First Round Excerpts From 1998-99 Essay Contest
The Role Of Personal Responsibility In Balancing
Individual Liberty And The Common Good
LUCK HIGH SCHOOL, LUCK, WISCONSIN
1st Margo Jensen 
2nd Traci
Lundmark 3rd
Aleya Nelson
Founding Fathers
"I think that the founding fathers placed greater emphasis on the protection of
individual liberties rather than the protection of the community and that is how it should
stay."
Traci Lundmark, Luck High School, Luck, Wisconsin
"Our founding fathers placed more value on individual rights than community
protection. Perhaps when writing the Bill of Rights they never imagined all our high
technological advances in weapons and the abuse that people could inflict. They instead
were acting from a time when they had been stripped of their personal liberties of life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It's difficult to have foresight into the problems
of future generations and therefore I'm sure our forefathers would want the constitution
to be flexible enough to fit our needs today."
Margo Jenson, Luck High School, Luck, Wisconsin
"The founding fathers may have put a greater emphasis on the protection of the
community over the individual liberty. It's a lot easier to send out a specific message to
a whole community than it is to just one individual."
Kimberly Koecher, Luck High School, Luck, Wisconsin
Guns
"The government's inability to control gun usage brings up questions, does the
government have the responsibility to protect citizens from those who abuse the privilege
of gun ownership or should citizens take matters into their own hands to solve the problem
of fatality and guns?"
Jari Thompson, Luck High School, Luck, Wisconsin
Rights
"In any issue that is so emotionally charged, it becomes truly difficult to
distinguish between the individual's right and the protection of the society as a whole.
Laws have to protect the society as a whole, but by doing so, it should be the best for
the individual also."
Aleya Nelson, Luck High School, Luck, Wisconsin
Role of Government
"Numerous organizations such as The American Civil Liberties Union have challenged
the curfew laws. They state that curfews are being 'inherently incompatible with the Bill
of Rights' and calling them the equivalent to 'marital law, no…democracy.' Opponents
also maintain that there is a danger in mandating that juveniles who wish to escape home
life remain indoors when abusive parents or adults make those children's domestic
environments unsafe. Furthermore, parents reason that they have a right to raise their
families as they wish. The main question that the oppositionists bring up is whether its
constitutional or not fo the government stepping in on the family affairs. The answer
varies depending on the people asked. I believe that when families fail to install virtue
in children, government must be prepared to send a message to those children. That message
should be tougher punishment for young offenders. …I don't agree that the welfare of
the community should be left to the police and courts alone. Group effort should come from
communities, parents, schools, and police and courts. Public education and other social
policy reforms include: increased funding for community policies, anti-gang, the gun-free
school zone act, anti-drug initiatives, and better rehabilitation programs for juvenile
offenders are also needed to reduce the juvenile crime rate."
Margo Jenson, Luck High School, Luck, Wisconsin
"As far as teenage pregnancy goes there is no reason to worry about public
protection, because it is a personal choice that the community has no control over. Also
that courts and police shouldn't have all the power to balance the individual rights and
welfare of the community. There would be problems due to existing bias they have and
confusion between communities and courts in different counties and states."
Traci Lundmark, Luck High School, Luck, Wisconsin
The Issue
"I think that the founding father should have thought more about protecting the
community than the individual. Today's problems seem to be more community problems than
individual problems. I think that Congress should set laws and the police and courts
should enforce them. Protecting the individual rights, such as the Gun-Free School Zones
Ac, actually endangers children in schools. I think that protecting the children is more
important than the gun shop owner."
Kevin Peterson, Luck High School, Luck, Wisconsin
"Abortion has to be a balance between what is good for the community and what is
good for the individual. In abortion, there is the rights of the two individuals to be
considered. Both are important to the community. Regardless of personal feelings on
abortion, regardless of issues of bringing an unwanted child into the world for the mother
to abuse and neglect, regardless of a belief in an infant's right to live, the Supreme
Court has to make a decision not based on emotion or morality but on upholding the law
that will preserve the rights of the community and the individual."
Aleya Nelson, Luck High School, Luck, Wisconsin