Cliff LyonMero Gets Us Nowhere - Natural Family?
This letter to the editor in yesterday’s Salt Lake Tribune is a taste of what’s to come from Ed Firmage soon, if not tonight…on this blog
Mero gets us nowhere
Paul Mero’s April 9 column about Kanab’s “natural family†resolution was so filled with ad hominem attacks against his opponents that it was impossible to decipher any meaning from it.
I am a white, heterosexual, male, pro-life Republican. I worked as a director at the conservative Heritage Foundation, and I have Utah ancestors who crossed the plains with Brigham Young. But because I am opposed to Kanab’s decision on grounds that it is, at best, useless, and likely counterproductive, I am now an “out-of-town liberal†and a “gay protester.â€
According to Mero, opponents of the resolution are “anti-family,†as if any nontraditional family is by definition “anti-†and that Kanab is being assaulted by every “know-nothing with discretionary time.â€
There is evidence that robust communities exist in very diverse cultural environments, as well as evidence that “traditional values†create beneficial societal outcomes. I know Mero’s tactics well, because I used them in conservative/liberal battles in Washington during the Reagan years. I now consider them counterproductive, the cause of much collateral damage.
What we need in these “culture wars†is less dogma and more reasoned civil discourse. Particularly in Utah, we need opponents to stop demonizing one another. It gets us nowhere in the public policy debate, creates further alienation, and leads us away from the sense of community we all want.
Wesley R. Smith
Park City
April 27th, 2006 at 9:13 am
Paul Mero must be one of those people who get their rocks off by counting not the number of folks who actually like or agree with them, but the number of folks who despise them - the more people that hate Mero and his radical approaches to divisiveness, the better Mero feels!
It is right to feel sorry for the good citizens of Kanab - their tourist industry is swirling down the toilet for embracing the natural family resolution. But on the same token, these same folks elected the council who adopted the resolution.
If these good citizens of Kanab really want to do something for themselves, let them raise the hue and cry and, in the process, tar and feather the Kanab city leaders and frog march them all the way to Mero’s doorstep, right where they belong.
April 27th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Paul Mero is a gasbag. Literally. The dewd looks like he has never met a piece of artery-clogging processed food that he didn’t like and that has to make a chemical-reaction ruckus in his bloated, self-assured innards.
Unfortunately, with all the clogging goin on in his torso those noxious gasses have no where to go than his brain. Symptoms include telling stories of self-reliant, white Mormons who picked themselves up by their bootstraps after the Teton Dam bust and comparing them those welfare-grubbin darkies in New Orleans. Because, you know, a flood in a sparsely populated area is so much like having a major city wiped off the map. Oh, and by self-reliant Idaho farmers he meant ag-subsidized, disaster-relief-receiving, landowning (thank you Homestead Act), white and delightsome spudheads. Also, the key to stable families is not sustainable income, guaranteed health care, or educational opportunities, its spittin’ on the gays! If only there was a meaningless, non-binding resolution that allows government to endorse religion, homophobia, sexism, and procreation, boy that would just solve all of our problems
March 21st, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Mero gets us nowhere, then he gets a free pass.
Last year Paul Mero was instrumental in helping Kanab slide neck-deep into a gooey, nasty, public relations quagmire. And here in March of 2007, the City of Kanab still has its incendiary Natural Family resolution on its gooey, nasty books. Paul T. Mero, meanwhile, co-author and former statewide peddler of the Natural Family, has made quite the goo-free getaway.
Google-search “Mero Kanab†and try to find any article more recent than April of 2006. You’ll discover Mr. Mero hasn’t uttered a word of support for his loyal Kanabian adherents for almost a year.
Love’em and leave’em, as they say, and leave’em gooey if you can.
Still, the city councilmen of Kanab freely exposed their innermost natures by adopting Paul Mero’s “full quiver†manifesto in the first place. And they’re certainly not alone in their feelings on race and religion and sexual preference. For a current glimpse of Natural Family thinking in Kanab, visit
http://www.cliffviewchapel.org
click on the “Read Bible Answers Column†box.
click on “view PAST columnsâ€
click on “Why The Natural Family’s Full Quiver Is Good?†( Wednesday, February 14, 2007 )
And, as always, it wouldn’t be fair to mention the Natural Family manifesto without acknowledging its co-author, Allan C. Carlson of Rockford, Illinois. Dr. Carlson is a prominent advisor to conservative politicians such as Sam Brownback, Kansas Senator and current Presidential candidate.
Kanab, Mero, Carlson, and Brownback. A disparate group of people who have all come to share a common sentiment: How in the Christ did my name ever get associated with a gooey, nasty cluster of dickweeds like this?