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Show Volume XXX Issue VIII The Ogden Valley News Page 3 July 1, 2023 The Innate Longing for Freedom By Shanna Francis Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped sometime between the young age of 6 and 8. No one knows for sure. She came from somewhere in Africa—most likely Senegal or Gambia—and brought to America on the slave ship Phillis, from which she was renamed. Her original name has long been forgotten. The ship landed in Boston July 11, 1761. However, almost a quarter of the enslaved passengers died along the way due to the horri昀椀c conditions by which they were transported. The young girl disembarked, “thin, sickly, and naked, missing her middle two top teeth,” wrote her biographer Vincent Carretta. She was then purchased to help with household duties by John and Susanna Wheatley who chose her from amongst other healthier young girls because of her “humble and modest demeanor and the interesting features of the little stranger.” The Wheatleys gave Phillis an impressive classical education along with their own children after they noticed her deep inquisitiveness and curiosity towards learning. She studied Latin and the works of Alexander Pope, Homer, Milton, and Ovid, but was most taken with her study of Christianity and the Bible. She wrote, “Let us rejoice in and adore the wonders of God’s in昀椀nite love in bringing us from a land Semblant [seemingly] of darkness itself, and there the divine light of revelation (being obscur’d) is as darkness.” Interested in all learning, she was also taught arithmetic and philosophy. Most slaves of the time, as well as many poor white Americans, were unable to acquire such an education. Much of the country also had laws making it illegal to teach slaves to read. Thus, it can be said that Phillis’ level of education and literacy was highly remarkable. Early on, she distinguished herself through her prose, evolving into a gifted poet. At age 14, she wrote one of her most well-known poems, “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” where she glori昀椀ed her deliverance from Africa, FREEDOM cont. on page 12 On Liberty and the American System By President Herbert Hoover For the first time in two generations the American people are faced with the primary issue of humanity and all government—the issue of human liberty. Not only in the United States, but throughout the world, the whole philosophy of individual liberty is under attack. In haste to bring under control the sweeping social forces unleased by the political and economic dislocations…, by the tremendous advances in productive technology during the last quarter-century, by the failure to march with a growing sense of justice, peoples and governments are blindly wounding, even destroying those fundamental human liberties which have been the foundation and the inspiration of progress since the Middle Ages. The great question before the American people is not whether these dislocations and abuses can be mastered and these new and powerful forces organized and directed to human welfare, but whether they can be organized by free men. We have to determine now whether, under the pressures of the hour, we must cripple or abandon the heritage of liberty for some new philosophy [or old] which must mark the passing of freedom. Who may define Liberty? It is far more than Independence of a nation. It is not a catalogue of political “rights.” Liberty is a thing of the spirit—to be free to worship, to think, to hold opinions, and to speak without fear—free to challenge wrong and oppression with surety of justice. Liberty conceives that the mind and spirit of men can be free only if the individual is free to choose his own calling, to develop his talents, to win and to keep a home sacred from intrusion, to rear children in ordered security. It holds he must be free to earn, to spend, to save, to accumulate property; that may give protection in old age and to loved ones. It holds both in principle and in world experience that these intellectual and spiritual freedoms cannot thrive except where there are also these economic freedoms. It insists equally upon protections to all these freedoms or there is no Liberty. It therefore holds that no man, no group, may infringe upon the liberties of others…. There are stern obligations upon those who would hold these liberties—self-restraint, insistence upon truth, order, and justice, vigilance of opinion, and co-operation in the common welfare. In every generation men and women of many nations have died that the human spirit may be thus free. In our race, at Plymouth Rock, at Lexington, at Valley Forge, at Yorktown, at New Orleans, at every step of the Western frontier, at Gettysburg, at San Juan Hill, in the Argonne, are the graves of Americans who died for this purpose. From these sacrifices and in the consummation of these liberties there grew a great philosophy of society… The high tenet of this philosophy is that Liberty is an endowment from the Creator of every individual man and woman upon which no power, whether economic or political, can encroach, and that not even the government may deny. And herein it challenges all other philosophies of society and government; for all others, both and since insist that the individual has no such unalienable rights, that he is but the servant of the state…. Man is master of the state, not the servant; that the sole purpose of government is to nurture and assure these liberties. All others insist that Liberty is not a God-given right; that the state is the master of the man. Herein is the widest divergence of social and governmental concepts known to mankind. No man long holds his freedom under a government which claims men’s liberties. That government cannot exist or continue unless it be of despotic powers. The LIBERTY cont. on page 12 POWDER MOUNTAIN WATER & SEWER IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT EMERGENCY PROCUREMENT NOTICE On July 9, 2023, the District will have a public bid opening to replace some infrastructure due to some frozen pipe issues. Due to the nature of this project, as the timeframe we must work in before the snow starts to develop, the District Chairman has determined that this be an emergency and move forward with the opening. This is for the health, safety and welfare of the public and their homes. We will publish on our website, www.pmwsid.org, the contractor, the affected areas and the timeframe of this project. If you have any further questions, please contact the District at 801-983-2727. ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS POWDER MOUNTAIN WATER & SEWER IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT; OGDEN, UTAH – HEARTWOOD DRIVE FROST MITIGATION POWDER MOUNTAIN WATER AND SEWER IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (Owner) is requesting Bids for the construction of the following Project: HEARTWOOD DRIVE FROST MITIGATION (J-U-B Project Number #55-23-079) Bids for the construction of the Project will be received at Powder Mountain Water and Sewer Improvement District located at 298 24TH Street, Suite 150, until July 11, 2023 at 10:15 AM local time. At that time, the Bids received will be publicly opened and read. This can be attended in-person or via Microsoft Teams Meeting at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3278889056 Meeting ID: 327 88 9056 The Project includes the following Work: • Installation of approximately 860 LF of insulation to water main • Installation of insulation and heat tape to 10 water laterals • Installation of insulation and heat tape to 2 Fire Hydrant Assemblies • Replacement of service saddles • Replacement of meter barrels • Restoration of various surfaces Pre-bid Conference: A non-mandatory prebid conference for the Project will be held on July 3, 2023, at 10:30 AM, onsite at Heartwood Drive & Summit Pass Road, Eden, UT 84310. Instructions to Bidders: For all further requirements regarding bid submittal, qualifications, procedures, and contract award, refer to the Instructions to Bidders that are included in the Bidding Documents. For questions or additional information: Engineer: J-U-B Engineers By: James Strong Title: Project Engineer Date: July 9, 2023 Contact: jstrong@jub.com Phone: 801-547-0393 ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS POWDER MOUNTAIN WATER & SEWER IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT; OGDEN, UTAH – COPPER CREST ROAD FROST MITIGATION POWDER MOUNTAIN WATER AND SEWER IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (Owner) is requesting Bids for the construction of the following Project: COPPER CREST ROAD FROST MITIGATION (J-U-B Project Number #55-23-079) Bids for the construction of the Project will be received at Powder Mountain Water and Sewer Improvement District located at 298 24TH Street, Suite 150, until July 11, 2023, at 10:00 AM local time. At that time, the Bids received will be publicly opened and read. This can be attended in-person or via Microsoft Teams Meeting at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3278889056 Meeting ID: 327 88 9056 The Project includes the following work: • Installation of approximately 1100 LF of insulation to water main • Installation of insulation and heat tape to 35 water laterals • Installation of insulation and heat tape to 4 Fire Hydrant Assemblies • Replacement of service saddles • Replacement of meter barrels • Restoration of various surfaces Pre-bid Conference: A non-mandatory prebid conference for the Project will be held on July 3, 2023, at 10:00 AM, onsite at Summit Pass Road & Copper Crest Road, Eden, UT 84310. Instructions to Bidders: For all further requirements regarding bid submittal, qualifications, procedures, and contract award, refer to the Instructions to Bidders that are included in the Bidding Documents. For questions or additional information: Engineer: J-U-B Engineers By: James Strong Title: Project Engineer Date: July 9, 2023 Contact: jstrong@jub.com Phone: 801-547-0393 |