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Show f 1 ; . .! I ''" j V - '.--) I , tnm-mmjki HOLLY HICKS State Essay Winner Holly Hicks Wins Legion Auxiliary State Essay Contest The American Legion Department De-partment of Utah has announced announc-ed the state winners of the essay es-say contest. Winnns first place time that the battle must be won. Let us stand true to the ideals that we know are true. The preservation of freedom is youth's challenge. in the senior division was Holly Hicks, of Pleasant Grove, who had previously won 1st place in the community contest and second place in the region contest. con-test. Theme of this year's contest was "Freedom - Youth's Challenge." Chal-lenge." Holly is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Hicks. She is a senior at PGHS where she is involved in many school activities. ac-tivities. Following is Holly's prize-winning prize-winning essay. Freedom - Youth's Challenge Today a war is being fought not a contest for territory or wealth, but a war for men's minds a war of ideas, to determine de-termine whether American will succumb to alien views, or stand true to the ideals which have made our nation great. The youth of America have arrived ar-rived at a time in history when a decision must be made, and whether or not we accept this will determine the future of our country. Within the last forty years, ideas have been gaining momentum mom-entum in our country which differ from the American view of personal liberty. These views content that an individual hasn't has-n't the intelligence to make decisions de-cisions involving his own need, that he needs a large central government to determine what is best, that economic security, which is so basic to personal freedom, is no longer of great importance. Not only this, but there is a general feeling of disillusionment with government govern-ment and the American system. As the youth of America, our responsibility for maintaining the ideals of our government is tremendous. The heritage of freedom we have is one that can be rivaled by no other nation. na-tion. It is a heritage of men and women who have sacrificed sacrific-ed their lives, their most precious prec-ious possession, so that we may have freedom. But today, as never before, the United States is being shaken sha-ken to it's very core. Men in high government offices have corrupted the public trust which they hold and are destroying de-stroying people's trust in our form of government. Not only the responsibility but the challenge of American youth is to restore faith faith in people, faith in a free enterprise system without government gov-ernment controls, faith in our Republic for we must always al-ways remember that it is not our form of government which is bad, but the people who we may elect into office. Our challenge is to learn a-bout a-bout the beginnings of our nation, na-tion, of Jefferson, Madison, Jackson and others who reaffirmed reaf-firmed the belief in man's ability abil-ity to govern himself and the idea, ''The government governs best which governs least." We need to learn how our laws were formed and work, and how the boundaries of the Constitution Con-stitution were established. Without knowledge of these things we will never know when we are being deceived or when our personal liberty is being compromised. We must apply what we learn, use knowledge in voting, in matters pertaining to local, state and national issues. We must not remain silent on issues is-sues of importance. Our challenge is freedom a goal worthy of the best generation gen-eration of youth ever raised in America. We have received all the benefits from this system; now when our government is in need let us not fail. Now is the |
