I am a Utah native, born in Ogden during the early years of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, and have lived under 12 presidents in 18 administrations. My career included several positions in the federal government in the Defense and Treasury departments. I’m proud to say I held a top-secret security clearance for the bulk of 35 years.
I witnessed the interface between states and federal agencies and private industry as well as some foreign countries. I saw the extent of the commitment of the people involved. So when I hear my fellow residents refer to our “Utah values” to others, I wince a little. It, to me, is a little arrogant when invoked as a weapon to imply superior beliefs.
Recently, I decided to take a look at the specific values themselves. To my surprise, while there are dozens of references to them, I couldn’t find anything that specifically listed them. Surely someone in our state must know what they are and document them for us as a public service. If one of you readers can do that, please iterate them literally for the rest of us. I’m sure other residents would like to know what they are.
If you do, then as a favor to me, please add an explanation on the bottom of why a state with such moral and lofty values continues to support the most corrupt, delusional liar to ever be president for four more years and even add on a Trump mini-me who shares his financial history as our representative to the body that sets the budgets for our entire government. I look forward to learning.
Ben Williams, Mount Pleasant