FLASHBACK 1997: Bruce Baird ponders the difference between pioneer vision and modern Utah leadership 

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In commemoration of City Weekly's 40th anniversary, we are digging into our archives to celebrate. Each week, we FLASHBACK to a story or column from our past in honor of four decades of local alt-journalism. Whether the names and issues are familiar or new, we are grateful to have this unique newspaper to contain them all.

Title: Enough Already
Author: Bruce Baird
Date: July 24, 1997

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The 50-year celebration, in 1897, of the coming of the Mormon pioneers to this valley included bicycle and foot races. The program for the activities listed prizes for the winners, including a silver drinking flask (valued at the then-exorbitant price of $8), a wine pitcher, a cigar case and silver smoking and tea sets. The celebrations then, as now, were sponsored by the LDS Church.

I would much rather have been present for the 19th-century festivities than for those of the present day. In fact, I would rather be almost anywhere than in Salt Lake City on this particular 24th of July.

If I hear the word "sesquicentennial," or read one more self-congratulatory blurb about the heroism of the pioneers, or watch one more clown, especially one more reporter, dressed in a "period" costume trekking for a video bite on the 10 o'clock news, I may throw a wagon wheel through my TV. Enough already.

Don't get me wrong. I admire the courage of the real pioneers standing up for what they believed in and enduring hardships incomprehensible to modern Americans. I'm reminded of the lines from the song by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Knock on Wood," about dealing with difficult situations: "I'm not a coward, I've just never been tested; if I was I'd like to think I would pass."

One of the things that bothers me most about the Days of '47 hoopla this year is that if most of the people crowing about their pioneer ancestors had to undergo even a small fraction of these hardships they would crumble to dust. Even the campy, wagon train reenactment trails a caravan of support vehicles, including those towing porta-potties, longer than the train itself, even excluding the fleet of media broadcast trucks.

But the problem in 1997 is more than just the inability, or unwillingness, to endure physical deprivations. The fifth- and sixth-generation descendants of those people who were willing to risk everything on a plan and a vision are now incapable of risking anything, have no vision and abhor any sense of planning.

Think of a comparison between Gov. "What Do the Polls Say" Leavitt and Brigham "Wagons Ho" Young—and the lack of leadership today is frightening. And Leavitt's refusal to take any action that he doesn't know will be immediately popular is nothing but a perfect reflection of the attitudes of his constituents.

The mentality of a large percentage of Utahns on this July 24 is a cross between the old British motto, popularized in America by Pink Floyd, "I've got mine, Jack, keep your hands off my stack," and that of Greta Garbo, "I vant to be left alone." Content to live in their bedroom communities with neighbors who look, act and think exactly as they do, the only excitement or challenge in their lives is the vicarious recreation of prior glories.

So hundreds of thousands will cheer as the wagons pull down Main Street (assuming the parade committee lets them) and more will watch on TV, secure in their belief that this is the best of all possible worlds. Blinded by the light of a history only vaguely understood, they will be unwilling to contemplate the hard choices necessary to meet the realities of the future.

At least the fireworks that night should be better than usual.