Kolby Sorenson is 27, Charles Salzberg is 75. Ordinarily they would not mix, but when they came into the UPR studio, they discovered their life experiences had led them to a very similar place.
"So I grew up in New York City originally, in Brooklyn," Charles said. "A guy I just fell in love with - was so nice to me - a guy named Jamesy. Probably the best athlete in the neighborhood. He was a black guy - loved him like a brother. Then when I was 13 we moved to Florida, and then I went to Tallahassee to go to school at Florida State, and it was deep south. I mean, I was just horrified. All I could think of was this guy Jamesy, so I became a civil rights worker."
"Just being a naive, you know, white boy from Utah - just very little diversity," Sorenson said. "In my undergrad, I met one of my best friends named Luis and the other named Jose and they were both DREAMers. Leading up to the 2016 election I saw a lot of threats to immigrants, some directly targeting dreamers. It bothered me a lot and I wanted to kind of turn my anger into action."
Our new series, One Small Step, premiers in September.