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Show The Ogden July 15, 2007 Valley news Your Community Newspaper PRSRT STD STD PRSRT POSTAGE PAID PAID POSTAGE PERMIT NO. NO. 11 11 PERMIT EDEN UT UT EDEN POSTAL PATRON PATRON POSTAL EDEN-LIBERTY-84310 EDEN-LIBERTY-84310 HUNTSVILLE-84317 HUNTSVILLE-84317 OGDEN CANYONCANYON- 84401 84401 OGDEN HCR 843AO 843AO HCR Community Mourns Loss of Three Joyful, Kind-hearted Friends By Jennifer Hanni The community has felt “heavy hearted” since the devastating car accident involving the Howard family of Huntsville took place on June 28, 2007. Janine, 39; and Matthew, 11, passed away on June 28 followed by Esther, 7, who passed away June 29. Although they have only lived in the community for a year, their life and example made an impact on local residents who knew them. Janine Adams Howard, 39 When friends describe Janine, the first descriptive word is always “happy.” Janine loved life and it was very obvious by her jovial and outgoing disposition. “Even if things weren’t going her way, she always had the best outlook, and chose to look at life with the very best attitude,” says friend Sara Lund. “She brightened everyone’s day by her happy disposition and people were really drawn to her.” Janine absolutely loved being a mother and wife. She cherished her children and made every minute with them count. “She poured her heart and soul into her kids,” says friend Lisa Brasher. “She home-schooled her children until they reached a certain age . . . and it wasn’t Photo courtesy of Caleb Kepsel. He states that he took the picture at the Layne and Joann Christensen home in Nordic Valley while because she didn’t believe in the public sitting on their front porch on the 4th of July. Kepsel commented that the smoky haze blanketing the Valley from the fires contributed school system; it was because she couldn’t to the amazing orange sky that served as the backdrop surreally visible through the American flag that hung over the family’s porch on COMMUNITY cont. on page 9 the evening of this patriotic holiday. See page 13 for more Fourth of July photos. Our Founding Fathers and the Nature of Man and the State Note: Following is the speech given by U.S. Senator Robert F. “Bob” Bennett at the 4th of July Celebration held in Huntsville July 4, 2007. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to be with you to visit about the founding of our country on what has become the country’s birthday. John Adams, the driving force behind the Declaration of Independent, always thought it should have been the 2nd of July because that’s the date on which the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. But the thing had to be transcribed, it had to be printed out, and all kinds of things, and it got to be the 4th of July before it got around to everybody knowing about it. So, that’s the date that we subscribe to the Declaration of Independence. I’d like to go a little bit behind some of the myths that have built up around the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the country and give you a perspective that I would hope can give you some hope for the future. The Constitution has been called the miracle of Philadelphia; that’s the name of one of the better books describing the Constitution—The Miracle of Philadelphia [by Catherine Drinker Bowen]. The Constitution was, of course, a continuation of the process that was set in motion with the writing of the Declaration of Independence. The thing they say about the miracle of Philadelphia—and also Philadelphia was the site of the Declaration drama—was the incredible nature of the men that were involved. A gathering of immense talent—political talent, legal talent, philosophic talent, people who had studied government, who had studied the law, who had studied what makes countries work and fail. In a country that was relatively small-the total population of the United States at about that time was not much bigger than the current population of the state of Utah, and scattered among 13 different colonies-and out of that small of group, to get a group of men with that incredible amount of talent, is a miracle—the miracle of Philadelphia is what she calls the book on the Constitution. And we venerate them, we hold them in enormous respect, and we should. David McCullough when he wrote his book on John Adams said, “We can never learn too much about them.” And that book, besides from being a superb biography of Adams, has created an industry of studying the founding fathers. There was a time when people were kind of downplaying the founding fathers. I remember reading in a textbook this comment about George Washington, that the American people needed a hero to rally around and so they sort of invented George The Bird Whisperer By Kera Erickson Seventeen year old Lindsay Vass-Strong of Eden is known to her family and friends as the bird whisperer. “My mom was the one that first gave me the title,” Vass-Strong says. Lindsay Vass-Strong with an African Gray named Oskar. Photo courtesy of Lindsay Vass-Strong. Currently, Vass-Strong has seven different birds in her care, four of which are birds that are in rescue or foster care. Vass-Strong received her first bird, a cockatiel for her sixteenth birthday. The bird had spent a lot of time in the pet store and was not tame or socialized to people. Vass-Strong spent many hours working with the bird until he became comfortable with her. Instead of feeling frustrated that she had received such a difficult bird, Vass-Strong enjoyed working with her new cockatiel. The next bird that she received was a Sun Conure. The staff at the pet store found the bird to be so unmanageable that they gave Vass-Strong the bird for half-price to encourage her to take it home. A month later, Vass-Strong’s father found an African Gray, a usually very expensive bird, for a great price. He gave the bird to Vass-Strong and, she comments, “This is, ultimately, where my addiction to working with birds started.” The African Gray that she named Oskar can now talk, perform many tricks, and “. . . is the funniest, smartest bird I have ever seen,” she explains. After Oscar, she received a White Cap Pianos that she found through a breeder. She met her baby bird when he was only two weeks old, and she named it Aiden. She had to wait for the bird to be weaned from its mother before she could bring him home. With Vass-Strong’s passion for caring for birds increasing, Vass-Strong went on the Internet and learned about the Wasatch Avian Education Society (WAES), an organization based out of Salt Lake City. WAES rescues unwanted or abused birds. VassStrong explains that the main reason birds are abandoned is because of aggression problems, or problems with incessant noise. Vass-Strong has now received three birds BIRD WHISPERER cont. on page 17 Washington but that he wasn’t much of a figure. And there was that period when political correctness caused us to say those kinds of things about the founding fathers. (David) McCullough has led the way in dispelling that notion, and through the books now coming out about Jefferson and Washington—His Excellency, a marvelous book about Washington, and Founding Fathers by (Richard) Brookhiser and other fabulous books about Washington, we are beginning to discover—rediscover— that George Washington was the pivotal American. Without George Washington we would not have had a country. We didn’t invent him after the fact. He was raised up, and performed that function magnificently. John Adams, the driving force behind the Declaration of Independence, should have written the Declaration of Independence. The reason he didn’t, was because he was too busy. He was on almost every committee of the Continental Congress. He was involved in almost every aspect of overseeing the work being done to support Washington on the front with the Continental Army. And the troublesome delegate from Virginia to the Continental Congress, at the last minute, couldn’t come and so they sent an alternate delegate, a young lawyer by the name of Thomas Jefferson who had the reputation of being a great wordsmith. And Adams, too busy to write the Declaration, recognized that this young man from Virginia had nothing to do and so they assigned Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence, and Jefferson was indeed a superb wordsmith. And he took the basic philosophical ideas, most of which had come from Great Britain as political philosophers were talking against the kind of monarchy that was there in Britain, and Jefferson put them down on paper in a better form, in a more powerful set of words than anyone else ever had. And it’s worth reviewing what Jefferson had to say. Now, the book aside, Jefferson had a lot to say about the Declaration of Independence, a good portion which was taken out by the Continental Conference because they thought he was wrong, and Jefferson was offended that they would edit his work that much, and he circulated his own draft of the Declaration of Independence to show how much better he was than the other members of the Continental Congress. Looking back at those drafts, we can be grateful the Continental Congress amended Jefferson’s Declaration as much as they did because Jefferson had a number of ideas about government with which they disagreed, and they were right and he was wrong. FATHERS cont. on page 14 Valley Warriors Steam Tournament Champions! “Valley Warriors” U12 girls soccer team. These girls recently captured a 1st Place win in the “Steam Tournament,” U12/13 age group at the Weber County Fair Grounds, June 27-30. Top Row: (left to right) Asst. Coach Shawna Froerer, Shyanne Hood, Shalee Davis, Quincie Crowell, Jane Porter, Kelsi Tatton, Miranda Calder, Camille Migliori, Asst. Coach Leo Frasier. Bottom Row: (left to right) Asst. Coach Kim Poulson, Amber Truett, Sage Kendall, Kali Frasier, Katelyn Andersen, Ryan Wheatley, Abby Froerer, Laura Tidwell, Alex Poulson, Head Coach Steven Porter. Not Pictured: Haylie Hirst. |