Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1954-08-12
Teenager's Idea
OF Citizenship

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schoolgirl, Sherrie Woodall, last
week won the $1,000 essay con.
test of the Ladies Auxiliary, Vet.
Grams of Foreign Wars.
Sherrie's topic was Build
Through Citizenship"
The Sentinel prints her prize
winning essay, although it is not
local news" because we think
this teen-ager'S ideas and ideals
are worthy of anyone's reading:
Three workers in stone quar-
ry were once asked what they
were doing. One answered that
he was cutting stone, another,
that he was earning a living, but
the third, squaring his shoulders
and looking toward the distant
horizon, answered with a Tilt of
pride in his voice, 81 am building
a cathedral!",
Just so, We today go about our
mental tasks, seldom raising our
eyes beyond the work at hand to
realize that we, too, are partners
in a glorious undertaking, the
building of a great nation and
free world. We are too concerned
with getting a job done and with
earning our daily bread. Our
tasks are so small, SO insignifi-
cant, and so commonplace that
we fail to realize that we have a
place in the building of our ma
ton.
Our democracy, like a great
vathedral, is not built in a single
day. 1t is the cumulative work of
all men working together toward
a common goal. 1t is the work of
men of all walks and positions of
life, men of all ages, colors, re-
ligions, and creeds.
The blueprint of our democracy
was drawn up when our forefath-
ers wrote our Constitution. They
laid the foundation and set up the
cour cornerstones: freedom of
speech, freedom of press, free
dom of religion, and the right of
petition and assembly. Then they
left to succeeding generations the
task of building upon what they
had started.
Each citizen, within the span
of his life, must take up the tools
laid down by others and build
{ the small section allotted to him.
He must select the strongest ma
terials and reject those which will
not hold up under the stress of
time. o democracy is weakened
when a single individual fails in
his task for the heart of modern
democracy is that every citizen
counts for something. Each in
dividual has a duty to perform
and he must mont fail that duty.
He must do his share to make
our nation fortress of justice,
liberty, and equality; a bulwark
against communism, greed, and
hatred. There must be no weak
sections in the wall, no place for
infiltration of evils from without,
no softening and corruption from
within.
How then can we build our
fortress of freedom? If part of
the responsibility rests upon us
as citizens, what then can we do?
We may never be architects nor
master builders, but we can be
the best stone-cutters on the job.
We may never be presidents nor
office holders, but we can be the
best of whatever we are. We
must be our best because the
greater portion of the task will
fall upon us, the little people of
Hometown, U. S. A.
We can build by practicing
good citizenship in our daily liv-
ing. We can keep ourselves physi-
cally fit, mentally alert, and NOR
ally pure, for only with strong
bodies, alert minds, and clean liv-
ing can we give of our best.
We can build by practicing
good citizenship in our homes, for
if we can not be good citizens
there among those whom we
love, how then can we expect to
be good citizens elsewhere? In
our homes we can practice the
principles of democracy, taller.
ance, and brotherly love. We can
respect the ideas of others, and
work together for the common
welfare. Our homes are the back.
bone of our nation; we must keep
them strong.
We can build by getting the
most out of our schools. We car
study to prepare ourselves fol
whatever task may lie ahead. We
can train our minds to learn the
facts, to sort them, and to think
for themselves. Only through
education can we hope to reach
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