[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 52 (Thursday, April 15, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E679-E680]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            VFW VOICE OF DEMOCRACY WINNING ESSAY FROM HAWAII

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. PATSY T. MINK

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 15, 1999

  Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I have the great honor to request 
permission to insert in the Congressional Record the text of the 
winning essay from Hawaii entitled ``My Service to America,'' by Carmen 
M. Herlihy, in the 1998-99 VFW Voice of Democracy Scholarship 
Competition.

                         My Service to America

                          (By Carmen Herlihy)

       It was a little over two hundred years ago that a 
     tremendous thing happened. Freedom was born. The birth of the 
     United States Constitution was perhaps one of the most 
     important occurrences in our country's history. In that 
     mother of freedom there sprung a child of the future, the 
     Bill of Rights. These 10 amendments have been the backbone of 
     the growth of modern society. People have lived in the 
     comfort of knowing that they will always be there, for they 
     have always been there. But as the population continues to 
     grow, and differences in culture have sprung up, perhaps the 
     existence of the freedom that we as citizens have taken for 
     granted will slowly be taken right out of our patriotic hand.
       It would be a lie to say that we live in a country that 
     grants us complete freedom. After all, complete freedom would 
     lead to chaos. Therefore laws were created to protect the 
     well-being of all citizens. But we are privileged enough to 
     live in a country that allows us to voice our opinions 
     freely, worship in what we choose, and defend ourselves when 
     necessary.
       As I watch television broadcast of the unfortunate 
     occurrences in places such as Kosovo, where people as young 
     as children are being killed; Northern Ireland, were a 300 
     year old conflict has yet to solved and China where 
     oppression is not openly accepted, but expected by all, I 
     thank the spirits of our founding fathers for their bravery 
     and loyalty in the belief that a country that enables its 
     citizens to grow, is a country that must be formed.
       We as citizens of this great land have an obligation to 
     fulfill; that obligation is to live out our reputation as 
     being the land of opportunity and freedom, equality for all. 
     It is a journey we must make in order to continue the 
     tradition of freedom and basic human rights. The first of 
     many battles is at hand.
       On November third 19 hundred and ninety eight, a choice 
     will have to be made by the citizens of a small state 
     floating in the middle of the pacific ocean. Many people will 
     vote on that issue without fully understanding the concept 
     its carries out. To some it means savings the idea of 
     traditional marriage, to other it means saving the 
     constitution of the United States. Whatever the truth may be, 
     another issue lies beneath the surface, one that many people 
     would rather overlook. It is question of freedom.
       Homosexuality. A word often said beneath ones breath. The 
     thing about the word homosexuality that always amused me was 
     the

[[Page E680]]

     fact that people were afraid to say the word, fearing almost 
     that was a contagious condition. It's safe to assume that a 
     majority of the United States population disagrees with 
     ``Alternative'' lifestyles. But does that mean that it 
     acceptable to deny a group of people the basic human rights 
     they are entitled to?
       Have we learned nothing from the people of segregation that 
     our country had endured not so long ago? There were people, 
     such as Martin Luther King Jr., who were brave enough to 
     stand up and demand the freedom that African-Americans were 
     entitled to. There were the struggles women had endured in 
     order to gain their right to an abortion. We live in a 
     country that grants its citizens basic human rights that are 
     necessary in order to live, freedom to be ones own person. 
     Should we deny those freedoms to people who are different 
     from ourselves? We have no right to impose our beliefs onto 
     other people, nor does anyone have the right to deny the 
     beliefs of another. If we do so, we will only be stepping 
     back into our journey toward the United States our founding 
     fathers had envisioned.
       As citizens of this great country, we all have our service 
     to America. But the freedom instilled in the United States 
     grants us the right to chose what that is. My service to 
     America is to uphold the belief that all men are created 
     equal. My service to America is to ensure that I will never 
     be in the position of oppressing another group of people. My 
     service to America is to inform the generation to follow of 
     the importance of freedom. My service to America is to never 
     forget historical struggles. My service to America is to 
     never forget that I live in America, the land of the free.

  Carmen M. Herlihy is a senior attending Baldwin High School on the 
island of Maui. She hopes to enter New York University this fall to 
pursue a career in the theater or writing.

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