This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In the seven years that Chris Buttars has served in the Utah Senate, he has said outrageous things that have caused colleagues to wince. He has championed legislation that has held the entire state up to ridicule. Others have done as much. But Chris Buttars can claim this distinction: No one in the Legislature has done more to poison the body politic with irrational fear, prejudice and intolerance.
Yet, this does not seem to trouble Chris Buttars' fellow senators in that body's majority caucus, least of all its leadership.
Yes, Chris is a character, they'll say, but he means no harm. Chris is just Chris.
Yes, Chris says things that may seem out of line, but he's easily misunderstood if you don't know him.
Yes, Chris holds strong views on evolution and homosexuality, but he's a man of principle.
Yes, Chris can ruffle feathers, but he's really a gentle and caring man.
Chris Buttars, you see, is one of us. We know his heart, and he's an honorable man.
We believe that it is time for the leadership of the Senate to stop making excuses for Chris Buttars.
We believe that Chris Buttars deserves the opprobrium of his fellow senators, the people who elected and re-elected him, and of all Utahns who strive to treat others with respect, dignity and understanding.
We believe that when an elected representative, time and again, targets whole classes of people he despises with hurtful statements and legislation designed to infringe on their basic rights as human beings, that representative has violated the public trust and earned public censure.
We do not care to label Chris Buttars as this or that. His odious statements and hateful politics define him.
Nor do we have any stomach for detailing the many instances in which Chris Buttars has given voice to what we can only suppose are his inner feelings about people who happen to be of a different color, or a different sexuality, than his own. This space could not contain such a sad litany.
But we do feel it our responsibility in the wake of Chris Buttars' latest stain on the public discourse, a racial slur that can be neither excused nor explained away, to raise two questions.
What kind of a people do we want to be? What kind of a state do we want to live in?
The course of our future is in the answers.