THIS IS STILL THE RIGHT PLACE
Rep. Mike Morley
Driven from Ohio and Missouri because of their religious beliefs, the Mormon people found a brief respite in western Illinois. After a few peaceful years, the mobs began to gather and in 1846-1847, the pioneers were again on the move, this time across Iowa and beyond the boundaries of the United States to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Led by Brigham Young, one of the greatest colonizers the world has ever know, these first pioneers faced tremendous hardships and sacrifices to establish a society where religious freedom and the rights of the individual were protected.
The history of Utah is enriched by other pioneers who have come to farm, to work the mines, to bring culture and commerce. Some have come to get rich and get out. Many more came to stay, raise families, and build strong communities. Our heritage is rich with diversity: Greek and Italian, British, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans who have called Utah home for centuries, Icelanders, Asian, and more recent arrivals from eastern Europe.
Utah continues to attract people from all over with our family values, work ethic, emphasis on education, natural beauty, and healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, such growth is accompanied by serious societal problems such as pornography, gangs, and drugs; and challenges such as water, roads, and education. As modern pioneers, we must tackle these problems and challenges which plague our communities and threaten our way of life.
I'd like to share a poem which, to me, embodies the foresight and sacrifices of our pioneer ancestors.
An old man traveling a long highway
Came at the evening cold and gray
To a chasm vast and deep and wide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim.
The sullen stream held no fears for him.
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man," cried a fellow pilgrim near
"You're wasting your time in building here.
Your journey will end at the closing of day.
You never again will pass this way.
You've crossed the chasm deep and wide.
Why build you this bridge at eventide?"
The builder lifted his old gray head.
"Good friend, in the path I've come, " he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way."
"This stream which has been as naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim.
Good friend, I'm building this bridge for him."
As parents and community leaders, we each find ourselves in the role of the old man. We cannot take credit for the great accomplishments of the great pioneers who have traveled the road before us. We can only do our very best with the challenges and opportunities that face us, bearing in mind that what we do is for the benefit or detriment of those who come after.
Over the few decades, our state will face many challenges related to growth such as roads, education, water, and crime, to name a few. In our attempts to solve these issues will we build bridges or erect barriers? In our community, we see many wonderful examples of courage, unity, charity, self-sacrifice, and dignity which many times are overlooked in favor of a seeming preoccupation with criminal behavior. I know of a young man in our community who seemed to continually push the limits of acceptable conduct in what he later admitted was an attempt to gain attention and be different. What he finally realized was that all he had to do to be different was to be good. So, will we build bridges by focusing attention on these positive examples or will we erect barriers by continuing to dwell on and glamorize bad behavior?
We honor the pioneers in our families, in our communities, and in our great state. I invite all to join with me in accepting the challenge to build strong bridges to our future and to be pioneers to those who follow us.
|
