The interests of the few...
Mar 07, 2013 | 377 views | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend | print
How unfortunate our U.S. Congressman Jason Chaffetz has voted against the final version of the Violence Against Women Act. When Congress voted on the legislation Feb. 28, Rep. Chaffetz’ voice was a resounding “No” for this law, which, since its inception in 1994, has reduced domestic violence by two-thirds in the U.S.

By voting against this critical legislation, Congressman Chaffetz has thrown all the women in our 3rd Congressional District of Utah under the bus.

  Why did the Congressman vote against the bill? Because it allows U.S. citizens to be tried in tribal courts – that is, non-Indian men who live on reservations and commit acts of violence against women there would be tried in tribal courts. Some say standards of justice in reservation courts are not high and no U.S. citizens should be tried in those courts. But what’s the reality? There is little prosecution of violence against women on tribal reservations. Very few perpetrators, Indian or non-Indian, are ever brought to justice.

  So when Rep. Chaffetz balanced the interests of those few non-Indian men who might be tried in tribal courts, against the welfare of the hundreds of thousands of his Utah women constituents, what did he do? He voted for the interests of those few. That is a disappointing performance from our U.S. Congressman Jason Chaffetz.

 —Elaine Douglass

Moab, Utah
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