24 January 2012

Downwinders Across West Commemorate National Day of Remembrance

Photo Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas
Downwinders Across West Commemorate
National Day of Remembrance

       Across the West, downwinders are staging events to mark what the U.S. Senate has designated a national Day of Remembrance for victims of nuclear weapons testing on Friday, January 27, the date in 1951 on which the first nuclear weapons tests were conducted at the Nevada Test Site.

       The Senate resolution was introduced by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who is also one of six western senators pushing for the expansion of compensation to downwinders. During the Cold War, the United States detonated more than 1,000 nuclear weapons at the Nevada Test Site. Clouds of fallout filled with radioactive isotopes spread across the U.S., exposing a generation of Americans. The West was particularly hard hit.

       In Utah, Governor Gary Herbert, local leaders in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Kane County and Springdale have joined with the U.S. Senate in designating Jan. 27 as a Day of Remembrance.

       “It’s important that we preserve the past, but it’s also important that we protect the future,” says downwinder Eve Mary Verde. “The cancers we’ve suffered and the loved ones we’ve lost demand more than one day of remembrance. They demand that we act. We must bring a permanent end to nuclear weapons testing and we must ensure justice for downwinders affected by past tests.”

       In Salt Lake City, downwinders will honor the silent victims of the Cold War in the Hall of Governors at the Utah State Capitol at noon on Friday. Making remarks at the event will be Rep. Jim Matheson, a long-time advocate for downwinders and Salt Lake City downwinder Mary Dickson; Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, presenting his proclamation; and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, presenting his proclamation. They’ll be joined by a bi-partisan group of current and former state representatives who sponsored past resolutions concerning nuclear weapons testing and downwinders.

       That evening, the Utah Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, will hold a candlelight vigil honoring and remembering downwinders at 5:30 p.m. at the Episcopal Church Center of Utah, 75 S. 200 E. Remarks will be made by the Very Reverend Raymond Joe Waldon, Jr., Dean and Rector of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Marks in Salt Lake City and the Reverend Steve Klenz, Pastor of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Salt Lake City.

       A commemoration is set for noon Friday at Utah Valley University in the Library Lecture Hall, room 120. The event will include films as well as a history of fallout in Utah County by J. Preston Truman, head of Downwinders, Inc.

       Elsewhere in Utah, resolutions and proclamations marking the Day of Remembrance have been passed by Springdale Mayor Pat Cluff. The Kane County Commission passed a resolution Monday. Ironically, the mayor of St. George, which was the epicenter of fallout, for undisclosed reasons declined to declare Jan. 27 a Day of Remembrance.

       Elsewhere in the West, vigils are scheduled in Boise, Idaho; Kingman, Arizona. Downwinders will gather across northern New Mexico and southwest Colorado and in Montana, as well.

       The Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City and Springdale resolutions include support of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty – which would put in place a global ban on nuclear weapons testing -- and the expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). Currently RECA covers only 10 counties in Utah, even though studies have documented that counties across Utah and the West received dangerously high levels of fallout.

       A 2005 Congressional Report from the Committee on Government Reform found that “radiation associated cancer is actually more common in counties where residents are excluded from compensation than in those counties where residents are included under RECA law.”

       A bipartisan group of six western senators introduced a bill into Congress which would provide RECA coverage to all areas hit by fallout in the West. The bill , being pushed by Sen. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico), Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D- New Mexico), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), James Risch (R-Idaho), Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colorado), Sen. Mark Udall, (D-Colorado), has currently stalled in Congress.

       “This about getting justice and medical assistance for all those who were harmed by fallout,” says J. Preston Truman. “We’re not willing to forget nor to forgive. We’re going to make sure it never happens again, which is why it’s so important to remember what started on that day 61 years ago when we were told, ’There is no danger.’ We owe it to ourselves, those who have died, but more importantly to our children and future generations that we pass the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty so no new downwinders will be created.”


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23 January 2012

Free Scout Day at Tracy Aviary


Tracy Aviary
Free Scout Day





Free Scout Day — Saturday, February 25

Patriotic Eagle
Tracy Aviary Salutes! Please join Tracy Aviary February 25th, 2012 from 9:00am to 5:00pm, as they celebrate the wonderful Scouting organizations. They will be honoring scouts by having free admittance for anyone wearing a scout uniform, special bird encounters, Eagle Scout Project Recognition and more! Please find the schedule of activities below:



9:30am: Keeper talk – Eagles exhibit

10:00am: Desert Avian Web (lasts 1-hour. activity is free, but tickets required, inquire in the Gift Shop)

11:30am: Eggsmasher demonstration

12:00pm (as supplies last): Girl scout cookies and juice, served from the Chase Mill

1:30pm: Keeper talk- Southern Ground Hornbill exhibit

2:00pm: Desert Avian Web (lasts 1-hour. activity is free, but tickets required, inquire in the Gift Shop)

2:30pm: Keeper talk- Keel-billed Toucan exhibit

3:30pm: Eggsmasher demonstration


Tracy Aviary
589 East 1300 South
Salt Lake City, Utah
Located in the southwest corner of Liberty Park

Scout admissions are generously provided for by the Castle Foundation.


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UMFA Special Exhibition: Xaviera Simmons

UMFA Special Exhibition
salt 4:
Xaviera Simmons



salt 4: Xaviera Simmons ~ Collective and Personal Histories

Xaviera Simmons, Maps, 2010,
detail, color photograph.
salt 4: Xaviera Simmons is the fourth in the Museum's series of exhibitions featuring innovative art from around the world. Through photography, installation, and performance, New York-based artist Xaviera Simmons constructs multivalent narratives of collective and personal histories. Her work often references traditions of American landscape painting, exploring depictions of the individual in nature. salt 4: Xaviera Simmons features a series of photographs, as well as a sculptural installation made of hand-lettered, locally found wooden scraps affixed directly to the gallery wall. This tangled matrix of text gleaned from notes, news articles, folklore, and literature forms its own kind of lyrical landscape, one imbued with historical and personal memory. Exhibition runs through February 26, 2012.

Utah Museum of Fine Arts
University of Utah Campus
Marcia & John Price Museum Building
410 Campus Center Dr.
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112

Museum Hours
Tuesday - Friday: 10 am - 5 pm
Wednesday: 10 am - 8 pm
Saturday and Sunday: 11 am - 5 pm
Closed Mondays and holidays


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Hale Centre Theater Presents "The Games Afoot"

Ken Ludwig's "The Games Afoot"

A Utah Premiere!... by Tony Award winning author, Ken Ludwig – fresh from his pen to the Hale Centre Theatre stage! It’s 1936 in a country mansion on the Connecticut River. Family and friends gather… an hilarious, mystery thriller ignites! Is it the Inspector, the actor, the fiancé, the sweet young thing or the aged mother? Sherlock Holmes to the rescue!

“Hale Centre Theatre has done outstanding work in producing my shows in the past, and I'm honored that they have chosen my newest play to present at their wonderful theater this season," Ludwig said.

“The Game’s Afoot” begins with famed stage actor William Gillette at his Connecticut castle, recovering from an attempt on his life following a performance of his renowned play, “Sherlock Holmes.” It’s Christmas Eve, and much to his mother Martha’s chagrin, William invites fellow actors Aggie, Simon, Felix and Madge over for the holiday weekend. His elaborate home, filled with gadgets and hidden passageways, becomes the setting for a murder, and Gillette must use the Sherlock Holmes crime-solving skills he made famous on stage to catch the culprit.

HCT’s “The Game’s Afoot” is directed by David Nieman. The show stars Mitch Hall and David Stensrud as William Gillette (Sherlock Holmes). Costumes were designed by Suzanne Carling; scenic design by Jennifer Stapley Taylor; lighting design by Adam Flitton; production assistance by Tammy Morgan; props by Michelle Jensen; and sound design by Dan Morgan.

The production runs through Feb. 4. Admission prices start at $24 for adults and $15 for children ages 5-11. Tickets may be purchased online at www.halecentretheatre.org, via telephone at 801-984-9000 or at the Hale Centre Theatre box office.

Hale Centre Theater
3333 South Decker Lake Drive
West Valley, Utah


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Utah Opera Presents Verdi's "Rigoletto"

"Rigoletto"
by Giuseppe Verdi

Utah Opera Presents Verdi's "Rigoletto"

Utah Opera will present Verdi’s enduring masterpiece, “Rigoletto,” a classic tale of revenge and regret, at the Capitol Theatre January 23, 25 and 27 at 7:30 p.m. and January 29 at 2 p.m.

Verdi’s opera follows Rigoletto, a hunchbacked jester notorious for ridiculing and mocking the fathers and husbands of the women dishonored by the Duke of Mantua. Rigoletto’s malicious tongue ultimately earns him a curse that haunts his every step toward revenge against the Duke for deceiving his own daughter, Gilda. In his vengeful chase, Rigoletto pays an assassin to trick and kill the duke, but finds he is the fool and instead pays for his cruel mockeries with a loss of horrific proportion.

“Rigoletto” has become a staple of the standard operatic repertoire. It contains some of opera’s most recognizable arias, such as “Questa o Quella,” “Caro Nome” and “La Donna é Mobile,” and is considered to be the first masterpiece of Verdi’s middle-to-late career.

Cast members include Guido LeBrón as Rigoletto, Robert McPherson as the Duke of Mantua, Eric Jordan as Sparafucile and local Utah favorite Celena Shafer as Gilda, Directed by Tara Faircloth. The Utah Symphony will accompany each performance, conducted by Robert Tweten. The opera will be sung in Italian with English supertitles. With two twenty-minute intermissions, approximate final curtain time will be 9:45 p.m. for evening performances and 4:15 p.m. for the matinee.

Utah Opera Principal Coach Carol Anderson will offer an Opera Prelude Lecture, free of charge, in the front of the orchestra seating level of Capitol Theatre one hour before curtain of each performance.

Utah Opera Artistic Director Christopher McBeth will hold a Q&A session, free of charge, immediately following each performance in the Founders room on the mezzanine level at Capitol Theatre (50 West 200 South).

Tickets for the performances range from $16 to $75 and can be purchased by calling (801) 355-ARTS (2787), in person at the Abravanel Hall ticket office or by visiting www.usuo.org. Students can purchase discounted tickets with a student ID.

Rigoletto
Composed by Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Maria Piave
Based on Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’amuse


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