Citizen Revolt: Week of September 15
The Lake's at Stake,Voters Still Matter, Banned Books Are the Best
By Katharine Biele @kathybiele
The Lake's at Stake
It's no secret that the Salt Lake Valley is a polluted mess. It's also not a big surprise that the Legislature has taken little concrete action to alleviate the effects of climate change. But while lawmakers twiddle their thumbs, the Great Salt Lake has been drying up and creating nothing less than an existential emergency. Environmental experts will be discussing the problem at All Dried Up: Can We Save the Great Salt Lake? "As the Great Salt Lake continues to hit record-low water levels, activists, researchers and public servants are racing to avert an environmental catastrophe." The lake has lost nearly half of its surface area from the historical average, exposing much of the lakebed and sending toxic dust into the air. What are we facing and are there any viable solutions before it's too late? U of U Hinckley Institute of Politics, 260 S. Central Campus Drive, Room 2018, SLC/virtual, Wednesday, Sept. 21, noon, free. https://bit.ly/3RwAQYt
Voters Still Matter
Sure, Utah voters have been gerrymandered to allow those in power to perpetually stay in power. But that doesn't mean your vote matters any less. Just the opposite—your vote is more important now than ever. While some 55% of eligible voters are registered, 300,000 women in Utah are not. What if everyone who was eligible came out to vote in elections? How would that change things? Voter Registration Day is an opportunity to find out what kind of difference you can make. First observed in 2012, this nonpartisan civic holiday has been gaining momentum ever since. In fact, 4.7 million voters have been registered up until now. With midterms approaching, you can register here in person (or online at vote411.org). J. Willard Marriott Library, 295 S. 1500 East, SLC, Thursday, Sept. 22, 11 a.m., free. https://bit.ly/3BrZUdk
Banned Books Are the Best
While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is on his anti-"woke" ideology kick, adults and children are being denied the light that books hold. The Tanner Talk With Author Azar Nafisi will show you the connection between reading and democracy, highlighting the hard road to enlightenment. Nafisi "is best known as the author of the national bestsellerReading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, which electrified its readers with a compassionate and often harrowing portrait of the Islamic revolution in Iran and how it affected one university professor and her students." The U.S. is not yet a tyranny, and reading can be a transformative power against it. Nafisi will speak about the power of literature while relating her own traumatic experiences. Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 410 Campus Center Drive, SLC, Thursday, Sept. 22, 4 p.m. Free/register at https://bit.ly/3RxZiIP
About The Author
Katharine Biele
A City Weekly contributor since 1992, Katharine Biele is the informed voice behind our Hits & Misses column. When not writing, you can catch her working to empower voters and defend democracy alongside the League of Women Voters.
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