* Winners: The Census Bureau says Utah is growing fast enough to likely gain a fourth seat in the House of Representatives by the year 2000. That makes all Utahns winners because it gives the state another voice in Congress. Of course, there is a downside - a huge one. Utahns will have to endure yet another political race, complete with its campaign tactics and advertising.
* Winners: Rural Utah lawmakers certainly qualify as winners, again and again. As the Deseret News noted earlier this week, once a state legislator is elected from a sparsely populated rural area, he or she usually can keep the job as long as desired. A term-limit law wouldn't help much. Often the lawmakers run unopposed. Fifteen of them lack serious opposition this year, although some have third-party opposition.As one rural legislator said, people in rural areas are too busy trying to make a living to run for office. Then there is the fact that in some areas, people just aren't that plentiful. None of this is bad, so long as rural residents feel they are adequately represented.
Losers: It's bad enough that the world has to endure a second O.J. Simpson trial, now we get the chance to view the dramatized version, as well. E! Entertainment Television is recreating each day's testimony using professional actors, all of which proves the adage that when you think things are as bad as they possibly could get, they still could get worse.
The live coverage of O.J.'s original criminal trial did enormous harm to the justice system and to the media's credibility. By letting actors interpret the trial's transcripts, E! is blurring the lines between reality and fiction while trying to place credible journalism somewhere in the middle. Meanwhile, the network, which probably doesn't care much about journalism or the public's right to know, is playing into the hands of judges who think the legitimate media wants cameras in the courtroom only for entertainment purposes.
Wouldn't it be nice some day to watch a dramatic re-enactment of how E! had to drop this scheme for lack of viewers?
Losers: While we're on the subject of stooping to low levels, it's hard to get lower than the thought of getting rich off the money of Holocaust victims. That's what documents made public this week show Switzerland did after World War II. On at least one occasion, money from these dormant accounts was distributed to Swiss businessmen to compensate them for assets seized in Hungary after the communist takeover.
Other allegations are that the gold looted by Nazis or taken from the teeth of Jewish victims was sold to the Swiss National Bank. All this leaves Switzerland, a nation that professes neutrality, with a lot of explaining to do.