As a citizen and columnist, I feel duty-bound to support the heavy-handed way in which Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and his new pals in the Legislature, Greg Curtis and John Valentine, ran roughshod over the will of the people to approve public funding of Dave's Big Soccer Stadium.

That's not easy to say.

For one thing, it's a very long sentence.

Those men are so much smarter than us, and if you don't believe it, just ask them. The Guv, for instance, said he can see 20 years ahead to gauge the merits of the stadium, even with an inversion. He looked at the public-opinion polls and the two audits and Mayor Peter Corroon's decision and said, essentially, "You're all wrong. I know more than all of you put together. But thanks for playing."

Many people are still upset about this. They just don't get it. Consider how easy the Guv and his pals make our lives. I don't know about you, but I don't want to bother staying informed on the issues. I don't want to expend energy thinking about and studying those things. These men will do all of that for us.

We spent two years trying to decide the stadium issue, when the governor, Valentine, Curtis and even Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan had the answers all along. They were kind enough to let us pretend that we and our county officials were deciding the issue, but they were just floating our boat.

We spent years and lots of money on two independent audits that said that public funding of the soccer stadium was too risky.

Corroon agonized for months over this issue and determined that it wasn't a good deal for the taxpayers.

The issue was debated over and over in the media.

We participated in poll after poll that said the public did not support public funding of the stadium.

What an incredible waste of time.

Gov. Huntsman and friends could have saved us a lot of trouble. Or his wife. The Guv said he has to look 20 years ahead, but apparently he didn't see that far until he came home one night and discovered that his wife and daughters were upset that Corroon rejected the stadium. THEN the Governor turned visionary and saw the light, but the point is he saw that light, and we didn't, or couldn't, or won't.

Dave Checketts sent 35 roses to the first lady — one for every million dollars they squeezed out of the public — because, as he said, "We would not be standing here without Mary Kaye's insistence that RSL stay here." How cute was that?

The Guv, or his wife, knows best, and we need to remember that. Think of them as the state's Dad and Mom.

When a proposed nuclear-bomb test in the Nevada desert was defeated by public outcry, he celebrated it as a victory for the people. But when the people spoke against the stadium, that was another matter; they couldn't possibly understand such a complex issue the way he could. Or his wife, whatever. The Guv will heed the will of the people — as long as it's his will.