1) Choose one quotation from any of the 2700+ quotations organized in 6 categories with 56 topics listed in the Table of Contents of the Thomas Jefferson on Politics and Government Website
2) Give Your entry a title.
3) In 200 words or fewer, prose and/or poetry, (perhaps Jefferson would be a poet by now), state how he would apply this quotation in the present, as if he himself were speaking.
Contest Closed 3/31/03

First Prize: $500 U.S. Savings Bond

(Category) I (topic) 3 (subtopic) Moral Principles

Jefferson Quotation: "Liberty... is the great parent of science and of virtue and... a nation will be great in both always in proportion as it is free." --Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Willard, 1789. ME 7:329

Oh give me your scholars
your artists, philosophers
your thinkers and tinkerers and wrights!
Give me your experiments
your innovations and evidence
your creations and theories and fights!
Gather them all
the grand and the small
and proudly proclaim them as great...
But all are as nothing
sheer impotence and bluffing
if failing to ponder our fate.
So look to the truth
ye olde and of youth
beware of succombing to ease,
For advancements without liberty
make you prisoners of frippery
you're only as free as you please.

Jan Baldwin, Berlin, MD

Second Prize: $250 U.S. Savings Bond

(Category) VI (topic) 53 (subtopic) Duties of Citizens

Jefferson Quotation: "The man who loves his country on its own account, and not merely for its trappings of interest or power, can never be divorced from it, can never refuse to come forward when he finds that she is engaged in dangers which he has the means of warding off." --Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 1797. ME 9:407

On the Brink of War

As a war looms over the nation I love,
I think of my neighbors, my friends and my foes.
What path shall we choose, when faced with such woes?
Who shall we turn to for faith and trust?
Who shall show us the path that we must
take into the future with faith, not distrust?
The forums are open, debates have begun,
I'm proud of the freedom that's ours to discuss
the issues of life, duty, religion and such.
Remember my friends, no matter the end,
we must all join hands to honor the ones,
who went there before us and took up to arms,
for country, for freedom, for duty and love,
and follow their lead, please serve your country,
however you must.

Michelle Weller, Dallas, Texas

Third Prize: $100 U.S. Savings Bond

(Category) II (topic) 8 (subtopic) Majority Rule

Jefferson Quotation:The only way a republican government can function, and the only way a people's voice can be expressed to effect a practicable control of government, is through a process in which decisions are made by the majority. This is not a perfect way of controlling government, but the alternatives--decisions made by a minority, or by one person--are even worse and are the source of great evil. To be just, majority decisions must be in the best interest of all the people, not just one faction.

"My Fellow Chads"

I argued that the will of the majority should rule but who would had known that it should be decided by chads to who the majority will be.

The power of the majority to abuse and deny the rights of the minorities has made a mockery of "that all men are created equal".

The balance of power has come to one party that forces all to dance with their tunes, and that no man is created equal until they donate to my campaign fund.

As the four of us look down upon the people of the United States of America, we are seeing the changing faces of this nation. They have become a melting pot of races that have seek to enhance their way of life in our country that the four of us have stood and fought for.

My fellow headsmen have we made any progress in the last 200 years? Is the Republican Party the true majority and should all the chads been counted. What do you say George? Ted has called them "Bully" and Abe is doing a "Four score something.

Stanley Yip, San Francisco, CA