2000 Essay/Poetry Contest

Lissy Lane, Grade 10
Teacher: Mr. Conrad Davis
Chaparral High School
Scottsdale Unified District

Third Place — Secondary (Grades 9-12)

More Than a Survivor

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood." As Martin Luther King, Jr. declared these prophetic words on August 28th, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, sweat trickled down his face from the sweltering heat of the summer's sun, as millions of African Americans listened in silence, wondering if maybe these words would one day become a reality. What they did not know is that one day, they, along with their brothers, children, and parents, would actually be treated as an equal, because one courageous man decided to take action and speak out against something that was wrong.

My grandfather, a survivor of the Holocaust, volunteers his time to speak to highschool students of all ages, races, and religions. His teenage years were spent in many different concentration camps, Auschwitz being one of them, where hundreds of thousands of Jewish people were killed and tortured for only one reason; they were Jewish. He watched as his father torturously died, and then his brothers, and finally to learn that his mother was killed as well. Left with only one brother, he knows it is his responsibility to warn others, especially young ones of the perils that come along with prejudice and hate. Although he cannot reach out to everyone in the world, he knows that he has made a difference in educating Arizona's youth and possibly preventing others from engaging in cruel and hateful behaviors. Maybe if only someone would have stopped the Nazis and spoken out against what was wrong, millions upon millions of people would not have been lost. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out to his fellow men and soon, his dream was fulfilled. If Martin Luther King had decided to go along with the crowd, Negroes would still be imprisoned in the world of hatred.