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Bountiful City Council showcases First Amendment speech contest winners
Summary
At its Nov. 25 meeting the Bountiful City Council opened with student speeches honoring the First Amendment. Three young speakers — Ari Walker, Anders Holzer and Johnny Alley — connected historical examples to daily civic responsibilities and were thanked by the mayor and council.
The Bountiful City Council on Nov. 25 opened its meeting with a First Amendment speech contest organized by Lisa Fifield and featuring student speakers from the city.
Ari Walker told the council that freedom of speech must be protected even for views the speaker disagrees with, invoking historical examples of repression to warn against curbs on expression. Anders Holzer recounted a family's hot-air-balloon escape from East Germany to illustrate the value of free expression. Johnny Alley, a member of the Bountiful Youth Council, cited the composer Dmitri Shostakovich and urged residents to preserve the "fragile" rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
"Words are not violence," Walker said in her remarks. The mayor and council thanked the students and Lisa Fifield for organizing the contest, and invited the public to stay for the remainder of the agenda.
The civic ceremony was followed by the regular public comment period.
The council plans no formal action on the speeches; the remarks were included on the agenda as part of community engagement.
