On voting

Winner, Life as a Vet Student
Tiffany Beck, Mississippi State University

American and Traitor.  These are not two words commonly employed in the same breath in this country. Yet over 236 years ago, this allegation became a harsh reality for 56 Americans with a mere brush of the pen.  By signing the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, a company of highly esteemed and well-educated citizens pledged “[their] Lives, [their] Fortunes, and [their] sacred Honor”¹ for the establishment of an independent, separate Nation.  Their promises to this freshly conceived country were not empty.  Nine of the 56 signers died during the American Revolution and never tasted national freedom.  The British captured and tortured five signers, and the homes and lands of many more (17) were ransacked and burned.  But how does this dabbling in colonial history relate to deciding on a candidate for the Office of the President of the United States nearly 250 years later? 

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