Fun history lesson: When you hear someone say we should take back our lands referring to taking back public lands from the US Government, you can automatically be sure they (1) dont know what theyre talking about or (2) they actually do know what theyre talking about but theyve selected words unscrupulously to trick you into siding with them. Like it or not, the fundamental issue is that these public lands in Utah never belonged to Utah in the first place so, therefore, they cannot be taken back. If youve read this far you should get a prize, and you may be interested in the Enabling Act of 1894 which is the act that enabled Utah to gain statehood. It states many things, one of which is that all us Utahns agree[d] and declare[d] that [we] forever disclaim[ed] all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within [our] boundaries [...] and that until the title [of the land] shall [be] extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States. In other words, the only way that Utah could ever be gifted control over the public lands (remember, weve never had control over those lands) would be for congress to pass a bill to do so. You know, that legislative branch thing? Sing it with me: Im just a bill. Yes, Im only a bill. And Im sitting here on Capitol Hill. Unfortunately, too many leaders of our state are more interested in partisan gamesmanship instead of trying this legal option. Some are going around beating their chests with threats, to no avail. Not to mention theyre spending millions of our Utah taxpayer dollars just to beat their chests (not even to actually solve the problem and lobby congress for an bill!). Theyve even passed a bill in our state legislature telling the federal government what to do. {sarcasm} Oh, wouldnt that be nice if any state could simply tell the federal government what to do and theyd just do it? Wed call that the statislative branch of government, probably, and it could override all other branches. Wouldnt it just be great? {end sarcasm} References: Enabling Act of 1894 (full text): archives.utah.gov/research/exhibits/Statehood/1894text.htm Schoolhouse Rocks: https://youtube/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 04:41:10 +0000
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