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2003
California South District
Essay
Contest Winners
announced by
Chairperson
CORA WAGAMON
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1st Place JESSICA
BARIS
Sponsor - Allied Gardens Optimist Club
2nd Place JANICA
SMITH
Sponsor - Carlsbad Village Optimist Club
3rd Place MARYANN
REINMILLER
Sponsor - Presidio Optimist Club
Congratulations to ALL the ESSAY CONTEST entrants. Inscribed plaques
will be awarded May 17th, Grossmont College, auditorium at 2:00 p.m.
Looking forward to seeing a large Optimist Club attendance for the event.
Special thanks go to CORA WAGAMAN and PATTY McLAUGHLIN the California
South District 41 2003 Essay Chairs.
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2003
California South District 41
WINNING ESSAY
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By Jessica Baris
Serra High School
"When Our Freedom is Threatened”
Number of words 490
When
our freedom is threatened, Americans step
forward. Adversity is the glue that keeps this country together
when skeptics say America is doomed. Americans
have what
President John Adams called the “latent spark” and that spark
is “their love of liberty.”[1]
As early
as 1634 the colonists stepped forward to resist a
royal squadron of ships when King James attempted to
impose taxes on them. They
had braved a tempestuous
ocean and wilderness to forge their own lives and no one was
going to take away their freedom.
In 1760, the king saw colonists’ prosperity and began to erode
their sovereignty with laws such as the “writ of assistance” by
which businessmen’s homes could be searched without a
reason. Colonists protested. Then
the Sugar and Stamp acts
angered people. Bundles of government paper were burned in
bonfires. The homes of British government officials were
vandalized. British goods were boycotted.
Britain underestimated the “love of liberty” that lived within
Americans. The Revenue Act followed and the people were
called forth by essays that the king was attempting to enslave
them. Men and women, black and white, planters, merchants,
small farmers, artisans and unskilled workers joined together.
Women started spinning their own cloth to make clothes and
refused to buy tea. Officials were
tarred and feathered.
Our Founding Fathers saw this was the moment that colonists
no longer saw themselves as citizens of states but as
Americans. As John Adams started toward Philadelphia in
August, 1774, to attend the First Continental Congress, he felt
prospects were dim for a united 13 states.
But as he made the
journey, he wrote to his wife that “The Spirit of the People
wherever we have been seems to be very favorable.
They
universally consider our Cause as their own, and express the
firmest Resolution to abide the Determination of the
Congress.”[2]
He was not disappointed. Declaration of
independence from Britain was the course of action.
In the Revolutionary War “one united people . . . who by their
joint counsels, arms and efforts fighting side by side . . . have
nobly established general liberty and independence.”
This was
said by John Jay and he added that “this country and this
people seem to be made for each other.”[3]
America was attacked at Pearl Harbor in WWII.
The people
rallied behind their soldiers, giving up gasoline, rubber, and
food. They blacked out their
towns. They bought war bonds.
“United We Stand” was the cry of each and every American.
We hoped never to hear that cry again but the attacks on our
East Coast on September 11, 2001 the Spirit of the People
was called forth again. Americans
stepped forward – like
Todd Beamer who led the attack on the terrorists on Flight 93,
giving his life to save countless of anonymous Americans.
When our freedom is threatened, Americans step forward.
Some, like Todd Beamer, take a giant step.
Others take small
steps. But Americans will not turn
away and run from
adversity.
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[1]
Adams, John, The Works of John Adam,
Second President of the United States.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1865.
[2]
Howe, John R. The Changing Political
Thought of John Adams. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966.
[3]
Hamilton, Alexander, John Jay, and James Madison. The
Federalist. New York: Robert B. Luce, Inc. 1976.