Month: August 2007

Local

Going Public

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Rather than waiting for everything to fall in place first, I went ahead today and set up Utah-Candidates.com. That was the site I was inviting candidates to participate in. The invitation still stands, but I purchased the domain. If candidates and citizens are interested I will keep the domain and use it in the various elections each year. Right now it only includes the candidates for Lehi City Council but I have sent invitations to a number of cities in the area and will continue to invite candidates and cities to participate (so long as it’s manageable).

I hope this proves to be a useful resource for our elections – especially the smaller ones, like city and county positions, where candidates are on smaller budgets and where the resulting officials are closer to their constituents.

Tags candidates, citizenship, community, Lehi

life Local technology

Open Invitation

As I was researching the candidates for Lehi City Council this year I found a site that had information on most of the candidates. The site was run by one of the candidates and some of the other candidates chose not to participate because of that. I thought it would be beneficial to create a site that would provide a neutral place to learn show candidate profiles (provided by the candidates) and links to their websites. This would help prevent the mental runaround:

“Was it yes2george.com or vote4george.com or am I mixing up the sites for George Perkins and Mike George? Nevermind, I’ll stick with the flyers.

I have created a basic website but I’d like to know how much interest there is for this. If you are a candidate, or know one, who would be interested in having a profile on such a site let me know in the comments. I would also be interested to know if other people would want this as a resource for information. What I do with this will depend on the level of interest generated. (I do not expect enough interest to try charging for the service – ever)

Tags candidates, citizenship, community, Lehi

culture

Good Question

I saw a video clip (I believe this was from an “Ask Mitt anything” session) in which someone asked Mitt Romney how he would go about changing the culture of Washington D.C. I thought the answer was good and the question is more important than we might guessed based on the amount of coverage it gets in the media.

P.S. This is also an excuse to test the embed tag in one of my blog posts.

Tags citizenship, media, national candidates, Romney

life Local State

Active Citizenship

When I think of ways that people can be active citizens in their political community the easiest action to consider is running for office. I know there are other ways to participate, but that’s the most prominent that I can think of. I was pleased today to see another great example of active citizenship. Pete Ashdown posted a letter to mayoral candidates by Tony Weller. Tony expresses his concerns and asks for feedback from the candidates in order to make an informed choice when he votes for his new mayor. He even invites the candidates to explain why they disagree with him when their position differs from his. For Tony, the key issues are related to local businesses and the vitality of downtown Salt Lake. I think any reasonable person who read the letter would have to concede that it is well thought out and respectful, just like political dialog ought to be.

The results of this kind of effort can be very rewarding. I am interested in the transportation situation currently and as Lehi continues to grow. That interest caused me to contact one of our candidates for city council to ask her for her perspective on that issue. She subsequently arranged to meet with me to discuss the issue. I’ll have to wait until the meeting to know how her position compares to mine, but because I took the time to ask I will not be voting blindly on this issue. That being said, I am starting to think that I might get even more information by querying all the candidates generally, such as Tony Weller did, rather than relying on meeting as many candidates as possible.

Tags candidates, citizenship, community, learning, Lehi

Local

Another Notice

While I’m posting public notices here’s one with a smaller scope than FrontRunner. UDOT is having an open house related to the 10th south boulevard in Lehi. This will be less than 5 locks form my house once it’s built. Here’s the information for the project and open house:

UDOT open house

Date: Sept. 6

Time: 5-7:30 p.m.

Place: Snow Springs Elementary School,

850 S. 1700 West, Lehi

Contact: www.udot.utah.gov/ewconnector, 801-753-7344.

Tags community, Lehi, transportation

General

FrontRunner ESR

This is the time when I wish I had a large audience of local residents. Utah Transit Authority (UTA) has issued a press release announcing their Draft Environmental Study Report for the southern portion of FrontRunner. Because there is no direct link to the individual press releases I will quote much of it here.

The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) has prepared a Draft Environmental Study Report (Draft ESR) for the proposed Provo to Salt Lake City FrontRunner Commuter Rail project. . . A 30-day public comment period of this Draft ESR will begin on August 22, 2007 and conclude on September 21, 2007. Written comments on the document must be postmarked by September 21, 2007. Written comments on the Draft ESR should be addressed to Utah Transit Authority, Attn: Provo to Salt Lake City FrontRunner Draft ESR, P.O. Box 30810, Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0810. Copies of the Draft ESR are available for public review at the following locations:

{Most public libraries in the area}

Mountainland Association of Governments

Wasatch Front Regional Council

The Draft ESR is also available at UTA’s Meadowbrook office (3600 South 700 West, Salt Lake City) and on UTA’s website. Comments may also be submitted via the website.

Two public hearing/open house meetings are scheduled to receive comments on the Draft ESR. The Hearing/Open House Meeting dates are scheduled for the following time and locations:

August 29, 2007
Westmore Elementary School
1150 South Main Street
Orem, UT 84058
4:30 p.m. – 7:30p.m. August 30, 2007
Sandy City Hall
10000 Centennial Parkway
Sandy, UT 84070
4:30 p.m. – 7:30p.m.

I encourage anyone between Provo and Salt Lake to look at the ESR and submit their comments to UTA. This is one of those opportunities we have to make our voices heard on a decision that will have lasting impact on our quality of life. I am definitely in favor of FrontRunner but I still plan to read the ESR and see if it raises any concerns. Then I will be submitting my comments to UTA.

Tags citizenship, community, State, transportation

culture

Ahead of the Curve

Yeasterday I wrote about my apprehension with Mitt Romney’s approach to health care reform in Massachusetts and the social direction of this country that our current health care reform discussion implies. Today I was surprised to find articles on both topics. Lessons from Massachusetts highlights the kinds of reasons to be uneasy with Mitt’s Massachusetts approach. E Pluribus Unum goes into more depth on where this country is headed and why it’s not as good as advertised.

I look forward to the details of the proposal that Mitt is supposed to make today on health care, because it is supposed to be different than his Massachusetts approach. Maybe it will be better. I also hope that we can become aware of the dangers we face if we do not turn our cities and states around and get the country back on the path of greatness. Don’t get me wrong, we live in a great country, but being in a country built on great principles does not guarantee that the choices we are making now will lead to future greatness. We still have to be careful.

Tags government, heal, media, Romney

culture

Growing Discomfort

I said before that I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with my favorite major candidates over one issue. That issue is the issue of health care reform. Obama seems firmly in the camp of having the federal government provide health insurance for many or all Americans. I think this is a very bad idea. It looks easy on the surface, but I think it is a step towards making our government financially insolvent.

On the other hand, Mitt Romney has experience implementing health care reform as governor. On the surface his approach sounds more like the kind of thing that I could accept. That means I am more comfortable with Romney than Obama on this issue.

What this country really needs is for the federal government to scale back in many areas where it was not meant to be. We are working towards a homogeneous society where there are no substantive differences between Idaho and Florida. The strength of this country is our freedom to make choices. Unfortunately we are working to create a society where there are no meaningful choices that have not already been made for us through our laws. This is not a recipe for stability. We need the challenge of meaningful choices if we are to hope to build the kind of strong character in our citizens which drives us to do the things that make this country great.

Tags citizenship, government, health care, issues, Romney

General

Compulsory Education

I recognize that it is meant to address more extreme cases, but the idea of fining parents and charging them with a misdemeanor just strikes me as wrong. I know we have compulsory education in the United States, but I wonder if we are really helping anything by making it compulsory. If my kid skips school all the time I am guilty of a misdemeanor – even if my kid isn’t causing trouble.

The saddest part of it for me is this quote from Dan Linford – the assistant principle at Viewmont High School:

For the most part, it will help keep the goods kids honest, and for the 1 percent of students who habitually skip school it may not affect them too much.”

Remind me why we need fines for parents to keep the good kids honest?

Tags Education, government, State

culture National

Glancing at Immigration

I picked up my car from the shop and happened to catch part of RadioWest. Doug was talking to a writer about immigration and the contradictions in our human nature, wanting to help people in need and trying to secure our borders. I didn’t catch the whole show so I don’t know if that perspective is representative of the entire hour, but it got me thinking about my views on immigration which eventually boil down to this – I think we’re asking the wrong question.

Our political discussion of the issue is how to deal with illegal immigrants. I don’t think we can approach that question until we have taken the time to ask – how did we get in our current position? That includes the role of immigration in our history and the history of our immigration laws. It also includes the reasons that people cross our borders illegally. Until we have that background I think that any grand compromise (which seems to be the only kind of laws we have been getting lately) is like trying to catch a fish for dinner by shooting a slingshot into a stream in the dark.

As a start, our legal limits on immigration basically stem from the Immigration Act of 1924. Though some adjustments have been made in the 83 years since, nothing has fundamentally changed in our law. Prior to 1924 we never had a comprehensive immigration restriction except that we tried to prevent people with significant criminal records or contagious disease enter the country. Now I ask the question – are we better off since we decided to stem the flow of immigration? I don’t think we are. Not only that, but I am a bit suspicious of why we chose to enact that law in 1924. None of the great advances of the past century can be even remotely tied to limiting the flow of immigrants. If we were to open our borders completely (except for cases of contagious disease or criminal record) would we be any worse off than we are now? I doubt it since we have a tidal wave of people coming in despite our laws.

I’m not arguing for amnesty, I am arguing that we need to start making an informed decision on where we stand on the issue of immigration. If we decide that it is necessary to limit immigration then we need to close the door. Until we decide what we believe about immigration there’s really no point in discussing amnesty (or lack of amnesty).

Tags elevate, government, immigration, issues, NPR