JayBeacham.com-A Voice as an Instrument

11/17/2022
Yesterday I drove west on Old Dixie Highway 91 from 400 West in Ivins. No waiting was needed to turn right onto the 2 lane highway.
Later in the day, I drove back from the west the same way, turning in on 400 West to go back to Center street. I didn’t have to wait to make the left hand turn.
Last week I drove from my house on Center street in Ivins to 400 West and then across Old Dixie Highwy 91 to Red Mountain Tire and Service. No waiting was required to cross the highway. I crosed the road just fine and returned the same way. A straight drive not hindered by traffic or a roundabout.

Old Highway 91 street sign in Ivins, Utah, Jan. 20, 2022 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

I’ve learned from some of the farmers and ranchers on the north side of the highway betwwen 400 West and 600 West, that the government of Ivins wants to construct a 5 lane highway there with a roundabout at each intersection.
This is a very bad idea.
Why?
I’ll tell you why:
It’s not needed now or in the future.
It is a waste of money.
This would destroy the character of the old highway that the Washington County Commission has designated as Old Dicie Highway 91.
It would cause traffic obstruction on the old highway, two lanes to the east going to 5 at 400 west and back to 2 at 600 west.
This part of southwestern Utah is the habitat of several endangered species including the Desert Tortoise and the Gila Monster both of which live just east of 400 west Ivins south of highway 91 and west of 600 west Ivins both sides of the highway. and south on Petroglyph Hill-Land Hill.
The Gila Monster is the Utah state reptile. Already endangered,

This species doesn’t need to be subjected to a massive unneeded highway, the distance of which is absurdly short.
It would sure be nice if the town government would use some common sense and not waste tax payer’s monies on such an irrational project.
Sincerely,
Jay Beacham
a citizen of Ivins Utah

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November 8, 2022
Well, today is election day.
The polls are open in most places across the US of A or soon will be.
I have some thoughts about voting.
Here goes.
At age 22, I voted by absentee ballot, as I was away from my voting district at school.
This election, I voted by early mail-in ballot.
These ways of voting are allowed and for many such as those in the military or abroad for other reasons, truck drivers and others who are away from their voting district for some valid reason. The only way they can vote.
When the polls close in Maine, they are still open on the west coast and in Hawaii.
Exit poll reporting is wrong and shouldn’t be done.
Absentee ballots have not all been received by the end of open polls, as some mail in ballots, that only need to have been postmarked by the previous day, the mail not always being as fast as we would like it to be.
I believe that no candidate should ever concede the election.
When all eligible votes have been counted and verified, then and only then, should a winner be declared.
In the early days of our Republic, some national elections took two weeks to decide as it took that long to get all the results tabulated and reported.
Now with electronic means, results can be known faster than then.
But voting machine malfunctions, eligible voter identification, etc. can often go beyond the voting day and into the night and beyond.
There should be no victory celebrations on election night or ever. It is a waste of time and resources.
A friend of mine came from a foreign country. The last election he witnessed there showed how things shouldn’t be at the election polls. Men with machine guns were stationed at the doors at the polling places.
Here we shouldn’t have sham elections. We shouldn’t use the base alloy of hypocricy, as in places “where they make pretense of liberty”, but have none, such as A. Lincoln referred to Russia, or today, any of a number of dictatorships around the world. We should accurately learn the people’s will and follow it when it is in accordance with the constitutional law of the land, for we are a Republic not a true democracy; a true democracy being mob rule with no regard to law.
If you haven’t voted yet, do so today.
Then go to bed and learn of the results tomorrow, if they are available.
Then once results are known, don’t think that is the end of your responsibility.
It is our duty to watch that government that has been elected.
You must then watch those elected to make sure they follow the law and your will.
A good discourse on the duty of citizens is to be found in the 1943 film “A Stranger in Town”. Starting at 1:01:57 and going to 1:05:59
Quoting some, “… as citizens , we carry a burning responsibility. When we elect men to public office, we cannot do it as lightly as we flip a coin. It means that after we have elected them, we can’t sit back and say our job is done, what they do now doesn’t concern us. That philosophy of indifference is what the enemies of decent government want. If we allow them to have their way to become strong and vicious, then the heoric struggle that welded thousands of lovely towns like this into a great nation means nothing. Then we are not citizens, we’re traitors. The great liberties by which we live have been bought with blood. The kind of government we want is the kind of government we get. Government of the people, by the the people and for the people can mean any kind of government. It’s our duty to make it mean only one kind, uncorrupted, free, united.”
Now let’s vote.

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