Remember Esau? Because of lack-of-foresight-induced hunger, he sold his birthright for a bit of gruel. Similarly, our political leaders, because of lack-of-foresight-induced budget shortfalls and lack of vision, want to sell our birthright. It’s called the "Sage Brush Rebellion," and they trot it out every now and then every time there is a political or economic crisis so they can use the federal government--admittedly an easy target in Utah--to blame for their shortcomings and lack of leadership.
Their argument is as follows: Our schools lack funding, funding comes from property taxes, the federal government owns a large amount of land in Utah, therefore Utah's lack of funds for education is the federal government’s fault. Hence, if only the federal government would stop "robbing Utah’s schools" and hand over our public lands, all would be well. As an example, they argue, in the East, the federal government controls very little of the land and their schools are, well, perfect. It has nothing to do with our birthrate, our lack of political will, or our unwillingness to fund education.
Makes perfect sense you say, since we all know that, (1) the federal government is evil, (2) our public leaders are all infallible saints, and (3) we made this desert bloom like a rose so "we" should control it.
But it doesn’t make perfect sense. I lived in the East. There’s not a single scrap of land or a "Waldon Pond," there that you can lay hide or hair without paying a large fee or asking permission. I love the West and especially Utah because the refrain in much of our state still is "This land is your land, this land is my land. . ." and not, "This land is Novell’s land, this land is The Leavitt’s Family land, from the Bear Lake forest to the Grand Canyon’s waters. . ." Yes, I too disagree with much of the federal government’s interference in our state but it still is a government of the people, for the people and by the people. Our local political leaders are not guileless, and if our federal lands are sold to the state, "we" will not be in charge of them and "we" nor our schools will, in the long run, be the beneficiaries--Novell, IBM, Sinclair Oil and the rich will be. Do you think they will pay the extra property taxes for our schools? No, "we" the middle class will pay the taxes, as we always do, and "we" the middle class and the poor will be excluded from our once public federal lands.
No, I say don’t privatize our public lands. If I wanted this to be the "East" I’d move there. "We" should beg our politicians not to sell our birthright because of their lack of vision and lack of political fortitude.
Loren M. Lambert © September 3, 2002
