I was waiting to go snowboarding recently and saw your article “Two-faced Utah” [March 5, City Weekly]. It had a catchy headline, and indeed it caught my attention. Who living in Utah wouldn’t have their interest sparked by that? I don’t mind you pointing out the Utah isn’t perfect. It surely wasn’t my choice to move here; I’m not a big fan of this state, to be brutally honest.
My objection with your article is it implies that Utah says it’s perfect and isn’t living up to what it proclaims. What state, family, job or country is perfect? There are always people who misrepresent their religion, employer, government, etc. There are always those few who go to extremes on both sides.
You can nitpick and find what you are looking for if you look hard enough. The bottom line is Utah isn’t perfect—but it doesn’t claim to be. It tries, and fails sometimes, but at least it gets up and tries again.
If you want to take a negative approach and bash everything in Utah from religion and politics to racism, and freedom of choice and expression, you can, but is that really what is needed here? Is that the best way to fix the underlying issues? Use your voice for good, positive things and make a difference. I think right now, with our current president, the message is clear: It’s not about division.
Don’t brush your opinions under the rug, but if we can learn one thing from history, it is how to communicate and compromise to get things done. We have gone so far away from that, not only here in Utah with Democrats and Republicans, but nationally—and things are that much harder to fix.
Carrie Ostler
Salt Lake City