Voice of Democracy 2006-2007: Freedom’s Challenge

by Jane Yang

Sunlight cascades on the shining hair of the children as they cross their chubby right hands on their chests and smile up at the waving flag before them.

“I pwedge awegiance to the fwag, of the United States of America…[sic]”

They recite the entire pledge, barely stumbling over the more difficult words like “indivisible” and “liberty.” At the end, a little girl giggles and proudly waves her own miniature flag.

Welcome to the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Home for Children.

Over 100 children and single-parent families—each related to deceased or currently deployed military personnel— live at the National Home. Each resident previously led a life plagued with neglect, abuse, poverty, or death, but at the Home, they have a caring environment to grow up in and a family to call their own. While there are many child-care facilities in the world, the Home is unique in that it provides service to those who served our country. It’s a place where the relatives of our servicemen can grow up and live in the land of patriotism and values their family fought for.

My first visit to the Home marked a change in my life, one in which patriotism, service, and most importantly, freedom, took on new and more concrete meanings. Before, I linked those three words with intangible concepts and regrettably, I took my freedom for granted. But after seeing the Home, witnessing the pride in our country exuded by its residents, and hearing of the positive changes in their lives brought on by the Home, I vowed to never let that happen again.

A year later, I still remembered my visit to the Home and the profound impact it had on me; so much so that I established a partnership between the Home and the Michigan District of Key Club, one in which 4,500 Key Clubbers can give back to those who served our country. It was my way of thanking our soldiers, but even more: it was my way of stepping up to the challenge posed by the freedom they ensured us.

We live in a country blessed with liberty that only exists because of the sacrifices of many. Consequently, a challenge is put forth to everyone who lives in the security and freedom provided by our nation’s heroes: the challenge to make our country one inclusive unit where each individual consciously works towards a nation characterized by a climate of peace. For our soldiers did not risk their lives on the battlefield for a free country marked by disorder. Rather, freedom comes with an unspoken desire for harmony and peace to accompany it. And as implied before, this can only be achieved by the acts of the individual.

Each of us has our own special talents: the talent to orate, to innovate, to lead, to teach, to understand, to question... These advantages that we each possess were granted not for our worth or our accomplishments, but simply by the chance of Life. Why each of us possesses the specific talents that we have is a mystery; indeed our abilities could easily be the talents of others. For this reason, we are bound to share our gifts with our fellow man.

John F. Kennedy once said, "We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others…The efforts of the government alone will never be enough. In the end the people must choose and the people must help themselves."

Kennedy’s profound words were a call to action: a message to every citizen of this country that it is the effort of the individual that ensures freedom. And as Kennedy implies, it is important that each of us chooses to do our part—to fulfill our commitment to others and the concept of freedom— by paying forward the favors bestowed upon us.

“The people must help themselves.” Five words, so simple, and yet they in themselves encompass the entire foundation of our freedom. For we, the people, must fight and work to keep our freedom intact, to protect it from terror, and never forget its value. We, the people, must contribute to our society in order to preserve our freedom, whether that be through serving the family of our soldiers or serving in the military ourselves. We, the people, must realize that our liberty lies in our own hands; that it is our decision to, as Robert C. Arvin once said, “Choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong,” that guarantees our right of freedom. We, the people, must always step up to the challenge freedom presents us, and never forget that only through our own personal efforts will freedom prevail.