[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 125 (Thursday, September 18, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1797]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           1996-97 VFW VOICE OF DEMOCRACY SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

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                          HON. JAY W. JOHNSON

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 18, 1997

  Mr. JOHNSON of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to your 
attention an award-winning broadcast script written by a constituent of 
mine on a subject which is important to all of us--the significance of 
democracy in America.
  Jessica V. Van Eperen of Appleton, WI, has received a very high honor 
from the Veterans of Foreign Wars. She has been awarded with a VFW 1997 
Voice of Democracy Scholarship for her script which will help her to 
finance her education. She is the daughter of Mr. Leonel Van Eperen and 
Ms. Catherine Coffey and plans a career in elementary education. She 
was sponsored by VFW Post 2778 and its ladies auxiliary in Appleton, 
WI. I believe that Jessica is an exceptional example of the fine 
students in northeast Wisconsin and I am confident that she has a 
bright future ahead of her.
  I would like to submit Jessica's award winning script for inclusion 
in the Congressional Record at this point.

                      Democracy--Above and Beyond

                        (By Jessica Van Eperen)

       Ever since I was a small child, I've attended the fireworks 
     celebration on the fourth of July. On that day, in 1776, 
     fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence, a 
     document that would launch the United States into the pages 
     of every history book in the world. Yet, that wasn't on my 
     mind as a child. I simply knew that the fireworks lit up the 
     summer sky like a million glowing fire flies. They arched 
     above the trees, above the clouds, and it seemed to me, above 
     the very stars themselves.
       As I've grown older, I've come to realize democracy is like 
     those brilliant fireworks. It changes colors, shapes, even 
     sound, but never changes in brilliance. Two-hundred and 
     twenty years after the Declaration of Independence was 
     signed, our democracy is still brilliant in the night sky 
     while dictatorships, monarchies, and anarchy's have fizzled 
     and died.
       I've known democracy to be red: red with the blood of young 
     men who gave their lives so she might live. I think of my 
     great-uncle who gave his life in World War II, and even of 
     two relatives who are as distant as their sketchy photograph 
     hanging on the wall. These two men fought and died in the 
     civil war shortly after immigrating from the Netherlands. 
     I've known democracy to be a proud and stubborn blue as it 
     fought the evils of communism during the cold war. Long after 
     communism is dead, democracy will still be shining brightly 
     in he horizon. I've even know democracy to be gold, the 
     brilliant gold of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and 
     freedom of the press. The Bill of Rights has risen high above 
     the fear that has tried to control the world for centuries. 
     Men in heavy boots carrying heavy guns have never been able 
     to blind people to the glow of democracy's promise and 
     freedom.
       Democracy has been loud as a cannon, defending those who 
     could not defend themselves, and quiet as a whisper, 
     comforting the people who fled to her shores to escape 
     injustice in foreign lands. Democracy has spread and shrunk, 
     but never disappeared. What was lost during the forties to 
     Hitler, the fifties to communism, and the eighties to 
     terrorism, has been gained back a thousand fold by the 
     millions of people who still demand their voices be heard.
       Democracy started as a small sparkler, similar to the one 
     as I held in my hand when I was a child, but grew to become 
     the most glorious fireworks display the world has ever seen. 
     Democracy is not propelled by gun powder as fireworks are, 
     but by freedom, elections, and the belief that all men are 
     equal. This is the most powerful fuel in the world. Democracy 
     has the ability to rise above and beyond the wildest 
     imagination of men like Washington, Jefferson and Adams. 
     Governments powered merely by force and oppression may glow 
     with a blaring heat for a short time, but will inevitably die 
     out and fall to the ground soundlessly to be forgotten. 
     Democracy alone will shoot over the tree tops, becoming more 
     beautiful with every passing year.

     

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