The Eagle is publishing the winning essays from the annual Americanism Essay contest held by the American Legion Auxiliary.

By Marta Faulkner

The Next Generation

Americans have always shown their willingness to protect and fight for their country and beliefs from me first shot at Lexington to the bloody battles of the World Wars. My ancestors have given their hands to their nation’s prosperity, their lives for its protection, and their hearts to its cause. Without question, the United States is something to be proud of, but how can I show that pride? How can I live up to the glorious heritage left to me? The answer lies in the American spirit and ideal – in how we perceive ourselves and in the ways we maintain our identity, even through conflict.

The people who came here came to forge a new life away from the oppression or poverty of their mother nations. They came to work: to plow and to build and to teach and to learn, and their work made them prosper and made their adopted country prosper. They established a foothold for each successive generation of Americans to thrive on and add to with their own labors. It was the dauntless determination of these humble antecedents of the modern American that enabled the birth of our now powerful nation, and as far as we have come since, we still relate everything we do today to the qualities and goals of our founding fathers, the real life superheroes of America.

Keeping this in mind, it’s easy to see why many Americans today continually hearken back to previous eras in American history. We have a lot to be proud of in our history and like to remember it, but sometimes we neglect that which we can be proud of in the present. The survival of our nation through another economic crisis, the welcoming home of troops after more than ten long years of war, the continued prosperity of a nation built on equality and democracy—these are all triumphs of today that mean as much as those of the past century. The most important pride, the kind mat most moves people to action, is pride in the present that lets us believe in our future. What we must understand is that we are our future. In a nation dedicated to the people, for the people, and by the people, our destiny and our citizenry cannot independently exist

My turn to take up the American dream approaches; it is time for me to receive the endowment of my forefathers and thus the responsibilities that inevitably come with it. It is time for me to repay the toils of my ancestors with the industry of my own hands. I will honor the past and change the future, and the American identity will become my identity. I will add my legacy to that of the men and women who came before me and celebrate the victories of the past and present, for they all will be mine. Thus will another generation carry America forward, ready to make history.

Marta Faulkner is a tenth-grader at Grant Union Junior-Senior High School.