American Legion Auxiliary Americanism Essays
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ The Herald Tribune is proud to publish the winning essays from the recent American Legion Auxiliary Americanism Essay contest. The fine work by the students will be shared in the paper over the next few weeks.
"Celebrating America and Our Heritage"
by Katie Kerkhover
CHEST Home School Grade 8
Daughter of Ed and Rhonda Kerkhover
1st Place Class I
When we celebrate America and our heritage do we really think deeply about what we are celebrating? What are we really celebrating in the first place? There are several things, such as the principles of our documents, freedom, our founding fathers, and all the other citizens that made this country what it is today.
We should celebrate our founding documents, such as the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution. These and other documents helped to shape and maintain our country. People used to read the Declaration of Independence every Fourth of July and everyone, including the youth, would listen attentively. Now, even if we would read it in most towns on Independence Day, would the youth listen? It has been nearly 235 years since our country was founded. If in that time we have stopped reading the Declaration of Independence in most towns on America's birthday, what will happen to the Pledge of Allegiance in the next 250 years?
We should also celebrate freedom. We celebrate that we have the freedom to worship God, vote, own firearms, have the right of peaceful assembly and the ability to speak out for what we believe in. We don't have to live in fear of soldiers raiding our homes, stealing whatever they want; we also have the right to a fair trial.
We should also celebrate our Founding Fathers. Now we do talk a lot about people like George Washington, Paul Revere, and Benjamin Franklin. But what about the others like William Whipple, Gouverneur Morris, and John Jay? Why aren't these men well known? John Jay was the first Chief Justice of New York, was appointed the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, served as the President of the Continental Congress, and was elected Governor of New York. If he did all these things, why isn't he well known like the other founding fathers?
We also need to remember all the trailblazers, settlers, traders, explorers, farmers, and others who made the way clear for people like builders, store keepers, teachers, and all the others that made America what it is today.
In the end, I believe that we should show much gratitude to all those who led this country into the powerful nation it is today. For just as important as it is to keep the spirit of freedom and liberty alive in our country, we should also keep the knowledge of our heritage alive deep in the heart of America.
"Celebrating America and Our Heritage"
by Morgan Stewart
CHEST Home School Grade 8
Daughter of Ronda LaRose and Tom Stewart
2nd Place Class I
When I think of America and our heritage, I think of some of our traditions started by our founding fathers, such as Thanksgiving.
The pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving out of gratitude for their survival in the new world. Who were the pilgrims? The pilgrims were made up of a group of people that did not believe that the break with the Catholic Church had gone far enough, and who believed that Church should be simple and based on teaching the Bible. This belief was not accepted in England, and so the pilgrim's suffered persecution for their practices. They were also not permitted to exercise their religious beliefs.
A small group of pilgrims decided that the only way they would be able to live as they saw fit and to practice their religion as they felt it should be, would be to go to a new place, which would be America.
The Atlantic crossing had been challenging. Some of the challenges they faced are, they had to go 65 days with off and on showers of rain, much starvation, sickness, and death. Many also got very seasick. They had to deal with harsh winter as soon as they hit land, and it took them a while to build adequate shelters so before then, they were forced to find warmth elsewhere. Food was also very scarce. The food the pilgrims ate aboard the Mayflower was salted meat and fish, peas, beans, beer, and hard cheese.
There were 32 children or young people on the Mayflower. Of all the passengers, they were probably the most bored.
They combined Thanksgiving and the harvest festival into a single event: a yearly Thanksgiving, proclaimed by individual governors for a Thursday in November. Abraham Lincoln began the tradition of an annual national Thanksgiving in 1863.
The first Thanksgiving was celebrated between the pilgrims and the Indians in 1621. The feast lasted for three long days. This early celebration was the start of today's holiday celebration. Like then, we celebrate with a huge feast.
After the first Thanksgiving, the observation was sporadic and almost forgotten until the early 1800's. It was usually celebrated in late September or October. In 1941, Congress made Thanksgiving a national holiday and set the date as the fourth Thursday in November.
The Indians traded maps, furs, and crops. The Native Americans also helped defend colonists and taught the pilgrims to plant corn and use fish for fertilizer. The Indians taught them what plants were good to eat, and what were not as well. The Indians also taught the pilgrims how to use plants for medicine. The pilgrims had also been taught how to make better homes, and how to survive through harsh winters.
As you have it, the pilgrims started a very important heritage, followed by the Indians, that we still use to this day. It's a holiday most of us all know and love, and in my opinion, we are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving for quite sometime.