At the close of the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787, venerable delegate Benjamin Franklin observed that the chair occupied by convention presiding officer George Washington was decorated by a half sun.
Franklin said the question for the nation, as it often was for artists, was whether its sun was rising over the horizon, or setting beneath it. The progress made in drafting the Constitution of the United States left Franklin confident that our sun indeed was rising.
The people of the state of Utah, more than 3.5 million of us and rapidly growing, may likewise wonder whether the many changes our communities are bound to experience amount to a setting sun, or a rising one.
Into that arena comes an organization called Utah Rising. It’s a group, built out of the Salt Lake Chamber and chambers of commerce throughout the state, seeking to apply the spirit and energy of free enterprise to Utah’s many issues.
It is a welcome development. More of us should take an interest in community issues and needs, and not only through business organizations, but also civic groups, neighborhood associations and as individuals. Such activism is the key to pushing back at the corruption and crony capitalism that dominates Utah.
In some times and places, the idea of a business-oriented organization helping to organize collaboration and advocacy might be feared or belittled as a group seeking to amass more wealth for its own members, to cut taxes and end regulation, so the rich could get richer and everyone else left behind.
But the Republican supermajority in the Utah Legislature is already in charge of the drive to make sure that power is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. It does this largely by picking on the weak, the poor, other levels of government and the intellectual. And oh, yes, cutting taxes for the rich. Again.
Utah Rising promises a counterweight to the shortsightedness of the state’s political class. Its founding document stresses the need for the state and its many communities to be livable, for people to be able to afford decent housing, get an education, get around, enjoy our natural resources and gain upward mobility.
While our politicians concentrate on bullying, Utah Rising stresses building.
The initiative is led by, among others, Salt Lake Chamber President and CEO Derek Miller, Chamber COO Heidi Walker and Spencer P. Eccles, a member of one of Utah’s leading business and philanthropic dynasties.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Spence Eccles and his son Spencer P. Eccles in Salt Lake City in November 2024.
It stresses the opportunity for people, not just in the business community, to get involved and build communities. It encourages us, even when so much of the political world seems to have gone mad, not to check out.
When more people participate in democracy, serve on committees, take part in studies and respectfully express themselves to their elected officials, relationships grow and more ideas percolate up into action. It is difficult for the politicians to ignore an activated, engaged citizenry. Our strength will grow exponentially from our involvement.
The old idea of Utah, Eccles told The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board the other day, is that we are alike enough and community-minded enough to work things out. As the state gets more populous, more diverse, older, our economy more competitive, with more of us moving here from other places and comparatively fewer of us having been born here, that is a spirit we mustn’t lose.
Utah should, Eccles said, retain our soul as we grow.
The idea behind Utah Rising is a public-spirited private sector. Given the sorry state of our political establishment, it is something we need.
