Instead, the two seemed bent on wiping out any progress made a month ago when Kane and Garfield county officials met with representatives of the Bureau of Land Management at the governor's office at the invitation of Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert.
They discussed a dispute over rights of way in and around the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that in 2003 led to Kane County officials destroying BLM signs that restricted access in the area and placing signs welcoming off-road vehicles. The U.S. Attorney's Office is investigating whether there is sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges.
Herbert's meeting did not end the conflict, of course, but may have started a healthy dialogue. Thursday's inflammatory pontificating, on the other hand, encouraged defiance.
Ward's comparison of disgruntled Kane County officials' possibly illegal and certainly counterproductive actions to the protests of democracy-loving college students silenced by Chinese tanks and bullets in Tiananmen Square would be offensive if it weren't just plain silly.
Ward's description of Kane County officials as "brave" and likening their fight against the BLM to a righteous battle against tyranny should be an embarrassment to county and state officials who want a resolution to this seemingly never-ending public-lands dispute. Attorney Gen. Mark Shurtleff should disavow Ward's flamethrowing.
Not to be outdone, Noel compared the Kane County officials' tantrum to the actions of American soldiers in the Revolutionary War.
Oh, please.
The Kanab Republican also said, "We have the federal government believing they are the supreme power." Congress might be surprised to learn from a Utah legislator that its authority over the public lands owned by all Americans is strictly illusory.
Federal agencies and local and state officials should work together in a spirit of cooperation and compromise to resolve disputes over the use and management of public lands. That isn't likely to happen as long as Ward, Noel and others like them continue to polarize the discussion with incendiary inanities.
