Editor:
I am writing in response to the Feb. 22 article in The Park Record, “Gay-Straight Alliance Club may disappear.” The article states that if the Utah State Legislature passes Senate Bill 97, Student Club Amendments, then “the Gay-Straight Alliance Club at Park City High School may not be allowed to meet next year.”
I want to assure the Park City High School students who read that article that not only is their school’s GSA allowed under the current version of SB 97, but that no state law can ban a GSA in schools that allow other non-curricular clubs to meet. The only way a school can legally ban a GSA is if it bans all non-curricular clubs — a drastic step that school districts are understandably hesitant to take.
Sen. Chris Buttars has been clear about his desire to eliminate GSAs. However, the First Amendment and the federal Equal Access Act are equally clear that schools cannot prohibit only those non-curricular clubs in which gay-positive viewpoints are expressed.
Margaret Plane, Legal director
ACLU of Utah
Salt Lake City
Shooting clarification
Editor:
I know everyone is tired of hearing about our VP shooting someone but for all those bleeding hearts out there that are still uptight, I wanted to set the record straight. Eddie Eagle, aka Dick Cheney, was absolutely within his rights by delaying notification of the incident. Had it been a doe out of season or a hen pheasant, as every hunter knows, immediate notification would have been required. Get it? Accidental human shooting — grace period allowed; accidental animal shooting — no grace period. Let it go! Just accept Dick’s clearly sincere and tearful apology to the people of south Texas. Where was our normally silver-tongued Orrin to explain the nuance?
Sincerely,
Nick Wright
Park City
Election officials vs. democracy
Editor:
If elections are rigged, it does not matter how much money, how great a message, or how many voters a candidate musters. That candidate will lose!
Summit County will use a new Diebold touch-screen voting machine in the next election that has interpreted code (in violation of federal standards) on its memory card that permits vote counts to be tampered with. Members of the National Institute of Standards and Technology warn that Diebolds have wireless Infrared (IrDA) ports, which permit the memory cards (the cards with the illegal interpreted software) to be manipulated remotely and undetectably during elections. Utah’s election officials have no adequate procedures planned to detect or prevent election rigging.
Utah publicly reports its election results in a way that hides evidence of tampering by adding together different vote counts prior to reporting them. An insider can pad votes for one candidate in one vote type, and subtract votes for a different candidate in a different vote type and raise no suspicion.
As a full-time volunteer for election integrity, I would like to be able to vote, but to vote using a system that provides no method to detect or correct errors, is a gift to any insider to count my vote however they want to, knowing that errors will not be detected or corrected.
Since March 2003, Diebolds were known to have major security flaws and produce statistically improbable election results Utah’s election officials were warned by Utah’s computer scientists not to purchase these machines. In Diebold’s first Utah election, programming errors prevented voters from casting votes on issues that they had a legal right to vote on for four hours.
Banks, churches, and businesses perform independent audits to ensure accuracy and prevent insider embezzlement. Yet, a proposal for independently auditing Utah’s vote counts was rejected by Utah’s election officials before it was even drafted. Summit County has purchased proprietary Diebold equipment to count the bar codes on Diebold’s paper rolls rather than conduct independent audits of the voter verifiable hand countable text!
Do Utah’s election officials care about American democracy that generations fought and died for?
Kathy Dopp, President
US Count Votes, Park City
NAC hosts disabled Alpine skiers
Editor:
After five days of thrilling ski racing at Park City Mountain Resort, The Hartford U.S. Disabled Alpine Championships finishes with National Champions crowned in all four disciplines. Feb. 13-17, marked a week of world class racing for athletes with physical disabilities, in super G, downhill, slalom and giant slalom events, hosted by the National Ability Center. For the first time, the Championships were held in Park City, Utah and boasted a broad field of talent, many of whom will be competing in the Paralympic Winter Games next month in Torino, Italy. We thank all the athletes for their support of these races.
The Hartford U.S. Disabled Alpine Championships was a huge success and we owe it all to our volunteers, sponsors and supporters. Without their support, these races could not be possible. We would like to extend our appreciation to our presenting sponsor, KeyBank, who is a continued supporter of the National Ability Center. Also, special appreciation goes to Karen Korfanta and the entire race department at Park City Mountain Resort for the outstanding racecourses, and Utah Food Services for their support of our mission and generous donation to ensure the athletes ate well all week. Finally, we would like to extend our gratitude to all of our volunteers and to David Holland’s Resort Lodging and Conference Services for the greatly appreciated conference rooms. Thank you very much.
On behalf of the National Ability Center and those people with disabilities and families we serve, I’d like to thank everyone for their support. We are truly fortunate to be a part of a community that embraces and whole-heartedly supports our mission to provide opportunities to discover abilities.
Warmest regards,
Meeche White
Chief Executive Officer
PCAT swimmers say thank you
Editor:
The Park City Aquatic Team and parent committee would like to thank all those who helped at and participated in the Park City Winter Invitational. Over 400 swimmers, from teams located throughout the Wasatch Front, participated in the event. The meet was a huge success.
A special thanks to Leger’s for donating sandwiches to feed the officials and coaches during the event; Starbucks for donating the coffee that was sold at the concession stand, the proceeds of which will go directly to the PCAT booster club and team; Ragland Design and Illustration for donating their talent and labor for the great new PCAT logo; and a special thanks to all of the parent volunteers who donated their time to help at the meet.
Sincerely,
William Charles
Park City