The legislature opened last week for its annual 45 day session and already started to pretend to represent Utahans on ethics reform.  For example, Senator John Valentine of Orem is pushing a bill to establish an independent ethics commission.  It is amazing that it took Valentine 22 years (yes, he has been in the legislature since 1988) to finally support an independent ethics commission.  Multiple bills have been offered in Valentine's time in the Senate that included creation of an ethics commission, but Valentine didn't support them.  Nor did other Republican leaders.  Why not?  Because he, and other Senate Republicans, don't want an independent ethics commission.  What they want is to pretend to support such a commission so they can stay one step ahead of voters who are demanding legislative accountability.

My prediction:  The Republican-controlled legislature will pass legislative-controlled ethics reform just like they did last year.  But then they will water down those reforms further once the ethics reform spotlight has passed on.  That's what they did with term limits.  Rather, than really allow the people to decide term limits, they passed term limits themselves.  Then, at a later date when the public had moved on to other issues, they rescinded their own legislation and removed the limits on their own terms.

That's why two changes are so critical this year:

Suddenly the ground shudders, buildings rock, and concrete and steel come raining down on innocent people. That is what the people in Haiti have been experiencing over the past couple of weeks. We've watched on television as people are pulled from rubble--some alive, some dying, many already dead.

Yet, even with television, we may feel somewhat remote from those events. We continue to go about our daily routines with an occasional thought, particularly as we watch the news or read the newspaper, about what is happening far away.

Perhaps it is not that far away after all. It wasn't that long ago that Hurricane Katrina devastated a large part of New Orleans and prevented many people from going back to their homes for months and even years. Hurricane Andrew caused similar massive damage in south Florida several years ago. In these cases, people like us who were just going about their lives suddenly found themselves without homes, food, or clothing.

The state Republican party has sent out a "survey" to Republicans asking their views on pending legislative issues. I put the word "survey" in quotation marks because no reputable polling organization would really consider this a survey. The questions are so loaded they are ridiculous.  

One problem is limited options. For example, the Republicans asked about the New Century Scholarship fund and provided the following options for respondents:

    "Cut this program completely."
    "Utah cannot afford to continually fund this scholarship."
    "Fund the scholarship, but reduce the number of students."
    "Fund the scholarship, but require students to use the funds at state colleges."
    "Fund the scholarship, but allow students to use the funds at private colleges."

Undecided?

There is no option for someone who doesn't want to change the program at all.

On the third Monday in January, the nation celebrates the birthday of civil rights activist Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.  The creation of this national holiday was not without controversy.  For several years in Utah, the day was called "Human Rights Day" as a means to join the nation on the holiday, but not to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.  Finally, the Republican-controlled Utah legislature realized what the day meant and why it should be called Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and renamed the holiday.  We should applaud them for finally getting it.

The day is a symbol for all Americans, but particularly African-Americans, that Americans recognizes the struggle African-Americans went through in order to reach this day - a day when a representative of a race that was so brutally mistreated in our nation for several hundred years could serve as president of the United States.

This is the first time in our history that we've celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day with an African-American in the Oval Office.  Dr. King would have been proud that Americans made that choice in 2008.  It isn't necessary to agree with all of the president's policies, to admit Barack Obama's election and service as president is a testament to the vitality of the American dream and a witness to how far we have come as a people in recognizing that slavery and racial discrimination are ugly features that belong solidly in the past.