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Once again, the Thanksgiving proclamation we need

11/25/2020

Some time during this Thanksgiving season, the president will issue a proclamation. It’s a tradition as old as the Republic, as is the fact that no one will pay any attention to it.
Other than ones issued by George Washington, Abraham Lincoln (expressing profound thanks during the bleakest days of the Civil War) and maybe Franklin Roosevelt who, in the worst days of WWII, asked for “a nationwide reading of the Holy Scriptures during the period from Thanksgiving Day to Christmas,” most of these were quickly forgotten, if ever noticed in the first place.

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Neither shaming nor lifting bans on gathering will work

11/24/2020

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Utah and Oregon are bookends right now in the fight to keep Thanksgiving from becoming a super-spreader for Covid-19.
On the one end, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, under pressure from state lawmakers, lifted his own ban on social gatherings involving people from separate households ahead of the holiday. He cited a “leveling off” of case counts in the state, a difficult argument to make considering a rolling seven-day average of 3,349 new cases daily and a report that intensive care units are 90.8% full.

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Will Utah finally get a homeless czar?

11/11/2020

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In Utah, homelessness is up, for adults and, most disturbingly, children. Demand for shelter space is rising.
Is this where you expected the state to be more than three years after police swooped into the Rio Grande area of downtown and politicians declared an end to homelessness as we had known it? Looking back, is the following paragraph something you expected to read in a report in 2020?

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Here's the Thanksgiving invitation you should send

11/10/2020

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If you’re looking for a good way to invite people to Thanksgiving dinner, here’s a suggestion:
“You are cordially invited to Thanksgiving Dinner at our house. In preparation, please quarantine yourself, and the people with whom you live, beginning Nov. 12 and ending when you arrive at our house. Please also get tested for the coronavirus during this time and bring proof of a negative test result to the dinner. You will not be admitted without this.”
If we were serious about stemming a spike in Covid-19 cases, or about the emergency alert that jolted every Utahn with a cell-phone blast Sunday night, this is the only responsible way to do it.

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Ranked choice voting isn't fit for prime time

11/4/2020

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For a while late Tuesday night, amid the confusion of close races and the teetering balance of power in the Senate, it appeared that the rubber of ranked choice voting might hit the road screeching.
It wasn’t a pleasant thought.

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Keeping a contentious election in perspective

11/3/2020

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What can a 2-year-old girl in far-away Turkey and a bunch of photos from outer space teach us on the morning after an election? What do they mean in the aftermath of a campaign season some people told us was as important as life or death?
Plenty, if we’re willing to pay attention.
Election seasons are tsunamis of exaggeration and earthquakes of hyperbole. Almost all of this is directed at the two candidates running for president. From social media to commercials on television, the messages we received were dire. One candidate would lead us off a cliff of irresponsibility, while the other would drag us into a swamp of socialism and ruin. You decide.
It’s as if all those high school lessons about checks and balances, three co-equal branches, vetoes and filibusters were mere fairy tales, while real big bad wolves and wicked stepmothers reside on paper ballots, surrounded by barbed wire obstacle courses we must navigate with blue- or black-inked pens.

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Once again, the Thanksgiving proclamation we need

Neither shaming nor lifting bans on gathering will work

Will Utah finally get a homeless czar?

Here's the Thanksgiving invitation you should send

Ranked choice voting isn't fit for prime time

Keeping a contentious election in perspective

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