Bridger Beal-Cvetko is a reporter for KSL.com. He covers politics, Salt Lake County communities and breaking news. Bridger has worked for the Deseret News and graduated from Utah Valley University.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. John Curtis delivered his first address on the floor of the U.S. Senate Wednesday, calling for more honest, open conversations with the American people.The senator opened by sharing words of wisdom from his great grandmother, the first woman to serve as president of the Salt Lake City School District.
"Grandma Genevieve — we called her Nana — said: 'Listen first, speak when it matters, and let your actions carry the weight.' That may sound radical in our social media-driven world and D.C. politics — but I am committed to following her advice," Curtis said. "As I begin my service in the Senate, it matters to me that both what is said and what is done in this body will not just make noise but will actually make a difference for the citizens of the nation."Curtis prepped for the address by seeking input from constituents and making a pilgrimage to four significant sites: the Holocaust Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Arlington National Cemetery, and Utah's Ensign Peak. As he walked through the Holocaust Museum, Curtis said he was "struck by how easily a human life can be devalued," and quoted Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks as offering a diagnosis: "When morality is outsourced to either the market or the state, society has no substance, only systems. And systems are not enough."Congress and society, Curtis said, outsource far too much responsibility, compassion and value learning to various agencies and institutions, and the solution starts at the ground level."The values our nation needs — moral clarity, historical understanding, a commitment to peace — can't be manufactured by government or mass-produced by culture," he said. "They must be grown, like they always have been, in the cottage industries of family and communities."Honest conversations between politicians and with voters "are vital" to the future of the country, according to Curtis, who outlined four priorities he has focused on during his time in the House and Senate: energy, local community control, deterring China and addressing the national debt. When it comes to the debt, Curtis said politicians in both parties "are not being honest with the American people when we pretend that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid don't need reform.""And we are all equally dishonest when we weaponize fear — telling seniors and the most vulnerable that reform means aba
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