‘Out of many, one’

Student’s patriotic essay earns her a place as keynote speaker at a Memorial Day ceremony at the Veterans’ Monument in Bordentown City.

By: William Wichert
   BORDENTOWN CITY — Jenna Kelly, a seventh-grader at MacFarland Junior School, wrote the essay, but even she said it wasn’t enough.
   Her essay, "E Pluribus Unum: Out of Many, One," won first prize in a recent Memorial Day writing contest at the school, but she said it would take more than a few words on a piece of paper to show what patriotism really means at its deepest level.
   "Our yearly essay, forever repeating, how does it compare? It is not patriotism. It is an act, whereas patriotism is action. Simply saying ‘I am patriotic," does not make it so," Jenna wrote in her essay. "Patriotism is a force stronger than any one person, more powerful than even a thousand men. Patriotism is not you, yourself. It is the way you think of those Americans who came before you, and those who are far in the future."
   For those sentiments, Andy Law, commander of American Legion Post 26 in the city, chose Jenna to be the keynote speaker at this Saturday’s Memorial Day ceremony at the Veterans’ Monument on Farnsworth Avenue.
   "For a seventh-grader, what insight! It was just remarkable," said Mr. Law, one of the judges of the recent essay contest that attracted about 100 seventh-graders from MacFarland and St. Mary’s School on Elizabeth Street.
   The primary goal of the contest was to make the students aware of the legacy of military service within the city and of the monuments going up to honor those who sacrificed their lives, said Ellen Wehrman, a social studies teacher at MacFarland who organized the contest.
   "What I wanted to do is make it clear in their heads that this veterans’ monument on Farnsworth Avenue will be finished this year," said Ms. Wehrman. "I wanted them to feel like they were a part of it."
   When the students visited the monument, their first question was about why the 1,800 names of soldiers from the Revolutionary War to the Gulf War were decorated in gold.
   "That’s what impressed the children," said Ms. Wehrman. "To get your name in gold, you have to die for your country."
   With so much going on in their lives, from schoolwork to soccer games, Ms. Wehrman wanted the students to take a moment and put their thoughts about veterans and military service down on paper in their essays.
   What struck Mr. Law the most as he and other Legionnaires read through the essays was the depth of the students’ personal stories and the creative techniques they used to tell them.
   One boy wrote about his grandfather, a veteran who died two years before he was born, and how he wanted to learn more about his military service, while another student wrote the essay in the form of a play in which a veteran talks about his experiences.
   The students were exploring questions of honor and sacrifice, but they found the answers in the stories of their fathers, uncles, grandfathers and other relatives who served the country in battle, said Mr. Law.
   "They looked toward their families to find the answers," he said. "That, to me, was the most profound thing. They didn’t have to go somewhere else. It was right in their own homes."
   Looking at their families and their city is exactly what Ms. Wehrman wanted the students to do in their essays. "To really love and be part of a community, you have to know where it came from," she said.
   That sense of family, community and nation is embedded in Jenna’s own essay.
   "Thinking not as you, yourself, but as you, an individual, and an American is patriotism in its barest form," she wrote. "One is nothing, minuscule, minute, unimportant when by itself. But one thought, aided by all of patriotism, all of America, is as impenetrable, undefeatable as the ocean."