[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 36 (Wednesday, March 19, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          JAMES F. COSGROVE, VOICE OF DEMOCRACY CONTEST WINNER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL N. CASTLE

                              of delaware

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 19, 1997

  Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to call the attention of the 
House to the work of James F. Cosgrove of Wilmington, DE. James is 
Delaware's State winner of the Veterans of Foreign War's Voice of 
Democracy scriptwriting contest and has received a $1,500 Edward A. 
Nardi Scholarship award. I congratulate James, his family, and VFW Post 
3257 and its Ladies Auxiliary in Wilmington, DE for sponsoring this 
excellent program.
  As my colleagues know, the VFW has sponsored the Voice of Democracy 
Competition for 50 years to promote patriotic and civic responsibility 
among our young people and to help them attend college through the 
scholarship awards. The competition requires students to write and 
record a 3- to 5-minute essay on a patriotic theme. This year, over 
109,000 students participated in the contest on the theme: 
``Democracy--Above and Beyond.'' I am very proud to share with the 
House James' excellent essay on the need for young people to become 
actively involved in making our country a better place to live.
  Again, congratulations to James, the Cosgrove family, and the members 
of VFW Post 3257 and their ladies Auxiliary for their fine work.

                      Democracy--Above and Beyond


           1996-97 VFW Voice of Democracy Scholarship Program

                  (By Delaware winner James Cosgrove)

       The phone rang. The caller quickly told me to turn on CNN. 
     Although confused, I turned on the television. I was soon 
     shocked to hear what Wolf Blitzer had to report. The United 
     States of America, under the direction of President Bush, had 
     attacked the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
       As the initial shock subsided, a dread thought invaded my 
     mind. Would my father be sent to fight as well? At that time 
     my father was a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy stationed at 
     Camp Pendelton, California. If the fighting continued, he too 
     would be among the masses of Marines being deployed from the 
     base.
       The war raged on and the weeks passed. An air of tension 
     enveloped our household since that first day in January when 
     the telephone rang. We were anxious about what was to become 
     of our father. As the war continued, I became increasingly 
     frustrated with my government. They were endangering the life 
     of my father on behalf of Kuwait, a country that I had not 
     heard of in the six years I had been attending elementary 
     school. For me, each day of stressful waiting increased my 
     level of disenchantment.
       A few months later, the phone rang a second time. It was my 
     father's commanding officer, informing my dad that he was 
     scheduled to join the next shipment of Marines as a member of 
     the medical corps. The will was written. The bags were 
     packed. The family was morbid. At first I wanted to cry as my 
     mother so often did. I decided instead to follow the example 
     of my father's serene confidence and sense of duty. His air 
     of determination comforted me and gave me hope that he would 
     emerge from the Gulf unscathed. It was then that I realized 
     what sets our nation apart from all other nations.
       The American people are what establishes our system of 
     government above and beyond all other forms of government. 
     People who vote. People who own their own businesses. People 
     who feel such a strong devotion to their country that they 
     would be willing to lay down their lives for it. People like 
     my father. The system of democracy places the power to pass 
     laws, support the economy, and protect the country in the 
     hands of the people. This trust, an essential element of 
     democracy, is what truly makes our government excel. Everyone 
     can flourish in an environment where they receive the 
     respect, trust and power necessary to make their government 
     ``by the people and for the people.'' Such is the case of the 
     United States of America!
       Thankfully my father was not deployed overseas. Instead, he 
     was assigned to a stateside medical facility. As a sixth 
     grader, I was not conscious of the fact that the democracy in 
     which I lived was the model government. I was not able to 
     comprehend that the freedom and individual rights that I 
     experienced were not present in other countries. Greed and 
     corruption may infest other governments but for 220 years 
     have not been able to control democratic America. Americans 
     should feel pride in being the key ingredient in a recipe 
     that has produced the greatest nation in the world! A nation 
     governed by a philosophy that is above and beyond that of all 
     other nations.

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