[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 67 (Thursday, May 19, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1015]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO MIHAN LEE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 18, 2005

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Mihan 
Lee, an 11th-grader who lives in my Congressional district and attends 
Georgetown Day School. Recently, she competed against nearly 5,400 
middle and high school students nationwide in an essay contest titled 
``Lincoln and a New Birth of Freedom.'' Her essay, ``A New Country, a 
New Century, a New Freedom'' earned her grand prize honors. The contest 
was held to commemorate the opening of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential 
Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. Mihan, a 17-year-old, 
second-generation Korean-American, read her award-winning prose during 
the dedication ceremony.
  Although Mihan's essay was not specifically about President Lincoln, 
she captured his message of freedom and courage in a story about her 
great-grandfather, who lived in Korea under Japanese colonization.
  Mr. Speaker, I applaud Mihan Lee and wish her continued success in 
the years ahead. I submit her essay for the Record.

              A New Country, a New Century, a New Freedom

       My understanding of freedom is inextricably tied up with my 
     understanding of language. My great-grandfather, in 1940s 
     Korea, was arrested for putting together the first Korean 
     dictionary, when the language had been banned by the Japanese 
     government. My great-grandfather believed that words, the 
     medium by which we formulate and share ideas, can bind and 
     break the very ideas they express if the language is that of 
     an oppressor. He fought for the freedom of his people to 
     express ideas in their own words; in so doing, he defended 
     their very right to have ideas.
       As I prepare for all the freedoms and responsibilities of 
     adulthood, I remember these definitions of freedom I have 
     inherited, and strive to make ones of my own--not only as the 
     first generation of my family born in a new country, but also 
     as an American youth at the birth of a new century. Sitting 
     in the hall between classes, my friends and I discuss the 
     faults of our school's administration, the right to same-sex 
     marriage, the justification for the Iraq War. We feel it is 
     our right to know and evaluate our surroundings, to speak and 
     have our ideas responded to.
       I believe that freedom in the 21st century means the 
     liberty of individuals, regardless of age, race, gender, or 
     class, to express themselves in their own words, and to use 
     those words to shape history. We celebrate it, and yet we 
     never stop fighting for it. I am Korean-American, I am young, 
     and I am free. I speak--not always articulate, not often 
     right, but always in my own words. I speak, and I listen.

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