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8 | NOVEMBER 4, 2021
HITS&MISSES BY KATHARINE BIELE @kathybiele
HIT: Not So Fascist
“You Know Who Else Opposed Vaccine Mandates? Hitler.” That was the headline in a Jacobin magazine article, one of many hoping to educate the public about vaccine history and its ties to Nazi Germany. And now, finally, it was the Deseret News that came out against the curious correlation between vaccine mandates and the Nazi regime. It has been almost a month since antivaxxers stood outside the governor’s mansion, waving flags at passing cars. Pictured on the flags were vaccine needles in the shape of swastikas. Yeah, here are the facts: “Contrary to claims about ‘fascist’ vaccine mandates currently circulating on the Right, the Nazis actually relaxed German vaccine mandates—and hoped doing the same for people they conquered would kill them faster.” Get it? The anti-vaxxer movement is inextricably tied to antisemitism. Even in Utah.
HIT: Electile Dysfunction
That’ll show him not to mess with … something. When Rep. Steve Christiansen, R-West Jordan, resigned from the Legislature and his position with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, he did so after a very public maligning of the state’s popular and nationally acclaimed vote-by-mail system. Murky as his rationale was, Christiansen sought a forensic audit of Utah’s 2020 election, the Deseret News reported. You know, the same election that Donald Trump—along with the presumptive gaggle of Republican officeholders—won. Even the Democratic “losers” like the mailed-ballot system here, but Christiansen persisted. When Lt. Gov. Diedre Henderson spoke out, you knew he was done for. His church position was less clear, although many of the faith say he must have been “counseled out.” Christiansen indicated he’s just gathering steam for something later because of our “constitutional crisis.” For now, that crisis has been averted.
MISS: Let the Sunshine in
One story this week shows why news organizations are needed—and why, as they wither away, it won’t really matter. The Salt Lake Tribune “sought an explanation” for what was clearly an excessive fee for video of Gabby Petito’s Moab traffic stop. The city had charged almost $3,000 to various news organizations for bodycam footage. Turns out, it charged $98 to each of 30 organizations, but should have charged the cost of preparing the records only once. Open government advocates fought hard to enact the Government Records Access and Management Act in 1991, but it’s been attacked almost yearly since then. “Sunshine laws are vital to a democratic form of government. They keep government accessible and accountable to those whom it serves—we, the people,” media attorney Jeff Hunt wrote in the Deseret News. Someone has to be watching all the time, but with fewer reporters on the ground the public should get used to being in the dark.
CITIZEN REV LT IN A WEEK, YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
Got Racism?
You may have read The Warmth of Other Suns, but did you really read it? Did it make a mark on your soul? Americans were more concerned about the European wars in the early 1900s than they were about The Great Migration of Blacks from the South to Chicago. And we are still debating systemic racism in the misunderstood realm of Critical Race Theory. Author Isabel Wilkerson talks about the Social Ethics of Caste and Hierarchy at the Tanner Forum on Social Ethics. “She is an impassioned voice for harnessing history to help us understand ourselves, our country and our current era of upheaval.” Virtual, Thursday, Nov. 4, 7 p.m. Free/ register at https://bit.ly/3vV1gJx
Mike Lee at the Mic
We know you want to hear Utah’s Sen. Mike Lee address the issues of the day, like why he is fighting vaccine mandates, why he opposes the Build Back Better plan, why he thinks the attorney general is overreaching his authority by “bullying” parents, and more. Lee will be on the hot seat in A Conversation with Senator Mike Lee at the Hinckley Institute of Politics. Institute director Jason Perry and Lee “will discuss Senator Lee’s policy agenda, his legislative goals and his vision for the future of Utah.” Because he is up for re-election next year, now might be a great time to check out that vision of his. Virtual, Thursday, Nov. 4, 12 p.m., free. https://bit.ly/3bjAuRj
Who Are the Unknown?
When you think of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, you probably think of one. In fact, there are many individual unknown burials related to the Civil War as well as the remains of 2,111 Union and Confederate soldiers interred beneath the Tomb of the Civil War Unknowns—all at Arlington National Cemetery. It’s estimated that half of the Civil War dead were never identified. In honor of Veterans Day, the University of Utah will present Identifying America’s Unknown Soldiers, a somber and patriotic task, not unlike the work of identifying the victims of 9-11. Virtual, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 12 p.m., free. https://bit.ly/3jJ2iDc
