Comments by Will Trentman

Logos

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 13:51:05 -0500

In the opening sentence, I open with a thank you to the representative. This gained me sympathy and understanding immediately.

Logical Fallacy

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 13:42:49 -0500

This was especially alarming to the animals because they were told in their laws that trade with humans was forbidden. When someone bends the rules of a constitution to serve their own interests, it is often compensated with the notion that it will help the people. Very similarly, there has been a man who rose to power in the U.S., trying the same strategy. The U.S. has this system of checks and balances, and this man has attempted to make this system obsolete for personal interst all with the promise of "Making America Great Again." We can see how this is the notion of helping the people to compensate for the alarming, unchecked power given to one person in a Democracy.

Can you point me to resources that will help me appeal to Utah representative Kirk A. Cullimore Jr? Please help me appeal to him in writing a letter, trying to convince him to vote in favor of HB285

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 12:25:07 -0500

You’ve already got a strong start with your letter; now we can be more *targeted* to Senator Cullimore specifically. Here are some resources and angles that can help you appeal to him on HB 285 (“Local Planning and Regulation Impacts on Wildlife Amendments”): (Utah Legislature).

Read the official HB 285 page so you can name specific parts of the bill that matter most to you (for example, the requirement to consult the Department of Natural Resources before development): (Utah Legislature).
Connect wildlife to air quality and quality of life, not just “saving animals.” Senator Cullimore has publicly framed air quality and emissions as a top concern for his constituents and supported a framework called “Prosperity 2030” to cut emissions 50% by 2030, arguing that pollution shortens Utahns’ lives; if you show HB 285 as part of that same “health + prosperity” story, you are speaking his language. (KSL.com)
Appeal to conservative, property‑and‑business language, not just environmental language. His background is in real estate and landlord law, and he emphasizes economic growth and “prosperity,” so you can frame HB 285 as smart planning that avoids lawsuits, protects tourism and property values, and gives cities a clear, predictable process instead of surprise conflicts over wildlife later. (KSL.com); (Utah Investigative Journalism Project)
Show that you’re one of “his people” and a future voter. He represents a Salt Lake County district and talks a lot about listening to local families and teachers; when you stress that you’re a 17‑year‑old constituent who will be voting soon, you’re reinforcing that this is a long‑term relationship, not just a one‑time ask. (Wikipedia)

Instead of my writing or rewriting your letter, I’m here to help you shape it: would you like to choose one paragraph of your existing draft (for example, the paragraph where you talk about HB 285) and, using the resources above, decide what one change you want to make to better match Senator Cullimore’s priorities—or, if you’d rather start fresh or work with another source, you can click Continue with AI to keep thinking together here OR go to Create Document to upload a source to read and annotate or to start writing?

"One of my elected representatives is Utah state senator Clinton Okerlund. Can you tell me a little about the senator's positions on bills like HB 285?"

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 13:37:59 -0500

You actually have a state representative, Clint(‑on) Okerlund, not a state senator, and I couldn’t find any record yet of how he’s voted on HB 285 (Local Planning and Regulation Impacts on Wildlife Amendments), since the bill is still early in the 2026 process and no floor or committee votes are posted. (Utah Legislature, HB 285 Bill Page, 2026)

Clint Okerlund is a first‑term Republican member of the Utah House (District 42, Sandy/Salt Lake area) who started serving in January 2025 after winning the 2024 election. (Wikipedia, “Clinton Okerlund,” 2025)
His professional background is in business/finance (CFO with a BYU business degree and an MBA from Notre Dame), and he sits on House Transportation, Revenue & Taxation, and the Economic & Community Development Appropriations Subcommittee. (CI Gateway, Legislator Profile: Clint Okerlund, 2025)
One early signal of his general approach is a 2026 proposal (HJR19) to cap how many bills each legislator can run, which he framed as a way to cut costs and encourage better‑vetted legislation, suggesting a “smaller, more efficient government” mindset. (National Today, “Utah Bill to Limit Number of Bills Fails to Gain Traction,” 2026)
Because he’s new in office, there’s not yet a long voting record on wildlife, habitat, or local‑planning issues to compare directly to Rep. Doug Owens’s sponsorship of HB 285 and his broader Great Salt Lake and wildlife‑crossing work. (Utah House Democrats, Doug Owens Member Page, 2026)

If you’re looking at this bill for a class or for your own civic action, what’s one question or concern you personally have about how HB 285 might affect development and wildlife where you live—something you’d actually want to email Rep. Okerlund about—and do you want to click Continue with AI to draft that message together or go to Create Document to start writing it on your own?

"One of my elected representatives is Utah state senator Kirk A. Cullimore . Can you tell me a little about the senator's positions on bills like HB 285?"

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 13:35:20 -0500

You’re asking a really thoughtful, specific question about one particular senator and one particular bill, so I want to be clear about what I **can** and **can’t** see.

I can see that HB 285 (2026 General Session) is a Utah House bill about requiring cities and counties to consider wildlife impacts when they write or update general plans and land-use regulations, and it has a Senate sponsor listed as “(to be filled in)” in the draft you pasted (Utah Legislature, 2026 fiscal note for HB 285). [I couldn’t find a verifiable public roll‑call or statement tying Sen. Kirk A. Cullimore personally to HB 285 yet.] (Utah Legislature, Fiscal Note for HB 285, 2026)
Public reporting shows Sen. Kirk A. Cullimore as a Republican Senate leader who often works on business, tech, and housing issues, like revising AI‑disclosure rules to focus on “high‑risk” uses (finance, health, legal) rather than everyday small‑business chatbots, which suggests a general pattern of favoring lighter regulation where he sees rules as too “onerous” on business (Higgins, 2025). (Higgins, “Utah lawmaker looks to rollback ‘onerous’ AI regulation…,” 2025)
Recent coverage also shows him co‑sponsoring a 2026 infrastructure‑financing bill (HB 68) aimed at helping cities build utilities to support more housing, again pointing to a pro‑development, pro‑housing‑supply stance, as long as costs to local governments and builders are manageable (Higgins, 2026). (Higgins, “Utah Legislature weighs homebuyer aid, zoning changes…,” 2026)
Because positions on **HB 285‑style wildlife/land‑use bills** are very specific, the best way to see Cullimore’s stance is to look up: (a) his **committee or floor votes** on HB 285 once it reaches the Senate, (b) any **floor debates or quotes** about it, and (c) his votes on other wildlife/land‑use bills (for example, wildlife funding or public‑lands management bills) to see if he tends to favor stricter environmental review vs. streamlined development; that information will show up on the Utah Legislature bill page and in news coverage as the session moves forward. (Utah Legislature, Public Bill Search, n.d.)

If you pull up the Utah Legislature page for HB 285 and see how Sen. Cullimore votes or what he says in debate, would you like to come back and, using your own words, draft a short explanation of how his stance lines up (or doesn’t) with your values—then click Continue with AI to get help refining it, OR head to Create Document to start a fresh note where you paste the bill text and your reactions?

What is the secret to being Happy?

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 12:11:41 -0500

There seems to be a lot of correlation between doing things and being happy. The key to happiness seems to be just keeping yourself real busy with the people you love doing the things that make you happy.