Sometimes, this is how we can view the beauties of nature found in our own backyard. We grow so accustomed to it, or don’t find the desert red rock to our liking so when a developer comes along and promises a few jobs and some cash, we are tempted to ditch the masterpiece for a pittance.
What we fail to realize, is that once our wilderness is gone, it is gone. You can’t manufacture the Grand Canyon or the wondrous feeling of solitude experienced standing on Buffalo Point at Antelope Island.
Those who rally with the cry of “Take back Utah” suffer from some delusion that the federal government is bad government, a boogie man threatening to take away our right to tear up the landscape with ATVs or strip mining. Sen. Bob Bennett championed a lands bill which helped forge some compromise between environmentalists and developers. Senate candidate Mike Lee wants to force anything involving Utah wilderness to be brought before the State Legislature. For a man who derides the reach of government, it is interesting that he doesn’t trust local counties to work together to decide how their local land should be used.
Let’s suppose for a minute that we did “Take back Utah.” In a state where we can barely fund education, where are we going to get the funds to manage a national park the size of Zion or Bryce? If we kick federal government out of Utah does this include evicting the military from Hill Air Force Base? Does “taking back Utah” mean that we stop accepting federal tax dollars for highways?
If all of these options sound a little extreme and alarmist to you, it is no more of a scare tactic than to propagate the idea that Utah’s identity is under attack and will only be secure if we can drill for oil in the Book Cliffs, rappel off Delicate Arch, and dump nuclear waste in Lake Powell.
Take back Utah? Let’s hope the Ute Indians don’t get wind of this idea.
Raised in Davis County, Brandvold is employed in the financial industry — and proud to be a Utah Democrat.
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