[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 32 (Thursday, March 13, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E459]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E459]]
          WINNER OF ARIZONA'S 1997 VOICE OF DEMOCRACY CONTEST

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. BOB STUMP

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 13, 1997

  Mr. STUMP. Mr. Speaker, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and its Ladies 
Auxiliary are very active in promoting patriotism and an understanding 
of the values which underlie this great country of ours through its 
Voice of Democracy essay contest. During this past year, over 109,000 
secondary school students participated in the contest, and each one of 
those students has a clearer understanding of the meaning of democracy 
as a result of their participation. The winner of this contest in my 
State of Arizona was David C. Pickett from Prescott Valley, AZ. David 
is an outstanding senior at Bradshaw Mountain High School, and his 
entry was sponsored by VFW Post 10227 and its ladies auxiliary. His 
father is a retired marine. I'm sure David's parents, as well as all of 
David's teachers are very proud of this young man. I'd like to share 
with my colleagues his winning essay.

                      Democracy--Above and Beyond


  1996-97 VFW Voice of Democracy Scholarship Program--Arizona Winner, 
                             David Pickett

       Famine, poverty, unemployment, disease, death . . . All of 
     these words that we'd rather not hear or even think about for 
     an instant if we don't have to, because they all lead to 
     mental pictures we can't bear to create or drag up from the 
     little cobwebbed corner in the back of our minds where we try 
     to bury all the parts of reality that frighten us most. Yet 
     every day in dozens of countries throughout the world, people 
     just like you and I have to deal with these dark aspects of 
     life through any means necessary. Honest people having to 
     steal just so their families might see the light of another 
     day. Top of the line modern cardboard and garbage bag 
     mansions littering the decadent alleyways of a crumbling 
     city, and parents who'd rather take the risk of a condemned 
     building collapsing on them than see their children die of 
     exposure before their very eyes. Peaceful protesters are 
     massacred or imprisoned where they die from any number of 
     ailments while awaiting a trial that will never come. Each of 
     these chaotic realities can be found thriving under the 
     bannerhead of a failed system of government, whether it be 
     fascism or socialism in any of its deceptive forms; and each 
     of those horrific realities are precisely the reasons why 
     those governments failed, as well as the reasons as to why 
     democracy has risen far above and beyond them to its honored 
     position in the world today.
       When one thinks of democracy and its great leaders, 
     pictures of great men such as George Washington, Thomas 
     Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther 
     King, Jr. all come to mind. Yet when one thinks of the great 
     leaders of communism and fascism, one can only think of 
     people like Joseph Stalin who created a famine in the Ukraine 
     in 1932 and `33 which resulted in the death of three-million 
     kulaks by starvation; or even greater still was Adolph Hitler 
     who nearly brought about the complete extinction of the 
     entire Jewish race by destroying over six-million of them 
     through various and sundry methods of torturous execution. Or 
     how about Benito Mussolini of Italy who came up with the term 
     ``totalitario'', to describe the goals of his fascist 
     government, as saying that his aim was ``All within the 
     state, none outside the state, and none against the state.''
       No other government in existence cares as much for the 
     natural human rights of the individual, than democracy in its 
     purest form. In America we have a Constitution and a Bill of 
     Rights that hold the same value, if not more so, today as 
     they did over two hundred years ago when they were first 
     inscribed. The only thing these other governments have to 
     show for all of their efforts is revolution after revolution 
     after bloody revolution, and a never-ending state of misery 
     for their people. There is no limit to democracy in America, 
     everyone is entitled to the same share, an no one is excluded 
     for any reason whether it be on the basis of social standing, 
     political power, skin color, gender, or religious beliefs. 
     Whereas in places such as South Africa during apartheid, its 
     white citizens saw its government as a Constitutional 
     democracy, but for its twenty two-million blacks, it was an 
     iron-fisted dictatorship that verged on totalitarian control. 
     Our democracy has a system of checks and balances to make 
     sure no one person or group of people has too much control; 
     in a totalitarian government, no such system exists, for the 
     leader currently in power is the constitution, the law, and 
     the government embodied in one person and one person alone. 
     So, it you were to place all of these contrasting viewpoints 
     on a scale weighing positives vs. negatives, freedom vs. 
     imprisonment, and honesty vs. hypocrisy; which side would 
     result in a better government? The answer by now should be 
     quite obvious; the first, second, and third place medals for 
     excellency in government go to democracy, democracy, and last 
     but most certainly not least: democracy.
       I hope I have given you something to ponder and realize, as 
     well as something to rekindle those possibly dwindling 
     feelings of pride in your country's government, no make that 
     your government. The government our ancestors started has 
     spread like wildfire throughout the world because it is the 
     only one that has proven itself time and time again as the 
     greatest form of government on Earth. Three years ago in 
     1993, something miraculous occurred, for the first time in 
     the history of the planet, the total number of democracies in 
     existence outnumbered the total number of dictatorships; and 
     I'm sure with the continuation of this trend in world 
     thought, democracy will soon be the only government in 
     existence, truly showing the world that is has risen above 
     and beyond.

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