[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 1408-1409]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

                                 ______
                                 

               STATE OF THE UNION ESSAY CONTEST FINALISTS

 Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask to have printed in the 
Record some of the finalist essays written by Vermont high school 
students as part of the seventh annual State of the Union essay contest 
conducted by my office.
  The material follows:


   ZOE HOULIHAN, NORTH COUNTRY UNION HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMAN (FINALIST)

       When you think of America, do you think of McDonald's, big 
     cities, high-tech phones and computers, or do you think about 
     violence, fear, and hatred amongst people? Although America 
     seems like a great place full of opportunities and freedom, 
     it is quite the opposite if you are not a white, straight, 
     dismembered male. There are many problems in America that 
     need to be fixed.
       Racism has been ongoing for hundreds of years. Blacks, 
     Hispanics and many other non-white groups have faced 
     discrimination and hatred because of the color of their skin. 
     Blacks are thought as more violent and lazy than whites. 
     African Americans now constitute 1 million of the 2.3 million 
     imprisoned population. They are also incarcerated at six 
     times the rate of whites. NAACP says that 5 times as many 
     whites are using drugs as Blacks, but they are being sent to 
     prison at 10 times the rate of whites. Moreover, Blacks are 
     getting shot at higher rate than whites. Although more whites 
     are getting shot, there are about 160 million more white 
     people than there are black people. While Whites make up 49% 
     of those fatally shot by police officers, Blacks make up 24%, 
     despite only being 13% of the US population. More than 250 
     blacks were killed in 2016. Furthermore, 47% of hate crimes 
     have to do with race. Racism is such a big problem in America 
     it's hard to say what an effective solution would be. One 
     solution to this could be to get media stars that are POC to 
     talk about racism. This could cause their fan base (which can 
     be quite large) to change their ideas about African 
     Americans. Another solution is to educate people on racism. 
     Teaching young children in school about how racism started 
     could lessen the number of people in each generation that 
     feel negatively about people of color. Lastly, the government 
     should make the policies about racism in schools and 
     workplaces stricter. Telling kids ``That is not appropriate'' 
     when they make a racist comment isn't doing anything. People 
     need to be punished for making these comments because if they 
     aren't it makes it seem like it isn't a big deal.
       Another problem in America is sexism and sexual assault. 
     Sexism makes it harder for women to get jobs and be well-off 
     in life. According to the Huffington Post, well-off white men 
     are three times more likely than women to be offered a job 
     interview. Moreover, women that work 41-44 hours per week 
     earn 84.6% of what a man working that same time would earn. 
     Women that work more than 60 hours a week earn only 78.3% of 
     what a man would earn. Similarly, in the House of 
     Representatives only 19.3% are women, and in the Senate only 
     20% are women. In addition, when a woman claims to have been 
     sexually assaulted, men usually blame the women. They ask 
     what they were wearing, how ``revealing'' it was, and if they 
     were under the influence of drugs or alcohol. One in four 
     women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Also, 
     683,000 adult women are forcibly raped each year. This is 
     equal to 56,916 per month, 1,871 per day and 78 per hour. One 
     solution to women not getting played as much as men could be 
     to make a policy that both women and men are to be paid 
     equally. Furthermore, a solution to sexual assault is to 
     teach kids about consent and to give longer sentences to 
     people that have committed sexual assault. Another solution 
     to sexism is to have more women representation in media and 
     politics. This could help eliminate the thought that women 
     are only made to have children, clean and cook. It would also 
     give young girls more role models to look up to.
       Finally, the last issue that needs to be fixed is hate and 
     discrimination against the LGBT+ community. According to an 
     analysis of data collected by the FBI, lesbian, gay, 
     bisexual, and transgender people are the most likely targets 
     of hate crimes. An example of a hate crime against the LGBT+ 
     community is the Orlando nightclub shooting. 49 were killed 
     and at least 53 were injured. This shooting is considered the 
     worst mass shooting in the United States and the nation's 
     worst terrorist attack since 9/11. Additionally, LGBT+ people 
     experience discrimination in the workforce. They actually 
     have a higher unemployment rate than African Americans (15% 
     versus 12%). People of color that are also apart of the LGBT+ 
     community face the most discrimination. A solution to this 
     problem could be to educate young children about the 
     different sensualities and explain that it's okay to feel 
     attracted to whomever. Another solution is to create policies 
     that would help protect people in the LGBT+ community. 
     Lastly, there should be stricter rules about when a teacher 
     hears a homophobic comment. Many kids say ``That's so gay'' 
     when something that they don't like happens and i could make 
     other kids feel unsafe.
       In conclusion, America has many issues with equal rights 
     that need to be fixed. One of the main solutions to every 
     problem is education. When people are educated, they can use 
     their knowledge to base their opinions off instead of going 
     with what the popular opinion is or what they are hearing 
     around them.


        GRAHAM JANSON, MONTPELIER HIGH SCHOOL JUNIOR (FINALIST)

       Whenever you ask someone the question, ``What is the most 
     pressing issue facing our nation today?'' you will most 
     likely get a different answer every time. An environmentalist 
     might say, ``Carbon emissions and global warming.'' A 
     conservative activist might say, ``The increasing national 
     debt.'' There are many answers to this question. But there is 
     only one answer that addresses an issue that lies at the 
     center of our nation's existence. That answer is that the 
     fundamental democratic principles on which the United States 
     is based are being eroded by voter suppression and 
     gerrymandering.
       Efforts to suppress voting rights for many people have been 
     around since the Constitution was adopted as the supreme law 
     of the land, when only property-owning white men could vote. 
     We have come a long way since then, with African Americans, 
     Native Americans, and American women gaining the right to 
     vote, but we still have a long way to go. Similar to during 
     Reconstruction, when literacy tests were used to deny African 
     Americans the right to vote, a now-overturned North Carolina 
     voter ID law was in effect that, according to the federal 
     appeals court that dealt with the case, deliberately ``tar ge 
     t[ ed] African-Americans'' in an attempt to suppress their 
     voter turnout. Other states, such as Ohio, Kansas, and North 
     Carolina, have had voter ID laws that have been overturned 
     after being ruled discriminatory by a federal appeals court. 
     The overturning of these laws is already a step in the right 
     direction. A way to address voter-suppression efforts is to 
     require a federal court review for every voter ID law to make 
     sure that there is no discrimination or infringement of 
     American rights. Another way is to restore

[[Page 1409]]

     the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
       Additionally, the repeal of some of the key aspects of the 
     Voting Rights Act in 2013, which allowed nine states to alter 
     their election laws without the approval of the federal 
     government, demonstrates how gerrymandered elections can 
     serve to undermine basic democratic principles. 
     Gerrymandering involves altering the areas of electoral 
     districts to favor one party or another, and both Democratic 
     and Republican politicians have engaged in gerrymandering in 
     the past. There have been many cases in which a political 
     candidate has won an election because of gerrymandering. This 
     clearly undermines our nation's democratic principles because 
     now a candidate can carry the minority of an electorate and 
     win an election, and it needs to change now. Furthermore, 
     because these same elected officials appoint and confirm 
     federal judges, voter suppression and gerrymandering can also 
     undermine the judiciary's vital role in protecting democratic 
     voting rights.
       In conclusion, the restoration of equal voting rights and 
     the elimination of gerrymandering would allow the United 
     States to remain a true democracy. Indeed, the other pressing 
     issues that face our nation today, such as global warming, 
     economic development, immigration, healthcare, and gender 
     equity, cannot be fairly addressed while our nation continues 
     to utilize this flawed system that does not reflect 
     democratic values.


   IRA RICHARDSON, BELLOWS FALLS UNION HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR (FINALIST)

       When George Washington delivered his farewell address, he 
     stated that ``The alternate domination of one faction over 
     another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party 
     dissension . . . is itself a frightful despotism.'' Our first 
     and only president who was not a member of a political party 
     attempted to warn us of the threats they can pose to 
     democracy. Today, however, the Democratic and Republican 
     parties have become so powerful that one can hardly imagine 
     the American democratic system without them. In a sense, this 
     is one of the sources of their overbearing power: many 
     Americans see them as an intrinsic part of our democracy 
     rather than two organizations that were created long after 
     the union to organize like-minded voters. Political parties 
     are not inherently bad, but a system which creates a forced 
     dichotomy by only giving voters two realistic choices for any 
     given position has unquestionable negative effects on our 
     nation. Firstly, it forces citizens who care deeply about 
     specific issues to routinely vote for candidates whom they 
     may not agree with in any other capacity so as to not violate 
     their personal moral code. This, in turn, allows parties to 
     cynically align themselves with these single-issue voters to 
     win their votes without truly sharing their values. 
     Additionally, two diametrically opposed political parties 
     give rise to an us-versus-them mentality among citizens, 
     eroding the mutual trust that is intrinsic in the formation 
     of a nation.
       To reduce the near-hegemonic power that the parties 
     currently hold, it is imperative to make it more clear to the 
     American public that both parties are private organizations, 
     operating within their own processes and promoting goals that 
     are not necessarily those of their constituents. The 
     intention is not to cause Americans to stop supporting the 
     party they belong to, but rather not to follow any party 
     blindly, and to understand their complex histories and role 
     in American democracy. Another step towards a system in which 
     people could more consistently vote for politicians they 
     truly support would be the implementation of an instant run-
     off (aka alternate or ranked) voting system. In such a 
     system, a voter does not select a single candidate to receive 
     a position, but rather ranks the order in which they support 
     each candidate. If no candidate has over fifty percent of the 
     vote, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated and 
     every citizen who selected them has their votes moved to 
     their next choice, and the votes are tallied again. This 
     process is repeated until a candidate has a majority. This 
     alternative would allow people to vote their conscience 
     without fear of handing the election to a candidate on the 
     opposite side of the political spectrum. It would not destroy 
     the existing political parties (which would be destabilizing) 
     but rather allow third-party and independent candidates to 
     speak for portions of the population who cannot identify with 
     either existing party. By reducing the power of the two major 
     parties, the environment necessary to address the many 
     problems facing America could be created.


     JULIA STERGAS, BELLOWS FREE ACADEMY FAIRFAX SENIOR (FINALIST)

       Nearly 260 years ago our country endured a war over the 
     rights of our states and the rights of its peoples. From this 
     war came the first legislation to protect African Americans 
     living in the United States. One-hundred years later, our 
     country faced another revolution, resulting in new 
     legislation that enhanced the ability for African Americans 
     to participate in political and social life. Since then, many 
     Americans have believed that racial equality has been 
     achieved.
       But here we are, fifty years later, struggling through yet 
     another conflict over the divide between black and white. 
     Tensions are high between African Americans and white 
     authority figures in the United States. Distrust and anxiety 
     separates black Americans from their government and on 
     looking citizens. In 2014, Michael Brown was shot and killed 
     by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. That same year, a 
     barrage of negative media emerged from an originally peaceful 
     protest in Baltimore, Maryland, depicting unlawful rioters 
     who looted and set fire to business, injuring six police 
     officers. Now, we continue to watch video clips on nightly 
     news highlighting the struggle between black and white. 
     Through this our attention has been distracted from the true 
     cause of continued racial conflict: the lack of recent 
     successful intervention.
       White authority figures are perpetually distrusted by the 
     black community, and groups such as Black Lives Matter still 
     believe inherent biases against African Americans are 
     abundant in society. We must rebuild this connection. To 
     achieve comprehensive change we must redirect our nation's 
     path. The first step toward action is awareness. This issue 
     must be introduced into schools, universities, and community 
     centers. If we can enlighten young adults they will share 
     their knowledge and work to obtain equality nationwide.
       Educators would lead discussions on current and historic 
     racial tensions in a non-partisan, open environment. Focusing 
     on historic and current events and their social and political 
     ramifications, these open debates would promote civic 
     engagement and thoughtful problem solving. Prompts regarding 
     the government's involvement and the responsibilities it 
     should assume, the action we as the nation's youth should 
     assume, and opportunities to develop individual solutions 
     would be considered during discussion. Our young population 
     is critical to the future of our nation, so it is necessary 
     that we provide them with opportunities to immerse themselves 
     in their political and social world.
       Today's generation and the ones to follow will be our 
     leaders and our visionaries. Incorporating awareness into 
     education programs would introduce these leaders to the 
     nuances of the world they will come to inspire, and allow 
     them to develop an understanding of their political efficacy. 
     Raising consciousness of this racial strain would encourage 
     young leaders to take charge of their futures, and ours, and 
     incite change. It is critical to the well being of our nation 
     that we cultivate a generation of educated young adults who 
     possess the skills to maneuver themselves in their political 
     and social world. Addressing our nation's imperfection and 
     coaching our youth will only be the start to a nationwide 
     revolution of change and acceptance.

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