U-Talk: What, in your opinion, most makes America special?

By Staff | Jul 3, 2023

: Alicia Garcia

: Valerie Schreiner

: Samuel Fisher

: Fauna Smith

: Trent Robinson

Tiana Lao, Special to the Daily Herald

Alicia Garcia

“Because there are a lot of people from different countries and different cultures, so it’s tasteful. The culture, the food, and you can meet different people. I think it makes more humanity, like, to understand all the people and the different things. Probably the trees, the animals. The environment and landscapes.” — Alicia Garcia, Payson

“In my opinion, it’s the freedoms we have here, in our country. We have opportunities that a lot of people don’t have in other countries where we can get an education, where we can own property, where we can choose to have careers of our choice, and we can elect our leaders. And, so, all of those are great things that other countries don’t have, and that’s what makes America great. I forgot to mention freedom of religion, and I think that’s one thing that most of the people that came here in the beginning, our Founding Fathers, that they wanted to worship as they pleased, and not have to worship a state religion, or a religion that’s dictated to them.” — Valerie Schreiner, Saratoga Springs

“There was an immigrant named Carl Schurz, and he gave an address called ‘True Americanism.’ So, True Americanism, where he said, ‘this is what makes America great.’ And, what he said was that Americans, when they protect their neighbors rights as closely as they protect their own rights, that’s what makes America great. America is special because they learned the principle that when you take care of your neighbor, you’re taking care of yourself, and if you really want to take care of yourself, you take care of your neighbor. … Just the basics: God, liberty, family.” — Samuel Fisher, Orem

“The opportunity to make your own way. Like, own your own business. There’s laws that protect you, so people can’t just come and take you over, like the Mafia or something. For me, that’s what makes America special, and, just our heritage, you know, that we’ve fought for this country, and that we have a lot of liberties that aren’t available in other places. We can speak our opinion, and we aren’t worried about the government putting us in jail if we speak our opinion. That’s the main one.” — Fauna Smith, Provo

“Our ability to have choices, and to be able to, you know, freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, that kind of stuff. I think that’s important — not to have too much government. Well, a lot of countries don’t have the right to vote. We have the right to, like, have our say in what leaders we have, and that’s pretty important. Just so there’s not a dictatorship where there’s more of a democracy instead of just people that are in control.” — Trent Robinson, Pleasant Grove