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Show Page 2 The Ogden Valley news Volume XX Issue VIII May 15, 2012 The Ogden Valley news Staff: Shanna Francis Tel: 801-745-2688 Fax: 801-745-0062 Cell: 801-791-4387 E-Mail: slfrancis@digis.net Jeannie Wendell Tel: 801-745-2879 Fax: 801-745-2879 E-Mail: crwendell@digis.net crwendell@msn.com Opinions expressed by advertisers, columnists or letters to the editor are not necessarily the opinions of the owners and staff of The Ogden Valley news. guidelines for Letters to the Editor Letters should be 300 words or less. Letters must be signed and the address of the writer submitted. The Ogden Valley news reserves the right to edit or decline printing of any submissions. Announcements Sought As a community service, The Ogden V alley n ews will print local birth, wedding, obituary, anniversary and missionary farewell & homecoming and Eagle Scout announcements free of charge. 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Letters to the Editor Forest Service Representative Top Notch I, along with my sisters, am a lifelong Huntsville resident, as were our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents before us. Our great-grandfather Charles Wood came into Ogden Valley with Captain Jefferson Hunt and settled here in the late 1800’s, helping found the town of Huntsville, so it is easy to understand why our Huntsville home has such a special place in our hearts and our respect for this area has very deep roots. In the fall of 2011 I became extremely worried about safety and disturbing-the-peace issues created by the allowance of shooting in the Huntsville river bottoms. Because of the mild fall/winter weather we were having, the region, officially known as the Winter Grove Nature Trail (named in honor of one of the original town settlers), was easily accessible to hunters and I was constantly hearing gunshots coming from the land that is literally right in my back yard in Huntsville. When I contacted some local people about my concerns, I was told that this was forest service property, and I needed to talk to someone in that agency to voice any problems or questions I might have. I was so anxious to talk to someone who might be able to advise me that I called the Forest Service on a Saturday morning hoping, but not really believing, that I would get a live person, not a recording, to talk to. (And, yes, I was able to talk to a live person!) The person who answered the phone was a young woman who said she was Officer Linda Peterson. She was very professional during our conversation, and on top of that, sounded genuinely interested in what I had to say—NOT annoyed that I had called and “bothered” her. Just the opposite, she was gracious and helpful. Because she is in the law enforcement division of the Ogden Ranger District, she said she was having a busy day checking deer tags, but would get back to me as soon as possible with some information on hunting. True to her word, she showed up at my home a few days later with a printed proclamation that addressed hunting. This was the first time I had met Linda in person, and was shocked by her petite frame, not only because she told me she was a professional bull rider, but also because one of her main duties in her forest service position is handing out tickets to snowmobilers and four-wheeler drivers who are riding in undesignated areas. I couldn’t believe the huge amount of bravery she had to have within her to accomplish these intimidating tasks compared to her physical size. It was incredible to me that bull riding and law enforcement were her two chosen professions. I think she told me that she is 5’2”. Besides being courageous, Linda also has an immense love and respect for nature; she has made this very clear to me through her many comments of appreciation and wonder whenever we talk about the birds and wildlife in the area. Further, she is totally committed to making the park lands she helps oversee safe and pristine. It takes a lot of boldness to track down a grown man twice your size who is tearing up the landscape on a four wheeler where he shouldn’t be riding, so you can hand him a ticket for damaging public lands and disobeying the law. Now that’s impressive! She told me she loves her horses and enjoys the beauty of the wilderness on and off duty; her favorite off duty activity? Riding her horse through the mountains. Besides these attributes, she really does her homework; a lot of the information I asked about she had in her head and the little she didn’t know, she offered to find it out for me. Her attitude was one of courtesy and helpfulness, and I was thoroughly glad to be able to talk to her. For these many reasons, it was easy for me to have an instant respect and admiration for Linda, even though she is a modest, soft-spoken woman. The Ogden Valley community is fortunate to have such a dedicated, authentic person as Linda S. Peterson working for the Forest Service, and who is in charge of our area. She understands and protects our neighboring public lands with a high level of competency and regard, and is one of those top notch people who labors faithfully, and without a lot of fanfare, to make our beautiful Ogden Valley an even better place to live. Thanks for Linda; your efforts are much appreciated. Becky Wood, Huntsville Response to Republicans Called Racist Recently Gary Anderson of Huntsville wrote about Republicans and racists. He also suggested that I am a “thoughtful Conservative,” a compliment accepted as high praise, intended or not, and consider myself just one of many. Anderson seems to believe that many Republicans are racists, an assumption based on the fact that many voters in the South switched from Democrat to Republican in recent decades. He suggested that some of them brought along their white sheets and pointed caps. I would offer the following advice to Gary. First, read John McWhorter’s book about black victimhood. McWhorter is a professor of Linguistics at U.C. Berkeley, lives in Oakland and is “authentically black” ( also the title of another of his books). He takes to task such prominent black Americans as Al Sharpton, Maxine Waters, and Jesse Jackson for their promotion of victimhood. He believes that clinging to victimhood impedes blacks from realizing their full potential. Second, take a look at the rise of black Conservatives in this country; people such as Congressman West of Florida and columnist Starr Parker. Conservatism isn’t about race, it’s about values. And finally, you should look again at race relations in the South, that’s where real improvements have taken place. The hometown of my youth, Columbus, Georgia, for instance, a consolidated city/county of some two-hundred-thousand citizens, is just one of many cities that have made great strides in race relations. Columbus has had Mayors and Council members of many ethnic origins for years. Its current Mayor is a woman; its City Manager is African-American. Of course there are still pockets of racism in the South, as there are in other regions of the country. During the 50’s, thru to the 70’s, I had occasion to live and work in different regions of the country. I found de-facto segregation in the West, East, and North. Even though public places were not segregated, people of like races tended to live in their own communities. In southern California there was more animosity toward Mexicans than blacks. The Watts Riots of the 60’s were a backlash to imperfect integration in that region. I appreciate Mr. Anderson’s comments on my previous article in The Ogden Valley News, and suggest that he seriously consider researching the subjects I mentioned. social programs that keep the poor, including many blacks, in a persistent state of dependence on the government and in perpetual poverty, dragging down our economy and our nation. Democrats do not have a birthright to the civil rights movement. In the 26 major civil rights votes after 1933, a majority of Democrats opposed civil rights legislation in over 80 percent of the votes. By contrast, the Republican majority favored civil rights in over 96 percent of the votes. The Republican Party stands for free enterprise, personal responsibility, limited government, taking care of the poor through private charity organizations and enabling them to lift people out of the cycle of poverty. The Republican Party is for freeing the individual so they can pursue their own dreams, unencumbered by government control of their lives. The lack of racism by the GOP was demonstrated most recently in Utah during the recently completed GOP convention when candidate Mia Love, the daughter of black Haitian immigrants, was overwhelmingly voted in to a thunderous applause as our congressional candidate for the new 4th congressional district with over 70% of the delegate votes over her closest white male challenger. She was chosen because her life reflects, and she so eloquently and strongly spoke for the aforementioned GOP values as opposed to the social justice and perpetually dependent values so loved by the Democrat party. Oh, and did I mention . . . she is black? I guess we just didn’t notice that. John W. Reynolds, Pleasant View Are Democrats Racist? I am writing this letter in response to Gary Anderson’s letter to the editor, “Are Republicans Racist?” (May 1, 2012 issue of the paper). Mr. Anderson alleges that Republicans are racist because we do not embrace president Obama’s agenda, his horrendous spending, or his big government world view for America. I will agree that racism is still alive and well in America, as well as in most of the world, but to indict Republicans as the main group embracing racism is most disingenuous on his part. How many of the New Black Panthers are doing all they can make sure that Democrats, especially black democrats, are elected to office. How about Louis Farrakhan or Reverend Jeremiah Wright? People or groups like these don’t get any more rabidly racist. Democrats are the ones that keep pushing Cal Stevens, Liberty Members of Both Parties Have Fought For & Against Civil Rights It is always foolish to make blanket statements about people or groups unless the accuser has done their homework. Below is a nonpartisan analysis of the civil rights legislation in past years by political players from both sides. It shows that members of both our political system have flaws—the democrats had the dixiecrats around their necks starting in 1948, and some republicans needed to change their views too. It is well known that Orville Fabus, Governor of Arkansas (Little Rock 1957), and George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, who later was a candidate for president in 1968, were dyed in the wool democrats. It is also known that many racist senators from southern states were “dixiecrats,” that is, democrats that split from the Democratic Party mainstream over civil rights and states’ rights. “The civil-rights bill of 1964 was enacted with strong bipartisan and bi-ideological (conservative and liberal) support. But, the credit for the civilrights victory has gone almost exclusively to liberals and Democrats, particularly to Senator Hubert Humphrey (D, Minn.) in Congress, and to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. However, much of the hard work of advancing the legislation was done by congressional Republicans—conservative stalwarts including Everett McKinley Dirksen LETTERS cont. on page 10 HigH altitude KidS & YOutH SiZZliNg Summer adveNtureS High Altitude Kids offers adventure camps for the day, week, or summer. Field Trip Based advenTure program advenTure programs For The 5 & 6 old explorer summer preschool program 2-4 Years old Note: The contents of The Ogden Valley News are copyrighted. To protect this publication and its contributors from unlawful copying, written permission is required before any individual or company engages in the reproduction or distribution of its contents, by any means, without first obtaining written permission from the owners of this publication. The deadline for the OVN June 1 issue is May 15. More Letters on Page 10 801.745.2653 l www.hakutah.com |