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Letters to the Editor, July 10-13, 2010

Treasure open house changed my mind

Editor:

Tonight I went to the high school for the open house for the Treasure Hill project. To be honest I haven’t spent much time looking at this project, but I went to the open house with a bias against the project. After tonight I think my mind has been changed towards one of the middle options. The project encourages density and not sprawl like some other projects in the area. It provides a convention center which we need and it appears that it won’t compete with many local businesses.

I would never have felt this way if I had not gone to the open house. I think we are lucky to live in a city that cares about what its citizens think. I would highly encourage everyone to go to the next open house next Tuesday to become better informed and give your feedback.

Shirin Spangenberg

Park City

Keep vulgar term out of family paper

Editor:

I was appalled to see you allow the repugnant "T-word" used twice in Nick Wright’s recent letter to the editor. The Tea Party movement, in the spirit of the Boston Tea Party, is a group of patriotic Americans who want smaller, more efficient government and are concerned about the exploding national debt.

Wikipedia and other sites define the "t-word" slur as a highly graphic sexual act (look it up at your own peril). Obviously this use in your paper is a violation of your own letter policy prohibiting libelous material (Nick offers no proof of this activity by the Tea Party). More importantly he violates your prohibition of statements "that are unnecessarily offensive or obscene." It is both.

This word has been dropped, like the "n-word" and others, by professional news organizations as nothing but loathsome hatespeech. PBS’s Gwen Ifill and CNN’s Anderson Cooper, among others, made public apologies for using the demeaning term and have ended its use by their news organizations. You have allowed its use many times in the past including 2 cartoons smearing Sarah Palin.

I don’t think any of us care what Nick wants to do with his buddies while writing emails from his Mom’s basement but, isn’t it time to stop using this vulgar term in our local, family newspaper?

Jeff Brueningsen

Park City

Bus-stop litter is disrespectful

Editor:

Almost every night my wife and I walk our dogs through lower Pinebrook. Last night, July 8th, we walked along Pinebrook Blvd toward Kilby Road and ended up by the Elk Meadows apartment complex. To the west of the apartment complex is a bus stop that is surrounded by an unbelievable amount of litter (most of which is plastic bottles and beer cans that should be recycled).

My frustration about this situation is directed at two sources. First and foremost are the residents of the Elk Meadows apartment complex and anyone else who may frequent this particular bus stop. How disrespectful can you be to your fellow residents of Park City/Summit County and how much of a blatant disregard can you have for the environment, especially the open area and creek that exist right next to the bus stop? Have you never seen a trash can? Or a recycle bin for that matter? Is it too difficult to ask that you hold on to your trash until you reach your destination and can proper dispose of your unwanted 32-ounce beer cans and Sunny Delight bottles?

My second source of frustration is with Summit County. Is it too much to ask for a trash can and even a recycle bin at this and many other bus stops? I realize that the economy is in the toilet and government money is tight but the cost to provide a couple plastic trash cans and to have someone empty them once a week cannot be asking too much. Given that we live in Park City (home of the nonprofit), we might even be able to set up a collection fund to help subsidize the ailing Summit County resources.

We are doing horrible things to the environment each day. The least we can do is recycle what we can and put the rest in a trash can instead of on the ground.

Michael Conklin

Pinebrook

Free trade can benefit us all

Editor:

During this economic downturn that our nation if facing, finding employment can be very difficult. To open more job positions, and make more jobs available, why doesn’t our government just create more trade barriers and place more limits on trade so that a greater number of jobs become available domestically? Making it so that goods are made and produced here, keeping jobs here within the U.S. This seems like an easy enough solution; but, what are we limiting ourselves to by having trade barriers? Free trade can benefit us all and in the "round-about way" create more jobs.

While in Chile last month, on a study abroad, I learned of the benefits the country has gained because of its free trade policy. Chile has a free trade agreement with over 50 countries, including the U.S., and has the strongest economy of all South America countries. Chile has been able to find its comparative advantages and use them to prosper and create jobs.

Some of the main exports of Chile include, copper, agricultural goods, fishery, and woods. Because of free trade, Chile has found the products it can produce for less then another country. Chile then trades for a good that another country can produce for less then Chile can. This creates availability of more goods and resources to the people of Chile.

A debating question to Chile’s policy may be, "If we, the U.S., are trading and importing goods that we produce domestically, what about the jobs of those people who produce these goods?" Take for example, computers. If computers were produced in the U.S. but then China was able to produce them and trade them to us for less, we would import computers from China. This would initially eliminate jobs within the U.S. for computer producers. However, without the computer industry, skills will be used to develop and specialize in other industries, creating jobs in these new industries. For example, the pharmaceutical industry, often an industry that the U.S. has a comparative advantage in. This industry can now be developed and strengthened. There is now an availability of skills that otherwise may not have been available because of the use of resources to produce computers.

This is a summed up version of how the "round-about way" of free trade creates job. If we open our borders to allow for free trade we will, in the long run, create more jobs, from specialization and comparative advantages, and benefit for a stronger economy.

Natalie Johnson

Midway

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