The United States Capitol Historical Society has announced that Richard Alec Merski of Vienna, a senior at James Madison High School, has been named one of the winners of the 2013 Making Democracy Work Student Essay Contest. Richard was awarded First Place in the Senior Division and earned a cash prize of $1,000.
“The US Capitol Historical Society is pleased to recognize Richard Alec Merski for his exemplary essay,” said US Capitol Historical Society President Ron Sarasin. “As with all the winning essays, Richard’s essay reflected a deep understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizens in our representative form of government.”
Merski’s award-winning essay, “The Duties of Democracy: Reflections on a Citizen’s Rights and Responsibilities,” reminds us of the cost of defending the rights enjoyed by citizens of the United States.
“Liberty is never free,” Merski writes. “The American democratic experiment remains a fragile test of freedom against the threat of tyranny. To endure, it will need to be nurtured with dedication, vigilance, and the unrelenting resolve of its citizens to assume individual responsibility for safeguarding their enviable rights.”
“I want to congratulate Alec Merski on this well-deserved recognition,” said Congressman Gerry Connolly (VA-11). “He has shown outstanding initiative in his studies, particularly with respect to foreign language, history, and culture, which will serve him well in his future endeavors. I also commend the Historical Society for holding this annual competition to challenge tomorrow’s generation of community leaders to reflect on and articulate their vision for sustaining the democratic principles on which our nation was founded.”
The 2013 Making Democracy Work Student Essay Contest was made possible by a grant from Express Scripts. The 2013 contest is the second in the US Capitol Historical Society’s Making Democracy Work program that has drawn hundreds of entries from students in grades 6-8 and 9-12.