[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 12998-12999]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     VFW VOICE OF DEMOCRACY CONTEST

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MAURICE D. HINCHEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 15, 2002

  Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to congratulate my constituent 
Allegra Guarino, New York's recent winner of the Veterans of Foreign 
Wars' Voice of Democracy Scholarship Contest. This very talented young 
writer from Marlboro, New York has written an essay entitled ``Reaching 
Out to America's Future'' that bears reading and reflection by all of 
us. I am very proud to represent her in Congress, and I'm sure that her 
family and friends are very proud of her accomplishment. I am certain 
that she has a very bright future and will go on to do great things for 
her community and our nation. We need more young people like her.

                    Reaching Out to America's Future

                         (By Allegra Guarino)-

       When I hear the phrase . . . ``reaching out to America's 
     future'' . . . I think of an outreach trip that I took this 
     summer to Harlan County, Kentucky. Harlan County is one of--
     if not the poorest counties in America. The people here don't 
     have running water, some of them don't have electricity, and 
     what is even more shocking is that some of them don't have a 
     sewage system. They live in hills of the Appalachian 
     Mountains in conditions that many people wouldn't dream exist 
     in our great country. One of the volunteers on the trip found 
     a beautiful stone on the ground and gave it to a little girl 
     that he met. He told her that it was a dream stone, and that 
     if she held onto it when she was dreaming of the future, it 
     would hold inside of it all of her hopes and her dreams. The 
     six-year-old girl looked up at him with questioning eyes and 
     said, ``But I don't know how to hope and dream.'' How do you 
     teach a child to dream? Most people don't have to be taught. 
     Because they are lucky enough to live in part of our country 
     where the reach of their dreams has no limitations.
       Another child I met in Kentucky is named Bailey. She is a 
     four-year-old that loves to play on the swing set, so on the 
     third day of the trip I decided to teach her how to butterfly 
     swing. I sat down on the swing and

[[Page 12999]]

     placed her on my lap so that she was facing me. I kicked off 
     from the rocky soil and we began swinging. I told her to be 
     sure and watch the shadow that we were casting on the ground. 
     I watched her eyes light up as she saw the butterfly shaped 
     shadow on the ground. As we pulled away from each other and 
     then back towards each other the shadow was an image of a 
     butterfly flapping its wings. I told her that she might not 
     be able to fly like the butterfly but she could do lots of 
     great things in her life. She thought about the butterfly and 
     what I had said and then she looked at me with these big blue 
     eyes and said you can be the wings. I know that she didn't 
     mean it as deeply as I took it. She was probably only 
     referring to the shadow that we were making on the ground. 
     But to me it meant something more.
       Today our country is at war and once again many brave 
     people have gone off to fight in defense of freedom. They are 
     truly the wings of the butterfly. Just as I picked up Bailey 
     and placed her safely on my lap the troops fighting now, and 
     the troops that have fought for us in the past picked up 
     America, and started to fly. In order to start us swinging I 
     had to push hard off the rocky ground. The American soldiers 
     don't have an easy task ahead of them. We are just now, just 
     kicking off of the rocky ground. But I have no doubt that we 
     will fly. A butterfly has two wings. Each equally important. 
     The soldiers will no doubt put 110% into flying our country 
     to the freedom of the open skies. But we the American people 
     must put equally as much effort into flying the country 
     higher. All of us as a team must reach out to America's 
     future. Without knowing us people have laid down their lives 
     so that we would be able to enjoy the freedoms that are now 
     being threatened. America too has a dream stone. Only it 
     comes in a different form. It is tri-colored in red, white, 
     and blue. Red for the blood shed yesterday, White for the 
     pure freedoms we enjoy today and Blue for the endless clear 
     skies of tomorrow.
       Our flag is our dream stone holding inside of it the very 
     hopes and dreams of our Nation. We held tightly to it as it 
     was proudly carried through World War One, World War Two, 
     Desert Storm, Vietnam and Korea. While we were enjoying a 
     time of great prosperity we tucked our stone away in our 
     pocket. On September 11th we pulled it out of our pockets 
     when firefighters proudly raised it high at ground zero, 
     athletes displayed it on their jerseys, and average Americans 
     flew it from their cars and homes. My generation knows how to 
     dream. Will the generation after us be able to say the same? 
     We must reach out and place the knowledge of the past into 
     the hands of the future. When we empower the future 
     generations with knowledge our country is sure to thrive. It 
     is estimated that over one million men and women have died in 
     service to our great country. Let us, America's present, take 
     pride in our history and reach out to the future by passing 
     along our knowledge and our great American dream stone. 
     Because without a doubt America's future is whatever America 
     dreams it to be.

     

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