Stop killing fish

Some people have called me ignorant for my opinions on dams and fish. What I said about Dick Sherwin holds for Marvin Dugger as well; both were local mill labor.

Their opinions prove they don’t think, but echo others. Both showed a lack of logic and failure to do due diligence. Both called me ignorant which implies uneducated, when I have degrees which prove otherwise.

They seem to think I want to breach the dams. I have offered two ways we could save slackwater navigation. Both ways would allow us to remove the fish-killing hydroelectric turbines. If fish runs come back, maybe we can keep the dams. If they don’t, then dams should be breached. This would settle the dilemma in short order, rather than debate endlessly about a lose-lose situation.

To worship hydropower and think we can’t get by without it is wrong. Free energy is all around us. We need to stop killing fish for overpriced electric power. The hydropower system is outdated, inefficient and kills too many fish.

Another wrong thing is putting solar collectors and wind generators all together so they can charge you for service, line loss, maintenance costs and profits. Everyone could put them on their own home and save money with lower energy costs.

Just saying.

C. Edward Collins

Clarkston

Publicizing failing culture

I am writing to ask for help in publicizing Utah’s secretive and failing culture, which came into national prominence with the ABC “20/20” report about the Lauren McCluskey murder, which aired the night of March 31.

Utah’s nonfunctioning criminal justice system and its do-nothing University of Utah campus police system were clearly exposed.

But also, Utah’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently has been fined by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission for its long-term failure to honor financial reporting laws.

Our public school system has done little to improve its long-standing regional reputation for abysmally low per-pupil funding, rampant bullying and racism, and poor civics education.

Utah’s Legislature is run by a monopolistic party operating to protect real estate, home-building, technology and banking interests, with very little attention to solving pressing public policy issues like water management, exploding homelessness and public health.

The McCluskey revelations are a severe embarrassment to thinking and feeling Utahns, but we will quickly revert back to propaganda and white-washing unless outsiders help to put pressure on our self-protecting and uniformly monopolistic institutions.

Kimball Shinkoskey

Woods Cross, Utah