. Standard-Examiner Tuesday, May 20, 2014 11A

Charles Horton III, Andy Howell, Doug Gibson, Publisher Executive Editor Opinion Editor

Alan Hall, Kim Irvine, At-large Editorial Board member At-large Editorial Board member

A pill peddler gets a break

hat was the point? to three years in prison. Unless an Why did we spend the objection by federal prosecutors to money and time to try Judge Dee Benson’s decision is suc- Wand convict the infa- cessful, the pill peddler who caused mous Brigham City doctor Dewey a man’s death will have avoided the MacKay, who prescribed roughly proper extent of justice. 3.5 million dangerous prescription Benson is wrong in his deci- drugs to patients over a four-plus sion. He claims that because two year period? Why did we waste our prescription drugs were found in time sentencing MacKay to 20 years Wirick’s body, that MacKay only in prison for causing patient David merits three years. But federal law Wirick, of Ogden, to die in 2006 due requires a 20-year minimum sen- to the drugs MacKay fraudulently tence for fraudulently prescribing prescribed him? medicine that results in a death. MacKay is an awful man. While And MacKay was convicted of that practicing, his office was a revolv- crime. Send us your letter to the editor ing door of scores of patients mov- Prescription drug abuse is a horri- To send the Standard-Examiner Opinion Page a letter to the ing through in a single day, exploited ble epidemic in Utah and the nation. editor: by MacKay, whose greed thrived on It destroys the health of those who • email us at [email protected], or their pain and addictions. Besides get addicted and kills a fair number • mail a letter to Letter to the Editor, P. O. Box 12790, his conviction on Wirick’s death, of them through overdoses. Given Ogden, UT 84412-2790 Letters should be no longer than 350 words and include the MacKay, in 2011, was convicted of the manner that MacKay actively author’s name, city, and phone number (last for verification only). On StandardNET: 40 counts of illegally prescribing increased prescription drug abuse painkillers to patients. through his felonies, the changed BLOOMBERG NEWS So, nearly three years ago, society sentence is an outrage and a slap in EDITORIAL BOARD: The board states that Thomas Pik- shipped the pill peddler to prison to the face to MacKay’s victims. etty, author of “Capitol in the serve at least 20 years in prison. It Three years ago, the community 21st Century,” an economics was an appropriate sentence, given did something good. It sent a mes- Ogden Gun Club not included in article best-seller, is right on history the mayhem that MacKay caused, sage to prescription pill peddlers but shaky on policy. Editor, the late 1800s. John M *** and the deep disgrace he brought to that such crimes will be punished The lead article in the Browning and other notable See this column and more his profession. to the full extent of the law. And Sunday paper regarding local residents were among at StandardNET’s Yet, just recently a federal judge now, District Judge Dee Benson has shooting ranges was very its early members. The National Commentary timely, but there is one earliest location I am aware decided that MacKay had suffered changed the good to bad. glaring omission (May 11, of was on land east of enough, and reduced his sentence Again, what was the point? “Shooting ranges ‘going Washington Boulevard now great guns’”). occupied by the Ogden Golf Island won’t see big There is no mention and Country Club. of the Ogden Gun Club. The gun club is for revenue from zip line While I believe the club shotguns only just as the Editor, is now located in the far Golden Spike Gun Club Regarding the news South portion of Box Elder is. It has both trap and article of May 15, “Yuba County, it is still used sporting clays layouts and State Park gets zip line,” I largely by Weber County has lights on the trap fields have to agree with Jeremy residents. for night shooting. It is open Shaw. Having people I was looking through some It is located in Box Elder to the public Wednesday zipping through the air on a County only because it evenings and Sunday days. state run hunting preserve was forced out of its old For more information see wouldn’t be a great fit for photographs location on west 31st Street the website ogdengunclub. Antelope Island. years ago to make room com I’m sure Antelope Island fter the words “love,” “the moon,” history. for industrial development. I believe that the makes more money from and “stars” one of the most The photograph reproduced here is At that time, the best Ogden Gun Club deserves hunting permits than they Afrequently used words in song lyrics from the WSU Stewart Library’s digital alterative was on state recognition even though could ever realize from the is “photograph.” collection from the Weber State University owned land adjacent to it is located in Box Elder paltry $10-$15 per person Jackson Browne Library Archives, Willard Bay. County. zip line ride. wrote the lyrics, Top of Utah Voices and it originally The Ogden Gun Club Deon R. Van Cleave Keene Barton “Looking through some appeared in the college has been in existence since Ogden Clinton photographs I found yearbook The Acorn. inside a drawer The photograph was I was taken by a Michael taken at a promenade photograph of you.” Vaughan at the Bigelow Hotel, Ringo Starr sang about now known as the Ben photographs in the song, Lomond. appropriately titled, Commentary When I look at the “Photographs.” photo of the ballroom Paul Simon praised at the Bigelow Hotel, I the fact that Kodachrome Michael Vaughan is Weber State University’s see Jay Gatsby. “Daisy More flexibility for Japan’s military? gives us us those nice provost. He accepts e-mail from readers at and Gatsby danced. [email protected] bright colors, the greens I remember being AN EDITORIAL would allow Japanese peacekeepers to of summers. While surprised by his graceful, offer more robust assistance in U.N. recalling a lost love, The Cure lamented conservative fox-trot — I had never seen missions and Japanese ships and planes only having “Pictures of You.” Weezer sang him dance before.” et’s say North Korea shoots a missile to help bolster the defense of nations like that “It’s in the photograph of love.” I see a couple of older fellows who at a U.S. aircraft carrier, and Japan Vietnam and the Philippines which, like Songwriters know that photographs look like gamblers or bootleggers. In the Lhas the ability to knock the missile Japan, are alarmed by China’s growing are a powerful foreground down before it strikes. Should it do so? assertiveness. device for of the photo, The U.S. sailors aboard the carrier The change, supported by the Obama evoking I see Harold would certainly say yes. Japanese Prime administration, makes sense. But it needs memories Lloyd. A Minister Shinzo Abe thinks so, too. But to be accomplished with caution. Many and emotions. little to Abe says that, under current law and Japanese — a majority, according to some Photographic the left of constitutional interpretation, Japan would polls — are dubious about the change; images tell a Harold, I be unable to act. He wants to change that. they are proud of the “peace constitution” story. see a fellow This strange state of affairs dates back and the special global role Japan has Thanks who is dead to 1947, when a defeated Japan, under U.S. carved out as a kind of pacifist power. to digital ringer for occupation, adopted an unprecedented Japan’s neighbors, notably Korea and technology, Leonardo “peace” constitution. “Aspiring sincerely China, are nervous about the change, too. more and more DiCaprio. I to an international peace based on justice Given that both were victims of Japanese photographs get a glimpse and order, the Japanese people forever aggression in the last century, some are being into Ogden’s renounce war as a sovereign right of the trepidation is to be expected. Anxiety has placed online past, and I nation and the threat or use of force as been fueled by nationalist politicians and where anyone can imagine means of settling international disputes,” one-sided textbooks, especially in China, can access what Ogden the charter proclaimed. where a Communist autocracy nervous them. was like at Within a few years, as the Cold War about its own legitimacy finds it useful to Anyone a different intensified and the United States sought keep a potential enemy easily reachable interested time. to rebuild Japan as an ally against the on its propaganda shelf. in taking a When you Soviet threat, the constitution began to be But Abe has needlessly stoked those look back look at the reinterpreted. Japan now fields a “self- fears. His visit to a Shinto shrine where into Ogden’s past should examine the photograph, what and who do you see? defense” force that is among the world’s Japanese war criminals are honored, searchable, digital archives at Weber State If you want to see an immaculately most capable militaries. But Japanese statements that have seemed to question University. Simply go to the web site http:// reproduced image of the dance at the courts and politicians have continued to the extent of Japan’s culpability in the dc.weber.edu/ . The most recent addition to Bigelow. Simply pull up the web site hold that the force must confine itself war, and his associations with right- this digital archive is a collection of Weber mentioned above, find the collection of literally to self-defense. wing politicians whose statements are State University newspapers dating back to Weber yearbooks, and go to page 92 of the Abe said last week that such an even more extreme — all of these have 1917. The newspapers join digital images of 1928 Acorn. You will see a digital image interpretation isn’t viable in today’s world. made his motives suspect in neighbors’ Weber State yearbooks, catalogs and other reproduced from the original negative. If He wants Japan’s Diet, or parliament, eyes. That, in turn, has complicated his artifacts. by chance you recognize a grandparent, to rewrite a series of laws to enable a reasonable quest to turn Japan, nearly But, the collection isn’t limited to Weber great grandparent, or some other relative more mutually useful alliance with the seven decades after war’s end, into a more State’s history. You will also find a rich or friend please send me an email and let United States. A reinterpretation also “normal” country. collection of documents relating to Ogden’s me know. By By Bruce Tinsley