Is it all about sodomy? Choice? Abuse? While the polygamous community celebrates Judge Clark Waddoups’ ruling that gives the green light to multiple-wife households, everyone else is trying to figure out what it means in the real world. No, he didn’t use the inflammatory word “marriage,” but the judge did say you can cohabitate with whomever you want. Rick Santorum seems to think it validates his infamous prediction that anything goes. “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery,” he told the Associated Press a decade ago. Andrea Moore-Emmett, author of God’s Brothel, says “I don’t think this ruling changes the legal prohibition against polygamy and it certainly doesn’t make marriage in Utah more inclusive. What it seems to do is link cohabitation to a religious freedom.”
For 20 years, the little shop called The Flower Patch stood as a testament to the resolve of the little guy. The late Earl Holding, with all his money and machismo, couldn’t force the shop to move from his growing fiefdom in downtown Salt Lake City. But alas, the business was sold and the building aged to the point that reason overrode principle. Since Holding went ahead and built his Grand America Hotel around the shop, it’s anyone’s guess what the company will do with the small plot of land. For sure, it won’t be the symbol of defiance that has kept Salt Lake City smiling at what had to be an established middle finger to Holding. And if it’s not enough that one Utah landmark will fade, the garlic-burger-famed Cotton Bottom Inn is also up for sale.
For those who read the editorials in The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret
News, this week was a thumbs up and thumbs down on environmental issues. The Trib took the otherwise good news for Utah and said not so fast. A Nevada judge halted plans to pipe precious water to Las Vegas, saying you’ve got to consider all the impacts. But the Trib noted that at least Vegas has been conserving aggressively—unlike the guzzler that is Utah. Then, on the air-quality front, the D-News managed to praise the decision to allow Holly Refinery to expand its West Bountiful operations. Yes, it complied with state regulations, but not with the obvious implications of continued pollution in an already choked-up valley.
Twitter: @KathyBiele