Tilting at Election Windmills
Election integrity? Confidence in our election system? Who's working to undermine that confidence? We can blame it on the right-wing fringe, the QAnon conspiracists and the My Pillow guy, but sadly this poisonous, anti-American movement has infiltrated the mainstream Republican Party and moved it beyond recognition. The Salt Lake Tribune's Bryan Schott dove into the party's misguided effort to "find" fraud in the 2020 election, one that has a secretive cabal haunting homes throughout Utah in an effort to locate "red flag voters." No, they don't trust a nationally acclaimed Utah voting system, even though it unsurprisingly awarded Donald "J-for-Jesus" Trump the state election. Do they find that door-to-door canvassing for years after an election is a good idea? They have a market of good ideas—from baby-eating pedophiles running a shadow government to the reincarnation of JFK.
Miss: Taking Pride in Racism
Meanwhile, in racist history, Utah can be proud of our "charitable" Proud Boys, our deadly bullying in Davis County, the blinders at an indigenous Panguitch school and the zero-tolerance policy of the Utah High School Activities Association that punished a Black kid for striking out against a racist slur. Maybe we don't call it a white-power grab, but it certainly is a defensive reaction to what conservatives believe to be an assault on America's sanitized history. A researcher in Panguitch resigned after learning of the problematic legacy of Indigenous schools, a young girl committed suicide after being bullied in Davis County, and there's plenty more examples, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. But hey, the Proud Boys promised to donate food to Calvary Chapel. Calvary should refuse the donation.
Hit: Marshaling Support
There is a small window of opportunity to save Ogden's Marshall White Center, a recreation space named after a Black World War II veteran and police officer killed in the line of duty in 1963. The rec center, according to The Salt Lake Tribune, had fallen into disrepair from years of neglect, despite being a visible symbol in one of the city's marginalized neighborhoods. The Ogden City Council is poised to demolish and rebuild the center as a pay-for-play center in a more affluent area run by the YMCA. "If Ogden is going to (finally) commit to a full-service recreation center as they should have 20 years ago, then it must be built with the right set of amenities, on a large enough site and in the right location to serve the whole community efficiently," said Iain Hueton, former Recreation Advisory Board chair."It's very unlikely that the current [Marshall White Center] site would work without tearing down a lot of other buildings." City funds will be spent no matter where the center goes, and the community is making it clear that the city should not erase Marshall White and the good it has done for its minority population.
