Author Archives: Paul Mero

This week I want to offer some personal wishes for the New Year. I have so many hopes for Utah in 2010.

First, I hope the vast majority of Utahns go to the polls this year and vote. The 2010 elections will include the vote for governor along with the entire State House of Representatives and many State Senators – and it’s pathetic that voter turnout is now lower than Obama’s disappearing approval ratings.

Second, before Utahns go the polls and elect their representatives, I hope they actually take a hard look at who they’re voting for. We should study the candidates. We should study the issues and talk about them thoroughly with friends and family. And then maybe we won’t just vote the party line. read more

Basketball season starts today for our youngest son. I’ve spent the past 15 years teaching, coaching, and encouraging my four sons in hundreds of games. I’ve screamed and yelled and complained in nearly every game. I’ve been thrown out of dozens of them. I’ve been angry. Real angry. I have used foul language in front of grandmas and little children. Curiously, I’ve never been in a fist fight at a game. I’ve come close, but no punches thrown.

After each game, after I cool down, I hit my knees and pray to God that I can be forgiven for being such a jerk. Now, I’m pretty sure that real forgiveness is predicated on real repentance and it’s hard to say that I’ve really repented when I’m such a serial offender. One day, I tell myself, I’ll get over it. After all, it’s just a game. read more

This week I want to talk about Utah’s struggling state budget. Cache Valley’s own State Senator, Lyle Hillyard, is one of the most knowledgeable people about the state budget. He knows it backwards and forwards. He knows it inside and out. When my colleagues at Sutherland want to know how the budget works, they call Senator Hillyard.

My guess is that our current budget crunch isn’t the first time Senator Hillyard has had his mettle tested in about 40 years of service as a state legislator. But I’m sure he’d tell you that no down-turn in the economy is easy on the budget-making process. read more

This week I want to talk about bullies. Evidently, bullies are becoming a big problem. There’s now talk of school board rules and legislation that would prohibit bullying.

Most people who know me even casually probably know that I hate bullies. I don’t know what it is, but if I have a hot button, that’s it. And, for me anyway, bullying takes many forms.

Sally and I were out to dinner the other night with some friends and we were seated near the door so we could see most of the people waiting to be seated. There was this one group of people – maybe three families, all looked related somehow – and they had little toddlers who couldn’t sit still. read more

This week I want to discuss the uncomfortable, but seemingly growing, problem of adults in positions of trust who abuse that trust in their relationships with children. Evermore stories are appearing about public school teachers, many women, who enter into intimate relationships with their students. The latest story from Davis County involved a young boy who was actually involved with two public school teachers.

Is there a growing problem here? Are public school teachers increasingly twisted in their desire to prey upon their students? read more

This week I’ll address the controversy of abortion. As college graduations and commencement ceremonies go this season’s were relatively uneventful – except on the campus of Notre Dame University. This year the Catholic school had a very special guest for its commencement address: President Barack Obama.

Having President Obama speak at Notre Dame is like having Ted Kennedy address graduates at BYU – not that it’s shocking, in and of itself, but that it’s out of character. And, frankly, there’s nothing really wrong with being forced out of character once in a while. read more