13 minute read
OPINION
“Short Circuit,” May 5 Cover Story
It appears that the state tax offices and the county tax offices are not putting forth the effort needed to provide information on the program known as “Circuit Breaker.” Had I not lived in an Episcopal Church-owned building with a building coordinator, I, too, wouldn’t have known about the renter refund/rebate program.
Advertisement
As a retiree with no dependents, living on Social Security and a small annuity, my finances are such that I have not paid federal or state income taxes for the past 12 years. The tax offices practically don’t know that I exist. I would fall through the cracks like so many others.
This article was good, but it is the only one I have seen in four years of Utah residency. No daily newspaper— when there was still such a thing— ever covered the topic, and likewise for senior citizen-oriented publications. Nothing.
Will legislators do anything to correct the problems pointed out in the article? Not likely. Witness the debacle with the food tax increase in 2019 and 2020. The poor are disenfranchised, whether they are seniors or working stiffs.
GEOFFERY LOEBEL Salt Lake City
What’s Next for Republicans?
Now that the GOP is hellbent on doing away with a woman’s right to a safe abortion, and Republican govenors are wanting to ban books and to eliminate voting rights, what comes next? Will the Southern states try to reinstitute slavery?
We must remember that the former slave states were the ones that put Trump into the Oval Office. Widespread poverty, poor educational systems and rampant meth use further define the Bible Belt states. Outside of the South, the two most backward conservative states are Idaho and Utah. And in these two states, white, Mormon, Republican males rule.
At least Utah has Salt Lake County to partially buffer against the more Trumpian rural areas. However, the conservative, mostly white, allmale Republican Mormons hold all of Utah’s seats in the U.S. House and Senate. Even Sen. Mike Lee—the “constitutional scholar” who was among those supporting the attempted overthrow of the U.S. presidential election—will probably be reelected by faithful voters.
TED OTTINGER Taylorsville
“‘D’ Is for Donkey,” May 5 Private Eye
I’m a Democrat, but we need to be strategic right now.
JEANNE POSTVANDERBURG | Via Facebook
I’d rather see Sen. Mike Lee out. Dems won’t win, and writing-in someone who said, “Don’t vote for me,” is literally wasting your vote.
ERIN BAIN | Via Facebook
Sounds like a great way to get Mike Lee, a vile and corrupt man, reelected. Sometimes, you just gotta vote strategically.
MATT STARLING | Via Facebook
Conservatives are subhuman creatures hellbent on fortifying the patriarchy with brutal and brain-dead policies. They need to be removed by any means.
GAIUS GRACCHUS | Via Facebook
Care to sound off on a feature in our pages or about a local concern? Write to comments@cityweekly.net or post your thoughts on our social media. We want to hear from you!
THE BOX
What’s the first cause you got politically active in (i.e., marching, protesting, writing to your representatives)?
Katharine Biele
I was out of the country for much of the women’s movement and Vietnam. When I came back as a journalist, political action was frowned upon. Thank you, alternative journalism, for freeing me to speak out— especially during the big march in 2017 in Washington, D.C., for women’s rights. Sad, isn’t it?
Bryan Bale
The first rally/march I remember attending was at City Creek Park across from Temple Square in 2015. In June of that year, the Supreme Court effectively legalized same-sex marriage and, in response, the LDS church implemented a policy barring children “whose primary residence is with a couple living in a same-gender marriage or similar relationship” from being blessed or baptized until they turn 18, leave their parents’ home and disavow same-sex marriage or cohabitation. The rally was billed as a “Mass Resignation” from Mormonism and was organized as a protest against the new policy, with lawyers and notaries on hand to help facilitate the church membership resignation process for hundreds of attendees.
Scott Renshaw
In all likelihood, though the years get blurry, it was related to university divestment from South Africa in the 1980s. How silly we were to think opposing white supremacy would eventually become noncontroversial.
OPINION Megatrends
While paging through The Salt Lake Tribune recently, I was transported to a conference in Boston I attended way back in the Reagan years. The keynote speaker was a futurist, self-described. Dapper and witty, he was no gazer of crystal balls or reader of tea leaves. He was, he said, a student of the megatrend.
Once identified and analyzed, megatrends could be predictive. The speaker explained how his company relied on newspapers to map the future. A team of analysts monitored their pages, documenting the ebb and flow of subjects being reported around the world. Because the news hole—i.e., the space between the ads—was finite, stories had to compete in a zero-sum business. No room was available to upstart subjects without retiring some threadbare ones. If a certain subject became widely reported—showing up with increasing frequency in the news hole month by month—analysis might disclose an incipient megatrend.
What triggered my memory of the Boston futurist was an entire page of stories about veganism in the Tribune. And not too many days passed before veganism cropped up again. Then again. I read a story about Vegan Fridays in New York’s public schools. I lingered over the vegan chocolate bars at Caputo’s Deli, took note of the plant-based sausage in Emigration Market’s freezer and read about Salt Lake City’s vegan bakery, City Cakes.
But it was the display of vegan backpacking food at REI that launched another time warp. I was suddenly back to my years as a soldier when Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) were replacing C-rations as the meal du jour in foxholes. MREs were a welcome improvement, but by the end of the Gulf War, soldiers were referring to them as Meals Rejected by Everyone.
The prospect of eating C-rations could cow a vegan, a foodie or an incorrigible child. Each C-ration meal comprised four or five small cans of Spam-inspired food. Although P-38 can openers dangled from everyone’s dog-tag chains, many of the cans were discarded unopened.
I routinely ditched the gelatinous Scrambled Eggs and Chopped Ham. Nobody ate the Lima Beans and Ham. “Beanie Weenie”—aka Beans with Frankfurter Chunks in Tomato Sauce—was more welcome fare. Cans of fruit, crackers, jam, bread, cheese spread and peanut butter were popular enough to have trading value. A can of sliced peaches accompanied by a can of cookies had the status of two pairs in a draw poker game.
Each meal included an accessory package. In it were a plastic spoon, instant coffee, creamer, sugar, salt, pepper, Chicklets gum, matches, toilet paper and cigarettes, usually a four-pack of Lucky Strikes or Chesterfields. Like the tinned food, the unfiltered cigarettes weren’t appealing, but we smoked them anyway.
Heat redeemed the bland, congealed food somewhat. The cans could be warmed on the engine of a truck, by burning Sterno or by lighting a dollop of C-4 plastic explosive. If you needed to heat water, you used your canteen cup. It was also an alchemical vessel in which combinations of canned food sometimes yielded gold.
Even loathsome Lima Beans and Ham could be reimagined as a tolerable porridge by mashing the beans, adding a couple of handfuls of crushed crackers, a can of cheese spread, a little water and lots of salt and pepper—or Tabasco if you had some.
You never had everything you wanted, however, and ingenuity often plugged the gaps. I watched a mess sergeant make coffee by wrapping two pounds of grounds in a T-shirt and boiling it in an industrial-sized pot.
Still, I am thinking that the Tribune’s page of veganism signals a megatrend that this longtime reader of newspapers has overlooked. That being the case, I think veganism is more likely a contributing trendlet to a megatrend of decarbonization—weaning the world off fossil fuels—which has now become imperative and urgent. In other words, veganism as viewed through the lens of global warming. Converting to a plant-based diet would reduce the methane and carbon dioxide emissions that clog the troposphere, warming the planet. It would also curtail water-intensive beef production which accounts for 1,800 gallons of water per pound to process beef.
Water Sustainability is one of the “megatrend” mutual funds launched by Fidelity Investments last year. The goal is to “anticipate long-term market-shaping trends such as increased competition for natural resources due to population growth and resource scarcity.”
Sound familiar? Utah’s population is projected to add 2.2 million people by 2060. Meanwhile, drought-depleted reservoirs are at historic lows even as Utah continues to use more water per capita than almost all other states chiefly to grow lawns and alfalfa.
You know how problematic water has become when the Utah Legislature interrupts its meddlesome agenda for a boondoggle over the Formerly Great Salt Lake aboard Army helicopters. You know it’s serious when the town of Oakley halts construction of new houses because aridification has left the little town near Kamas short of water.
You might make money betting that Utah’s Republican overlords would do the right thing by embracing a megatrend grounded in science. It’s a long-odds bet, however. While waiting for the Legislature to bestir itself from the culture wars, you can align yourself with a megatrend that incentivizes riding the bus, xeriscaping the yard, giving up beef and voting for candidates who don’t engage in posttruth posturing.
The handwriting is on the wall. It doesn’t take a futurist to read it and act on what it says. CW
Private Eye is off this week. Send feedback to comments@cityweekly.net
2021 2020
Best Boutique
2019
2018 2017 2016 2015
Best Thrift/Consignment for 5 years
UTAH’S BEST NEW & SECONDHAND FESTIVAL STORE!
We Sell Your Previously Rocked Clothes & You Keep 50% Cash! NEW BIGGER SECOND LOCATION
COMING SOON AT 855 S STATE STREET! OPENING MAY!
HIT: Moral Support
For a guy who covered the Jazz and NBA, reporter Andy Larsen has found new life in the numbers game. Now, if we could only get people to read his stories in The Salt Lake Tribune. Larsen started crunching numbers when COVID hit, telling us the horrific facts about hospitalizations and deaths in Utah. Now, guess what? He thought he’d look at the abortion issue, brave soul that he is. Larsen was able to look at 14 polls from 1970 to 2020. He found that 80% of Utahns think abortion should be legal in some circumstances. That’s close to the national norm, according to Fivethirtyeight, which put support for legal access at 85% to 90% of Americans. Even in 1990, 57% of Utahns didn’t want the state to take a lead on overturning Roe. “You all know how the Utah Legislature operates: Lawmakers ignored the will of the voters two months later.” Larsen suggested that legislators rethink their hard-line position. How likely is that?
MISS: Much Ado
It’s no wonder why the news of Republicans fighting the ESG rating system didn’t make the news much. No one really understands what it is. Maybe because we’re in Utah, you figure if the GOP thinks it’s bad, it must be bad. What is it? “An ESG score is a measure of a company’s exposure to long-term environmental, social and governance risks … often overlooked during traditional financial analyses,” according to Conservice-ESG. These are risks like energy efficiency, worker safety and board diversity. So when the Heritage Foundation weighed in on what Utah thought, it was no surprise they don’t like ESG. “Fundamentally, economic freedom—not the environmental, social and governance agenda—makes the world cleaner, safer and better governed,” Heritage said. And there, in a nutshell, is the Utah Way.
MISS: Stop the Bleeding
It’s always interesting how the media dances around the real environmental problem we face. Now, with water on the mind of everyone—including the governor and Legislature—the call is for conservation amid dire threats to life itself. Last week, the Bureau of Reclamation cut water deliveries to the Colorado River Lower Basin states by nearly a half-million acre-feet, according to the Deseret News. That’s a lot. The detailed report talked of challenges and the fact that it’s not a long-term solution. What’s the long-term solution? “We can control our demands and how quickly we develop and implement solutions,” said Taylor Hawes of The Nature Conservancy. Yes. “Implement solutions.” Good luck on that without talking about climate change, fossil fuels and moving into alternative energy sources. The DNews did give us a “fun fact” about illegal dumping gone bad: Decades-old bodies have been turning up as the water level goes down in Lake Mead.
Keep Roe-Ing
There have already been rallies to express shock and horror at Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion on abortion rights (or the lack thereof). And there will be more as women across the country steel themselves for a new era of underground health care. The national group prochoicewithheart is gathering followers for a weeklong protest around the country. And this second annual Defend Roe Rally will have greater urgency than ever. “Last year, we held 121 protests in defense of abortion rights, and we are planning even more for this year! We won’t be silenced!” Unlike some recent protests, this is a grassroots and unfunded effort to bring clarity to local representatives. It’s important to show up with signs and passion. Share your photos and videos on their Instagram feed. Utah
State Capitol, 350 N. State, Sunday, May 15, noon, free. https://bit.ly/3vOk3I0 Identity in Schools
Republican legislators around the country are passing anti-LGBTQ+ laws and succeeding in regulating everything from health care to sports teams, despite experts saying it destroys people’s dignity and puts lives at risk. You can start counting now. In March, five states passed such bills as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, which have turned this into a political wedge issue. “These laws aim to deny trans people the inclusion, dignity and life-saving services they deserve,” Robert L. Abreu of the University of Florida told Buzzfeed News. “These laws will only exacerbate mental health disparities trans youth experience due to transphobia.” Utah students have been called for better healthcare options and education in a state that fears it will spread a trans message. Friends, allies and mentors of the LGBTQ community are invited to join the FAM Rally to send a message to the Legislature. Utah State
Capitol, 350 N. State, Wednesday, May 18, 5 p.m., free. https://bit.ly/3MVA846 Help Plan Northpoint
The last time anyone looked at Salt Lake’s 2200 West corridor was in 2000, and since then, there’s been a lot of interest in annexations of nearby unincorporated land and development. “The combined forces present a unique challenge for the city and the balancing of sometimes competing values, such as protecting the Salt Lake City International Airport, preserving agricultural land and wildlife habitat, and recognizing property rights,” planners say. Now you have the opportunity to weigh in on its future development and use at a Draft Con-
cepts Workshop for the Northpoint Small
Area Master Plan. Don’t let developers run over your rights and vision for the area you inhabit. Mosquito Abatement District
Building, 2215 N. 2200 West, Monday, May 16, 6 p.m., free. https://bit.ly/3l5tlt3 Universal Voting
While voters have been coming out in greater numbers, the U.S. still lags behind other democracies. Twenty-six countries require participation in elections, but the U.S. does not. Join a conversation about Universal Voting with authors E.J. Dionne and Miles Rapoport and New York City Council member Alexa Avilés about how to implement it. Virtual, Tuesday, May 17, 4 p.m. Free/
