Monday, November 5, 2012


   Let Federal Government Keep Lands, That Our Word Be Our Bond
Your word is your bond, it is said. This being true, surely then, Utah should give up efforts to take public lands away from the federal government.
   Our word is our bond. We gave our word we would not do this thing, and we must not. Way back before any of the current generation were here, the federal government handed us a little paper to sign. Called the Utah Enabling Act, it set forth the conditions for us becoming a state.
   Read from it, what we signed: "The people inhabiting said proposed State do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof."
   That's sweet and simple and easy to understand.
   When I presented this to one of the legislators who voted for the bill calling on the federal government to give us those lands, he suggested the provision was only put in the Enabling Act just to establish clear title.
   Clear title or not, we still signed it. 
   When I brought it up with the chief sponsor of the bill petitioning the federal government to turn the lands over to us, he, also, did not seem fazed.
   This movement to claim public lands from the federal government has been around for decades. It once was called the Sagebrush Rebellion, but we have gotten away from using that term much. From appealing to the courts, to burning a National Parks Service airplane in Alaska, those in the movement have been quite vocal about their perceived rights.
   Ironically, though, the very document that says, No, to them says, Yes.
   They point to a phrase saying that money from public lands that "shall be sold by the United States subsequent to the admission of said State into the Union" is to go to the state to pay for schools. To them, "shall" means the lands must be sold. I say otherwise. I say that where it speaks of the federal government selling the land, it is saying that IF the federal government sells the lands subsequent to Utah becoming a state, then the money goes to the schools.
   They also quote from a part of the act that says, "and that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States" without quoting the words that come just after that, which say, "the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States."
   That the law does give the contingency of what should be done with lands sold by the federal government prior to statehood, but it does not say all lands must be sold. To the opposite, it says until that time, they must remain subject to U.S. disposition.

    And, to the opposite, the agreement forbids us from pursuing these lands. We said we will "forever disclaim all right and title," and so we must.
   For our word is our honor.


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