Lasting impressions: don't let little things take away our edge.

• Author: Gochnour, Natalie
• Position: Economic Insight - Premier League soccer - Column - Travel narrative

I recently returned from a 10-day vacation in England with my daughter. My husband picked me up at the airport and during the drive home we compared stories about my trip and his time here at home. Within about 15 minutes of conversation a theme emerged that gave me pause. I think our community needs to be careful not to lose our edge, and it starts with the little things.

Public Perceptions

I am a huge soccer enthusiast, and I described to my husband my experience at an English Premier League soccer match in Southampton, England, because I was struck by the ambiance at the game. This was not the rowdy, crazy, pray-for-your-safety soccer match I had imagined. The fans were courteous, respectful and helpful. Yes, they were loud, but even more, they were polite. There were many families in attendance, and the whole experience struck me as a national pastime, much like American baseball. What surprised me most was they did not allow alcohol in the seating area. That's right ... they had a beer garden of sorts outside of the seating area, but no alcohol was allowed at your seats.

My husband found all of this interesting because he attended Real Salt Lake's opening match at Rio Tinto Stadium while I was gone. He had a very different experience. The game was great and the setting remarkable, but the beer drinking got a bit out of hand. A couple just in front of my husband drank enough to lose their class, yell obscenities at the ref and demonstrate time and time again how not to act in front of your young children, whom they had sitting at their side. The contrast between his experience in Sandy and my experience in England loomed large. Sometimes reputation and reality really are at odds.

It didn't end there. My husband went on to describe his bike rides along the Jordan River Parkway while I was gone. While crossing a bridge at a particularly narrow area, my husband almost collided with two men who had congregated at a turn. My husband couldn't help but notice that both men were wearing a holster with a firearm exposed just under their coat. It caught him off guard, and he told me he had never seen this blatant display of weapons before along the parkway. He wondered out loud what would motivate these individuals to open carry their guns in broad daylight along this remarkable urban park?

In return, I mentioned that in London--by every measure a world-class, international city with plenty of security risks--the police officers carried batons...