Current Events Day

So today I would do a Five Favorite Front-Page Features moment but I feel like I just did that on Sunday...cuz I did! And I feel like what was news on Sunday is still news today...so I am going to do one local story I found out about today.

So living in Roosevelt, we are very close to a Ute Indian Reservation.  They have a governmental body called the Ute Tribe Business Council.  These six members have a lot of power in the tribe.  They make decisions about when the tribe receives their monthly government checks, manage the money they get from the oil fields, and other economic business things. Today the Council decided to boycott all Roosevelt city businesses that are not "companies affiliated with or doing business for or in partnership with the Tribe, such as oil and gas operators or contractors that maintain an office in Roosevelt."  

The picture from the Deseret News article

The reason for this boycott makes very little sense to me. The biggest reason they cite in the original press release I read (see Geoff Liesik_KSL facebook page) is that they are treated unfairly by the police.  The tribe is citing racism as the treatment along with jurisdiction issues.  The article in Deseret News shines more light on the fact that this is not the first time that they have boycotted before, and more about the fact that they are frustrated with city officials too for not negotiating further with them.

I wanted to share a little bit of my opinion on this today, because this is a serious problem in Roosevelt.  We have many races that live in our small town--we are to a certain extent a microcosm of America with everyone from Caucasian to African Americans to Asian Americans to Native Americans.  We all have to respect each other and the rules of the city.  If we just treated each other with respect, the world would be a happier place.