High School Oratorical Contest

The State of Georgia, U. S. A.

American Legion

For seventy-three years the American Legion has sponsored an Oratorical Contest. High School Students prepare and deliver a eight to ten minute speech on the U. S. Constitution. They can select any portion of this Document and deliver their speech with out notes and are evaluated on the speech and their delivery.

The first level of competition is the local American Legion Post, then the various Districts of each state of our Union. The State of Georgia has four areas of three Districts each. The State Competition was conducted on Saturday, March 6, 2010 at the American Legion Post Three in Macon, Georgia.

The picture above shows the four contestants. The High School Sophmore on the far left delivered a very informative and moving speech entitled "The Changing Justice."

The Home Schooled Junior next to him delivered a speech entitled "Responsible Ownership." He compared the Constitution and our Responsibilities as Citizens to the construction of a Home and the responsibilites in maintaining that house.

The Home Schooled Sophmore, third from the left delivered a speech entitled "Valuing the Original Intrepretation of the Constitution."

The contestant on the right, a High School Senior, delivered a speech entitled "We The People."

Each contestant delivered their speech within the time requirements. Some of the germane comments I noted included:

• The government plays a dangerous game when they ursurp the Constitution. We as Citizens must then duty our duty as Citizens.
• When government over reaches the scope of the Constitution we can suffer unintended results.
• In the process of being a Citizen we are educated - building the foundation of citizenship; erecting the walls - learning the scope of the duties of citizenship and finally maintaining the government - performing the duties of citizenship. The duties of Citizenship includes Voting and also running for public office.
• Learning the process of how our Government serves "We The People." Our Constitution's Bill of Rights protects us and allows us to enjoy our Country without Fear. Our Constitution provides Equality and also the Liberty to enjoy our Country,.
• Since our Constitution was established we have also been able to amend this document to provide for the "Good of All."

Each contestant was then required to deliver a three to five minute speech on one of five topics which had been published to all contestants at all levels of the competition. At each level of competition one of the five topics is drawn and each is then given five minutes to prepare an applicable speech.

Therefore, each contestant must certainly be prepared to present a short speech on each of these five topics.

After the competition I felt that the future of America is in Great Hands. All four of these High School Students had an excellent grasp of our system of government and also were well aware of their duties as a citizen.

Only one Contestant from each State can proceed to the National Competition which will be held in April in Indiana. The Young Man who spoke on "Responsible Ownership" will represent the State of Georgia. He is the individual shown second from the left above.

I am very glad I attended this event. I was also impressed on the knowledge of our Government and our Constitution that each of these Contestants displayed.

As citizens of our Country they can take great pride in themselves, their respective families, their respective educational organizations, their towns and their state as well as the United States of America.

From my point of view: "Well Done!!!