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Dear President Obama: You didn't have to establish a monument to make southeastern Utah great. It already was great. And, you could have protected it as a national forest.
The glory of Utah is public land that can be used for a great variety of purposes. The national forests and BLM land are of much greater worth to most Utahns than the national parks and monuments. That applies both for recreation and income-generating uses.
People will lose their livelihoods due to Bears Ears. I guess you would suggest retraining. They chose their current lifestyle because it is idyllic. Nothing you could offer them could hold a candle to what you're taking from them.
There is nothing democratic about the current process of designating national monuments. They might as well be established by imperial edict.
We expected no better from the likes of you, but the hurt is no less. Perhaps, the next Democrat to serve as president will make the whole state a park once and for all, and save us the torture of losing it one Delaware-sized piece at a time.
Ben Oldham
West Jordan