This week’s COTG is being hosted by Enviropundit: Green Building Blog. The topics this week include:
Happy Reading!
Today is the first day of a 10 day window that candidates can file for office in Utah. All 75 House Seats and 16 of the 29 Senator seats area up for grabs.
Today’s Deseret News has an article on what Senators seats are open.
The Green Party will be running candidates this year and will announce them after its 2006 nominating convention being held this week.
A special nominating convention was held in the fall for the U.S. Senate race (Orrin Hatch’s seat). Elected for candidacy was Julian Hatch.
These offices are up for election this year, along with their term of office and filing fee. For more information on requirements, visit the State Elections Office Website and for Salt Lake County offices, visit the Salt Lake County Elections Website.
Federal and State Offices
County Offices
Articles in published in today’s Utah newspapers about Utah Legislature news:
Deseret News
Students picking up slack with tuition hike: U. levy to increase 10%, Dixie’s to rise up to 30%
March 7
1965
Civil rights advocates attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to promote voting rights for blacks. Enforcing an order by then Governor George Wallace, the march was broken up by state troopers and a sheriff’s posse who used tear gas, nightsticks and whips.
Steve Kramer, a GPUS Steering Committe member and LJ blogger wtih Green Thoughts, provides a perspective on GDI endorsments of former Green Candidates.
The state of Utah and Southern Utah Navajos entered into a contract in 1956 which would provide services to the nation and its people in exchange for the right by the state to drill for oil, inclusive of digging up burial grounds.
The lawsuit states that the drinking water from once used local springs is unsafe to drink and that royalty money from 1955 to 1990 was not used the way it was contracted to be to benefit the Navajo people, to provide infrastructure, education, electiricty and other services.
For the past 15 years, Utah’s Navajos have been asking the state to account for how the money was spent – or pay some $150 million back into the trust fund.
In January, a federal judge gave the case a nudge forward by ruling the state must account for how the funds were spent in those years.
Assistant attorney general Phil Lott plans to appeal the judge’s recent decision.
“Until we get to the point where we can determine the number of years the state may be responsible for and where the state may have responsibility to pay, it’s impossible to . . . write a check and settle the case,” he said. “It’s not to be difficult or drag the case out, it’s that the state is responsible to protect the taxpayers’ money.”
Representing the tribe and its interests is Utah civil rights attorney Brian Barnard. Barnard states that because the state is creating a case of strong resistance, this lawsuit could take 2-3 years, according to the Salt Lake Tribune article.
According to the Aneth Chapter of the Navajo Nation, Jamie Harvey, In Aneth, 15 percent of the population has water, while the waiting lists for electricity and water funded by the chapter are years long. Many don’t understand the mammoth hurdles to extending power and water, Harvey said. Archeological studies must be done. There are materials and construction costs. And then there are maintenance costs.
Each project must go through the Navajo Nation itself, which in the past has told Utah’s Navajos to look to their trust fund for money.
The land that was once thriving with plant life and freshwater springs now has exposed, rotted in places pipeline, is sparse with plants and in place of springs there are murky pools of water with an oil cap jutting from the ground.
State attorneys want to appeal a recent ruling in favor of Utah Navajos. On April 27, a Utah federal judge will consider how much detail the state must provide in an accounting of funds spent in the past.
Sources for more information and from differing perspectives:
Navajo Nation Council
Independent Web Edition
Shundahai Network
The Political Mark Markboy
High Country News
Associated Press Article in Indian Country Today
State of Utah
Sate of Utah Government site
Articles in published in today’s Utah newspapers about Utah Legislature news:
Salt Lake Tribune
Senate killed bills on ethical standards: Resisting reform: Implication of impropriety angered some
Tax cut faded as chaos hit session–2006 legislative session: The last-minute breakdown showed crack in alliances
March 6
1836
Mexican troops defeat foreign slaveholders and mercenaries at the Alamo.
1857
The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Dred Scott decision which declared that an escaped slave could not sue for his freedom in federal court. In his opinion Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, stated that the “unhappy Black Race” had never possessed “rights which the white man was bound to respect.”
Dredd Scott
Ever since I was a child, my favorite color has been green. I have a vivid memory of swinging on our family swingset (I think I was about 8), singing at the top of my lungs and becoming filled with emotion because of the beauty of the green grass beneath me and the trees in my yard and all around me. I decided at that moment that my favorite color was green because of my attachment to the earth.
I went for a long (4 mile) walk today. It helped me clear my head and think about things. I’ve been weighed down by a build up of stress and frustration over witnessed tension between people in a variety of arenas, including people I care about and including the Green Party. Sometimes when this happens thoughts occur to me about stepping aside and letting other people carry on the work of saving the world. Then I come back to reality and remember why it is that I’m green. Here are the 11 reasons:
1. Grassroots Democracy
Every human being deserves say in the decisions that affect their lives so as not to be subject to the will of another.
2. Social Justice and Equal Opportunity
All persons should have the rights and opportunity to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment.
3. Ecological Wisdom
Human societies must operate with the understanding that we are part of nature, not separate from nature. We must maintain an ecological balance and live within the ecological and resource limits of our communities and our planet.
4. Non-Violence
It is essential that we develop effective alternatives to society’s current patterns of violence.
5. Decentralization
There must be a restructuring of social, political, and economic institutions away from a system that is controlled by and mostly benefits the powerful few, to a democratic, less bureaucratic system. Decision-making should, as much as possible, remain at the individual and local level, while assuring that civil rights are protected for all citizens.
6. Community-Based Economics and Economic Justice
It is essential to create a vibrant and sustainable economic system, one that can create jobs and provide a decent standard of living for all people while maintaining a healthy ecological balance.
7. Feminism and Gender Equity
We have inherited a social system based on male domination of politics and economics. There should be a replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and control with more cooperative ways of interacting that respect differences of opinion and gender.
8. Respect for Diversity
It is important to value cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious, and spiritual diversity, and to promote the development of respectful relationships across these lines.
9. Personal and Global Responsibility
Individuals must act to improve their personal well-being and, at the same time, to enhance ecological balance and social harmony. People and organizations around the world must join to foster peace, economic justice, and the health of the planet.
10. Future Focus and Sustainability
Our actions and policies should be motivated by long-term goals. We should seek to protect valuable natural resources, safely disposing of or reusing all waste we create, while developing a sustainable economics that does not depend on continual expansion for survival.
11. Quality of Life
Our overall goal is not merely to survive, but to share lives that are truly worth living. The quality of our individual lives is enriched by the quality of all of our lives. Everyone should see the dignity and intrinsic worth in all of life and take the time to understand and appreciate themselves, their community, and the magnificent beauty of this world.
Even if I did not belong to the Green Party, these key values would be part of me because I have believed in them and attempted to live them all my life. After my epiphany with nature that led me to declare green as my favorite color, my life evolved to truly reflect the value of green in my daily existence. I continue to refine and improve my life to become more green every day.
I came across this article today written by a Canadian who is not a Green Party Member (why I don’t know) and why he votes green. It was very timely for me given my state of thinking earlier today. I especially was inspired by the author’s story of Everett Crowley. Upon reading that, it was confirmed to me that I must never, ever give up.
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Why I’m Voting Green
The big parties are puny on the biggest issues.
By Rafe Mair
Published: December 12, 2005
I don’t imagine anyone cares how I’m going to vote, but in case anyone does, I’ll be voting, as in the last two elections, for the Green Party. Hell, I don’t even know who’s running in my riding, but I’ll vote for him/her anyway.
I’m told that I’m just “wasting” my vote. In fact, I’m even told that I’m frittering away my right to have an impact on public affairs. Indeed, to some, it’s evidently little short of treason to vote for someone who hasn’t a chance of winning.
Continue reading
March 5
1970
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty went into effect after ratification by 43 nations.
1994
Ukraine, having voluntarily agreed to give up nuclear weapons, began transfer of its nuclear stockpile to Russia.
Schoolchildren preparing to turn the keys to destroy the last missile silo in the Ukraine. October 30, 2001
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 