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Show Page 10 The Ogden Valley news Volume XXI Issue XX October 1, 2013 What the Constitution Means to Me . . . lost by going there. There were many things I By Samantha Wilkins, Second-Place Essay Winner In my eighth-grade History class, we were taught about the Constitution of the United States of America. We learned about when the founding fathers got together, in the middle of a war, and determined what the most perfect government would be. James Madison was a very important man in the Constitution. He had great ideas, and soon became the writer of the Constitution. The Preamble explains how they came to their decision. Also in the Constitution are the Bill of Rights. These explain what rights the people do and don’t have. I learned, from my father, what it is like to live without the rights the Constitution grants us. When my mother, father, and I were in Turkey, my dad explained to me what rights I had couldn’t do in Turkey that I could do in the United States. The example he gave me was, if I spit on a temple in the U.S.A, not much would happen. If I spit on the Blue Masque in Turkey, I would go to jail. I also could not speak bad about the people of Turkey, unlike in America, where we can speak bad of our own president because we have freedom of speech. I had the privilege of seeing the Constitution with my own eyes this summer. Without this important document in our history, or without the men who created it, where would we be now? We could be free from Britain’s rule, but would we be under a tyrant’s instead? The question I was told to answer is a simple one; what does the Constitution mean to me? It means my freedom. Liberty, Freedom of Speech, and the Public Sphere By Shanna Francis On June 28, 1804, in a letter to Judge John Tyler, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “I may err in my measures, but never shall deflect from the intention to fortify the public liberty by every possible means, and to put it out of the power of the few to riot on the labors of the many. No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. “Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions. The firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything, true and false, and to form a correct judgment between them. As little is it necessary to impose on their senses, or dazzle their minds by pomp, splendor, or forms. Instead of this artificial, how much surer is that real respect, which results from the use of their reason, and the habit of bringing everything to the test of common sense.” Since the earliest days of our county, this freedom, freedom of speech—and the press—has been a hallmark of the American ideal, setting it apart from other nations of the world—then and now. In “Discourses of Freedom of Speech: From the Enactment of the Bill of Right to the Sedition Act of 1918,” Juhani Rudanko, professor at the University of Tampere, Finland, writes, “Today, the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment tend to be among those parts of the United Sates Constitution that are revered by most people in America, regardless of their party affiliation.” Truly, freedom of speech is a right of immeasurable value, admired at home and abroad. Having studied in many repressive nations of the world—in Russia at Moscow International Higher Business School where I learned about the evolution of journalism and the press in Russia and the repressive former Soviet Union; at Boĝazici University in Turkey, a country with more imprisoned journalists than any other in the world; and at Tartu University in Estonia, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, I have developed an intense interest in the many facets of freedom of speech, and its critical role in sustaining democracy and human rights. Free and open media sources— whether social media or more formal and traditional sources—provide a forum and vehicle for open and unfettered public dialogue, a type of public sphere, a type of modern-day “commons” that contributes to the common good. University of Utah political science professor Hakan Yavuz, explaining the importance of free media and its role in providing opportunity spaces, states, “By opportunity space, I mean a forum of social interaction that creates new possibilities for augmenting networks of shared meaning and associational life. Such arenas include civic and political forums and electronic and print media and cyberspace. . . . Opportunity spaces are also not simply mobilizing structures, because they adhere through social interactions and expressive space rather than formal or informal organizational structures. . . . Opportunity spaces allow one to pick and choose in defining personal identity; to resist the policies of the state or the market; and to change the meaning of everyday life. Opportunity spaces undermine state-based or society-based attempts to generate a hegemonic ideology” or a biased way of orienting the community. The public sphere has also been described by a politician defending its role, in this way, “The public sphere is the one in which citizens can openly discuss their common concerns and opinions—equally and freely,” without, as Jefferson would put it, “the power of the few to riot on the labors of the many.” Thus, as editor of The Ogden Valley News, a “community newspaper,” it has been my intent for the prior 15 years to provide a public sphere where members of the community are free to express and contribute their views—however disagreeable they may be to other individuals, businesses, private groups, and/or local politicians. The effects of consistent patterns of undue pressure on newspapers, especially in the form of threats, and being “asked” to be a gatekeeper to free and open forms of public expression, are not congruent with our national tradition—nor the history of this paper. Such efforts are traditionally exercised in order to bully, harass, strong-arm, create a chilling effect on open and free dialogue, and/or, again quoting Jefferson, to “shut up” those who may be successful in exposing the actions of those who are fearful that the general citizenry does not possess the intelligence or common sense to discern between truth and falsehood. It is my hope that the Ogden Valley news will be able to continue to provide news service and, even more importantly, a public forum for the commons; and to continue to do so openly and freely for many years to come. LETTERS his ideas can lead to. I bet he won’t care. Since I wrote the above, a Mr. Winters wrote in the Standard that ALL government “welfare” programs are “unconstitutional” and should be ended along with ALL foreign aid and money for the military for policing the world. Libertarians and the anarchists are running amuck. “Don’t taze me, bro!” Larry Bennington, Eden cont. from page 2 have paid it voluntarily without the write-off? Being a fluent German speaker, Crocket probably feels he was born in the wrong place and time. Germany in 1915 would have put him right in the middle of the Nazi movement and he could have used his eugenics ideas with effect. Maybe Crocket needs to make a visit to the library’s Holocaust exhibit and he will see what 801-745-4000 2555 WOLF CREEK DR. EDEN From the Service Deli www.valleymarketeden.com STORE HOURS: MON. - SAT. 7 AM - 10 PM SUNDAY 7 AM - 9 PM Shown above are essay winners from the Constitution Day event held at the Ogden Valley Library on September 17. From left to right are first-place winner, 16-year-old Kylen Scott; third-place winner Landon Bassett; Honorable Mention essay winner, 10-year-old Catherine Wilkins; and second-place winner, 14-year-old Samantha Wilkins. The youth wrote about what the Constitution means to them. What the Constitution Means to Me . . . which the United States is based. Without it, By Landon Bassett, Third-Place Essay Winner The United States Constitution is the strongest constitution in the world; it has held up for over two-hundred-and-thirty-five years. It truly means a lot to me. Over the years, I’ve learned a little about the blood that was shed in order for the Founding Fathers to put the Constitution into effect. The pride you get when you look up at the 50 stars and 13 stripes was not free however. The act of writing and signing the Constitution was very brave of the men who did it because, at the time, not everyone was in favor of separating from England. This act, alone, shows the amount of faith it must have taken for them to be behind the cause. The Constitution is the foundation upon there is no way that any government could withstand what ours has been through the past 200 years, and still exist. Every detail that was covered has been used. At the time, it was written to prevent England from choking the life out of the colonies with all of the taxes, but, somehow, the same principles that the colonists wanted then, still apply today. To me, personally, without the Constitution, there is no way of knowing where my family or America would be. A lot of people in this country don’t realize the sacrifice that was made for them to enjoy the life that they have today. The people in the United States will never truly understand the sacrifice that was made for them to live the way they do, until they themselves have served their country in a way that the Founding Fathers did. What the Constitution Means to Me . . . tried to hide, they would be hung in public as By Catherine Wilkins Honorable Mention Essay “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” -The Preamble The Constitution is a big thing. When I hear someone comment about the Constitution, I think about freedom. I was watching a movie with my mom about World War ll. It was horrible. If the German people spoke out about the Nazi’s they would be killed or sent to concentration camps. Hitler put ten- to sixteen-yearold boys in youth camps that taught them how to fight, even if they didn’t want to. If the boys an example to others. Our Constitution allows us to disagree with the government, and others, without having to worry about being punished. Freedom is amazing. Without freedom, the world would be an awful place. We do have laws, but they are for our protection. Some laws protect us so we don’t get injured. We want to be safe, happy, and free. Laws also protect our special things. We are free to do a lot of things. We have choices to be bad or good. My freedom is important to me because I can use it in so many ways. I use it for playing, eating, shopping, etc. I can pick what I want to do. I make my decisions, instead of having the government or others choose for me. We have so many things that we can do just because of freedom. Without our freedom, where would we be now? What would we do? The Constitution gives us the freedom. That makes us true Americans. 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