Conservative Blame Game
If you heard a recent podcast of The Daily, you'd know that Dr. Anthony Fauci is worried about the get-tough-on-China strategy. If you piss off China, he says, you'll never get the cooperation needed to track down the source of COVID-19, whatever it is. But pissing off China is trendy in the conservative blame game that resists taking responsibility for anything. Utah leaders also want to blame China—for the state's high ozone levels, 10% of which they argue originates in Asia. Fearing the feds could impose mandatory limits on local emission sources, three "elected leaders" told the EPA that emission reductions would "likely result in lasting consequences for the state's economy with negligible impacts on ozone pollution," The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Even if only 20% of the ozone is locally generated, that 20% is something the state can control. But let's blame China.
Unhappy Campers
Speaking of the economy, the poor and middle class may be literally left out in the cold. Let's start with Utah County where the homeless population is but a fleeting shadow—out of sight, out of mind. Since 2017, Provo has kept the unsheltered from camping in public spaces. The Salt Lake Tribune notes that police have given more than 140 camping citations since then. While the homeless try to find a place to sleep, the middle class searches for affordable housing, while rents increase up to 5 percent each year. Farther south near Moab, the rising 1 percent may be paying $600 a night to stay in a luxury tent near Canyonlands National Park, leaving only a sliver of public space to experience Looking Glass Rock. Residents are complaining, but a resource specialist for the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration told the Moab News, the "sacred lands" they manage "must be used for the sole purpose to generate money."
Can We Handle the Truth?
Journalism, if not free speech and truth itself, are at a crossroads. BYU's Daily Universe has competition, but it's anyone's guess how long that will last. Students fled the Universe to start the Prodigal Press in an effort to report on the taboo reality of the university, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. At BYU, reporters couldn't touch anything critical of the church and had to avoid topics of drugs, sex education, birth control, evolution and other "claims of science." Meanwhile, the Legislature continues to stand against any "divisive" topics in schools—even universities—ever since Critical Race Theory became a thing. Some likened the censorship efforts to the Red Scare of the McCarthy era of the late '40s to 1950s. But truth telling is dangerous at a highly emotional and partisan time as On the Media told in a story of the mass shooting at the Capital Gazette.