One of the really nice things that we have been able to enjoy in Springdale is the Farmers Market that has been held on Saturdays for the last few years. In addition to fresh, wholesome fruits and vegetables, a few entrepreneurs have been selling some delicious snacks like brownies, little cakes, and jam and jelly.

It seems those delightful days are over. The damn government regulators have stepped in and put a stop to it.

During the winter, while the market was closed, meetings have been held and stern warnings have been delivered. The Farmers Market won’t be nearly as much fun from now on. Here’s a brief summary of Utah’s “Rule R70-560. Inspection and Regulation of Cottage Food Production Operations.”

“We got more rules to trip you up than you can ever possibly follow. Don’t even try.”

Making a few cakes in your home kitchen for sale just isn’t possible. You basically have to dedicate your home if you want to sell a brownie legally in Utah. You can’t use flour or nutmeg from your kitchen cabinet, or yeast from your refrigerator.

“R70-560-4(d): A cottage food production operation shall: Provide separate storage from domestic storage, including refrigerated storage”

You have to register with the State, pay a fee, have your kitchen inspected, submit all recipies for approval by the State, display the registration certificate whenever you sell anything, keep labeled samples of anything you sell for two weeks after you sell it … just the regulations telling you how you have to print labels goes on for two pages.

You can’t even have a dog or cat in the house, let alone in the kitchen.

And then there is Title 4 of the Utah Agricultural Code, Chapter 5 Utah Wholesome Food Act, Section 9.5 Cottage food production operations. I’m not sure why we need both a law and Rule R70-560, but we have both anyway.

In my darker moods, it seems that the only purpose served by all these rules is to protect WalMart and Albertsons from competition. If a brownie is sold anywhere, they want to sell it. So their lobbyists “assist” our legislators by helping them write laws that make it impossible for my neighbor to sell that brownie. After all, it seem to me that when people really are harmed by unsafe food, it’s the big guys that are at fault. They have a scale of operation that can afford to “appear” to follow all these rules while at the same time spending as little money as possible actually producing safe foods. I know whereof I speak. My wife used to be a lab worker charged with testing foods for the State of Utah. They never actually enforced the rules. It was mainly busy work just for show. Businesses had the political power to protect themselves.

An “unintended consequence” of this overregulation is that a lot of this cottage industry just gets driven underground. That means that there is no regulation at all, no collection of sales tax, and open, public, enjoyable activities like the Farmers Market can’t exist.

In other blogs, I have mentioned that I serve on the Springdale Planning Commission. I understand why we have ordinances that are often painfully similar. I used to argue with the professionals that Springdale hires to help us apply these ordinances by asking why it was wrong to simply use good judgment instead of endless regulation. The answer is that the concept of trusting people to actually use good judgment just isn’t part of our system of government. The problem is that if there is a loophole anywhere, somebody will crawl through it. So, on the Planning Commission, we probably spend more than half of our time just rewriting the ordinances to make them more and more detailed and exact. In other words, the same kind of rules that are taking all of the joy out of the Springdale Farmers Market.

The net result is that we’re all being reduced to the lowest common denominator. If anybody gets hurt doing something, the answer is that nobody will be allowed to do it anymore. If some sleezeball anywhere is grinding up nuclear waste and selling it as brownies, then the answer is that everybody, everywhere has have every brownie tested to make sure there’s no nuclear waste in it.

I’m not sure what the answer should be, but it sure would be nice to be able to buy a brownie from my neighbor’s kitchen at the Farmers Market.

I have long been an advocate of a “Springdale Public Forum”. This is a pretty great community as it is, but I think it could be better if we had a better way to come together with common understanding of common problems and issues. For example, I recently received a forwarded email about the Rockville/Springdale Fire Department. It seems that there is a proposal to double the fee we all pay to keep it going. There weren’t any details in the email. Just a date when the issue will be discussed and a name and email address of a person you can send questions to. That person will probably get a lot of the same questions asked over and over again.

This is an ideal example of something that could be cleared up before the meeting by using the online technology available today. The way it works now is that people get together in little clusters and talk about it. When the meeting actually comes around, just clearing up the false ideas that those little clusters invent will probably be a big challenge. Getting to some sort of consensus about the right thing to do may be impossible in just one meeting.

Currently, the process of information about public issues is fragmented and inconsistent. These are the ways that we get information now.

• Personal conversations
• Various “meetings” – Town Council, Planning Commission and meetings like the Rockville/Springdale Fire Department Board Meeting
• The Post Office bulletin board (An important source of news!)
• Emails
• The Springdale web site

The people who run this town say they really would like more public participation in town affairs. We hold elaborate affairs just to get their input. The recent “General Plan Barbecue” is a great example. We basically threw a town party just so we could get people to express their opinions about what ought to be in the town’s General Plan. But we’re not willing to step out of the mold of announced meetings of some sort and the fact is, most of the formal meetings are deserted. Nobody shows up. That ought to be a red flag that something is wrong and needs to be fixed … but it isn’t.

I run the Planning Commission and I’m very sensitive to the fact that there are strict state laws that govern what can be said, who can say it, and when it can be said in formal meetings. The format is just not good for creating understanding about what’s really going on. It’s great for making decisions efficiently but it leaves people “in the dark” about why decisions are made the way they are. During the General Plan Barbecue, it was plain to me that most people just didn’t understand why some controversial decisions had been made. As a Commissioner, I would still have to be careful about what I posted in an online forum. But – as nearly as I can tell – I would really only have to avoid comments about current applications where applicants have a legally protected right to a decision made in a formal setting with specific rules that protect those rights. If a question concerned anything that was not the subject of a current application, I believe I could explain myself freely and that people have a right to know. If it concerned a Town Ordinance, I don’t think there’s any problem discussing it. And people who are not officials could say whatever they like.

With a Springdale Public Forum, meetings could be announced and the major topics listed in a place that has “one stop information shopping” for all members of our community. A brief explanation … such as “Why we need the increase.” … could be included. Then other members of the Zion Canyon Community could leave messages with questions and comments about it. As an example, I’ll bet there are people out there who know exactly what’s going on with the Fire Department. They could explain what they know for the benefit of the rest of us. My “guess” about it is that the emergency medical services that we enjoy here are very expensive to maintain, especially with our limited population base. My “guess” is that the Board has concluded that we have to either buck up with more money or cut back the level of service that we claim to provide. But what do I know? My only source of information right now requires me to take the time of the underappreciated person with citizen responsibility for the Fire Department. And then I only get that one point of view.

I like to use the phrase, “public and accountable” when I discuss my idea. A lot of people might think a “Springdale Forum” would be like the ones that you see in media web sites where people call each other names and only nut cases seem to post messages. (In fairness, some forums have intelligent, well-reasoned commentary. I like to think that the people who write comments to this site are a pretty good bunch.) In my vision, a Springdale Public Forum would be owned and operated by the Town of Springdale. People would be required to have a login and password to access the site and they would have to use their real names, not an alias. That alone would do a lot to help the forum be “public and accountable”. Citizens of Springdale, and the Zion Canyon community in general (Rockville and Virgin), would be automatically part of the Forum. Other people could gain access by applying but we could turn down anybody who doesn’t really have a reason to sign up to keep it focused and targeted on our own issues.

For reasons I don’t fully understand, I’m getting very little traction with my idea. I’ve even located a source of grant money that could be used to develop the forum, but nobody seems willing to touch the idea. People actually seem to be afraid of it. It might be because years ago, Springdale had a pretty bad experience with town governance. The Town became polarized and people on opposite sides of issues became nasty to the point of attacking each other’s property. I didn’t live here at the time, but the papers in Salt Lake actually printed articles about Springdale politics in a sort of “News of the Wierd” way. To the great credit of the people to live here, an attitude of “first of all, let’s get along together” has become a foundation principal here now. I give our former mayor, Phillip Bimstein, a lot of the credit for making that positive change happen.

A “public and accountable” Springdale Public Forum can be as friendly, helpful, and courteous as any other format. It could also be a lot more effective. ColorComments.com is not the right place to discuss Springdale issues, but it might be a place to start on this one. I’d really like to read what other people in Springdale think about this idea in the comments

As I write these words, a light plane – undoubtedly some tourist with enough money to rent one for a few hours – is circling over Zion Canyon and Springdale making a sound like an angry lawnmower. A couple of tourists get a scenic thrill ride. Meanwhile, every visitor to the park – and all of the residents of Springdale and Rockville – get to listen to them clattering back and forth through the sky. A few days ago, I attended an “Open House Session” at the Springdale Canyon Community Center put on by Zion Park to let us know what they are doing to create a “Soundscape Management Plan”. More than one Springdale resident suggested that they supply the people here with anti-aircraft guns to solve the problem. The Park Service took that ‘under advisement’. Action on the suggestion is not expected soon, unfortunately.

For my own part, a bazooka would do a better job. The noise that bothers me is the damn motorcycles. A swarm of those will go up Zion Boulevard and I look for rockfalls that have been rattled down. My only consolation is that the people riding them are closer to the noise than I am. As I pray for rain to follow them on their journey, I meditate about painting a silicone oil slick on that sharp corner down SR9.

The Park Service recently asked their visitors what was important to them. They found out that almost as many visitors come to enjoy the soundscape (91 percent) as the scenery (93 percent). (“Report on the Effects of Aircraft Overflight on the National Park System”) The Park Service put together a nice web site about the sounds of nature. Find it at: http://nature.nps.gov/naturalsounds/.

My sources tell me that Zion Park is on target to be the first park to have a soundscape management plan. The plan is open for public comment until April 9, 2010. You can read more about the Zion Park plan and comment about it at: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?parkId=113&projectId=30628.

Since Americans seem to be intent on following Japan, China, and India in populating every square inch of land, we probably need to learn a little more about how to avoid violating each other’s space. Blasting your noise into my space is a violation.

The Washington County Water Conservancy District (A name that encloses a lie just as surely as North Korea calling themselves the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”.), a totally unelected body that seems to have unlimited taxing authority, is stampeding into the construction of a $1.7 billion pipeline to avoid facing the awful reality that at some point we’ll have to stop tearing up the desert to build suburbs. To quote an opposition group, “Citizens for Dixie’s Future”:

“… the cost of the proposed Lake Powell pipeline project, including interest on bonds, will exceed $1.7 billion dollars. The residents of Washington, Kane and Iron County will be responsible for paying this debt, most likely without federal or state funding. This would be the largest and most expensive non-federally or state funded public works project in Utah’s history. Never has such a project been paid by such a small percentage of the state’s population.”

The chances of stopping them seem pretty slim to me. According to the web page of the media company (ie – professional liars) that was hired to sell this bill of goods to the public:

“Vanguard Media Group developed key messages, visals (sic) and collateral materials to accurately (even sic-er) tell the Lake Powell Pipeline story. While the majority of information and educational effort targeted legislators, our secondary audience was the community at large. We developed an set of tactics for this audience, which would further influence legislators to put items in place for the project to begin.

All three bills relating to the Lake Powell Pipeline passed during the 2006 Utah legislative session. Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. signed the legislation into law at a ceremonial press event in Cedar City on May 3, 2006.”

Opponents managed to at least get a public airing of the issues last January. Cory Cram, watershed and environment coordinator for the Washington County Water Conservancy District showed up to defend it. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, “He assured those attending the meeting that Utah’s water won’t be taken away by California and that the lake will always have enough water for the intake valves to pump.”

Yah, right. Here’s a news item from Bloomberg a few days ago:

“Since 1999, Lake Mead has dropped about 1 percent a year. By 2012, the lake’s surface could fall below the existing pipe that delivers 40 percent of (Las Vegas’) water.”

I’ll bet they never thought that would happen either.

But wait! A white knight has appeared on the bone-dry shale hills overlooking Green River, Utah! Two “public servants” (another name that encapsulates a lie) are working a different angle that will suck up the non-existant water before it even gets to Lake Powell. Aaron Tilton is both a Utah legislator and a big investor in a company that wants to build a nuclear power plant near Green River. The water would be supplied by the Kane County Water Conservancy District. That organization is run by another legislator, Mike Noel. Both are sucking on both ends of the straw by using their public jobs to feather their private nests. Their “grand idea” will completely use up 50,000 acre feet of water every year from the Green River.

As it turns out, both the Lake Powell Pipeline and the Green River Nuclear Plant are shooting for around 2020 to come online.

There was once a “good war”. Back in the 1400’s, the powerful House of York and equally powerful House of Lancaster got into a tiff about who ought to be King of England in what history now calls, “The War of the Roses”. Gunpowder didn’t come into common use until slightly later so heavy armor, expensive weapons, and huge horses to carry it all was the way war was waged. It took a lot of money to buy all that stuff so the people waging the war were the actual nobles and paid soldiers. Common folk mainly got out of the way and let them have at it. A lot of rich nobility who really deserved it died in that war.

I’m genuinely looking forward to watching our own local nobility slug it out in Utah’s War of the Cactus.

Springdale – my little town in Color Country – is pretty great, but they’re not perfect. One of the things they do is make it very, very difficult to own a home here without being part of a “homeowners association” – HOA. The reason is that Springdale simply chooses not to take any responsibility for a big chunk of the infrastructure … mainly roads. They do demand that roads be constructed up to some minimal standards – mainly width and grade restrictions to ensure that emergency vehicles can get their jobs done – but after that, its the responsibility of the HOA to maintain the road.

I have several gripes about this.

1 – I don’t get an equal share of the services that are provided to other residents.

A lot of Springdale residents live on roads that are owned and maintained by the Town. We all pay the same taxes. Why don’t we all get the same services? I’ve talked to HOA consultants about joining a lawsuit about this. But I just don’t like getting things done through lawsuits. It mainly makes the lawyers rich and “justice” very, very often has nothing to do with the outcome.

2 – Springdale maintains a “fiction” about the quality of roads as a result.

One of the objections to simply giving our roads to Springdale is that Springdale claims they are not up to the quality standards of the Town and would have to be improved to meet that standard first. News Flash! Neither are the other roads in Springdale. Step one of the “twelve steps to recovery” is to recognize and admit the truth.

3 – It costs us a lot more to do the same work than it would cost Springdale.

If my HOA fixes the roads, we have to work out a deal with a contractor individually. Springdale could bring a much higher economy of scale to the process and fix them a lot more economically. And they would do a better job of making sure the contractor did the right job. I work with the Town of Springdale on other things. They do a good job of the things I know about. I wish I could get them to take this one on.

But most importantly, I’m forced to devote time, effort, and money – a not inconsiderable amount of money – to an organization that really has only an artificial relationship to my life here. I can’t understand why I can’t just give the same amount of money to Springdale and let them fix the roads instead.

It’s not that I don’t like my neighbors. The occasional get-togethers that result from being part of an HOA are nice. They would be nicer if we didn’t have to talk business … but, Hey! – they’re still nice.

“Deep Throat” (now revealed to have been FBI man Mark Felt) gave this advice to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward to break the Nixon Watergate conspiracy. If anything in human relations seems confusing, it’s a good way to untangle the snarls.

One of today’s headlines highlights the quarrel that has burbled up between the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and New York City over a new 16 page pamphlet that gives advice to heroin drug users about how to stay alive. New York is giving good, practical advice to druggies. The DEA, however, says that it’s an instruction manual on how to inject drugs. I doubt that many drug users need any advice on how to successfully get high. But they probably can use information about how to do it and not kill themselves quite so quickly at the same time.

It seems to me that the argument really comes down to a more fundamental question: “Are drug users citizens who are entitled to public services? Or should public policy be to simply get rid of them as cheaply and efficiently as possible?” Some states kill them off at maximum expense and risk to other citizens by locking them up for a while in expensive prisons where they receive zero help in kicking drugs but a truly quality education in how to be a better criminal.

It’s time to ask the question, “Who profits from drug use in the United States?” In other words, it’s time to “follow the money.”

Drugs seized by authorities are at least some indication of the volume of the drug business, and there are hard facts about that from the DEA’s own web site. For the most recent year (2008), 4.1 kilograms of heroin was seized in Utah. (For the metrically challenged, that’s slightly more than 9 pounds.) That’s for all of Utah and all of 2008. But over 70,000 pounds of marijuana were seized in Utah in the same year.

There might be more than one way to interpret that statistic. An article of faith for the right wing is that all drugs are evil, evil, evil. (Except for the doctor prescribed addiction that Aunt LaVerne has to anti-depression drugs, of course.) And that marijane is a “gateway drug” for the harder stuff. According to conservative theology, once you touch weed, hard drugs are just a short step away. If that’s true, then we’re in for a hell of a heroin epidemic in the near future.

I suspect (and formal studies prove) that marijuana has very little linkage to harder drugs (not even to Aunt LaVerne’s anti-depression drugs), so I don’t think there’s much to worry about there. But it does show that there’s a lot of money being made both by marijuana growers and sellers, and by people in the business of finding and destroying marijuana. Both groups would be a lot less prosperous if their market went away for some reason.

As a taxpayer … and as a Utah resident who doesn’t want to lose more than I already have to drug criminals … I sincerely question the value of all this money being funnelled to both groups. There’s a better idea that has worked before — right here in Utah. The Ogden Standard Examiner recently published a historical note about Weber State University. It seems like the initiative to legalize the brewing of beer here in Utah was pushed through by Mormons to finance education.

In 1933, “To stabilize funding for the colleges, State Senator Ira Huggins, of Ogden, proposed that the state take over their funding. To pay for them, he introduced a bill to allow the manufacture of 3.05 percent beer in Utah for sale to states that had legalized beer sales. The beer would be a stable source of income and brewing of it would provide jobs. The bill was pushed through and, on July 1, Weber became a state-funded junior college.”

Wotta concept!

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Thanks to “Peggy” for sending the quote from the Ogden Standard Examiner.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal …

(Did you know that the Wall Street Journal, once a gold standard of journalistic integrity, is now owned by the same Australian transplant who owns Faux News?)

… Karl Rove tsk-tsk’s the health care bill because it’s loaded with special interest provisions. And he puts the blame squarely on the shoulders of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Readers of this page know that I have no great love for Harry Reid. (See What Could Be Better Than Harry Reid?) and I have to agree with Rove’s dismay about how our elected representatives are legislating for the few instead of the many, fake though his concern is. But I have three major problems with Rove’s little tantrum.

(1) Rove’s cynical hypocrisy complaining about a system that he wallowed in back when he was in power. Remember, this is the guy who had a primary role in the partisan purging of U.S. attorneys. Rove did his best to make political loyalty – not job qualification – the way the entire federal government was run. Every department and agency was put through intense and thorough politicization. His crocodile tears now are revolting.

(2) Republicans have some responsibility in what’s happening now. Barack Obama and the Democrats won a commanding mandate from voters to put a health care system in place, but the Party of No is dedicated to stopping that mandate at any cost. Political Scientist Barbara Sinclair has analyzed how much the 60 vote filibuster (being used by the Party of No to frustrate the voter’s mandate in the health care bill) was used by Democrats back when Republicans were in power versus now. She concluded that when Democrats were the frustrated minority, it was used only 27 percent of the time for major legislation. But now that the Party of No has been cast out, it’s being used 70 percent of the time. The Republicans deserve primary blame for making polarization the way things are done now.

(3) But the worst distortion in Rove’s piece is his completely one-sided analysis of cost. Health care costs $2.2 trillion in the U.S. every year. That’s $7,290 for every person and almost twice as much as the country with the second highest cost (Switzerland at $4,417 per person). At the same time, using the broadest measure of health care, average life expectancy at birth, the U.S. is worse than (in order):

Japan
Switzerland
Australia
Spain
France
Canada
New Zealand
Austria
Luxembourg
Czech Republic
United Kingdom
Portugal
Denmark

All of which have universal health coverage for their citizens. Health care in Portugal (two places ahead of us in average life expectancy) only costs thirty percent as much as health care here.

How can the Party of No defend a system as bad as this?

How does the Party of No want to fix it?

I won’t try to defend the rotten way legislation is done in the U.S. I will say that the Party of No is more to blame for the mess than the Democrats.

But there is a consolation prize for the citizens of Utah even though they did vote overwhelmingly for McCain/Palin!! Because Harry Reid is well placed to insert his own political patronage into the bill, the current version gives higher Medicare payments to hospitals and doctors in any state where more than fifty percent of the counties are “frontier counties” with population density of less than six people per square mile. That includes Nevada, of course, but it also includes Utah.

So doctors and the hospital administrators in Utah can plan on an extra Lexus – maybe even a Hummer – in their quadruple width garage!!! Doesn’t that just thrill you!!

On the one side, there’s no doubt that the people have spoken. They said, “No more minarets.” What part of that is difficult to understand?

On the other side, the freedom to practice your religion your own way is a deeply enshrined principal. Empires have fallen by ignoring it.

This one probably doesn’t have a good answer … at least not right now. There are as many sides to this debate as a disco ball.

The right wing in Switzerland who are responsible for the ban on Muslim minarets have an “us against them” mentality. They point to laws in Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia where being Christian is more or less a crime. And they see their own country being invaded by a culture they don’t understand and don’t want. They’re taking a stand, striking back, and refusing to be pushed anymore.

During the campaign, they did’t talk about minarets. They talked about Sharia law, burqas and the the way women are treated in the Islamic world. The ordinary people don’t get a chance to strike a direct blow against the headlines very often. They decided to take this one. For example, a Muslim icon, the Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi is holding two Swiss citizens hostage in retaliation for the (fully justified) arrest of one of his sons in Geneva. Things like this bug the ordinary people in Switzerland, but they can’t do a thing about it. Until now. The biggest newspaper in Germany, Bild, said Germans would probably vote the same way if they were allowed a referendum on the issue. They’re not likely to get one. Especially now.

But is it really as bad as all that? Here in Color Country, I work with the Planning Commission and we tell people how tall their buildings can be, the color, size, and even the shape of buildings. The Swiss are really only doing the same thing in practical fact.

It’s not like they have a “hands off” attitude about religion in Europe. The government collects a “church tax” in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Sweden and some parts of Switzerland. (See note 1.) The biggest party in Germany is the Christian Democratic Union. In Bavaria the Christian Social Union has won nearly every election since World War Two. These two parties mean what their names say. And on the other side, Scientology is frequently prosecuted as a criminal enterprise in Europe. (Not that I disagree with that description, but it probably applies to a lot more churches than just Scientology.) So they’re certainly not singling the Muslims out for official state interference.

At least, even here in “the different world of Utah” — the closest thing America has to a state governed by a religion — we can still drink coffee, go to the store on Sunday, and even sip a bit of distilled sin — in public! In Germany, the churches keep the stores resolutely shut on Sunday.

If we started behaving like they still do in Europe, wearing a slightly drab, long, blue dress – with long johns underneath – might be outlawed by the long arm of the law.

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Note 1: A century ago, religion was on it’s way out. In 1919, Germany’s Weimar Republic mandated that the state subsidy of churches should cease. But Hitler needed allies to rise to power. In 1933, Hitler made a deal and got an agreement that the churches would not oppose the Nazi rise to power in return for supporting the church tax. The “religious right” seems to have common traits everywhere. By their fruits ye shall know them.

Steve Purhonen sent another private email which I am dragging into public again. This one referenced an article about “Virtual Estates” that appeared in the New York Times. (I gotta admire Steve’s choice of reading material, anyway.)

It turns out that the virtual world is up in real arms because the real companies who own their virtual existance aren’t treating it with the real respect they think it really deserves. For example, when you really die, what happens to your virtual existance? Does it die too? Do your real relatives have any real rights? Even if you don’t really die, do you have any ownership rights over your virtual world? Some people devote real years and thousands of real hours to their virtual world and figure that gives them some kind of real rights. It doesn’t.

Back when I was a Computer Science student, all of the grad students were playing “Dragons and Dungeons”. You had to be a grad student (or at least, have a job in the computer room) to get access to the computer to play. (I remember one class where I got one shot a week to get my classwork done. That’s one of two times in my life when I have done some significant praying. Didn’t do any good then either.) So I have never played it, but I remember some controversy because some responsible person discovered that they were using up way too many machine cycles.

There are lots of fetishes that most people seem to have and I just don’t. Sports, guns, trucks … Why do you care whether some black guy from Alabama can catch this funny pointy-ended ball? I don’t. Sex seems to be the only really popular fetish that I do have. Fantasy and role playing games on computers is one I don’t have.

I did try a role-playing game once. There was this island and a castle as I recall. I messed around for twenty minutes or so and simply got confused so I gave up on it and went back to being confused by programming languages again. I have never understood why the real world wasn’t exciting enough for people.

I think some people use their computers to escape from the real world, but I use mine to enlarge it. This web site, for example, is very “real world” for me. Not only do I cover real world events here in Color Country (I beat all of the local papers in posting Springdale’s election results in the blog, Wednesday Morning Quarterbacking.) but I talk about my page in real world, face-to-face conversations with people. (“I just wrote about that! Why don’t you check out my blog and leave a comment.”) My mother met a friend living in Manitoba from an online class I was teaching that she finally met in person recently. It was great!

When I read the article Steve sent to me, my first reaction was, “Get Real!”

Fay Cope is the Town Clerk of Springdale here in Color Country. She’s been a “spring board” of enthusiasm for the new “vote by mail” process being used here. Fay has been sending out emails to her mailing list to encourage the people here to participate. I thought a recent one was so good that I asked for her permission to reprint it.

The only clarification I want to add is that you might get the feeling from Fay’s message that it’s not going well. Nothing could be further from the truth. We also voted by mail in a primary election here and 64.5% of us voted. That was in a primary election where only one race (Town Council) was contested! (Our mayor is running unopposed.) That’s amazing!! And credit goes to Fay for making it happen. The problem with the general election (the subject of Fay’s current email) is that one winning candidate dropped out of the race after the primary. That means two of the three remaining candidates will win. It’s pretty much all over except the crying. (I think … we’ll see if I’m right.)

In the past, I haven’t actually been in favor of everybody voting. Too many people are simply uninformed. Americans still can’t find Iraq on a map. (Newsweek polls from 2003 to 2007 consistently show that close to half of Americans still think Iraq was behind the 9/11 attack. In the most recent poll, the figure was 41%.) But I don’t feel that way here. I’ve come to know my neighbors here better than I ever have in other places that I’ve lived and I actually respect their opinions here. It’s a new experience for me!

Anyway … Here’s Fay’s unadulterated and unabridged email:

Why you should vote in every election, and especially this one.

 The United States is a republic – we choose governing bodies to speak for us and make decisions for us. We’re not technically a democracy; if we were, we would make all our decisions with a raise of the hand and the majority would rule.  Town Councils, County Commissions, Governors, and State and Federal legislators are all chosen by us, by the accumulation of our votes. In that way, the majority of  voters rule.

 When you cast your vote, you should be aware of how your candidate thinks – so you know whether he or she will properly represent you in the republic. That is YOUR responsibility to the republic. It is the elected person’s responsibility to make decisions that best protect, serve and honor that constituency.

 If you’ve read all my election naggers, you know that Utah has the lowest voter turnout in the nation. I think that is tragic! I think this is why turnout is so low:  Utah voters – Republican , Democrat or other -  all think the exact same thing – “Why should I vote? The Republicans are going to win anyway.”  That’s a self-fulfilling prophecy in a Republican state  when an overwhelming majority of the people don’t vote. One problem with that is: we aren’t telling those elected officials how we are thinking, so they are going to go on doing the same old things they did in their last five terms. (Or about twenty, if you’re Orrin Hatch.) If we don’t like what they’re doing, we need to TELL them so. If  80% of the electorate votes, and if 48% of the voters vote for their opponents, they might still win, but they know they don’t have a mandate. If 90% of the votes are for them, well they know they are doing fine. If only 20% of the electorate votes, they don’t have any idea who thinks what.

 Our local elections are non-partisan, so party politics don’t come into this election. There’s absolutely NO reason why you should sit out any local election.

 In a local election, the people you elect will make decisions that affect you EVERY SINGLE DAY. They manage your water and sewer systems. They build sidewalks.  They establish your property tax rates and some sales tax rates.  They decide how much the Town goes into debt to bring you services. They coordinate with other state, local and federal agencies to bring services to you.  They decide how much the Town will grow. They hire the people who keep this town looking good and operating efficiently. They pass laws that regulate zoning, lighting, signage, licensing and hundreds of other things.  It MATTERS who you choose to make those decisions. Don’t let someone else make the choice for you just because you can’t be bothered to fill out a ballot, sign an envelope and drop it in the mail. Be a part of the choice. It’s how you raise your hand in this republic. If you don’t want to vote for two candidates, vote for one. If you don’t want to vote for anyone on the list, write in a legitimate name. If you don’t want to do any of the above, vote an empty ballot. (I am not really advocating that, you know. I’m just making a point. It is still raising your hand. And that ballot would be part of the official returns.) The important thing is – Vote. It matters.

 There are good candidates vying for the chance to serve on the Council. They need to know how much you support them. They need to know if the way they think is supported by a majority of you – or not.  They need YOU to speak with your votes so they know how to speak for YOU.   Let them know.  

 Find out about some of the candidates at http://washingtoncovotebymail.blogspot.com/

Fay Cope
Springdale Town Clerk

 PS: Mark your calendar for the Election Day Potluck at Town Hall – November 3 at 6:00 PM – Uncanvassed results of the election announced at 8:00PM.