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Show Winning Essay: What freedom Means To Me Hy DEIIOKAII IHJTITIKSON It was in the sixth grade that I came to realize how important impor-tant freedom was to me. That year 1 became good friends with a refugee from Vietnam. I watched her struggle to learn a new language and new ways. I TRIED to help as best I could, but coming to a new land was difficult. I wondered why she wanted to leave her native land. One day I went over to her house. Her mother told me a story of their escape to freedom. "WHEN THE Communists came to our country, they drafted all the men to the front line. They taught our children not to trust us," said her mother. "At this time my children were small and didn't understand under-stand what was going on. I took them out of school and taught them myself. Within a few months the Communists came knocking at doors in the middle of the night. If you opened the door, you were shot on sight in cold blood." SOON THEY decided they had to escape from Vietnam if they were ever to live a normal life again. They lied by night and hid by day. After weeks they came to the ocean. They sold all they had for a small place on a small boat. The elderly people on the boat would jump overboard to let the younger children live. Their suffering was intense, but they felt it was worth it to have freedom. T heir experiences made a deep impression on me. All that these eople were willing to give their lices for, I already had. I thought seriously about what freedom really meant to me. means I can worship the way I want. I can go anywhere I please. I can have my own opinion without having a fear of being taken away or tortured. tor-tured. It means I can vote for my leaders or run for office myself. I can bear arms and defend myself against unreasonable un-reasonable searches and seizures. sei-zures. I can choose my own profession, work, learn, and achieve. America is a land of re- fugees. My ancestors came to this land for the same reasons my Vietnamese friends came. One of my favorite songs is Neil Diamond's "America." This song captures the dream everyone has of being free. Far we've been traveling far Without a home, but not without a star. Free, only want to be free We huddle close, hang on to a dream. On the boats and on the planes They're coming to America. Never looking back again Freedom's light burning warm They're coming to America. LIKE MY ancestors, and my friends, I know that freedom free-dom means to live in a country where peace and safety abide and where dreams can come true. But I also know that freedom free-dom isn't free. It costs us all to maintain it. Freedom means having respect re-spect for law and order, keeping keep-ing our community clean and beautiful, supporting clubs and organizations which work to preserve what we have, speaking out for the truth, working to help good men he elected, being informed on issues, and in general, taking responsibility for our country's coun-try's destiny. A GREAT writer once said. "The greatest glory of a free-born free-born people is to transmit that freedom to their children." This, too. is what freedom means to me. |