorism does more than cause distress and insecurity to the It provides strong signals for other groups to likewise employ force and trauma. These examples are not without impressionistic impact on our youth. Yet ifs the youth that another gun bill would specifically target The sure but easily measurable decline, of morel values in our adult world is not lost on the youth either. Let's look at our world from their perspective; This guy and that guy win millions of $$$ on the lottery for a few bucks. Youth do not think' about the millions of people who didn't win (and maybe spent some of the household money thinking they would). Do lotteries and gambling cause stress? Are they Immoral? Experts tell us there is a decidedly uncomfortable, monolithic spread of lotteries and In fact, the only two states gambling world-widin America who do not allow gambling are Utah c'- and Hawaii. We Of the adult world have noticed and Fm sure die youth have- - there seems to be a declining value in promises made and commit- -' merits given. And no more is the statement trusted, "My word is my bond." 'i By KWbHfceK. Kovach implement a program, or that dp not have volunteer We would like to believe that our youth are Chairof Sa ABA Section afDfapdeRNoiatioa, ' grams available in not watching and thinking, "Wow, if that guy' can their communities. DireclarofdicABASectioaofDiaprteResolutioa Skills get away with that, so can I I've watched how he t t learned did it, and now I know how. And if they catch m$ mediathrough peer We are a busy nation. We scurry around with our overIU talk around the question, provide tion can be used not and with too often in civility dispense cast the blame on the accuser, and let the media, committed schedules, only in the schools, '' H ' . 4 our in attempt to save time. We cut one another rdf in traflike it did." he but in the students garble up just Oh yes, the media influence. That has to be., fic. We bump into one another on the street. We pursue our neighborhoods and another contributing factor to the big mesf. i personal and business agendas without the slightest regard throughout their t .1 There's also a lack of consequence for wrongdo- . for other1 people. Our children see that we care little for our lives. m fellow Americans.' ing. It seems like nobody pays the price; anyPeer mediation more. Yeah, these are a few of the causes that I 4 , Similarly, Oiu; politicians play scorched earth games with one another and generally demonstrate a supreme disregard programs, alone' think hive to be affecting the decisions and evenfor civil or reasoned discourse. There is no limit to what our wont end school tually die behavior of our youth. leaden will say about one another. And guess what diem violence. But they' There are more, of course, and I have to wonare children listencan go a long der if there can be a definable and workable solution unless, first, there are answers for all (or at ing and watching! way toward The average e need to returning us to least most) of the causes. The President says the . child entering fifth bill is ...a needed, common-sens- e piece of legisdown the volume the more lation." Aren't they all? And aren't they all grade has seen voices, respectful hundreds of thouetc.?" I seriously "...needed and common-sens- e, approach to our. from hate human interdoubt if the passage of another gun bill, no matter sands of acts of remove, ' action we how cleverly worded, will do much to correct any violence on televispeech. ) sion. This barrage seem to have of the true causes law-abidi- Tribe old story I JL about the group of blind men who felt vari- ous parts of an elephants body, and thence likened the part they had felt as being what the entire elephant would look like if they could but see him, strikes me as an overall consensus of the various experts who have offered solutions for the shocking eruptions of school shootings by juveniles. One of the zaniest of solutions has been offered by none other than our current President of the United Slates. He is urging Congress to take action in a bill that would forever prohibit any youth "with a record of violence" of ever being able to again own a gun in his lifetime. A simple solution if the problem wu that simple. But there are far too many contributing factors in these youths lives causing them to shoot up the place than just hiving easy access to a gun. You have to throw foe gun bit in with all of the other stressful annoying things that have tended to antagonize most of humankind in general. 'And you have to also bear in mind that what upsets Mom and Dad also upsets junior, because little ears rapidly tune in to most higher-decibconversations. It appears to me (and Ive done considerable thinking on this matter) that a number of things have happened causing us all to develop short fuses. The world's population explosion, for one thing, has caused people to get on each others nerves, and has introduced us to the horrors of genocide. How many nations can you name who have divided in half (or more) and immediately tried to destroy each other? One of our American problems is our hurry-u- p lifestyle. Ifi also ooe of several other nations. WeVe so technologically insecure, with gluts of new inventions and discoveries happening virtuathat we are frantic to be the lly each first in line for virtually everything. Add that to your list of other societal problems. The Presidents suggestion for yet another type of gun bill smacks of too much regulation, and weYe way now. Some say feat too much governmental regulation is what's kooks' spawning the rash of activities. The Salt Lake Tribune recently published a list containing 23 serious, specific acts since the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City (April 19, 1993). el mini-seco- nd over-regulat- ed g, e. Guest Editorial . half-answe- rs, . turn - on our the of violence Thought for die day: . "The same motives always produce the same actions; The same events follow from the same causes." David Hume (Scottish Philosopher, 1711-177- - 6) . corttin--u- lost es throughout their school yean, and many psychologist! believe that it desensitizes youth to witnessing violence. When this omnipresent violence is coupled with the demonstrated incivility among adults and the easy availability of guns in our nation, tragedy can result The tragic incian excellent dent ia the Aikansu schoolyard provides what on we can a reflect to do, society, to opportunity fewer the decibel level and encourage constructive discourse and problpia solving. Ve must move toward a more civil society. We need to turn down the volume an our voices, remove die hate from our speech, and begin to leach a radical concept to our chil- -. then dial each human being has value, and that such value will be left with u be worked out, but die water is flowing-und- er pressure. There wu no source of irrigation water during May' and the first half of June except that provided by the heavens. ' Lo and behold, guns what, this hu been the wettest spring in memory. It hu been so wet that nobody hu needed water yet The rains have been plentifuL A miracle? Maybe-rm- der pressure of course. CLA Bates Wanship ' . only the negatives lack of civility in everyday interaction, media violence, gutter politics, and the ready availability of guns. The American Bar - deserves fespect. ?, Peer mediation programs in schools can help. They teach students how to listen to one another, how to strive conflict without violence, how to manage anger, communication skills, self respect, trust, and how to express feelings in a constructive manner. The American Bar Association is doing its small share to promote peer mediation volunteer lawyers in 21 cities are working to bring peer mediation to schools that cannot afford to hire a private organization to , ..Until we increase the positives in the sum of influences on our children, we u Letters to the Editor Dear Editor, . Lo and behold, a small miracie has taken place in Wanship.- The historic Wanihip ditch has been replaced by a new pressurized irrigation system. I think it took a lot of courage to dose the ditch this spring. What if crops died and lawns and garden dried up before die water started flowing in the pressurized line? Once the project started there was no turning back. The ditch could not be reopened. The iutallation of the line went pretty much as planned. There are still some bugs to sonably warm weather. And then there's the Jazz. That first victory, that went into overtime, happened on a Wednesday, on die heels of sweeping the Lakers. That Thursday I could very easily have written about what a wonderful team they were, how they were destined to win die championship, that there was no stopping "our boys! It would have hit the paper the Tuesday following die Sunday of their terrible loss, the loss of all losses, the worst defeat in the history of the NBA. Luckily, I didnt If I want my Easter column to come out in the newspaper-jusbefore Easter, that means I have to mite about chocolate bunnies and colored eggs two weeks before die scheduled day. And if I want to write about what great holiday I had, and have it appear in the paper just following my birth-- . day, Id have to guess at what happened before it happened. Its something akin to counting chickens before they hatch or getting the hone before the cart And, it does tend to muddle ones thoughts They say theres no time like the preaent exceptfwhen writing a columnJhe present may be paired, or it may be in the future, but will be in the past when the reader reads it in the present ft reminds me a bit of an old folk song my brother sings about a little town called "Morrow." Part of the song goes "the train that goes to Morrow left today at 8:43. At half past ten tomorrow is the time it should arrive." The poor guy could have gone to Morrow yesterday and been back today by three. Thats kind of what its like writing a column 1 call it complex chronocolumncoofusium! Association' encourages community leaders ' to start mediation programs in their schools, and to make training in conflict resolution available to parents. pro. . t v '1 |