Cindy King

I am an endangered species; yes, I am Utah Democrat, but I am from an even more endangered species, which is a third generation native Utah Unitarian. I lack any formal schooling of Judeo-Christian upbringing. My journey to humanism starts with a strong opinionated family and Corliss Lamont's book The Philosophy of Humanism, that I received from my Humanist minister Uncle as teenager. Along my journey there have been many "fascinations of distractions" that have tried to test my belief that: "all human problems can and will be solved by humans." To do this humans have to do one of the hardest things: communicate. They have to use a language that is understandable to all, but confusing too most. My adult passion is using Robert Fulghum's definition of a government worker being a United States Citizen. I have specialized as an environmental citizen activist dealing with hazardous and nuclear waste. I believe that hazardous and nuclear waste issues cause the greatest harm to humans, and there are better ways to treat the waste, including not making so much of it in the first place.

I will be sharing three brief examples of my "fascinations of distractions" on my journey to humanism as an environmental citizen activist.

1. In 1990-1991, the Department of the Defense held a conference on "Defense and the Environment" in Washington, D.C. Over 400 people attended. Out of the 400 were four people (of whom I was one) who came from chemical weapons storage sites. Three of these people had an idea and planned to ship all of their chemical weapons to Utah's storage site. I informed them that we have enough, and that we could work together to solve this problem for all, or we could use the Department of Defense's method of "divide and conquer." At this time this was the only method which we knew was getting nowhere quick. We soon formed an international citizen's coalition called the "Chemical Weapons Working Group." We have been able to get Congress to pass a bill preventing the shipping of any chemical weapons on interstate roads, and several congressional and senate hearings and a Public law to look at alternative technologies to incineration. I can report that there are currently six alternative technologies to incineration of chemical weapons that have been proven. The Environmental Protection Agency has endorsed all of these alternative technologies to be used for hazardous waste treatment I can also report that the Chemical Weapons Working Group just celebrated their tenth anniversary, and currently some colleges and universities sociology classes are now studying their methods of the decision-making process.
2. In the mid-1990's I received a call asking me to help a newly formed citizen group in East Carbon, Utah who were facing a large national company, (Union Pacific Railroad), who they were having communication problem with. In a public hearing at East Carbon High School, standing room only, the facility's representative had scheduled a three-hour meeting. The company proceeded to explain in obscure detail how great it would be for the residents of East Carbon to house this nation's largest solid waste landfill. Finally a break was taken. I proceeded to get the word to the people not to leave they would be heard. I asked the representative running the meeting if we could say the pledge of alliance in honor of our President being in Utah's capitol city. I knew that a flag would not be able to be obtained. I then asked to read a poem one of the citizens gave me in his honor. The local police stood closer and ready to remove me. The company soon realized that the people want to be heard. The local police moved back. The meeting that started at 6 p.m. ended closer to midnight than 9 PM. All who wanted to speak were heard. While the citizens of East Carbon are now housing this nation's largest solid waste landfill, they did win in the Utah Supreme Court ruling that year on zoning issues affecting the landfill.
3. Last year, I learned the importance of not leaving one's communication skills to others when it comes to informing your folks of upcoming articles in the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News which affect you. Before going to class one night at the University of Utah for my masters degree, I received a call from Salt Lake Tribune environmental reporter Jim Wolfe, who informed me that Envirocare of Utah had just filed with the third district court a six million dollars or more lawsuit against me and others. Of course, by this time the Deseret News had run the their story stating it was 60 million dollars. I knew that my folks did not receive the Deseret News, so at dinner were my folks agreed to feed my family while I was at class, my beloved husband said the following, "Please pass the salt and pepper, and by the way Cindy has been hit with a six million dollar plus lawsuit." This immediately got my folks' attention and he went on to say "Cindy will explain when we pick up from her class," and continued eating.

In closing, I will say I have learned two things so far in journey of Humanism "fascinations of distractions": (1) communication skills are one of the hardest things to do, and (2) never leave your communication skills to any one else.