If you were a member of that duly elected body that pushed for school vouchers despite the fact that it was legislation the majority of the us, the people, did not want - you're in my cross hairs.
In his Dec. 23 column, Paul Rolly said, "The Utah Education Association and the state Democratic Party are formulating their target lists of Republican legislators . . . ," but I don't care if you're a Republican or Democrat. My wrath is bipartisan. I want you all out. Innocent lawmakers may fall victim to my anger. I don't care. If you were there and didn't or couldn't stop it, you were ineffectual. You need to be gone.
A democracy has no greater power than that of its people. It's time for the people of Utah - Republican, Democrat, independent - to get righteously angry. We must get civically angry now and maintain our anger right on through Election Day. The power-hungry and the ineffectual have been misrepresenting their constituents for too long, and they count on our short memories to get re-elected. They need to be gone and we need to remember.
"If you were in, you're out" must also extend to members of the 2001 Utah Legislature, the elected body that took it upon itself to redistrict our state to better serve its own political purposes.
Again I refer to Paul Rolly's column of Dec. 23 as my source. If you considered it politically clever to split Moab in half in order to cripple the traditionally Democratic stronghold - you need to be out. If you were part of a process that found it morally acceptable to reassign a Sandy community to a Draper district so you could eliminate a Democratic colleague - you're reprehensible and you should be out.
If you were there and allowed "one of the most blatant power grabs by one party in history" to unfold - you're weak and ineffectual and you need to be out.
Stan Lockhart, chairman of the Utah Republican Party, told us in his rebuttal to Paul Rolly (Dec. 30, Salt Lake Tribune) that Republican legislators are "pure public servants" that "represent the morals and ideals of Utahns."
I disagree. Self-servitude and gerrymandering (which is exactly what it was) are repulsive to the morals and values of the majority of Utahns, be they Republican or Democrat. If protecting Utah's future requires unethical practices by those we elect to represent us, then the ends do not justify the means. If you think noble ends come by sleazy means, and if you are an elected servant of the people - then you need to be voted out.
The grapes of wrath are temporarily stored in the Utah State Legislature. It's time for we, the people, to trample them out before the entire vintage is soured. It's time for us to elect replacements who fully realize they serve the people., and if they don't - they're out.
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* SHERELYNN GRAY is a high school teacher at the Utah State Prison. She has been teaching in Utah for 32 years and at the prison for five years. She lives in Murray.
