[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 12728-12729]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               VFW VOICE OF DEMOCRACY PROGRAM COMPETITION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 11, 2002

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, each year the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) 
of the United States and its Ladies Auxiliary conduct the Voice of 
Democracy audio-essay scholarship competition designed to give high 
school students the opportunity to voice their opinion on their civic 
responsibility to our country.
  The program is now in its 55th year and requires high school student 
entrants to write and record a three-to five-minute essay on an 
announced patriotic theme. This year over 85,000 secondary school 
students participated in this contest competing for the 58 national 
scholarships. The contest theme was ``Reaching Out to America's 
Future.''
  I am pleased to announce that Elizabeth Buckner from the 10th 
District of Virginia has been named a national winner in the 2002 Voice 
of Democracy Program and the recipient of the $1,000 Roy Chandler VFW 
Post 762 and Ladies Auxiliary Award. Elizabeth, a senior at Clarke 
County High School, is the daughter of Larry Buckner and Michele 
Worthing. She was sponsored by VFW Post 9760 and its Ladies Auxiliary 
in Berryville, Virginia.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to share Elizabeth's scholarship-winning 
essay with our colleagues:

2001-2002 VFW Voice of Democracy Scholarship Contest--Reaching Out, to 
                            America's Future

                         (By Elizabeth Buckner)

       Imagine if you will, the year 2020. The intense winter sun 
     is fading on the city of New York and a light dusting of snow 
     glistens on the sidewalk. As you hurry home from work, you 
     stop inside a small bakery where the warmth and the aroma of 
     holiday cookies surrounds you. Initially the sound of jumbled 
     words is all that you hear, but soon you can distinguish 
     between the different voices and various languages that have 
     entranced you. First Italian, then Arabic and Chinese. 
     Although, you cannot understand the words, the emotions of 
     excitement and joy are universal. And as you slowly make your 
     way home in this city, which is alive with energy

[[Page 12729]]

     and hope, you read the newspaper and think about all the 
     events, some memorable, some already forgotten, that have 
     transpired today in this great nation.
       Although this episode may seem ordinary and insignificant; 
     in actuality, it is a phenomenon, made only more significant 
     because it is common and widespread in this country. This 
     episode is a vision of America's future, where prosperity, 
     freedom and diversity flourish.
       Today, the United States is a country of unparalleled 
     prosperity and security. Our nation celebrates pluralism in, 
     culture, language, religion and custom. It is the land of 
     freedom of expression, freedom of belief, freedom of 
     information, and freedom of opportunity.
       Each day, however, we are faced with a difficult question. 
     How can we, both as individuals and as a society, reach out 
     to this vision of the future, and how can we guarantee that 
     the country our posterity will come to know is ever greater 
     than the one we have experienced?
       The answer to this question, the only one that can be 
     given, is through the present. The future can only ever be 
     built on the events of the past and the present. So the 
     question becomes, not how can we, but how are we already 
     reaching out to America's future?
       The ways in which we are reaching out to America's future 
     are:
       1. By exercising the rights we are guaranteed in the 
     Constitution
       2. By educating our children and instilling them with the 
     values that we cherish
       3. By defending our country and our way of life against 
     outside attacks
       4. By embracing our freedoms and our diversity
       First, we as individuals, are exercising the fights that 
     are guaranteed to us in the Constitution. For example, on 
     November 6th, millions of U.S. citizens went to the polls to 
     take part directly in our government and its processes. By 
     voting, and helping to elect our representatives at both the 
     state and federal levels. we are helping to influence the 
     future of legislature and our country.
       Secondly, we as a society realize that our children are our 
     future. Everyday we strive to provide them not only with an 
     economically sound, but also a healthy and happy future. In 
     order to achieve this goal, we guarantee our children a 
     public education, we help provide health care, and we instill 
     our values of freedom, patriotism and equality in them.
       Third, currently our country is fighting a war for our 
     future. We are fighting for our freedom, and defending our 
     country against the ineffable attack that our nation 
     experienced on September 11th. We are fighting in order to 
     ensure that our children and our grandchildren will know the 
     peace and the prosperity that we have enjoyed for so long.
       Lastly, we are currently embracing the diversity in our own 
     culture. We are witnesses of this diversity. We worship in 
     the churches, temples, and mosques; we speak and hear the 
     different languages, and we observe the contrasting beliefs 
     and opinions presented by the media. By acknowledging our 
     differences, and by protecting our civil liberties today, we 
     are ensuring that in the future, the citizens of our country 
     will know and will accept such diversity and will experience 
     and enjoy such freedom.
       In conclusion, the only way that we can truly reach out to 
     America's future is to affirm our principles of freedom and 
     equality each and every day. The truth is that, while we are 
     caught up in our busy lives and absorbed by our personal 
     concerns, the eternal rhythm of time will persist. And we 
     will not even notice. But all too soon, we will open our eyes 
     and realize that the vision of tomorrow has faded and has 
     become the gift of today. Only then, when America's future 
     has become it's past, on those wintry nights when we are 
     hurrying home, enjoying all the benefits of American society, 
     will we truly be able to appreciate the significance of 
     today.

     

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