(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) U.S. Senator Mike Lee speaks during the State Organizing Convention for the Utah Republican Party at Utah Valley University in Orem on Saturday, May 17, 2025.
Shame on critics of Black Birders Week!
When I served as vice president of the National Parks and Conservation Association, we launched a comprehensive program to reach out to American communities who had been excluded, ignored, misrepresented or, for a variety of reasons, felt our National Park system was not for them.
In cooperation with the National Park Service (NPS), we met with members and leaders of the Black, Hispanic, Asian-American and Native American communities to better understand and break down these barriers. The NPS corrected misinterpretation, established (along with states) new parks and monuments, made parks more welcoming, and opened productive conversation with previously neglected Americans. The program was a great, but perhaps too short-lived, success.
There is no legitimate reason to prohibit targeted and specialized outreach to communities who feel disenfranchised, whether because of race, faith, national origin, gender identity, physical ability or whatever. Particularly if, like the Nature Center, outreach is your business.
Sen. Mike Lee, Eric Moutsos and other old, white, well-off men complaining about racial discrimination is a disgrace. Shame on all of you! And thank you to Laura Western and the Ogden Nature Center for this well-intended, thoughtful, and needed project.
Jim Pissot, Canmore, Alberta (former Utah resident)
