THUMBS UP: Pioneer Days is here! The team at the Standard-Examiner has their cowboy (and girl) hats ready to ride along with all the festivities this week and the coming week. We have enjoyed learning new stories this year, particularly about Miss Rodeo Ogden and her special tributes to heroes. 

THUMBS UP: Where the Utah Legislature did not succeed, Utah is making a step forward nonetheless, after a ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ children received an early nod of approval from a state licensing board on Thursday. According to an Associated Press report, Gov. Herbert and Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox stated that “psychological intervention should be governed by science, not politics.” To which we wholeheartedly agree. This dangerous practice should be banned from Utah altogether, and we hope future steps also include banning it for Utahns of all ages.

THUMBS DOWN: We were left scratching our heads about an issue brought up in the Ogden mayoral candidate debate that took place Thursday, when the four candidates were asked about their understanding of race relations in Ogden and how they would address it. Two of the candidates were reported to say they weren’t aware of any race relation issues — Daniel Tabish and John Thompson — which seems either incredibly naive or their heads have been stuck in the sand in regards to current events and ongoing work to improve diversity and race relations.

In the past year across Northern Utah, there have been protests for a Harrisville man shot by police officers; a director of equity and justice hired in Weber School District; Utah Black Roundtable and Northern Utah Black Lives Matter protested against Davis School District for racist behavior by staff and students; and white supremacy stickers showed up on Weber State’s campus in April. Just to name a few current events.

Weber County has the highest concentration of Latinos in Utah, and the second highest concentration of blacks. If candidates running for office are not up to date on issues taking place in their diverse community, then it will be difficult for them to represent the entire community. We hope they catch up on some overdue homework following this debate; the primary election is not that far away.

THUMBS DOWN: We witnessed some fairly irresponsible online behavior recently that got our goat. It has to do with Utah residents spewing serious unsubstantiated rumors on social media, to TV news and other places that stir up real fear and panic. These are rumors that could have been easily followed up by any regular resident with a quick call to a school district, your local dispatcher or private message to a news organization or city.

Instead, we witnessed multiple residents running rampant with and spreading (what ended up being confirmed by journalists as completely fabricated) bogus lies on grounds that it was a rumor with the side note of “there is no proof or verification” but I’m posting it anyways because I want people to weigh in. Adding that caveat does not remove responsibility from an individual sharing and spreading irresponsible and reckless information. Adults should know and do better. In our world of modern tech, it has never been easier to spread false information through a community and when anyone does this, be it your neighbor, an online troll or even a journalist, it is important that people call it out for what it is so that individuals have the opportunity to correct themselves.