Opinion - Public Forum - The Salt Lake Tribune

Make them citizens

Fri, 24 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Make them citizens

Published May 24, 2013 01:01AM MDT

More than 11 million undocumented people work, pay taxes and go to school here, and many work in jobs that most people won’t do. Without them, the country could have difficulties. Congress should pass an immigration reform bill that gives legal status to the immigrants already here. Of course, the law should have rules, fines, limitations and steps for people to work their way up in stages to full citizenship. There are bright kids who can’t go past high school to college. If they are allowed ...

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Helping the homeless

Fri, 24 May 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Helping the homeless

Published May 24, 2013 01:01AM MDT

My experience walking the streets as a resident of downtown Salt Lake City is different from what Wayne Livingston described in “Sidewalk poseurs” (Forum, May 18). In the hundreds of hours I have walked over the past nine months, I have seen people give money to a beggar maybe six times. Those with cardboard signs are not getting rich. If one could make $2,000 a week begging, the streets would have hundreds asking for money. Livingston thinks the homeless should go to work each day. Think about...

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Trivializing pledge

Fri, 24 May 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Trivializing pledge

Published May 24, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Alex Burnett feels that saying the Pledge of Allegiance every day at Bingham High is excessive. In “Whining about Pledge” (Forum, May 16), Jan Phillips told him to stop whining and start showing more support to our veterans. As a fellow student of Alex, I feel that how frequently someone says the pledge does not prove a person’s patriotism or how much he or she supports our troops. Patriotism is not grounded in the recitation of a pledge but rather in a commitment to our Constitution, a love o...

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Hugs, not guns

Fri, 24 May 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Hugs, not guns

Published May 24, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Re “Gun-toting Utah teachers to parents: Your kids safe with us” (Tribune, May 19): Does there not seem to be perversity in a community where it’s appropriate for school faculty to carry loaded firearms, visible or otherwise, but an educator risks being considered inappropriate if he or she greets a student with a warm, congratulatory embrace in recognition of well-done work, exemplary behavior or any celebratory accomplishment? Thus, my grandchildren will go to taxpayer-funded learning instit...

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Charter schools

Fri, 24 May 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Charter schools

Published May 24, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Re “Utah charter schools under new performance scrutiny” (Tribune, May 17): Charter schools maintain a sacred trust. In exchange for receiving public dollars, they care for and educate children. The Utah State Charter School Board maintains a trust, too. It holds charter schools responsible for the quality of education they provide, for managing taxpayer dollars and for complying with laws that protect the public’s interests. I commend the board for implementing new performance standards to ens...

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Recession spending

Fri, 24 May 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Recession spending

Published May 24, 2013 01:01AM MDT

It is interesting how members of the Utah Legislature are quick to accept lessons from Europe when the subject matter fits into their own ideology, as in the case of lowering the blood-alcohol threshold for a drunken driving citation (“Utah senator considers cutting state’s drunk driving threshold” (Tribune, May 16). Yet they refuse to recognize that most European nations provide health care to 100 percent of their citizens for half of what we spend, with superior outcomes. On the other side o...

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Gotcha politics

Thu, 23 May 2013 01:01:05 MDT

Gotcha politics

Published May 23, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Kudos for the editorial “A flood of scandal: Probes should uncover everything” (Our View, May 16). Unfortunately, the behavior of Rep. Jason Chaffetz is only the tip of the iceberg. Tossing around inflammatory words like “impeachment,” “prosecuted” and “fired” might score political points for the congressman, but they do little to reassure the public that possible government scandals will be investigated impartially and in the spirit of nonpartisan cooperation. Sadly, this type of conduct is ...

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Cellphones and alcohol

Thu, 23 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Cellphones and alcohol

Published May 23, 2013 01:01AM MDT

State Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, and his legislative colleagues are considering lowering the legal limit for drunken driving from a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 to 0.05 (“Utah senator considers cutting state’s drunk driving threshold,” Tribune, May 16). Their motivation is increased safety on our roads, a laudable goal; however, their focus is misguided. There is a far more ubiquitous cause of impaired driving that plagues our public roadways: the cellphone. Studies have shown that cellphone ta...

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Chaffetz grandstanding

Thu, 23 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Chaffetz grandstanding

Published May 23, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Ex-Brigham Young University field-goal kicker Rep. Jason Chaffetz wants everyone to share his disgust of the tragic affair at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya (“Chaffetz: Obama impeachment ‘possible’ over Benghazi attack,” Tribune May 13). Where was his outrage during the reign of terror under President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney? Chaffetz, R-Utah, is simply trying to gain attention by grandstanding. American voters need to start taking their brains to the voting booth;...

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See ‘42’

Thu, 23 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

See ‘42’

Published May 23, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Please take your kids to see the movie “42,” the story of Jackie Robinson, the first black player to play major league baseball, in 1947. If you don’t have kids, it is worth seeing anyway. Plan on discussing with them all the important issues shown in the movie, including sports, competition, compassion, love, history of sport, American culture and American history. This is an entertaining movie, but it also is an important movie. Mark Rothacher Salt Lake City

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Health care profiteers

Thu, 23 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Health care profiteers

Published May 23, 2013 01:01AM MDT

In “The limits of Medicaid” (Opinion, May 11), M. Royce Van Tassel criticizes Obamacare (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) for not improving health, though he agrees that it “nearly eliminated catastrophic out of pocket medical expenditures.” But this is a precise description of what an effective health insurance plan should do. Some people believe the propaganda of insurance companies that they make us healthier, but this is nonsense. They provide zero value to health (as the stu...

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Booze and polygamy

Thu, 23 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Booze and polygamy

Published May 23, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Re “Utah senator considers cutting state’s drunk driving threshold” (Tribune, May 16): Well, given the majority of our legislators’ membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it will be no surprise if Utah is the first state to adopt the National Transportation Safety Board’s recent recommendation that states reduce their drunk-driving thresholds to a blood-alcohol level of 0.05 percent. But the existing state laws outlawing polygamy go unenforced. Why is this existing law o...

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Election detritus

Thu, 23 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Election detritus

Published May 23, 2013 01:01AM MDT

With everyone cleaning up their yards, West Valley City is looking pretty nice. Perhaps the Democratic and Republican parties can join in the spirit of civic pride and take down the campaign signs from last year’s election before the new political season gets under way. If you see an offending sign, call the sponsoring party and tell it to take down the sign. Dale Curtis West Valley City

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Feeding the beggars

Wed, 22 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Feeding the beggars

Published May 22, 2013 01:01AM MDT

I have a good solution for Gina Petersen’s “Signs of the times” (Forum, May 12). She felt guilty for her mixed feelings about helping all the people we see standing on corners with cardboard signs. I’m sure some have legitimate needs, but there are probably a lot who take advantage of a lucrative situation. So I stock up my glove box with nutritious food bars and give them one so that they will not go hungry. That way, I don’t feel guilty about ignoring their needs, but I also do not feel lik...

Hurry up Willard probe

Wed, 22 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Hurry up Willard probe

Published May 22, 2013 01:01AM MDT

In New York it took the Nassau County Police Department 48 hours to reveal that one of its officers accidentally shot and killed Hofstra University student Andrea Robello during a home invasion hostage situation (“Authorities: Hofstra student was killed by police,” Tribune, May 19). Meanwhile, in West Valley City it has been seven months since two West Valley City police officers killed Danielle Willard and the investigations into what happened still aren’t complete. The DA’s office said its pr...

Independent prosecutor

Wed, 22 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Independent prosecutor

Published May 22, 2013 01:01AM MDT

The reprint of The Washington Post editorial “Obama is no Nixon, but misdeeds not trivial” (Opinion, May 20) misses one very important point. In the beginning, we were not aware that Nixon was Nixon. It took a long time to dot the i’s and cross the t’s before we all knew who President Richard Nixon really was. We have no evidence that President Barack Obama has taken the same path, but that is exactly why we need an independent prosecutor to investigate all of these allegations and scandals an...

Ban the beggars

Wed, 22 May 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Ban the beggars

Published May 22, 2013 01:01AM MDT

If you didn’t like Melanie Clark’s idea of giving street beggars gift cards to McDonald’s (“Helping beggars,” Forum, May 15), I have a better idea: Don’t give them anything. Tell them to get a job at McDonald’s instead. (Have you seen how young and physically able some look?) They think street begging is their job. They could get a real job if they wanted to. Some of their signs even proclaim the truth, that they are seeking cash for beer and drugs. One young lady’s sign said she was “homeless ...

What’s on your plate

Wed, 22 May 2013 01:01:03 MDT

What’s on your plate

Published May 22, 2013 01:01AM MDT

It’s our right as citizens of the United States to know what we are putting into our bodies. Most Americans don’t realize how many genetically modified organisms we ingest daily (bacteria and yeast, insects, plants, fish and mammals). Bills have been proposed in some states to require food companies to label our food to indicate it contains GMOs. It’s terrible that we don’t know what we are putting into our bodies, and the food industry isn’t giving us the option to choose whether we want to eat...

Congress cashing in

Wed, 22 May 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Congress cashing in

Published May 22, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Government’s latest side effect — depression, personal depression. Those we elected have caused slow employment growth and airport delays. Because of the sequester, Medicare cancer patients now get chemotherapy at hospitals instead of clinics, at greater cost. Congress’ success this spring was to vote to gut the STOCK Act, which bars them from insider trading. Our representatives put their own wallets before the people they represent. They cannot even pass gun legislation supported by almost a...

Worrisome typo

Tue, 21 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Worrisome typo

Published May 21, 2013 01:01AM MDT

A humorous typo in “After streetcar sprint, time for a plaza pause” (Tribune, May 15) reported that the Salt Lake City Council “unanimously agreed more pubic outreach is necessary for the plaza proposal.” Perhaps after outcry over the 1100 East streetcar line, council members are considering more personal and lascivious tactics to promote their agenda. Hopefully, they won’t be going door to door. Hazel Roehrig Salt Lake City