Rantings and Ravings

By Sun Advocate

So here I am, stuck again for something to write. It’s Saturday afternoon and I was supposed to have this piece in on Friday. But the boss was out of town so I thought one extra day might inspire me.
Fifty-two of these every year can give you writers cramp once in a while. I know right now there is a lot going on here in our community, but sometimes it’s best to sit back and observe rather than jump in and comment on every move that happens.
I like the recent debate stirred up with the Dino-Mine park. Many different issues surfaced in the recent letters. Vandalism, restrictive park rules, needs for teen-age hangouts are some of the topics. All of these issues need to be discussed and solutions found.
The mine collapse, miner’s safety, and the aftermath will no doubt stay in the forefront of public discourse for the near future.
Hopefully, the nation’s fickled attention span will stay focused long enough for some hard looks to be taken at this industry that is so vital to our local economy. We need jobs, coal and our miners protected if we are to stay a viable energy extraction community. None of these can exist, if all pieces aren’t in place.
Fires, drought and water issues have taken a back seat lately, but remain a critical issue state-wide this summer. Our local ranchers are dealing with the impacts as rangeland has dried up or burned and the price of hay to feed livestock has skyrocketed.
They might have missed the brunt of it, but it has affected them as well. Hopefully disaster relief may help ease the pain.
One last area I am keeping a close eye on is the school voucher fight. In our area, we are assured to be losers if vouchers go through. I am surprised there are not more voices from rural Utah saying “Wait a minute, how does this help us?” Do we even have any private schools looking to come down and open to give us a choice?
Most of us, as parents and guardians, don’t even make the most of the Carbon District’s open enrollment policy, content to use the school most convenient for us. But still, why is choice more necessary for Wasatch Front kids, than rural kids anyway?
So, while I sit back and listen for a while, I will make one promise to everyone. I have heard many comments about spelling and grammatical errors in the paper lately. I know I have let some slip by myself. Our small staff at the paper does not have a proofreader on staff. We try and double check each other’s work. Lots of words to check in a small amount of time.
I work part-time out of my home so I don’t see my stuff after it leaves my computer and flies by cyber-space to the editor. But I do pride myself in accuracy. I sometimes get more wound up in the content of my writings than the format. I do pledge to try and do a better job of catching the errors before I send them in.
Anyway thanks for pointing these things out. Keep the comments and letters coming. Don’t just sit on the sidelines quietly, but jump into the fights like the rest of us and make things happen.