Utah, "The Big Lie" and Critical Race Theory. And Davy Crockett

I have been thinking about Utah's drift to the hard right on this whole Critical Race Theory thing, with shrill fear mongering pushing reasoned discussion aside. So  I decided to write to two members of the Legislature who I thought might actually pay attention to a reasoned argument about it.

I won't name them now.  They need a chance to respond, but here's what I told them. If they answer, I will post those answers here:

I have spoken with you both in the past about the “message bills” and generally crazy/stupid things that come before the Legislature every year. We’ve always agreed that the majority of lawmakers see them for what they are and treat them accordingly. 

I am also very aware, and understanding, of the dance you have to do to quietly tolerate the people who push those things and gently nudge their silliness aside in order to get the bills through that really do matter. 

I get it, trust me on this. Your job requires some real edge work, especially when it is the leaders of the Legislature pushing the bills. 

At the same time, as I sit here trying to follow the news, I am seeing some really unnerving trends right here in Utah that make me think the time for gentle nudging is past. 

While 1619 Project/Critical Race Theory is the shiny object at the moment, what disturbes me more is the thinking behind this movement that is causing so much screaming. What I see is an opportunity being taken to attempt to legislate what history is, to control what can be taught about it and how it can be interpreted. There’s a measure of the “Big Lie” politics of the moment mixed in as well. 

That’s really, really dangerous. George Orwell’s 1984 says “He who controls the past controls the future,” and the idea of our Legislature telling teachers what history is just makes me itch.

Does that happen?  Just yesterday NPR had an interview with the author of a book called “Forget the Alamo” about Texas history. Here’s a link: https://www.npr.org/2021/06/16/1006907140/forget-the-alamo-texas-history-bryan-burrough

The author notes that Texas, by law, requires that schools teach a “heroic” version of the Battle of the Alamo. What’s that?  If you are my age you think of Fess Parker as Davy Crockett. If you are younger, you have a John Wayne movie. Both are depictions of unmitigated good vs. evil, heroic Texans vs. evil Mexicans. 

The problem with that heroic stuff is that it isn’t true.  Not even close.  While I’m uncomfortable learning that my childhood hero was really an aging, out-of-work drifter who abandoned his family and was in Texas hoping for an easy military gig to get some free land and a fresh start, I can handle it. I won’t even throw away my coon skin hat.

That the Texas land Davy Crockett fought for would be worked by slaves is also uncomfortable, but there it is. Mexico was very opposed to slavery and didn’t want slave owners taking over a chunk of Mexican territory.

(Interesting how slavery comes up so much in our history, isn’t it? Someone ought to study that.)

So there’s the truth. And yet, the law in Texas is the law. 

Here in Utah we seem to be edging along a similar path with this Critical Race Theory (CRT) thing. As I said above, I smell a bit of “Big Lie” politics in this as well.

The Legislature just passed a resolution about CRT, which is odd because the bill is aimed at a segment of our education system where CRT is not taught. Still, the people promoting that bill are making some pretty serious allegations about what CRT will do and don’t seem ready to stop pushing for more restrictions. 

Will study of race and slavery in higher education be next? I would not doubt it.

Are they a few silly folk who can be nudged aside?   One of the loudest proponents of this stuff is a United States Congressman from Utah. He wants any teacher who mentions CRT fired.  He says it will destroy society.

A US Congressman. And he’s not alone. Gov. Cox is making approving noises. The Republican Party in Utah has adopted this as a platform plank.

What’s true? 

Stuart Culver, Dean of the U of U College of Humanities, wrote a very thoughtful piece about CRT which I urge you to read if you have not already.  Here’s a link: https://humanities.utah.edu/news/deans-message-crt.php

CRT is studying history of race and slavery and and looking at how they have steered and formed our national culture and institutions over the years. This is something I, as a historian, find laudable and interesting. Will such study destroy more myths about our history than just that Alamo stuff?  Very possibly, and this will make people upset. My own research has destroyed some very fun myths about Ogden’s history and I really miss them.

One point Dean Culver makes is that the sponsors of the resolution, asked to define CRT, could not do so in an accurate manner, and I’m seeing a lot of that sort of thing out here in the world.  People are reacting to what they are told CRT is by screamers on right wing TV and radio, not what it actually is. I’m positive some lawmakers who know better are happy to use the fear that that misinformation breeds to scare people into voting for them. Tell people lies, then point to their belief of that lie as a reason to pass laws. 

You two know me. I’m trying real hard not to overreact to this stuff.  I spent an entire career in journalism trying to find truth. One thing I learned is that if nobody speaks out for the truth — if they worry about rocking the boat or losing their position for doing so — then the lies win. We saw what happens then on Jan. 6 in DC.

I am very worried that in Utah, as in so many other places, the lies are winning. 

Are they?  And if so, what are you doing about it?

In 1872 Women's Lib (sort of) Was the Rule

In 1872, it would appear, women in the LDS Church saw life just a teensy bit differently than the stereotypes of today.

Pro-vote?  Of course.
Equal pay for equal work? Darn right!
Equality under the law in all things?  You better believe it, buster.
Polygamy?  Well, yeah, actually.

OK, so some things are different, but it was 147 years ago and things have changed. Still, it is fascinating to see how they were back then.

I made this little discovery thanks to the efforts of the J. Willard Marriott Library's amazing historical newspapers project, which is working to get every copy of every newspaper eve published in Utah on-line, digitized. If you haven't yet discovered digitalnewspapers.org yet, stop what you are doing and go look at it now.



One of its most recent additions is the complete "Woman's Exponent," which was published from 1872 until 1914. Listed as a "semi-official" publication of the LDS Church, its goal (according to the entry in Wikipedia) to uplift women of the LDS church and to educate women about the women of the LDS Church.

You can read the entire newspaper here:  CLICK LINK.

How closely tied was it to the church?  Its first editor, Louisa Lula Greene, was the grandniece of Church President Brigham Young.

Now, as to the paper's content, as hinted above.

Consider the time: It is 1872 Utah. The state is run by Brigham Young, whose word is law. He sanctions you being made editor of a newspaper aimed at women in Utah. Do you think that you will, for one instant, print something that would not be approved by your grand uncle, let alone the rest of the community?

I bet not. It's rather unlikely.

Which tells me that the women of Utah in 1872 were a lot different in outlook, and expectations, than the women of Utah in the late 20th Century, say, the ones who worked against the Equal Rights Amendment, just to pick one example.

How so?  There's a general tone of "look how amazing women are" in the news coverage, both local and around the world. To wit:

"Springfield, Mass., has elected Miss Sarah J. Williams to be City Physician. Twelve doctors of medicine in pantaloons contended for the honor and emolument of bleeding the Springfield paupers; and wise as they were they were all beaten out of the field by a woman."

Or ponder the ill-suppressed rage in this slap at male dominance: "Society will not tolerate a woman who objects to live with a drunken, brutal husband. She married for better or for worse, and though the man becomes worse, she must pay the penalty. Mrs. Nelson, wife of Joseph Nelson, a blacksmith living near Sedalia, Mo., unable to live with her lawful husband, tried to live away from him. Society said nay. Joseph said no, and made her return. On Sunday the 17th ult. after she had returned home, he killed her. Enlightened society! Exalted husband ... or ought to be!  Happy wife, in a better world!"

But perhaps it is best said in an editorial, unsigned so presumably written by Ms. Greene, that lays out the general principles of the newspaper.



The paper doesn't advocate for women's suffrage, it says, because in Utah they already have it. In a hint that it will not oppose plural marriage, it says the paper has "no particular wrong to contend  against, inflicted up us by our husbands, fathers, brothers, or the male portion of the community; and no special claims to champion, throwing down the gauntlet against all comers...We do not propose to speak for a few of the women of Utah who with disappointed hopes or perverted minds may be disposed to rail in bitterness against the principles, honestly entertained by a whole community."

OK, so "don't rock the boat" as editorial policy.

But, in another editorial on the following page, Ms. Greene takes a more proactive tac for the rights she thinks women should have.

How about access to jobs?  Not all women have husbands to care for them, and yet society prevents them from having good paying jobs, and makes it clear this is why some women are forced into prostitution.

"She  should have the right to live, and live purely, and not be compelled by the force of custom and fortuitous circumstances to seek a living death that the physical body might be sustained. And to secure her this right, she should have access to every avenue of employment for which she has physical and mental capacity."

Equality under the law?

"She should not be held more responsible than man -- if as much -- for sexual crime. As the world goes if she sins and falls the ban of society is placed upon her, she is ostracized and driven deeper into a course of wickedness, while her partner in guilt, her tempter and destroyer, walks erect and unabashed, received, encouraged and it may be petted by those of her own sex who would spurn her as an unclean and loathsome thing. He should be held equally degraded -- more so, as more culpable, and deserving the severe penalty."



The right to vote?  They can in Utah (a right they lost with statehood), but this paper argues strongly for the right for all, a right now denied "simply because nature qualified them to become mothers and not fathers of men.

"They may own property, pay taxes, assist in supporting the government, rend their heart-strings in giving for its aid the children of  their affections, but they are denied all right to say who shall disburse those taxes, how that government shall be conducted, or who shall decide on a question of peace or war which may involve the lives of their sons, brothers, fathers and husbands."

Susan B. Anthony couldn't have said it better, but a Utah Mormon woman said it in 1872.

The Woman's Exponent folded in 1914 due to financial pressures.

HURRY! Darnel Haney in Statewide Art Exhibit

Darnel Haney's work

I was wandering in Salt Lake City today and ran into an old and dear friend, Darnel Haney.

Not in person. I ran into his art, which is cooler, in a way. Darnel puts his soul into his art, so I ran into much more than his body, I ran into his beliefs and feelings.

Darnel's amazing art work is on display -- gad, only another two days? Sadly, yes -- at the Rio Grande Railroad Station in Salt Lake City, now home of the Utah Historical Society and various arts groups. The display is of art that has "a dialogue with historical and contemporary civil and human rights issue," because those were the centerpiece of Dr. Martin Luther King's work.

Darnel, who is black, has a long life history of fighting racial prejudice, not the least of which when he fell in love with, and married, a white woman in Logan, Utah, back in the 60s. They had to go to movie dates separately, couldn't even sit next to each other, if you can imagine, and she was shunned.

They're still married, of course.

Darnel's long career led him to Washington Terrace where he and Marie moved in and watched the neighbors take one look and move out. That's OK, a finer class of folks moved in again.

Darnel took up painting, with African and slave themes, which obviously fits in with this show. There are seven pieces by him showing.

A DREAM kid

There is other works from others who have struggled -- Hispanics and other immigrant populations.

I found most touching the one about DREAM kids, the children of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US by their parents, built lives and then faced deportation. Recent changes have allowed those kids to get legal residency, which is letting them lead normal lives, more or less.

Three years ago pictures of the kids were taken, not showing their faces clearly so they wouldn't get into trouble. This year new pictures were taken, showing them now bright and smiling, the typical American kids that they are, ready to build themselves new futures.

That's nice. Darnel looks at the past, the pictures of the kids look at the future.

The show is in the main lobby through the 14th. I'd have written about it sooner if I'd known about it sooner, but I miss a lot. Get down and see it if you can, the Rio Grand Station is an easy one block walk east of the FrontRunner Salt Lake Central stop.

Wear Your Official Utah State Face Mask!

OK, So Utah has a state flower (Sego Lily), a state cooking pot (Dutch oven) and a state rock, (coal). I still say coal is a mineral, not a rock, but this is the Legislature talking, so who cares?

And a state gun, of course, the Browning Automatic 1911.

So why not, these days, a state face mask? I propose the standard issue surgical mask, of which many brands exist. Some even prevent the spread of flu!

Everyone says "Oh, Utah's air has always had this problem," but I challenge you to find a copy of the Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News or Standard-Examiner dated before 1970 containing an officially issued government warning not to breathe deeply outdoors.

Sure, there were days the air was bad -- we could see the smoke plume from the copper mine in Magna steadily filling the valley -- but nothing like today.

Nothing. Sorry, I was here, it is true.

Saturday I'm going (via mass transit) to this rally (click!) in SLC to demand the Legislature do something a bit more aggressive than just handing out bumper stickers urging folks to car pool. A recent plan to take measures that won't meet federal standards is a good place to start (click) but it should not stop there.

The Legislature is fond of saying that attacking industrial pollution scares away jobs and only deals with 10 percent of the problem. Nobody ever says how many jobs Utah's foul air scares away, California seems to have no trouble attracting jobs (click)  despite strict standards, and if we can take care of 10 percent of the problem, that's a good place to start.

Yes, car pooling would help, but spending more on mass transit and less on highways would would make mass transit more convenient and shift population patterns to a healthier method of getting around. If the car is an expensive hassle, and FrontRunner/Trax/bus can do the job, people will find a way.

The real trick will be breaking Utahns' habit of wanting to live in that quiet rural subdivision (which they rapidly make noisy and non-rural by crowding in) and live close to where they work so they burn less gasoline getting to their job. Sure, big city taxes and housing costs are higher, but what is the cost of replacing your car every three years? And filling your tank once or twice a week?

The cooking pot, lily and gun are all marketing symbols, meant to show what joys the state has to offer.

A state mask will be different, a way to tell our own residents, our own lawmakers and policy makers, what sort of state we are really building here.

If that sends a bad message, well, build differently.