Newport teen to read award-winning essay at state's Memorial Day ceremony

Yahoo

24-05-2025

Rogers High School Senior Grace Rochelle of Newport is shown on the campus of Notre Dame University where she plans to enroll in the fall. (Courtesy of Grace Rochelle)
The 2024 presidential election had not happened when Grace Rochelle wrote an essay for her AP comparative government class at Rogers High School in Newport responding to the question of 'Is America Today Our Forefathers' Vision?'
But her perspective on the growing divide between conservatives and liberals remains relevant four months into the second administration of President Donald Trump. Rochelle sees the lack of political and social connection and collaboration at the national, state and local levels as hindering the country's progress.
Grace Rochelle will read her award-winning VFW Voice of Democracy essay as the featured speaker at the 51st annual Memorial Day Commemoration on Monday, May 16, at 1 p.m. at the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Exeter.
Listen to the audio version of essay here.
'I thought about the issues in America, and I don't really feel like we're in a place where we can be proud, I guess you could say, of where we're at because a lot of issues need to be resolved,' Rochelle said.
History teacher Coleen Turner made the essay a mandatory assignment for her students and gave them the option of recording the essay and submitting it to the 2024-2025 Veterans of Foreign War Voice of Democracy National Scholarship Competition through VFW Post 406 in Newport. Rochelle, a competitive tennis player with three State and All-Division honors to her name, including 1st team All-State this year, was fair game.
'I thought I already did the essay, I might as well do the recording,' Rochelle, 17, a Rogers senior, recalled.
'It took a few tries, or more like 20, 25 tries,' she said. 'It was either too short or too long depending on how I was pacing myself. But I just thought you know why not? We'll see what happens.'
What happened was the VFW Department of Rhode Island named Rochelle the state winner. She won a total of $2,000 in scholarships and received a trip to the 2025 VFW Washington Conference held March 2-6, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
'It was the best trip I've ever been on. It was cool to be around a bunch of different kids,' Rochelle said, adding she made several new friends.
'I got (to be) pretty good friends with Oklahoma and Guam and Louisiana and New Jersey. Those were the four girls I really clicked with.'
Rochelle will read her award-winning essay as the featured speaker at the 51st annual Memorial Day commemoration on Monday at 1 p.m. at the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Exeter to honor service members who sacrificed their lives for our nation.
Gov. Dan McKee, the state's four congressional delegates and state office holders and lawmakers are scheduled to attend. The 88th Army Band of the Rhode Island National Guard will perform and Gold Star Family members will participate in the ceremony.
Rochelle is the daughter of Brian and Carrie Rochelle, both Army veterans who served tours in Iraq. Her parents work at Naval Undersea Warfare Center where her mother is a contracting officer and her father is a contracts manager.
She plans to attend the University of Notre Dame to study political science and economics, with hopes of going to law school and making a career in international politics and government. Her dream job is to become a diplomat for the U.S. State Department or the United Nations.
I thought about the issues in America, and I don't really feel like we're in a place where we can be proud, I guess you could say, of where we're at because a lot of issues need to be resolved.
– Grace Rochelle, 17, of Newport
In discussing this year's VFW Voice of Democracy question with her comparative government students, Turner had them the ideas of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness emerging from the Declaration of Independence and the contradictions over the meaning of equality as applied to different demographic groups.
'It was a good question. It fit in well with my curriculum,' Turner said of the class which looks at six different countries in relation to life in the United States.
Rochelle's award-winning essay takes a contrarian view. She argues that the U.S. has been weakened by divisiveness and that's not what the founding fathers envisioned at all.
'You go back to George Washington's farewell address and he warned about political factions and that's where we are as a society. We have political factions,' Rochelle said.
'I don't necessarily feel like they are a horrible thing, but what political parties do however, is make people close-minded from what I've seen a lot of times. People aren't willing to hear the other side and even consider the other side, and I think that's where the real issue comes.'
The solution, she said, is to somehow bring people back to the moderate side of both parties.
'I do think the majority of Americans are somewhat moderate. They're the less outspoken ones and I think we need to be uplifting the voices of those who are moderates and giving them the bigger platform than people who are far left and far right.'
Turner said Rochelle presented a 'unique voice and a different perspective.'
'It came out really well,' Turner said of Rochelle's essay. 'She's made us all proud. She's going to do great things.'
By Grace Rochelle
When answering whether America today is our forefathers' vision, there may be a variety of responses. On one hand, Americans are still some of the most passionate people when it comes to upholding liberties, democracy, and nationalism. But on the other hand, we have never been more fractionalized, and the divide between conservatives and liberals seems to continue to grow. I will attempt to navigate these complexities and demonstrate that overall, America today is not our forefathers' vision.
The struggle to answer this question is mainly the stark differences between the late 18th century and the 21st century. Our forefathers could not possibly imagine the advancements we have today, especially when it comes to technology, transportation, and media. For example, Thomas Jefferson, a major proponent for privacy and freedom, may find mass surveillance and data gathering disturbing and unconstitutional. Furthermore, the further in time we progress, the more different our country will look compared to when it was founded. So how can we compare values from the late 1700s to today's? I believe that as time progresses, central values may also have to progress and/or change to better fit the people of the time.
Next, we look into what the forefathers wanted for our country. The most important and main issue was independence. In Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary, independence meant, 'A state of being not dependent; complete exemption from control, or the power of others; as the independence of the Supreme Being.' I argue that today, we are greatly economically dependent on other countries through the trade of goods and services which goes against our Founding Fathers' vision. Dependency, such as our large debt to China and reliance on their goods, leads us to be vulnerable to instability if a country were to collapse or eliminate trade with us. Since World War I, the U.S. has taken a sort of overseer role in the world. As a global power, we always appear to aid countries in need, whether it be supplies or money. While this certainly is a morally good thing, it also can undermine what gets done internally.
In addition to the question of our true independence as a state, many of the forefathers were very weary and against the forming of political factions, but today we have not been more divided as a country since the Civil War because of factions. The current split between the conservatives and liberals has seriously hindered the progress of the legislature in this country, divided not just the government but also citizens, and weakens the country's internal strength. The Founding Fathers knew the importance of unity, as they brought the 13 colonies together not just for the Revolutionary War against the British, but also to form a new country. They promoted and inspired nationalism in the colonies and preached that unity was vital to protecting America from external influences. With the constant stalemate we see in Congress, we have seriously fallen behind in making a budget for our country and addressing social and other important political issues. I believe the current disunity in this country is the complete opposite of what the forefathers hoped to continue for America. The internal conflict disrupts the nation's progress and displays our weaknesses to our largest enemies such as China, Russia, and Iran.
Although America today has seemed to have fallen on a different path from what our forefathers were envisioning, we have always and will continue to have fighting spirits. When it comes to civil liberties and social issues, Americans are some of the most vocal out of any groups in the world. While this is one of the main causes for discontinuity, it does show the freedom and pride that people have to improve this country. In the beginning days of our country, the Forefathers wanted the people's voices to be heard, setting up a system to ensure that was made possible. Today we see that same system allowing citizens to protest issues such as abortion and gun laws, without prosecution. That system in the 18th century instilled a sense of identity and nationalism into the new American people and continues to do that in Americans today.
Overall, America today is not our forefathers' vision, whether it be the issue of independence or political factions. And while we have fulfilled some of their manifestations, altogether the drastic difference in society now has prevented their vision from completely continuing. While I wouldn't expect America to be fully on the path of our forefather's vision, I do believe they would feel we seriously need to fix our current system, economically, socially, and politically.
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