Soap Box: Aug. 31-Sept. 6 

Cover story, Aug. 31, "Triggered"
Seems like the new Trump VA Accountability Office is giving people hope at the Salt Lake VA. That opposing wrongdoing will actually result in something other than retaliation.

Does anyone else know about the other investigation that just started? It's a doozie.
Jeff Mann
Via cityweekly.net

Excellent article.
Jill Walton
Via Facebook

Good job, Mr. Dark. Thank you.
Larry Chadwick
Via cityweekly.net

News, Aug. 31, "Losing Bet"
This is NIMBY-ism.
Michael Warner
Via Facebook

Rational responses
When Col. Flagg and Dr. Strangelove tell us not to worry because Kim Jong-un is "rational and responsive to adverse circumstances," I worry! That's like calling Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump rational.

This is the same jingoistic dream thinking that "bombed 'em back to the Stone Age" and brought us strategic hamlets that cost the lives of almost 60,000 Americans, not counting the walking wounded, and nearly tore our country apart.

There's also the matter of collateral damage, i.e., the countless dead and wounded Asians whose survivors can't even harvest timber in the forest because it has so much shrapnel from U.S. Gen. William Westmoreland's carpet bombing of places like Laos, where [more than 2 million tons of bombs were dropped from 1964-1973 during the Vietnam War].

... We have a commander in chief who has never seen combat outside the boudoir or boardroom, swift boating heroes like John McCain and others with their fingers on the button. He'll probably give himself a Purple Heart for spraining his wrist on the 19th hole at Mar-a-Lago.

Winston Churchill said, "Meeting jaw-to-jaw is better than war."

There's an African proverb: When elephants stampede, the grassland gets trampled.

Peace, boys and girls; let's play nice in our little sand box ... it's the only one we have!
Alan Wright,
Salt Lake City

More on climate change
I would like to see in your articles more news on what's going on in climate change.

Are the tides getting higher, the sea levels deeper, the temperature hotter and colder, the winds faster, the floods more often and more severe? Have we, the people, removed too much of our earth's protective cover? What can we do to change this? Can we fix it?

I don't want to see my grandkids suffer because I don't understand what's going on. Please tell me what's going on—how much rain, or snow? How fast are the icecaps melting? ... How many people are being flooded out of their homes? How many are moving inland? How long can we survive if we keep doing what we are doing?

... For about 100 years, [the connection between vegetation and climate change] has been known, but very few now talk or think about this. The more vegetation on the earth's surface, the better off she will be, the better off we will be.

Please help any way you can. Let something green live. Plant greenery and grow mentally. Don't burn, or kill all. Do some select weeding. Please, think.

Help the beaver come back; he works to save our earth for free!
Eric Jensen,
Fredonia, Ariz.

Everything's fine
Look back in history and study most of the dictators in the world and it's never their fault. It was never Hitler's fault; it was always his generals'.

It's never Trump's fault. It's always the media or the people working for him. I recall Trump made the statement in Charlottesville that both sides had fine people.

As I recall, Hitler blamed the Jewish race and planned to exterminate the entire race. Out of 9 million, he killed 5 million to 6 million children, men and women. I guess we are lucky (I am Jewish) that his son-in-law is Jewish.

The KKK, they're fine people. They don't like anyone—Catholics, Jews, Muslims, African-Americans, etc.

They're fine people who butchered, raped, lynched African-Americans.

They call for white supremacy, as Hitler called for the superior race, but they're fine people?

If you disagreed with either party, they would try to eliminate your family and anyone else related to you.

In conclusion: It amazes me how the people of Utah's Republican Party will not admit to themselves or do not want to acknowledge that Trump is a psychopath. He has all the characteristics, which include ego-mania, narcissism, only his opinion counts, always blames someone else and eliminates anyone who doesn't agree with him, and lack of sincere empathy. But he's a fine person.
Barry Hecker,
Salt Lake City

Soap Box, Aug. 31, "No fun in the shun"
It's obvious that Ted Ottinger is promoting a belief system that he considers superior to the beliefs of others, although he keeps the details to himself.

Perhaps he is an atheist who, when he dies, finds himself all dressed up with nowhere to go. Or maybe he supports the Islamist idea of creating No Go Zones in America that would exclude Mormons and Scientologists, and anyone else who disagrees with Sharia law. Another possibility is the belief found among the BAMN and Antifa folks that violent actions are justified against anyone who disagrees with their agenda.

Mr. Ottinger has been given a Soap Box. It's time for him to expand on the promises of his Sunday morning sermons and rituals, and invite people to come forward to repent and accept forgiveness, while the choir sings "How Great Thou Art."
Loren Boddy,
Provo