Out of Gun Control
For those who have been channeling the Founding Fathers, can you please tell us what they said about assault rifles? Given that we need these for self-protection, would banning them put us on the slippery slope to personal impotence? It’s been interesting to hear people say now is not the time to talk gun control. Mourn the deaths in Colorado, but don’t tread on gun rights. Even Salt Lake Tribune columnist Peg McIntee bought into this thinking, asking us to send “healing thoughts” to survivors but not renew the gun-control debate, because the Second Amendment and existing laws are, well, there. The president dares not buck the National Rifle Association, which helps elect four of five candidates it endorses, according to The Washington Post. The nation can’t even restrain access to guns in homes, instead watching the recent death of a 2-year-old from his grandpa’s gun.
Herbert Called Out
Way to go, Peter Metcalf! While it might not be nice to buck the governor, it sure is ballsy. Metcalf, CEO of Black Diamond Equipment, wrote a newspaper column about Gov. Gary Herbert’s work toward controlling federal lands. Herbert supports a lawsuit to gain access to roads on federal lands and wants legislation to that end. Herbert obviously didn’t like Metcalf’s exercise of the First Amendment and suggested he get on board or resign from the Ski & Snowboard Industry Working Group. So Metcalf quit. He called Herbert’s actions dangerous and harmful to the outdoor-recreation industry, tourism, biodiversity
and a general healthy environment, and says, “There is no meaningful
collaborative process with Governor Herbert’s public-land policies.”
Recovery Priorities
No question—smoking’s bad for you. Really bad. But when you’re fighting other addictions, maybe the all-or-nothing approach is lacking. The Adult Detoxification Center, run by Volunteers of America, is the first such facility to comply with the state’s Recovery Plus initiative. That targets March 2013 as the date all public
substance-abuse and mental-health facilities go tobacco-free. Yikes! Already, some people are backing out of the
program and others are avoiding it
altogether. And it’s likely to get worse since up to 75 percent of clients in mental-
health programs and 66 percent in
substance-abuse programs are smokers.
One told the Deseret News she gets that detoxing is hard but said, “Can we climb one mountain at a time?”
About The Author
Katharine Biele
A City Weekly contributor since 1992, Katharine Biele is the informed voice behind our Hits & Misses column. When not writing, you can catch her working to empower voters and defend democracy alongside the League of Women Voters.
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