COLUMN: Conversations with a congressman
A friend of mine happened to recently have a letter to the editor published in The Salt Lake Tribune and The Herald Journal, critical of Representative Jim Hansen’s view on environmental issues – fairly mild, garden-variety stuff compared to some of the fiery tirades Mr. Hansen has written and spoken on the House floor.
Nonetheless, my friend received, fairly quickly, a response from the Congressman’s office. On several occasions, in meetings with Congressman Hansen and his staff, I have been verbally attacked both as a member of the group I represented and individually, respectively (on one occasion before being speaking a single word). Although I can sympathize with the coarsening effect of 20 years of rough-and-tumble congressional politics, I believe fresh leadership would do Utah’s First Congressional District well.
All Utahns, including myself, are indebted to Congressman Hansen for his role in the creation of National Forest Wilderness areas via the 1984 Utah Wilderness Act. However, I am disappointed that he chose, in subsequent land-use issues, to adopt an adversarial approach that trivialized wilderness values and reduced profound choices and value debates about the future of our state to mere competitions between recreation types. This was done with a hefty dose of scare mongering among motorized recreationists about loss of access.
When speaking to many fellow students, I find this and other misconceptions with a direct lineage to misstatements by Congressman Hansen during the course of the wilderness debate. (His comments concerning the biology of endangered species, the vegetation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and the fire ecology and management of conifer forests are among his more famously inaccurate.)
Nonetheless, we must recognize that our political system can transform human interaction from a personable and enjoyable experience into something akin to pulling teeth. It can also make accurate information gathering difficult, as the hectic schedule of Congress compresses the time available into narrow wedges often occupied by paid lobbyists.
At the same time I bid Congressman Hansen a farewell, I ask all students to look deeply inside their own values and beliefs (as well as their wallet pockets to check for a recent voter registration card), as we look toward the November 2002 Congressional elections. Besides the usual, and still-important exhortation to register yourself to vote, I ask you to take an honest measurement of the prospective candidates, untainted by innuendo, label, ideological association or imagery, assumption, or even how your parents or friends voted.
Compare them against your beliefs. Our next Representative will be weighing in on any number of issues of state, national and international importance, such as:
1) How much do we exploit our public lands for oil and gas? How do we sustain our plant and wildlife populations and watersheds? How do we balance recreational demands? Is subsidized logging and grazing an appropriate use of public lands?
2) Do we build the Legacy Highway? How much are the Great Salt Lake wetlands worth to us? What do we want our communities and transportation systems to look like in the year 2050?
3) How do we deal with the ever-shrinking Social Security fund? Do we slash the benefits available for our future retirement, increase taxes or shrink other government spending?
4) What model of international trade will we follow? Do we wish to give the World Trade Organization the power to override US laws and regulations? Are we willing to allow international trade channels to control such fundamental goods and services as water, food, power and education?
5) Do we give US taxpayer dollars to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other institutions that focus on liberalizing developing nation economies, rather than community and regional economic and ecological self-sufficiency? Do we grant debt amnesty to developing nations?
This is the briefest of samplers, but shows that the issues at stake deserve a good chunk of your time. Any less meaningful reasons for voting the way you do are a disservice to yourself and your nation. So get out there and learn between now and November. We’ve got candidates from at least three registered parties for the First District. Make some democracy happen.