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Show Joan Smith, Cherie Ashworth Winners in Essay Contest Joan Smith and Cherie Ash- worth are the . Milford High school students who were named winners in the American Legion Auxiliary annual essay contest. First place was awarded award-ed to Joan, with Cherie taking second prize. The winning paper, pa-per, submitted by Miss Smith, will be entered in state competition. compe-tition. The essays are published below: state of being faithful to the lawful government, but before a person can be loyal to the government, he must develop a sense of allegiance to lesser things. When a baby is just old enough to understand what objects ob-jects are, he is loyal to his mother only, but as he grows older he becomes faithful to his ivhole family, then to his friends, and finally to his country coun-try and the whole world. Loyalty or disloyalty first manifests itself in the lives of families. Some children complain com-plain because their parents are not able to provide them with (Continued on Page Six) LOYALTY " By Joan Smith Loyalty can be defined if a number of different ways, de-; de-; pending entirely upon the per- son and the circumstances sur- rounding its use. In the dictionary dic-tionary it is defined as the Here's More About ESSAYS Continued from Preceding Page some things they wish to have. This disloyalty spreads into their school life, making the in-i in-i dividuals complain of favoritism I and other people getting the I breaks. Then as they leave school, the students tend to criticize the local government, the slate government, and the national government. Good natured and healthy criticism, however, is not disloyalty. dis-loyalty. Never, anywhere, will you find more "griping" than in Uncle Sam's army camps. In fact, "bellyaching" seems to be the great American heritage. But let some foreigner say the same things about our country, and those same G I's are ready to wield the cudgel in her defense. de-fense. Loyalty does not necessarily mean blind devotion to a cause. When the bell wether in a herd of sheep starts off- in a given direction, the rest of the sheep follow for no reason except that they know no better. In the same category might be placed slavish devotion to a political party. Also, faithfulness faithful-ness through fear is not true loyalty. Stephen Decatur once said, "Our country may she always be right, but our country, right or wrong." I do not think that kind of attitude is a wholesome one. We do want our country to be always right, but if she is adopting the wrong policy, we should want to do something to change it. "To thine on self be true, And it must follow as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man." Shakespeare. Unless a man believes in himself, him-self, his own abilities to accomplish ac-complish what he sets out to do, he cannot believe in anything any-thing or anyone else. To be truly loyal, a person must understand his country's problems and the decisions which our leaders are forced to i make. And not only should he uno'ers-land the affairs of our ! own country, but he should have an intelligent acquaintance j with the affairs of the entire world. Today a man is a citizen citi-zen not only of his own country but of the world, and as he understands un-derstands the relationship be- ( tween his nation and other1 nations na-tions can he experience the greatest loyalty. LOYALTY By Cherie Ashworth "Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed in the twilight's twi-light's last . gleaming." Yes, this is our national anthem hailing hail-ing the beginning of our country coun-try and our flag the flag that is still waving over this land of the free because of the faith and loyalty of the men and women who have sacrificed. Ever since most of us can remember re-member we have pledged our I loyalty to our country, the I country we loved and were so ; proud to be a part of, but did I we realize what loyalty really is and do we now? Loyalty isn't only doing yuur duties, but it is having faith that what you I are doing is right. We cannot I pledge ourselves wholehearted- ly unless we know all about our government and believe thoroughly thor-oughly in its doctrines and what they stand for. Loyalty comes, not through force, but through faith and devotion de-votion of the government and the governed. This is the ideal relationship that we have tried to establish here in America. Loyalty doesn't begin when you are old enough to go into the army or when you are old I enough to vote, it' begins when you are in childhood. Perhaps the first recollection of the meaning of Americanism you I have is your starting to school I and being told about the honj-i honj-i esty of some of the greatest men in American history Washington, Washing-ton, who couldn't tell a lie, and i Lincoln, who walked miles to retarn a penny. This was the spark that started the fire of loyalty burning within you. You learned the "Star Spangled Banner," not quite understand-I understand-I ing why you should stand with hand over heart, you began learning more about the prin-i prin-i ciples of our government and you realized it wasn't the song you were paying tribute to, but the country that made you the individual you are. This understanding has caused I nearly every American citizen to stand by in time of need. Many of these citizens have sacrificed sac-rificed their lives, loved ones, I and possessions for the most I precious gift in the world, the ! right to be an American citizen. Someone once said, "The strength of a nation is measured by the strength of each individual." individ-ual." To be strong an individual individ-ual must love his country and have complete confidence that it will provide him a chance to manifest himself and give him I happiness and prosperity. ! If everyone is a strong, loyal individual then "The star-spangled banner shall wave o'er the land of the free and the home I of the brave." |