U-Talk: What, in your opinion, most makes America special?
-
- America Furtes
-
- Noemi Aguirre
-
- Aaron Flores
-
- Jayden Sawyer
-
- Autumn Elizabeth Rose
Editor’s note: U-Talk is a weekly feature in which we ask five local residents to tell us their thoughts about a particular issue. Responses may be edited for clarity and length.
“The freedom for the speech, the freedom of thinking, the ability to speak our minds. I am Mexican, but all of my family has lived here, and so has my family. It is a wonderful place to raise a family; I have three children. The church — I am Mormon. Freedom to practice religion. Everything that I can think of makes America special.” — America Furtes, Ogden
“The freedom. The fact that you can do anything you want, because you have all the things that build all of the freedoms, like the Second Amendment. I was born in South America. I have seen what communism does to countries. So, coming here and seeing all of the things that we have, it makes all the difference. It makes it amazing. I feel like I can do everything that I want with the opportunity.” — Noemi Aguirre, South Ogden
“The U.S. Constitution. The forefathers: John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin. All of those guys getting together and hashing that out, because they were living under an oppressive government, and they created a government for the people and by the people. They set a precedent for the world. … They saw the flaws in democracy, and that is why we are a representative republic.” — Aaron Flores, Ogden
“People can do anything they want in their lives, like you can really have a goal and go after it. You can have a goal and make it happen if you put enough into it and go after it. So, for me, it would have to be that we have endless opportunity here.” — Jayden Sawyer, Ogden
“That we live in harmony. Education, and opportunities with work. I want to work at an aquarium. We have basic kindness, and that is from what I know of living here in Utah. I am unsure about the rest of the country.” — Autumn Elizabeth Rose, Ogden
Photos and interviews by Adam Rubin, Special to the Standard-Examiner.
Have a suggestion for a question you’d like us to ask? Send it to cityed@standard.net.