[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 105 (Thursday, July 22, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1631-E1632]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      RECOGNIZING VALERIE SANDEFUR

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. HEATHER WILSON

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 22, 1999

  Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, I wish to bring to your attention the 
outstanding accomplishment of Valerie Sandefur.
  Valerie is a High School student at Albuquerque Academy, in 
Albuquerque, New Mexico and recently won the Veterans of Foreign Wars 
and its Ladies Auxiliary ``Voice of Democracy'' broadcast scriptwriting 
contest. The contest asked students to create a speech based on the 
theme ``My Service to America.'' Her speech was judged the best from 
New Mexico.
  Valerie spoke about how she and all of us could better serve our 
country by re-enforcing the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance. In her 
speech she said:
  ``We are no longer a nation indivisible, we are increasingly a nation 
invisible. My service to America is to put the meaning back into the 
pledge of allegiance and to create again the idea of `one nation.' 
However, there are two challenges to regaining our allegiance--apathy 
and ignorance.''
  She continued to describe how apathy leads to a loss of participation 
and interest in democracy. Valerie then told how ignorance has caused 
even greater problems than apathy. She said she feels American society 
is devaluing virtues such as ambition, leadership and heroism, and that 
Americans are losing their uniquely American character, their sense of 
nationality and their spirit of patriotism.
  There are lessons in her speech the entire nation could learn from. 
Valerie demonstrated the ambition and intelligence needed for success 
now and in the future. Valerie finished her speech by imploring all of 
us to strive to put meaning back into the Pledge of Allegiance. I 
submit the text of her script for the Congressional Record.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the VFW for sponsoring the ``Voice of 
Democracy'' contest and I ask that we recognize Valerie Sandefur for 
her achievement by striving to do what she has--put meaning back into 
the Pledge of Allegiance.

 ``My Service to America''--1998-99 VFW Voice of Democracy Scholarship 
                              Competition

                (By New Mexico Winner, Valerie Sandefur)

       I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of 
     America, and to the republic for which it stands . . . and 
     that's about where I forgot. I was in middle school. Actually 
     it was more like the middle of a muddle. But I was not alone. 
     When asked many students couldn't remember these sacred 
     words, and more significantly they, like most of America 
     didn't understand the true meaning of what they recited each 
     morning. I've heard many of my friends ask--what's the point 
     of learning this `stuff'? For me the answer found is that who 
     we are as a society is based on what they call `stuff'. What 
     I call history. And the history lesson for today is that we 
     are no longer a nation indivisible, we are increasingly a 
     nation invisible. Therefore, my service to America is to put 
     the meaning back into the pledge of allegiance, and to create 
     again the idea of `one nation'. However, there are two 
     challenges to regaining our allegiance--apathy and ignorance.
       Let us first consider apathy. It is the constitutional 
     right of every citizen over the age of 18 to vote. Yet, in 
     the 1996 presidential elections apathy paralyzed roughly 50% 
     of registered voters. Politicians struggled to recapture the 
     public's fading attention. They failed. As Christopher 
     Hitchens wrote for The Nation magazine it was really a case 
     of the Blind leading the Dumb. Presidential candidates spend 
     $138 million dollars on a public that in many cases, didn't 
     even care enough to show up. . . .
       But it's not just lack of attendance at the pools that 
     demonstrates our growing apathy. The education of our 
     children has become a diluted and narrow stream that too 
     often focuses on the `real world' of MTV rather than the 
     lessons of the world of the past. Many classrooms no longer 
     have an American flag, and we have stopped teaching the words 
     to the national anthem. In fact at a World Series game this 
     year, Tony Bennett chose not to sing the national anthem. . . 
     . And no one seemed to care. It seems that Mr. Bennett left 
     not only his heart in San Francisco but also his patriotism.
       But apathy is not the only challenge to our allegiance, my 
     service to America includes confronting ignorance in myself 
     and others. Consider a recent political cartoon in the 
     Washington Post. The first part of this two-fold cartoon 
     shows a young impressionable child in 1958 wearing a cowboy 
     hat and glasses. He fondly dreams about the famous singing 
     cowboy Roy Rogers, who stood for respect, honesty and 
     goodness, sitting of

[[Page E1632]]

     course upon his trustworthy horse, Trigger. The second part 
     of this cartoon shows another young and impressionable child 
     in 1998 with a nose-ring and his baseball cap on sideways. In 
     his ignorance, the child of 1998 thinks of Roy Rogers as the 
     fast food chain out east, not as the great American hero. Oh, 
     and when it comes to `Trigger' all he can think of is the 
     next drive-by shooting.
       Now it seems the creator of this cartoon has captured the 
     essence of what makes my service to America so important. For 
     young people like this poster-boy of 1998--nationalism has 
     been replaced by an individualism that is self-indulgent. Too 
     many of my peers remain blissfully ignorant of what their 
     allegiance to America really means. An allegiance that 
     requires an informed electorate. But more and more we are 
     less and less informed. One survey revealed that a \1/3\ of 
     all college students firmly believed in ghosts, Atlantis, 
     flying saucers, and yes even Big Foot.
       Similarly on a quiz of general knowledge, answers came back 
     saying that the Great Gatsby was a magician in the 1930's, 
     and that Socrates was an American Indian Chieftain.
       While this ignorance might seem some what amusing at first, 
     Gertrude Himmelfarb, a writer for Commentary magazine, argues 
     that this society, which is devaluing virtues like ambition, 
     leadership and heroism, is in danger of losing the character 
     of the people and their sense of nationality and spirit of 
     patriotism. But there is still hope for the future . . . and 
     it begins with my service to America. And with your service. 
     And with the service of every American. We are all 
     responsible for reducing the ignorance and apathy that 
     challenge our ``nation indivisible''. If we are to make the 
     pledge of allegiance meaningful, then we must give full 
     meaning to every word. And that's my service, my pledge of 
     allegiance, my pledge to America. A pledge worth remembering.

     

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