Vote may have cost a man's life

[helderheid]

Paul Rolly: Vote may have cost a man's life

By Paul Rolly
Tribune Columnist
Salt Lake Tribune



Remember a few years ago when we, the voters of Utah, voted down a ballot initiative to increase taxes on hazardous waste that would have injected millions into public education and homeless shelters?


We instead embraced the argument that radioactive waste facilities shouldn't be exclusively taxed, because they need to keep more of their profits to buy naming rights from the Utah Jazz.


Well, the needs of the homeless and the helpless that we chose not to address in that vote hit home when 61-year-old Ron Pendleton apparently froze to death outside the Weigand Homeless Shelter across the street from the chic Gateway Center early Saturday morning.


Pendleton was staying at the St. Vincent de Paul Center, which is an overflow facility from the regular Weigand Homeless Shelter. The facility often is a shelter for homeless men who are inebriated or otherwise compromised, and Pendleton may have been in an altercation before he went outside. The entire homeless shelter complex is usually at or above its capacity of about 900 during the winter months.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5028733

[Turbineguy]

1. Sports always trumps life.

Superbowl tickets cost over $3000 now. How many homeless could be fed for that?

[dipsydoodle]

2. Sad tale

The last part helps convey that there's at least some hope for the future :

A good deed: Heroes come in all sizes.
Take Madeline McBride, daughter of Natalie and Todd McCraley and Matt McBride, for example.
She told her mother she wanted to cut her long, blond hair that extended to her waist. So she went to the barber and had her locks cut to her chin, explaining that she wanted to donate it "so a sick child could have hair."
Madeline, by the way, is 5 years old and a kindergartner in Ogden.

[helderheid]

3. that is a sweet ending. I hadn't read the entire article.