12-3-2019
MOSAIC is well into its Winter/Holiday Give-A-Way program.
We wanted to let you know that with many elves (volunteers) and sponsors,
we have been able to reach over 1000 children with toys already this holiday/
winter season.
Attached are photos of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church group and the
Toone Family (Tyler Toone) (through JustServe website) who were
instrumental in
assisting us with last minute purchases, organizing bags and items, and
giving items to families with kids! Also, hot chocolate went out to many
adults and children today. It was a joyous affair with many elf costumes
and winning smiles as you can see from the photos! I've included the
email from the youth group leader so you can get some winning quotes
from her as well at <erikaanne@gmail.com> or 801-671-5886 or by
calling the church in Sandy. There are some amazing leaders coming up
in the youth who serve!
Now, Wednesday we are giving out vouchers to Deseret Industries and
Crossroads Urban Center Thrift Shops for families in need. (12/4/19).
Thursday, we are giving extra large take-home-to-prepare holiday/winter
food boxes for families. (12/5/19).
There is a more detailed press release (attached). We would love to
have you stop by anytime today or tomorrow between 8 am to 3 pm
for a tv spot, news story, photo or a cup of something hot!
May your holidays and Winter-time be merry and bright!
Dr. Leslie Whited
================
Hi Dawn,
With the share of U.S. adults aged 65 and older expected to be 1 in 5 by the year 2030 and as many as 13 out of every 14 elder-abuse cases going unreported, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2019’s States with the Best Elder-Abuse Protections as well as accompanying videos.
To determine which states fight the hardest against elder abuse, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 16 key metrics. The data set ranges from share of elder-abuse, gross-neglect and exploitation complaints to presence of financial elder-abuse laws.
States with the Best Elder-Abuse Protections
States with the Worst Elder-Abuse Protections
1. Massachusetts
42. Arkansas
2. Wisconsin
43. Arizona
3. Rhode Island
44. Tennessee
4. Michigan
45. Nebraska
5. Iowa
46. South Dakota
6. Vermont
47. Nevada
7. Pennsylvania
48. Montana
T-8. Louisiana
49. California
T-8. North Carolina
50. South Carolina
10. West Virginia
51. New Jersey
Key Stats
To view the full report and your state or the District’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-best-elder-abuse-protection/28754/
=====================
4 Tips For Steering Your Business
Through Tough Times
Good times come with this certainty: They never last.
For businesses, that means formidable challenges (a weak economy, new competition, a sea change in the marketplace) are always just around the corner, and unprepared business leaders face the potential for disaster.
“You don’t have the luxury of resting on your laurels,” says Alyssa Rapp (www.alyssarapp.com), CEO of Surgical Solutions and author of Leadership & Life Hacks: Insights from a Mom, Wife, Entrepreneur & Executive.
“You have to keep battling, innovating, out-innovating, and outworking your competition.”
She knows something about that. From 2005 to 2015, Rapp served as the founder and CEO of Bottlenotes Inc., charting a course for the company through the turbulent years of the Great Recession. During her time at Bottlenotes, Rapp was named one of Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30” coolest entrepreneurs in the U.S. Starting in 2015, she served as the managing partner at AJR Ventures, which advised privately-held companies and private equity firms on their digital-marketing strategies.
Rapp offers four tips for helping business leaders meet the toughest of times with a resolute attitude:
It’s inevitable that, regardless of how well you think you’ve planned, life will throw you curveballs, Rapp says.
“They will come at you in every area, every industry, every walk of life,” she says. “I’ve faced them as a mom, wife, entrepreneur, executive, friend – you name it. But I don’t run from them. I’ve learned to apply my brother’s advice: ‘The only way out is through.’ The truth is, I love curveballs, because each one comes with a question: What the hell are you going to do about it?”
About Alyssa Rapp
Alyssa Rapp (www.alyssarapp.com), author of Leadership & Life Hacks: Insights from a Mom, Wife, Entrepreneur & Executive, has been CEO of Surgical Solutions since 2018. Previously, from 2015 to 2017, she advised startups and private equity-backed companies through AJR Ventures. Prior to that, Rapp ran an e-commerce business called Bottlenotes. She has been named one of Crain’s Chicago’s “Notable Women in Health Care.” Rapp also teaches at Stanford Business School and has recently been named Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago’s Booth Business School.
====================
A Little Girl in Missouri Receives the Best Gift -- A New Liver and a New Kidney
This Month She Celebrates a Big Birthday a Few Days before Santa’s Arrival
December 4, 2019 -- December is the month when many focus on gifts. For one Missouri transplant family, December is the month to celebrate the ultimate gift -- the gift of life. This family’s beautiful girl will be celebrating her ninth birthday later this month right before this family celebrates Christmas. Then on December 31st the Lemires will ring in the New Year by remembering their post-transplant homecoming two years. These December celebrations are made possible by another family, complete strangers, who chose to donate their child’s liver and kidney during the most difficult of circumstances.
Cara and Rich Lemire are no strangers to loss nor to big gifts -- especially ones that are life-saving. When they found out in 2010 they were pregnant with a daughter they would name Vivian (which means full of life), they were excited and anxious. Four years earlier, they had lost their first child to Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease (ARPKD). The condition caused their first baby’s kidneys and liver to swell and take up space the lungs needed to grow properly. Cara and Rich were completely unaware of her condition before her birth and they only had two days with their daughter, Renee, before she passed. They allowed themselves time to grieve before considering another pregnancy, but with support from their medical team they decided to try again.
According to Cara, “Once we were pregnant again we were thrilled, but we struggled to let ourselves feel we could ‘get ready’ for her. We had walked this journey before and worried it would lead to the same heartbreaking place. Vivian’s early ultrasounds showed no sign of ARPKD and we felt encouraged about not experiencing a recurrence.”
ARPKD is a rare inherited childhood condition where the development of the kidneys and liver is abnormal. Over time either of these organs may fail. Even though ARPKD is rare, it is one of the most common kidney problems to affect young children. It is estimated that 1 in 20,000 babies is born with ARPKD; both boys and girls are affected equally. The condition often causes serious problems after birth.
At Cara’s 32-week pregnancy check, an ultrasound showed that Baby Vivian’s kidneys were enlarged with cysts and her amniotic fluid was dangerously low. The Lemires were devastated when they were told the baby also had ARPKD. “It was a crushing moment, but we were determined to give Vivian the best chance we could at survival,” Cara said.
When the baby’s heart muscles began to show signs of hypertension, the doctors determined they could not wait any longer and Vivian was delivered a few days before Christmas 2010. The baby’s lungs had some underdevelopment but she was able to breathe with minimal assistance. Vivian’s next challenge was severe hypertension and renal failure with kidneys that were estimated to be the size of adult kidneys in her tiny body.
At two weeks old, Vivian had her first kidney removed and began dialysis 24 hours a day. Four weeks later Vivian had her second kidney removed. The Lemires had to travel 40 minutes from their O’Fallon, Missouri, home to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis four days a week for Vivian’s hemodialysis. Each session was four hours long. Vivian spent 278 days of her first year of life inpatient enduring several surgeries, battling infections and treating complications of her compromised immune system. Vivian’s medical care made it nearly impossible for both Cara and Rich to keep their full-time jobs; therefore, Rich decided to step back from his career to manage Vivian’s medical schedule of appointments, treatments, specialists, back-and-forth commutes and many more of her complicated medical demands.
Cara and Rich knew Vivian would need a dual life-saving transplant (kidney and liver) for long-term survival. At the start of 2012, while in the midst of Vivian’s hemodialysis sessions and appointments, a transplant social worker suggested Cara and Rich reach out to the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) to learn more about fundraising for transplant-related expenses. On January 31st, Cara called COTA’s 800 number and completed COTA’s Patient Agreement the very next day.
COTA uniquely understands that parents who care for a child or young adult before, during and after a life-saving transplant have enough to deal with, so COTA’s model shifts the responsibility for fundraising to a community team of trained volunteers. COTA is a 501(c)3 charity so all contributions to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law, and COTA funds are available for a lifetime of transplant-related expenses.
On March 8, 2012, a COTA fundraising specialist travelled to the Lemire’s hometown to train the volunteers for the COTA campaign in honor of Vivian L. This group of family members and friends, i.e. COTA Miracle Makers, quickly got to work organizing fundraisers to help with mounting transplant-related expenses. Numerous COTA fundraisers were held and the team surpassed its $60,000 goal in a short amount of time.
When Vivian was 2½, the transplant team at Cardinal Glennon officially listed her for a dual kidney and liver transplant. Cara and Rich were anxious but were excited to continue their family’s transplant journey. However the wait became lengthy and Vivian’s case became more complicated as she grew. Cara and Rich were eventually told by the Cardinal Glennon transplant team they were no longer able to perform the life-saving dual transplant Vivian needed.
“We will never forget the moment our nephrologist, whose guidance we trusted, told us if Vivian were her child, she would take her to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford,” Cara said. Soon after that recommendation, the Lemires flew to Palo Alto, California -- more than 2,000 miles away from their Missouri home. Cara says at their very first meeting ‘everything clicked.’ The Lucile Packard transplant team agreed that, when the time came for Vivian’s dual transplant, the Lemire family would need to temporarily relocate to California and start her transplant treatment plan.
In August 2017 after two years of being listed and a near match, the Lemires finally got The Call for both a kidney and liver match for Vivian in California. Cara remembers feeling like their bags were in their hands before they even hung up the phone. It was indeed the call they had been waiting for since the day Vivian was born. On August 9, 2017, Vivian received a kidney and liver transplant and her second chance at life. Cara and Rich received the greatest gift imaginable.
The dual organ transplant went well but required a longer recovery time for Vivian, which meant the family would be in California for an extended period of time. Cara took a leave from her job and the family was able to stay in the Ronald McDonald House very close to Lucile Packard. “With our home and jobs halfway across the country, COTA eased the financial burden and enabled us to be at Vivian’s side during her transplant and lengthy recovery,” they said.
On December 31st, four and a half months after her life-saving dual kidney and liver transplant, Vivian and her parents were able to return home to Missouri. It was indeed a positive way to step into the New Year and their new post-transplant life.
“Even before Vivian was born, we knew a transplant was likely in our family’s future. When it became clear the best outcome of Vivian’s transplant would be achieved at a transplant center more than 2,000 miles away from our home, we also knew we were going to need help to make everything work financially. With home and jobs halfway across the country, COTA eased the financial burden and enabled us to be at Vivian’s side before and after transplant. It is a tremendous gift to know COTA is here for our family now and will be … for a lifetime,” said Cara and Rich.
Today Vivian is enrolled in elementary school, which she loves and where she is thriving. She loves dancing, singing and participating in any type of music. Vivian is thrilled to be making new friends at school. This Christmas will likely be full of celebration and joy for the Lemires as they enjoy the holidays in their own home. Vivian is indeed a gift for Cara and Rich who went from wondering when The Call would come to now watching their beautiful daughter enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of the season. They will indeed remember their special donor angel this holiday season as well.
Merry Christmas Lemire Family from your COTA Family!
For more information about the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA), or to find a COTA family in your area, please email kim@cota.org.
================
Dear Editor:
Please consider this guest commentary by public intellectual Winslow Myers on the speech he envisions a wise US president would and should make. For PeaceVoice, thank you,
Tom Hastings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A presidential speech the world needs to hear
By Winslow Myers
1009 words
“Good evening, my fellow Americans.
“I want to speak frankly with you tonight about a reality that the nuclear powers have so far refused to acknowledge as the arms race goes forward unchecked. We have arrived at a point in history when the destructive power and complexity of our weapons systems have become so overwhelming that their strategic usefulness cancels any good that they could possibly do to maintain security for our own or any other nation. We all know this. President Reagan acknowledged as much when he said back in 1984 ‘a nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought.’
“The clearest demonstration of this reality is contained in computer models that show how few nuclear detonations would be necessary to plunge the world into a cooling phase so widespread that agriculture would be affected for a decade—in effect, a death sentence for the planet. It would take the use of only 3 to 5 percent of existing U.S. nuclear weapons to loft into the high atmosphere enough dust and ash to circle the earth and make food production impossible. Even a limited exchange between two nuclear powers would amount to planetary suicide. Retaliation, the basis of deterrence strategy, would only hasten the end of all we love.
“This is a major reason why 80 non-nuclear nations have signed the United Nations treaty outlawing the manufacture and deployment of nuclear weapons. None of the nine nuclear powers have signed this treaty, because established political, military and corporate thinking asserts that the power of these weapons have been a deterrent to further global war.
“People of good will may argue that the policy of deterrence has prevented apocalypse. Our challenge is that deterrence is not a steady, stable condition but instead an ever-changing unstable one. The relentless march of ‘we build/they build’ technological competition is constantly providing new weapons delivery systems. These systems are attached to ever more complex electronic monitoring devices, and these devices are in turn attached to fallible humans, the whole enchilada subject to the unspoken paradox of deterrence: in order to never be used, the weapons must be ready for instant use.
“My fellow citizens, no one has more respect than me for the professionalism of the various branches of our military. Our problem is that the prevention of an extinction event like nuclear winter is dependent upon not only our own personnel and equipment making zero mistakes, but also upon the other nuclear powers doing the same—forever.
“But we must face the tragic reality that accidents and misinterpretations are not only possible with technologically complex systems—they are inevitable. This we have learned the hard way, from the Challenger disaster, from Chernobyl, from Fukushima, from the two 737 Max 8 disasters, just to name a significant few. We are caught in a pervasive illusion, a web of denial: we acknowledge that planes can crash and chemical plants can explode, but we do not seem to be able to acknowledge, because we have become so dependent upon it, that the mighty deterrence system of the existing nuclear nations itself could fail if we continue the arms race.
“We need to question our most fundamental assumptions, and if they are about to lead us off a cliff, must we not turn around and begin to take steps away from that cliff?
“Today I, as Commander-in-Chief, am taking the first step backward with three initiatives.
“First, I pledge that the United States will never under any circumstances initiate the use of nuclear weapons.
“Second, as a further confidence-building gesture, I am bringing back to base two of our Trident ballistic missile submarines, and I am ordering our intelligence services to be on the lookout for reciprocal gestures from the other nuclear powers. If we see clear evidence of such gestures, our nation will respond in kind, beginning, I fervently hope, a virtuous circle of military stand-downs and a consequent relaxation of tensions.
“Third, I am calling for an ongoing international conference of military and diplomatic leaders to share with each other the dire implications of a hair-trigger deterrence system and to come up with realistic ways to go beyond it and prevent disaster. I expect the personnel of both nuclear and non-nuclear nations to participate, given that they all have a mortal stake in a positive outcome, and also given that there are many nations who continue to assume that their self-interest and survival requires nuclearization.
“Now I fully realize many citizens and strategic experts will question the usefulness or even the common sense of these proposals. Since the end of the World War Two, a war which coincided with the beginning both of the atomic age and the Cold War standoff with other superpowers, the peace has been kept through overwhelming military strength (the peace between superpowers, that is—there was a great deal of war in many countries during that period, some of which threatened to bring nuclear powers into direct conflict). The United States will maintain this superior strength even as we explore this new landscape where strategic advantage is no longer available by way of more weapons of mass destruction. The same technology which enabled these weapons to be built will also be up to the task of verifying whether nations meet professed commitments that will allow a world free of the scourge of nuclear weapons.
“My final point is that not only have we been overtaken by inconvenient nuclear realities, but also that America must lead in the redirection of the immense resources we have been pouring into nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. The very survival of the planet demands that we transform our own so-called military-industrial complex—and incentivize other advanced countries into doing the same—into a global powerhouse that will provide sustainable energy and prevent rising temperatures from rendering vast reaches of the planet uninhabitable. We have no other choice but to thread the needle between potential global cooling by nuclear winter and the climate emergency of excess carbon dioxide.
“God bless the United States of America, and equally bless the other nations of the world as we work together to move in the direction of a planet that works for all.”
--end--
Winslow Myers, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is the author of “Living Beyond War: A Citizen’s Guide,” serves on the Advisory Board of the War
===============Dear Editor:
Please consider this guest commentary by public intellectual Winslow Myers on the speech he envisions a wise US president would and should make. For PeaceVoice, thank you,
Tom Hastings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A presidential speech the world needs to hear
By Winslow Myers
1009 words
“Good evening, my fellow Americans.
“I want to speak frankly with you tonight about a reality that the nuclear powers have so far refused to acknowledge as the arms race goes forward unchecked. We have arrived at a point in history when the destructive power and complexity of our weapons systems have become so overwhelming that their strategic usefulness cancels any good that they could possibly do to maintain security for our own or any other nation. We all know this. President Reagan acknowledged as much when he said back in 1984 ‘a nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought.’
“The clearest demonstration of this reality is contained in computer models that show how few nuclear detonations would be necessary to plunge the world into a cooling phase so widespread that agriculture would be affected for a decade—in effect, a death sentence for the planet. It would take the use of only 3 to 5 percent of existing U.S. nuclear weapons to loft into the high atmosphere enough dust and ash to circle the earth and make food production impossible. Even a limited exchange between two nuclear powers would amount to planetary suicide. Retaliation, the basis of deterrence strategy, would only hasten the end of all we love.
“This is a major reason why 80 non-nuclear nations have signed the United Nations treaty outlawing the manufacture and deployment of nuclear weapons. None of the nine nuclear powers have signed this treaty, because established political, military and corporate thinking asserts that the power of these weapons have been a deterrent to further global war.
“People of good will may argue that the policy of deterrence has prevented apocalypse. Our challenge is that deterrence is not a steady, stable condition but instead an ever-changing unstable one. The relentless march of ‘we build/they build’ technological competition is constantly providing new weapons delivery systems. These systems are attached to ever more complex electronic monitoring devices, and these devices are in turn attached to fallible humans, the whole enchilada subject to the unspoken paradox of deterrence: in order to never be used, the weapons must be ready for instant use.
“My fellow citizens, no one has more respect than me for the professionalism of the various branches of our military. Our problem is that the prevention of an extinction event like nuclear winter is dependent upon not only our own personnel and equipment making zero mistakes, but also upon the other nuclear powers doing the same—forever.
“But we must face the tragic reality that accidents and misinterpretations are not only possible with technologically complex systems—they are inevitable. This we have learned the hard way, from the Challenger disaster, from Chernobyl, from Fukushima, from the two 737 Max 8 disasters, just to name a significant few. We are caught in a pervasive illusion, a web of denial: we acknowledge that planes can crash and chemical plants can explode, but we do not seem to be able to acknowledge, because we have become so dependent upon it, that the mighty deterrence system of the existing nuclear nations itself could fail if we continue the arms race.
“We need to question our most fundamental assumptions, and if they are about to lead us off a cliff, must we not turn around and begin to take steps away from that cliff?
“Today I, as Commander-in-Chief, am taking the first step backward with three initiatives.
“First, I pledge that the United States will never under any circumstances initiate the use of nuclear weapons.
“Second, as a further confidence-building gesture, I am bringing back to base two of our Trident ballistic missile submarines, and I am ordering our intelligence services to be on the lookout for reciprocal gestures from the other nuclear powers. If we see clear evidence of such gestures, our nation will respond in kind, beginning, I fervently hope, a virtuous circle of military stand-downs and a consequent relaxation of tensions.
“Third, I am calling for an ongoing international conference of military and diplomatic leaders to share with each other the dire implications of a hair-trigger deterrence system and to come up with realistic ways to go beyond it and prevent disaster. I expect the personnel of both nuclear and non-nuclear nations to participate, given that they all have a mortal stake in a positive outcome, and also given that there are many nations who continue to assume that their self-interest and survival requires nuclearization.
“Now I fully realize many citizens and strategic experts will question the usefulness or even the common sense of these proposals. Since the end of the World War Two, a war which coincided with the beginning both of the atomic age and the Cold War standoff with other superpowers, the peace has been kept through overwhelming military strength (the peace between superpowers, that is—there was a great deal of war in many countries during that period, some of which threatened to bring nuclear powers into direct conflict). The United States will maintain this superior strength even as we explore this new landscape where strategic advantage is no longer available by way of more weapons of mass destruction. The same technology which enabled these weapons to be built will also be up to the task of verifying whether nations meet professed commitments that will allow a world free of the scourge of nuclear weapons.
“My final point is that not only have we been overtaken by inconvenient nuclear realities, but also that America must lead in the redirection of the immense resources we have been pouring into nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. The very survival of the planet demands that we transform our own so-called military-industrial complex—and incentivize other advanced countries into doing the same—into a global powerhouse that will provide sustainable energy and prevent rising temperatures from rendering vast reaches of the planet uninhabitable. We have no other choice but to thread the needle between potential global cooling by nuclear winter and the climate emergency of excess carbon dioxide.
“God bless the United States of America, and equally bless the other nations of the world as we work together to move in the direction of a planet that works for all.”
--end--
Winslow Myers, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is the author of “Living Beyond War: A Citizen’s Guide,” serves on the Advisory Board of the War Prevention Initiative.
Dear Editor:
Please consider this guest commentary by public intellectual Winslow Myers on the speech he envisions a wise US president would and should make. For PeaceVoice, thank you,
Tom Hastings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A presidential speech the world needs to hear
By Winslow Myers
1009 words
“Good evening, my fellow Americans.
“I want to speak frankly with you tonight about a reality that the nuclear powers have so far refused to acknowledge as the arms race goes forward unchecked. We have arrived at a point in history when the destructive power and complexity of our weapons systems have become so overwhelming that their strategic usefulness cancels any good that they could possibly do to maintain security for our own or any other nation. We all know this. President Reagan acknowledged as much when he said back in 1984 ‘a nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought.’
“The clearest demonstration of this reality is contained in computer models that show how few nuclear detonations would be necessary to plunge the world into a cooling phase so widespread that agriculture would be affected for a decade—in effect, a death sentence for the planet. It would take the use of only 3 to 5 percent of existing U.S. nuclear weapons to loft into the high atmosphere enough dust and ash to circle the earth and make food production impossible. Even a limited exchange between two nuclear powers would amount to planetary suicide. Retaliation, the basis of deterrence strategy, would only hasten the end of all we love.
“This is a major reason why 80 non-nuclear nations have signed the United Nations treaty outlawing the manufacture and deployment of nuclear weapons. None of the nine nuclear powers have signed this treaty, because established political, military and corporate thinking asserts that the power of these weapons have been a deterrent to further global war.
“People of good will may argue that the policy of deterrence has prevented apocalypse. Our challenge is that deterrence is not a steady, stable condition but instead an ever-changing unstable one. The relentless march of ‘we build/they build’ technological competition is constantly providing new weapons delivery systems. These systems are attached to ever more complex electronic monitoring devices, and these devices are in turn attached to fallible humans, the whole enchilada subject to the unspoken paradox of deterrence: in order to never be used, the weapons must be ready for instant use.
“My fellow citizens, no one has more respect than me for the professionalism of the various branches of our military. Our problem is that the prevention of an extinction event like nuclear winter is dependent upon not only our own personnel and equipment making zero mistakes, but also upon the other nuclear powers doing the same—forever.
“But we must face the tragic reality that accidents and misinterpretations are not only possible with technologically complex systems—they are inevitable. This we have learned the hard way, from the Challenger disaster, from Chernobyl, from Fukushima, from the two 737 Max 8 disasters, just to name a significant few. We are caught in a pervasive illusion, a web of denial: we acknowledge that planes can crash and chemical plants can explode, but we do not seem to be able to acknowledge, because we have become so dependent upon it, that the mighty deterrence system of the existing nuclear nations itself could fail if we continue the arms race.
“We need to question our most fundamental assumptions, and if they are about to lead us off a cliff, must we not turn around and begin to take steps away from that cliff?
“Today I, as Commander-in-Chief, am taking the first step backward with three initiatives.
“First, I pledge that the United States will never under any circumstances initiate the use of nuclear weapons.
“Second, as a further confidence-building gesture, I am bringing back to base two of our Trident ballistic missile submarines, and I am ordering our intelligence services to be on the lookout for reciprocal gestures from the other nuclear powers. If we see clear evidence of such gestures, our nation will respond in kind, beginning, I fervently hope, a virtuous circle of military stand-downs and a consequent relaxation of tensions.
“Third, I am calling for an ongoing international conference of military and diplomatic leaders to share with each other the dire implications of a hair-trigger deterrence system and to come up with realistic ways to go beyond it and prevent disaster. I expect the personnel of both nuclear and non-nuclear nations to participate, given that they all have a mortal stake in a positive outcome, and also given that there are many nations who continue to assume that their self-interest and survival requires nuclearization.
“Now I fully realize many citizens and strategic experts will question the usefulness or even the common sense of these proposals. Since the end of the World War Two, a war which coincided with the beginning both of the atomic age and the Cold War standoff with other superpowers, the peace has been kept through overwhelming military strength (the peace between superpowers, that is—there was a great deal of war in many countries during that period, some of which threatened to bring nuclear powers into direct conflict). The United States will maintain this superior strength even as we explore this new landscape where strategic advantage is no longer available by way of more weapons of mass destruction. The same technology which enabled these weapons to be built will also be up to the task of verifying whether nations meet professed commitments that will allow a world free of the scourge of nuclear weapons.
“My final point is that not only have we been overtaken by inconvenient nuclear realities, but also that America must lead in the redirection of the immense resources we have been pouring into nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. The very survival of the planet demands that we transform our own so-called military-industrial complex—and incentivize other advanced countries into doing the same—into a global powerhouse that will provide sustainable energy and prevent rising temperatures from rendering vast reaches of the planet uninhabitable. We have no other choice but to thread the needle between potential global cooling by nuclear winter and the climate emergency of excess carbon dioxide.
“God bless the United States of America, and equally bless the other nations of the world as we work together to move in the direction of a planet that works for all.”
--end--
Winslow Myers, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is the author of “Living Beyond War: A Citizen’s Guide,” serves on the Advisory Board of the War Prevention Initiative.
December 4, 2019
Director of Utah Division of Water Resources Announces Retirement
New director appointed
SALT LAKE CITY – After serving as director of the Utah Division of Water Resources for the past six years, Eric Millis will retire from public service Dec. 16. Millis has spent nearly 32 years with the division working on a variety of projects that support the division’s mission to “plan, conserve, develop and protect Utah’s water resources.”
“We appreciate Eric’s years of service to the state. He is widely recognized both within the state and among our neighboring states as an expert on the Colorado River, which is a critical resource that provides water to about 40 million people in seven Western states,” said Department of Natural Resources Executive Director Brian Steed. “His leadership and friendship will be missed.”
Steed has appointed Todd Adams as the new division director. Adams has been serving as the division’s deputy director since 2013. He joined Water Resources in 1990 and holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from Utah State University.
“As we looked for someone to fill this position, Todd’s name continually rose to the top,” said Steed. “His years of experience have prepared him to lead the division. I anticipate a seamless transition.”
“We’re not just losing the director of the division,” said Adams. “We’re losing a part of our division family. He’s been a true friend, mentor and leader to all of us. I look forward to building on the good things Eric has put in place and working with our great staff.”
Millis’s water expertise has proved valuable to the long-term planning for Utah’s water needs as he has provided input to the Legislature, the Governor’s Drought Response team and while serving as a member of the Governor’s Water Strategy Team and the Executive Water Finance Board. He also served as Utah’s interstate streams commissioner, where he acted as the Governor’s representative on Bear River and Colorado River matters.
Early in his career, Millis spent many hours traveling around the state assisting with water development projects.
“Some of my favorite memories include sitting around a kitchen table and learning about the water challenges people were experiencing and then working together to find a solution,” Millis said. “These past 32 years have flown by. I’ve been honored to work with great people doing work that is important and satisfying.”
Millis was appointed division director by former DNR Executive Director Mike Styler and approved by Gov. Gary Herbert in 2013.
Additional Background
Recent accomplishments under Millis’s direction include:
Upper Colorado River Basin states (Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado) received congressional approval to store water in Lake Powell through the federal drought contingency legislation (2019)
Represented Utah in completing and signing Drought Contingency Plans that protect reservoir levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead (2019)
Minute 323 with Mexico that provides benefits and responsibilities in shortage sharing and continues environmental benefits in Mexico (2017)
Green River Water Rights Exchange agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation that allows water from Flaming Gorge Dam to be used by certain water right holders in Utah and allows much of that water to run more than 400 river miles down to Lake Powell (2019)
Navigated the lead agency change for the Lake Powell Pipeline from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to the Department of the Interior; Bureau of Reclamation (2019)
Worked on the 20-year review of the Bear River Compact
2015 Water Use Data Audit, 2017 Follow-up audit and 2017 Third-party review of the state’s water use data
Worked on establishing Regional Water Conservation Goals (2019)
Worked on the Bear River Feasibility Study (2019)
About the Division of Water Resources
The Utah Division of Water Resources is one of seven divisions housed under the Department of Natural Resources. Tasked with planning, conserving, developing and protecting Utah’s water resources, the Division of Water Resources serves as Utah’s water steward. For more information about the division, visit water.utah.gov.
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Romney, Lee Applaud Senate Confirmation of Utah Judge
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Mike Lee (R-UT) today released the following statement regarding the confirmation of David B. Barlow of South Jordan to serve as United States District Judge for the District of Utah. In July, Romney and Lee introduced Barlow at his nomination hearing before the Judiciary Committee.
“We have full confidence David will serve Utah and the country with honor and integrity, faithfully applying the law and our Constitution to all matters and parties that come before him. We wish him well as he begins this next chapter of service to our nation as a U.S. District Judge for the District of Utah.”
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