[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 37 (Thursday, March 20, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E538-E539]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      DEMOCRACY--ABOVE AND BEYOND

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. CURT WELDON

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 20, 1997

  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, each year the Veterans of 
Foreign Wars of the United States and its Ladies Auxiliary conduct the 
Voice of Democracy broadcast scriptwriting contest. This year more than 
109,000 secondary school students participated in the contest competing 
for the 54 national scholarships which were distributed among the 54 
national winners. The contest theme this year was ``Democracy-Above and 
Beyond.''
  I am proud to announce that Ms. Natalie Bucciarelli from my 
congressional district in Pennsylvania won the 1997 Voice of Democracy 
broadcast scriptwriting contest for Pennsylvania. Natalie, a resident 
of Broomall, is a senior at the Academy of Notre Dame de Manur in 
Villanova, PA. I extend to her my best wishes for success as she 
continues her education in college next year.
  Natalie's script is filled with enthusiasm for the spirit and promise 
that democracy holds for each individual. It is encouraging to see that 
our young people continue to cherish the gift of democracy. That is 
essential, because once we take democracy for granted--or begin 
referring to it as simply a ``slogan''--then democracy will truly 
become endangered.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to share Natalie's award winning script 
with my colleagues in the Congress.

    ``Democracy-Above and Beyond''--1996-97 VFW Voice of Democracy 
                          Scholarship Program

                        (By Natalie Bucciarelli)

       Mikhail Gorbachev, former General Secretary of the Soviet 
     Union, not too long ago proclaimed that democracy is just a 
     slogan--only a slogan. And he believed then that democracy, 
     like other slogans, was empty and hollow and worthless. He, 
     like other communist leaders before him, believed that our 
     American democracy would eventually and inevitably fall; it 
     would succumb to tensions within our country--tensions: white 
     against black, women against men, rich against poor.
       But Mikhail Gorbachev misread the real meaning of 
     democracy--the meaning above and beyond. He only looked at 
     the imperfections of democracy--and it is true that 
     democracy, like all political systems, is less than perfect. 
     But Mr. Gorbachev wrongly believed that our democracy would 
     become thin and faded and soon crack and crumble like a 
     rotting wall. But democracy is not a wall. Walls, by their 
     nature, keep people out. As Mikhail Gorbachev learned, such 
     walls do come down.
       The spirit of our democracy is not about walls, not about 
     barriers. There are no real walls in a democracy--not real 
     walls. Yes, artificial barriers do from time to time appear--
     Rosa Parks being forced to the back of a Birmingham bus and 
     store front windows reading ``No Irish or Italian need 
     apply''. But such events have been only temporary periods--
     temporary obstacles to the real positive force and direction 
     of our democracy. Our system of government has, above and 
     beyond all others, served to include all people without 
     regard to race, creed, gender, or ethnic background. 
     Democracy has no equal in promoting the free exchange of 
     ideas and in safeguarding the civil liberties of minorities. 
     Democracy is, above and beyond all else, about ``all men (and 
     women) are created equal'' and about those inalienable rights 
     granted to each of us by our creator.
       This is the spirit--this is the promise and the hope of 
     democracy. Democracy promises to provide hope and 
     opportunity. Democracy does not exclude, it includes. 
     Democracy does not seek to destroy, it seeks to build. Our 
     system of government tolerates and respects the free exchange 
     of ideas. You can dare to dream in a democracy and if you 
     believe in your dreams and work hard to achieve them you will 
     probably succeed.
       Democracy is not me against you and you against me but each 
     of us in support of the other. There is room for everybody. 
     No walls--Christian against Jew, black against white, young 
     against old, female against male. Democracy is about the 
     promise it

[[Page E539]]

     holds for everybody--all of us--each one--together working 
     and learning and building and helping each other. This is the 
     fundamental hope of democracy--perhaps the only true flicker 
     of hope in a world too full of brutal despotism and senseless 
     terrorism and violence.
       No, democracy is not just a slogan. Mikhail Gorbachev may 
     have been sincere when he said it, but he was dead wrong. You 
     know that brave men and women have fought and died for the 
     spirit and the hope and the promise of democracy. They did 
     not sacrifice for some hollow, empty slogan. They sacrificed 
     for you and for me--people like us--and all the generations 
     that will come after us. For we are the spirit and the hope 
     and the promise of democracy. Within our democratic spirit 
     can be found the true meaning to their sacrifices. And so we 
     owe them something--something above and beyond a debt of 
     gratitude. We owe it to them to keep the promise and the 
     flame of democracy alive. And so, in the end, where democracy 
     is concerned, let us remember not the words of Mikhail 
     Gorbachev, but rather the words of Abraham Lincoln: that 
     government of the people, by the people, and for the people 
     shall not perish from the earth.

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