Trinity Collegiate School History Student Recognized!

Darlington, SC-May 1, 2008- Mary Elizabeth Walters, a Senior at Trinity Collegiate School in Darlington, was recently selected as the winner of the SC Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizen Essay Award.   She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Walters of Cheraw. 

This award is designed to recognize and reward high school seniors who possess good citizenship qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism in their homes, schools and communities.  Awards are given on a merit basis including completion of a questionnaire, essay, scholastic record, and a letter of recommendation.

Each participating school selects a winner, who then competes at the district level.  District winners then compete at the state level.  Mary Elizabeth was presented with her award at a recent luncheon during the state-wide DAR conference in Columbia.

Mary Elizabeth will be attending the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio next year, and plans to major in history, with an emphasis on military history.

The full text of her essay is included below:    

"OUR AMERICAN HERITAGE AND OUR RESPONSIBILITY FOR PRESERVING IT"

By Mary Elizabeth Walters for the DAR Good Citizen Contest 2008

“We the people of the United States of America…”  “…the American Melting Pot….”  “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave”  “… that all men are created equal…”  “I have a Dream…”  “…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself…”  “Give me Liberty or give me Death!”

These quotations make up the bulwarks of American Heritage.  From Patrick Henry and the American Revolution, to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the 20th Century.  These men and their ideals have shaped America into the country she is today, and will continue to shape America as  we enter the 21st Century.

A country’s heritage, her past, her shared experiences form her national identity.  It is what makes America American, Britain British, and France French.

American Heritage isn’t something that can be defined.  It’s composed of tangibles, like Colonial Williamsburg, and intangibles, like the principles of Liberty and Freedom that were so important to the Founding Fathers.  American heritage may be hard to delineate, but it is crucial to understanding who we Americans are, because we ARE our Heritage.

Our American Heritage shapes our values and our prejudices.  It brings the Melting Pot of people that compose America together with a common denominator – we’re all Americans.  Because of the hardships early settlers faced, we value our independence.  Because of the Patriots who held their ground at Bunker Hill in the Revolution, we love our freedom.  Because of the brothers who fought each other in the Civil War, we have a stronger respect for national brotherhood.  Because of the Melting Pot, we cherish diversity.  These are the beliefs that compose American Heritage.  And yet… no pen could ever truly capture what it means to be American or to have an American Heritage.

The only way to truly grasp the meaning of being American or the true value of American Heritage is by experiencing it.  You have to go to Philadelphia and see the Liberty Bell.  You have to travel to D.C. and see the Declaration of Independence and face the Vietnam Memorial with the names of the dead continuing endlessly to either side.  You have to sit on a bench in Colonial Williamsburg and watch the re-enactors.   You have to trod the beautiful fields that ran red during the Battle of Gettysburg.  You have to trace the footsteps of Paul Revere from Boston to Lexington and Concord.  You have to sail past the Statue of Liberty as millions of immigrants have done before you.  After you do those things, you might start to understand what our American Heritage means.

It is crucial to preserve America’s Heritage because it’s not something that can be taught in school as meaningless names and dates.  You can only learn your heritage by seeing, by touching, by experiencing.  But to do that, the tangibles, the battlefields, the statues, have to be saved.  Because it is the tangibles that make the intangibles come to life and take meaning.  It is the tangibles that make you realize that it was your great—great-grandsomething who fought beside George Washington, that it was your grandfather who faced-down Hitler, just as it’s your brother who is fighting now.  America’s Heritage is a rich combination of tangible places, intangible ideas, and individual stories.

Our American Heritage is what we grow up on, it’s what makes America a desired destination for immigrants, it’s what directs politicians, it’s what makes us Americans.  America’s Heritage is not only who we were, but also who we are and who we will be.  Our American Heritage is precious and should be preserved at all costs, because Americans ARE our Heritage.