This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah politicians are fond of warning the electorate about outside influences that could corrupt our way of life, the latest example being the hysteria over the Common Core that critics falsely claim to be a federally imposed program to take over our schools.
I wonder how those critics feel about a flier recently sent to Utahns titled: "Gov. Gary Herbert, You Are Wrong!"
It chastises the governor for allowing same-sex marriages to take place after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear appeals, including Utah's, of lower federal court rulings that state bans on those marriages are unconstitutional.
"The People of Utah Voted," the email says. "Marriage One Man and One Woman."
The email called on Herbert to "do the right thing, like Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who said no to same-sex marriage licenses."
It's interesting that Herbert more closely followed the advice of Mormon apostle Dallin H. Oaks, who counseled during this month's LDS General Conference that if the faith's stand against gay marriage does not prevail, "we should be persons of goodwill, rejecting persecution of any kind, including persecution based on race, ethnicity, religious belief or nonbelief and differences in sexual orientation."
With the high court's announcement, which came two days after Oaks' sermon, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement accepting the decision. "As far as the civil law is concerned, the courts have spoken," it said.
That's a better representation of Utah values than that of a flier sent from Kansas, signed by a "Concerned Citizen" whose telephone number has a Vancouver, Wash., area code, that targets Utah's "activist judge" without mentioning the numerous other U.S. judges who came to the same conclusion.
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Dogs (not all) forbidden • When Colleen Bailey's husband, Craig, died last November she was grief stricken, but tried to make wise decisions moving forward.
She had him buried at Memorial Mortuary's Mountain View Cemetery in Cottonwood Heights. It is blocks from her home, and she could walk their two dogs, loved by the couple, to the grave every day.
Then, one morning this summer, while walking her dogs to the site, she saw newly posted signs that warned, "No dogs allowed. No exceptions."
She stopped taking her dogs to the cemetery, though it was difficult. She also couldn't help but notice the irony of the dog ban, since Memorial operates a large pet cemetery there as well.
The insult to injury came recently when she received an email from Memorial advertising upcoming events at the cemetery. One was a Salt Lake City Police K-9 demonstration.
So the cemetery forbids all dogs — except dead dogs and macho dogs.
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HOAs getting catty • It appears feral cats have come a long way since a Utah legislator tried to pass a bill a few years ago allowing folks to shoot them on sight if they bugged them too much.
That bill failed after gaining national attention (and not in a good way). Now, in some areas, feral cats enjoy better status than cats with owners.
Dave Snyder lives in the Barrington Park condominium complex in Taylorsville, which borders the Meadowbrook Golf Court near 1300 West and 4200 South.
Seven years ago, he agreed to care for a friend's cat, Peter, when she moved to Canada. Snyder checked and found no rules in the homeowner association's bylaws pertaining to cats.
As her friend told him, the cat was an outdoor cat and could fend for itself. It was a perfect place because Snyder's back yard is a golf course, affording Peter the opportunity to hunt for mice and other critters living in the rough.
But an amendment to the bylaws now requires all animals in the common area to be on a leash. Snyder has been levied $300 worth of fines because of Peter sightings in the common area.
He has amassed enough signatures on a petition to challenge the rule and ask for a vote to change it.
Now, if Peter were a feral cat with no owner, the Community Cat Act, passed by the Legislature in 2011, affords him protection. If someone agrees to sponsor a feral-cat community, the felines can be caught and taken to a shelter, where they are sterilized, have a computer chip put in their ear and returned to the place where they were caught to live happily ever after.