OCR Text |
Show 4 Thursday March 28, 2013 OPINION www.dailyutahchronicle.corn Herbert's veto represents a bold move G ov. Gary Herbert vetoed HB 76 — the "constitutional carry" bill that would make it legal for gun owners to carry a concealed weapon in public without a permit on March 22. The bill made it through the Utah State Legislature with tremendous support. It passed 51-18 in the House and 22-7 in the Senate. It was a sign of Utah's unabashed support for second amendment rights and a middle finger to the national trend that is demanding more gun control. It was the pride and joy of our representatives' legislative session, but Herbert washed it all away in his most gutsy and independent stand yet as governor of the state of Utah. Herbert has made somewhat controversial vetoes before. In 2010, Herbert vetoed HB 12, a bill that passed almost unanimously in the House and Senate that would punish mothers who sought an illegal abortion through an "intentional, knowing, or reckless act." However, Herbert signed an almost identical "revised" bill minutes later that simply omitted the term "reckless." Last year, Herbert made national news by vetoing Utah's abstinenceonly sex education bill. Many praised him as making an independent stand after the veto. However, a cynical interpretation would point to the polling all across the state that showed public support for the bill was nonexistent. A poll issued by Brigham Young University, a few days before Herbert's veto, found that only 3o percent of Utahns supported abstinence only public education. Herbert's veto last Friday was more provocative and courageous OUR CONCEALED WEAPONS PERMIT PROCESS IS THE LAXEST IN THE NATION. STEVENSON SMITH Opinion Columnist than both of these other vetoes for two crucial reasons. First, Herbert did not sign an amended version of the bill to compromise with the Legislature. He assertively told the House and Senate, "No." He is leading and expecting others to follow. Second, unlike the abstinence-only veto, it is not clear at all whether this constitutional carry veto has public support on its side. A recent public opinion poll found that only 35 percent of Utah's population supports stricter gun laws. While the poll did not specify whether Utahns would support a constitutional carry law, it at least shows the fundamental tension Utah has towards government restrictions on gun rights. One of the lasts things a conservative politician in Utah wants is to be labeled "anti-guns" or "anti-second amendment." Gov. Herbert is taking this risk — a risk that only eight other Republican legislators were willing to take. This could be a sign of a new, moderate and independent governor of Utah. It could mean that Herbert is through with partisan politics and bills that only serve to divide the state. It could be the beginning of a trend for more leadership and compromise in Utah politics. I HAD TO VETO IT! rJ ■ - -4 \ -A\ HERBERT itrzostut ISAAC J. BROMLEY/The Daily Utah Chronicle It might be a sign that Herbert is trying to make himself more moderate for a potential reelection race against Jim Matheson in 2016, too — a more cynical interpretation, but not an unwarranted one, given that Do you expect the Stipreme Cart to strike down Prop. 8, the California law barring same-seximp marriage, and DOMA, the federal law defin- ,W ing ma age "between one man and , one woman "9 ► • •/ /7/7 /././ ,• Cast your vote online at: www.dailyutahchronicle.com NEWPOLL WE'VE GOT A PUT/ TO UPHOLD! FOR GUN NUTS EVERYWHERE! Herbert has not ruled out another run for governor. Only time will tell. However, the next place to look — to see if Herbert's gutsy veto was just a single event or the beginning of new gov- RESULTS Last week respondents voted on the poll: No, give me liberty or give e death! (69%, 42 Votes) COURTNEY TANNER Muslim holy site. It forced the presidential delegation to travel by ground, giving him a firsthand and first-time view of the nucleus of the insidious occupation. It is only 23 kilometers from Ramallah to Bethlehem, yet because of 35-foot concrete separation barriers, built on Palestinian land, and 29 Israeli checkpoints, fences and road blockades, it took nearly two and a half hours to get there. That is daily life for the Palestinians. Second, there was an American mainstream media blitz to divert viewers away from the president being in the occupied territories, See JONES page 5 See TANNER page 5 JONES Opinion Columnist LUIGI GHERSI/The Daily Utah Chronicle est section of the Convention Center was filled with coed Jewish students, interlaced with their Palestinian friends, representing what a democratic college student gathering should look like. Even so, the foreign-engineered divisions in Israel and the American wealthy interests driving illegal settlement expansion generate a looming Israeli implosion. The crucial point of Obama's time in the West Bank was his visit to the Church of the Nativity in occupied Bethlehem. Three significant things happened during his time there. First, a sudden desert storm hit when he was preparing to helicopter to the Christian and T here are numerous police tactics to ensure safety and security, but the New York Police Department is taking its job to a new level — NYPD officers are getting frisky in The Big Apple. The NYPD instituted a stop-andfrisk policy in 2002, supposedly to reduce crime. The police tactic allows officers to stop any person with "reasonable suspicion" on the street to question and search. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly both fervently back the policy as a successful means to reduce crime. However, the stopand-frisk policy encourages racial profiling, is statistically unproductive and financially draining. To begin, stop-and-frisk is a means of racial profiling. Racial profiling, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is: "(noun) the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offence." This is exactly what the NYPD is guilty of committing. There are more than 8,000 people in New York City, and of that, 44percent are white, 26 percent are black, and 29 percent are Hispanic, according to the federal census. However, The Huffington Post reports that out of the 533,042 people stopped with the stop-and-frisk policy in 2012, II percent were white, 51 percent were black and 32 percent were Hispanic. Furthermore, in the NYPD's report of crime for New York City, written by none other than Commissioner Kelly himself, it states that arrests made in 2012 targeted ethnic and racial minorities: 23 percent were white, 35 percent were black and 38 percent were Hispanic. This might seem like just a bunch ROSE vention Center, located within a couple of miles from the Mormon-occupied Mount. He spoke to an audience which was heavily diverse, and he was occasionally heckled by the separatist groups in the crowd. In one area, there were the extreme right-wing Zionist Jews, closely located to the born-again Christians, Mormons and radical settler youth. That was the white supremacy section. Across the room was a group of young Palestinian males with angry faces, seated near a group of atheist anti-Zionist Jewish anarchists. Missing from the Convention Center were the Haredim Jews, a population that rejects Zionism and refuses to serve in the Israeli military, citing religious reasons. Secular Jews consider them ultra-orthodox, as they want to segregate female secular Jews from their populations and public transportation. Then again, the severe rightwing Israeli government just passed a law segregating Palestinians and Jews on public busses. The good news is that the larg- NYPD has failed on stop-and frisk policy Opinion Columnist Obama's Israel visit could spark change T hree critical things happened during Obama's visit to Irsael last week. First, some background information to emphasize the importance of these three events. One hundred and seventy-two years ago this week, the newly established Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a pioneer Zionist organization, sent a small army into Palestine to occupy Jabal Zeitoun — the Mount of Olives. The warrior group and their Mormon leader, Orson Hyde, were the first violent and illegal settlers in historical Palestine. The mount was peppered with small villages of indigenous Palestinian shepherds and their families. They were people referred to by Hyde as "darkness on the Earth," referencing their "unnatural" brown skin. Palestinian bodies are still lying under the sprawling Mormon enigma that continues to occupy the Mount, known as the Center for Near East Studies, or what used to be the BYU Israel. The Palestinian people have been occupied by various foreigners since then. However, indigenous Jews and Palestinians lived peacefully together for centuries until modern nationalism perpetuated by doomsday Christianity reared its ugly head. During President Barack Obama's visit to Israel last week, he addressed Israeli college students in the Jerusalem Con- letters@ chronicle.utah.edu - Sounds like a nice way to say, "Do you support the PATRIOT Act?" (28%, 17 Votes) Seriously, the gay marriage debate is still a thing? ernor leadership in Utah — will be his upcoming decision on whether to accept Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act in Utah. |