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Patriotic Essays — Honorable Mentions What Makes Our Nation Unique By Walt Mansell, Red Bluff There are many, many positive factors which have contributed to the evolution of the United States of America into the Nation we are today. Without doubt the two most important factors are the group of men who started it all and the words they put on paper to express their beliefs and desires. First the Men: Study carefully the recorded histories of this entire world, for all the time such matters have been recorded. Never, at any place, or at any time, has a greater collection of great men ever been assembled then along the Eastern Seaboard of North America, in our original thirteen Colonies, becoming the first thirteen states, during the last three decades of the eighteenth centu- ry. Read the roster: Washington, Jef- ferson, Hancock, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, John Adams, Patrick Henry, Sam Adams, Paul Revere, Thomas Paine and a couple of dozen others, lesser known but equally dedicated and deserving of the highest honors. Those who signed the "Declaration of Independence" did so in full knowl- edge that failure to succeed meant their probable death. Add to these the largely unknowns, the "embattled farmers" who stood by a little rude bridge in a small rural village in Mass- achusetts, a place very few had ever heard of prior to that fateful day, and said to the might of the British Regu- lars "Stop, you shall go no further", and the many thousands who joined them and fought for several years to defeat the British Crown. I confess my eyes tear up every time I think about the courage and temerity of these few men who, with no clear picture of what the future held for them, challenged what was, arguably, the greatest military Red Bluff Daily News instantly makes us unique. Every creed, every religion, and every race is represented as America. What started as a group of people looking to get away from religious persecu- tion led to a nation that is now a super power in the world. While in reality, we are a baby nation in com- parison to those like Japan, China, England, Spain, Italy, and many oth- ers in Europe and Asia. Many other countries force high school graduates to go into the mili- tary. While our country gives the option to go straight to work, col- lege, military, or any other destina- tion an 18 year old desires. While many other countries have one reli- gion, we have them all. While other countries insist on practicing one and only one religion, our 1st Amendment gives the freedom to choose any religion. power, and inarguably, the greatest naval power on earth. The Words on Paper: "When in the course of human events". Thus begins one of the most unique documents ever formulated by man. These were not cowardly terrorists plotting in base- ments and back alleys. They were not embarking upon a plan of political assassinations or mass killing of inno- cent civilians or rule by terror. These men clearly set forth their grievances, the non response to those grievances by the English Government and declared their freedom from that gov- ernment because of the failure of the Crown to fix the problem. They then individually signed the declaration and published it to the world. This was not a manifesto written in prison or exile, it was, and is, a document written by a group of free citizens lawfully and- openly assembled-to discuss the mat- ter of the failure of the Crown to redress the wrongs being done to them and setting forth their "Declara- tion of Independence" as the only course left open to them to prevent their continued subjugation by the Crown. Many citizens in our land today believe many of the problems our nation faces today is the result of "stretching" our U.S. Constitution, by our politicians, lawyers and the courts, well beyond the points intended by our Founding Fathers and the further ten- dency on the part of all too many of our politicians to simply ignore parts of the Constitution with which they do not agree, or to apply some new interpre- tation far out of line with what the drafters of the document intended. What makes America unique as a nation By Justin Iiams, Red Bluff The fact that we as a nation are in reality a nation of immigrants Many other countries are known for one kind of dish. Here in the states however, we have deep dish pizza in Chicago, creole in the south, mexican food in the south- west, seafood in the northwest, alli- gator burgers in Florida, and about a million other choices for food. We don't have a "national dish," we have a heinz 57 mix of national dish- es. But for me, the absolute one thing that differentiates us as Americans, and us as a nation, is our Armed Forces, and those who support them. For without our military, all of the aforementioned qualities that was have wouldn't be possible. We support our troops, we have Memo- rial Day, we have Veterans Day. I don't know of any other nation that celebrates our Soldiers, Sailors, Air- men, and Veterans as much as we do. For that one reason, we are the most unique, and for that, I am PROUD to be a Veteran, and even prouder to call myself an American. Friday, July 1, 2011 Page 9