Boycott Utah

Photos of chortling, smiling, clapping Utah, Mormon, Republican politicians appeared in media around the U.S. as they stood behind Donald Trump while he signed proclamations changing the size and borders of two Utah national monuments. The monuments in question, Bear's Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante, were created by presidents Obama and Clinton respectively in 2016 and 1996. Together, they comprise approximately 3.2 million acres of southeastern Utah and provide protection for: countless Native American archaeological sites and treasures, some of which have been looted by locals; and territory, plants and animals that have been sacred to indigenous tribes in the area for more than a thousand years and would be destroyed by the many kinds of development Trump and his supporters want to bring to the area.

Make no mistake about this. The Trump team, led by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke working in conjunction with Utah's U.S. Senators Hatch and Lee and Utah's House delegation (Bishop, Curtis, Love, Stuart) and other state and local politicians, pushed for a downsizing of both monuments to a total of around 1.2 million acres to set free 2 million acres that could be leased to their oil and mining corporation donors. They're after the area's proven coal, oil, natural gas, and uranium resources and the like and want to be free to exploit those resources without interference.

The fact that mining, drilling, road building and power plant construction would constitute a danger to sites within the monuments that are sacred to indigenous peoples and to precious fossil records preserved in rocks there, not to mention the air, water, animals, and plants that are important to Native Americans, tourists, hikers, environmentalists, and others, seems to be of little concern to Zinke and his buddies. Zinke has indicated that no development of those areas should be avoided just because someone found an arrowhead there. This is truly the position of an intellectual giant, on a par with the genius Trump himself.

The silly scene in Red-state Utah reveals a place whose politicians care little for cultural, historical, and/or environmental preservation. Their interest is development and money, and they hate any land uses that interfere with the flow of cash into their pockets. Therefore, to reward their greediness, I ask everyone worldwide to boycott Utah’s ski resorts, national parks, and all goods, products, and services originating there. After all, who wants to help the economy of a state whose leaders hate the public lands within their borders and who don’t believe those lands belong to “we the people” but to them? Utah’s Mormon Republican leaders understand one thing and one thing only; money. So, let’s see to it that they get less. Maybe then they’ll wake up and stop smiling and bowing to their brainless master.