Personal statement
I seek to serve as a Utah State Senator because I have the moral obligation to participate as an elected public servant to, figuratively, become part of the rudder that steers the ship of democracy through its tempestuous and precarious journey.
As a board member of the Utah Chapter of Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge,
(Please see: www.utff.org) I have been able to teach high school and college students patriotism, democracy, and citizenship. In actuality, freedom is not free. Just as the farmer does not reap what he has not sown, our democracy will only reap what it sows.
My formal education, which has culminated in Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees, has taught me how to learn yet it wasn't an end in itself, but a tool. It has brought me freedom - freedom from ignorance that controls, limits, and bridles the mind from discovery.
Living in Sao Paulo, Brazil for two years as a missionary, and then later studying abroad for six months in Jerusalem, Israel and Western Europe, I became aware of the fact that we are not isolationists, but are one nation among nations. My horizons were
broadened. I learned that we must "seek first to understand, then to be understood."
Though differences remain, I am not caught in that precarious web of arrogance that alienates. While working for Senator Orrin Hatch in Washington D.C., I learned that one can disagree with one's opponent without being disagreeable. I welcome and accept all individuals, appreciating and honoring dissimilarities regardless of nationality, race, gender or social status.
Through my formal and informal education, my character has been transformed. Emerson said that "character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be prepared to live as well as to think." Emerson's point is critical because today we seem to place such a high emphasis on the intellect that we fail to realize that intelligence that isn't coupled with character is an insidious evil.
I am a leader with vision, perspective, discernment, wisdom, understanding, tenacity, discipline, and, above all, character. My only desire is to give back to this great country that has provided me with the freedoms I enjoy.
President John F. Kennedy's mother used to tell her children that
"when much is given, much is required." The Kennedy family knew that selfless public service was a requirement. I, too, have a moral obligation to serve, to fight the battle of freedom.
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