Louisiana State Winner

Sarah LeDoux
DeRidder, LA
Home School
12th Grade

Being an American means living in a land whose very existence is defined by her people. America is not her flag of stars and stripes; she is the brave, young soldier who stands in front of the flag. America is not the land from sea to shining sea; she is rather the hard-working people in the small towns that dot that land. America is not her rocks and rills, her woods and templed hills; but she is the people who dwell there and have breathed the breath of freedom within those borders. Her people are the essence of what America is.

Holding citizenship in America does not make you an American in the truest sense of the word. Just like being in a kitchen doesn't make you a chef. Holding American citizenship does give you the opportunity to reap the benefits that many devoted Americans have fought and died to attain. But rather a true American is one who values freedom, respects the democracy of his country, and one who backs up his principles with action.

One of the most recognizable attributes of the American people is action applied to principles. Ronald Reagan was quoted as saying, "Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have." Americans, as a free people, have not only moral convictions, but also the determination to act.

Abraham Lincoln was a man endowed with the fortitude to handle volatile situations without compromising principles. After being first elected in 1860, Abraham Lincoln found himself president of a union that was on the verge of being torn asunder. He was morally, politically, and economically opposed to slavery and believed that it contradicted the basic ideals of American democracy. Today the name Lincoln is synonymous with slavery abolition. He is the embodiment of an American that carried his principles to action.

A more modern example is Judge Roy Moore of Alabama. Judge Moore is a man devoted to his Christian faith. According to the decisions of the United States Supreme Court, the Ten Commandments are not to be posted in any public facility for fear that they promote religion and offend others. Judge Moore believed that the Ten Commandments are an historical document that was the foundation for many protections in the Constitution and that the Christian faith should not be barred from public places. He defied a court order to remove a monument bearing the Ten Commandments from the courthouse grounds. Because of this act, he had his Alabama judgeship taken away. Judge Roy Moore is just one more example of a person who followed his moral convictions to action. This act has brought him national prominence and the strength of his moral convictions has been applauded by Americans nation-wide.

America is not her sea to shining sea. She is the people who live between those seas and who carry-on the tradition of many great men and women before them. They are not afraid to act on their principles. This is what defines them, and this is what it means to be an American.