Poor Phil Lyman, my heart bleeds for him! He is so obsessed with the idea that the white population of San Juan should keep control that he’d rather split the county than submit to two Diné members on the County Commission.
Do we laugh or cry at his obtusely outrageous objection that part of the county’s population is now “disenfranchised,” “at the mercy of someone else.” He had no problem when the majority Navajo had no say, thanks to blatant gerrymandering.
The truly comic bit? His complaint that Blanding has been divided into three districts, diluting the influence of the county’s largest city, leaving its residents “aggrieved” and without representation. As a citizen of Salt Lake City, boy, can I relate. He recognizes no irony here.
A good lawmaker can put himself in someone else’s moccasins (pardon the expression). Lyman is not such a one. We already know him to be a lawbreaker unconcerned by principles that define this nation if they do not correlate with what he personally wants.
It's time he is introduced to the concept of democracy (vs. oligarchy). Let’s call it, in his case, the New White Man’s Burden.
Michele Margetts, Salt Lake City
