[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 11 (Wednesday, January 20, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S128-S129]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONGRATULATING VERMONT ESSAY WINNERS

 Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, since 2010 I have sponsored a 
State of the Union essay contest for Vermont students. The contest, now 
in its sixth year, is an opportunity for Vermont's high school students 
to articulate what issues they would prioritize if they were President 
of the United States. A panel of Vermont teachers reviewed all of the 
essays submitted and selected the top 20. I am proud to say that nearly 
800 students wrote essays for this year's State of the Union contest.
  I would like to congratulate each and every finalist and to 
specifically acknowledge Meredith Holbrook as this year's winner of the 
contest. I would also like to recognize Vivian Huang for placing second 
and Ryan Racicot for placing third. I ask to have printed in the Record 
copies of the winning essays.
  The material follows:

             Meredith Holbrook, Milton High School (Winner)

       My fellow Americans, today the United States has the 
     strongest military in the world. Our nation has the number 
     one economy. We have the longest running democratic 
     government in history. If we want to be considered the 
     greatest in the world, the home of the free, the land of 
     opportunity, then we must face the challenges before us.
       In 2014, 48.1 million Americans lived in food insecure 
     homes, of this, 15.3 million were children. This equates to 
     14 percent of households being food insecure. How can the 
     wealthiest nation in the world be unable to feed its hungry? 
     We have the full capability of providing for those in need. 
     We should not allow politics to stop us from caring for our 
     citizens in need. It is impossible to expect the people of 
     this country to be functioning members of society without 
     adequate nourishment. The solution to this problem is simple: 
     feed America's hungry. I believe that if we were to create a 
     cabinet level agency dedicated specifically to food-
     insecurity, we would be bettering the common good of America. 
     Devoting ten billion dollars from the federal budget would 
     make a tremendous improvement in the number of food-insecure 
     homes. It may be a bold move to make, but our nation cannot 
     move forward until our people are no longer hungry.
       Alongside hunger is homelessness. On one given night in 
     America, about 560,000 citizens are homeless, and about 
     200,000 of those people are in families. It should be the 
     basic right of our people to have shelter and security. The 
     wound of homelessness cannot be solved with night time 
     shelters. Homeless people must be provided with long-term 
     shelters if they are ever to be productive members of 
     society. In order to solve this issue, we must invest in job 
     counseling. Many homeless citizens are homeless due to the 
     inability to acquire a job. If people had the chance to have 
     a clean interview outfit, as well as proper interview 
     instruction, there would not be as many people sleeping on 
     the streets. In order to make this happen, we must have more 
     people trained in the expertise of job counseling, and more 
     programs helping to aid homeless citizens. Again, this would 
     mean funding such programs. A small cost to pay to get 
     Americans off the streets.
       How a nation treats its elderly says a lot about its 
     character. We will not be a nation that ignores the needs of 
     its senior citizens. Today, many seniors cannot comfortably 
     retire. They are often forced to choose between

[[Page S129]]

     paying for food or, paying for medication. They will go 
     without heat because they cannot afford to buy fuel. The 
     source of this issue is Social Security. Although this 
     retirement system has benefited many Americans, it needs to 
     be changed. Social Security often does not change with 
     inflation, or does not change enough to account for increased 
     prices. While prices are rising, Social Security is not 
     keeping up. This leaves seniors to make difficult choices 
     regarding spending. Every year, Social Security should be 
     assessed, and changed accordingly to inflation. To pay for 
     this, we would need to raise the Social Security tax 
     percentage to seven percent. This would allow America to 
     adequately pay for the needs of our elderly.
       This nation is nowhere near perfect. We have many issues we 
     must address, domestic and foreign. We cannot expect to 
     properly address issues overseas, until we fix the home we 
     live in. We must fix America from within. Once we do this, we 
     will truly be able to call ourselves the greatest nation in 
     the world.

       Vivian Huang, South Burlington High School (Second Place)

       The year of 2015 has been historic for the United States of 
     America. We have signed a landmark agreement on climate 
     change, enacted marriage equality, and become economically 
     sound--marking greater economic growth rates than predicted 
     and reaching a five percent unemployment rate. Still, we 
     enter the year of 2016 with two pressing issues remaining on 
     the global and the national scale: terrorism and healthcare. 
     As we tackle these issues, we must remind ourselves that the 
     United States of America is truly one nation, indivisible, 
     with each citizen carrying responsibilities to support our 
     nation's values, as well as one another.
       First, following recent acts of terror around the world, it 
     is top-priority for the United States to defeat the threat of 
     ISIS. Enough is enough. Rest assured that rather than sending 
     our troops to combat zones in Iraq and Syria, we will take an 
     active role in helping our European allies lead the battle. 
     America must provide rigorous train-and-assist programs for 
     Kurdish forces, exert a tight grip on ISIS-controlled 
     territory, cut off supply lines, and implore the Gulf States 
     to combat terrorism. Furthermore, previous experiences in 
     Iraq and Afghanistan have revealed that merely destroying one 
     source of terrorism will not suffice. To ultimately render 
     counterterrorism and military action unnecessary in Iraq and 
     Syria, we plan on developing political, economic, and 
     educational reforms that will effectively respond to complex 
     sectarian and ethnic divisions in the region.
       Let's make it clear that the United States is not declaring 
     a war against religion, but rather against the violence of 
     extremism. As human beings, it is our responsibility to help 
     the innocent Syrian families fleeing ISIS and Assad's brutal 
     regime. Now is not the time to turn our backs, but to provide 
     humanitarian aid and shelter, even though it requires extreme 
     vigilance. Additionally, every American must confront the 
     problem of bigotry, which only becomes exploited by ISIS for 
     its own recruitment. We all have the duty to stand up against 
     discriminatory rhetoric and hostile actions. We all have the 
     duty to uphold the country's values by supporting each 
     other--our friends, neighbors, co-workers, and fellow 
     community members--with tolerance and respect.
       Second, an important issue on the domestic front continues 
     to be healthcare. Physical and mental wellness is a 
     fundamental need for the American people. Over the past year, 
     the Affordable Care Act has improved access to this basic 
     human right for the uninsured. However, there is more to 
     accomplish in 2016. Until completely comprehensive universal 
     healthcare--namely, a single-payer system--is set into place, 
     Medicaid must be expanded in 20 remaining states and 
     community health clinics must be placed in underserved 
     locations.
       The Department of Health and Human Services must address 
     the chief drivers of healthcare costs; hospital expenditures, 
     physician and clinical services, and skyrocketing drug prices 
     escalate the national health spending. To target this broad 
     problem, a single-payer healthcare system will minimize 
     unnecessary spending by requiring hospitals to operate on 
     government-approved standardized billing procedures. Hence, 
     hospitals and pharmaceutical companies will not be able to 
     overcharge patients and run extortionate monopolies on 
     essential medications.
       Indeed, American citizens' rugged bravery, wise judgment, 
     and drive for excellence have made this country great. But we 
     can always progress forward, as long we stand united. 
     Therefore, we will tackle the urgent issues of terrorism and 
     healthcare not only with confidence, but also with the 
     ambition to remain one nation, indivisible, with liberty and 
     justice for all.

             Ryan Racicot, Milton High School (Third Place)

       The most pressing and immediate danger of today's society 
     is the rapidly changing climate. The scientific community 
     agrees virtually unanimously, that climate change is a very 
     real and imminent concern. Continuation down the current path 
     at this pace will eventually result in the ultimate demise of 
     the human race.
       This issue is not the United States' to tackle alone. In 
     order to fully reverse the effects of climate change, it will 
     take a worldwide collaborative effort unlike anything the 
     world has ever faced before. The United States' role going 
     forward is to set an example for other first world countries. 
     The United Nations' conference this year in Paris was a step 
     in the right direction. But the United States needs to agree 
     to a binding commitment to reduce emissions. Without a whole-
     hearted promise to abide to these reductions, the United 
     States will not be taken seriously on this issue.
       The United States government cannot expect corporations to 
     make eco-friendly movements unprovoked, it is simply not 
     worth the financial burden. The federal government needs to 
     incentivize eco-friendly waste management for businesses, by 
     making eco-friendly business more profitable than 
     environmentally irresponsible business. As it stands now, no 
     company has motivation to protect the environment. Doing so 
     only hurts production and makes them less competitive. To 
     reverse this trend, the federal government needs to enforce 
     pre-existing environmental laws and spend more on 
     environmental saving measures.
       To convert all factories to updated standards for 
     emissions, a large amount of money will be needed initially, 
     but over time, a system in which clean energy is valued more 
     than profit will result in a much more sustainable economy. 
     Companies who destroy the environment and experience greater 
     profit as a result will be forced to pay for their own 
     pollution management systems. Greatly increasing taxes on 
     environmentally irresponsible corporations will make clean 
     energy more fiscally appealing than polluting means of 
     energy. This is not stealing money from the American people 
     or a redistribution of wealth. This is using money made by 
     multi-billion dollar companies at the expense of the 
     environment to help fix the problem they themselves helped to 
     create. Also, by taking the charge on creating 
     environmentally friendly products and machinery, the 
     potential for the United States to make a profit is huge. By 
     incentivizing other countries to go eco-friendly, and selling 
     the materials and means to do so creates jobs and income, 
     which boosts the U.S. economy, all without destroying the 
     environment.
       Unlike many other issues troubling the state of Vermont, 
     the nation, and the world, climate change affects every 
     single person. Regardless of race, gender, sexuality, 
     socioeconomic status, religion, education or political 
     affiliation, climate change affects all, especially the most 
     disadvantaged. Because of this, it is everyone's personal 
     responsibility to do their part in saving the planet. One 
     cannot stand idle and expect other people do all of the dirty 
     work. Helping to save the earth is not about how you can 
     benefit, it is about how you can help the greater cause. We 
     can no longer allow large corporations to prioritize making a 
     profit over responsible waste management. The short-term 
     profits for the rich are vastly outweighed by the long-term 
     environmental consequences felt by all.

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