[Am-info] Broad-based group forms to fight proposed UCITA

[Mitch Stone]

--- From a message sent by Doug Masson on 1/9/00 6:57 AM ---

>It's also important that the fight be engaged in each state. One of the 
>dangers of
>UCITA is that it comes from the Uniform Law Commissioners. I can speak 
>only as to
>the Indiana legislature for whom I used to work, but my impression is that
>legislators give deference to legislation originating from the Uniform Law
>Commissioners. It's only a default sort of deference though. If they don't 
>hear
>anything in opposition, they will tend to think it's probably all right. 
>But they
>will be perfectly willing to throw it out the window if they think their
>constituents are going to be harmed by it (except, of course, for the few 
>who will
>willingly harm their constituents to help a powerful lobbyist or two.)

I've read quite a bit about UCITA over the past year, but I still cannot 
form an argument against it in a few potent paragraphs -- at least, not 
one that will be understood by a general reader. If this sounds like the 
description of a column, then that's precisely my point -- I've had a 
column describing the dangers of UCITA on my docket for months, but find 
I don't grasp the implications fully enough to pull together 700 cogent 
words on the topic. And I suspect most journalists have a similar 
reaction to UCITA, which is why we hear so little about it.

Mitch Stone
mstone@vc.net