Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure than to rank with those spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” Would you want your children to rank among those spirits of the twilight? Our lives are shaped by our choices, no matter how big or small they are. If we cannot learn to make those choices, then what life do we have? What kind of life shall we lead?

          The Science Academy is one of the best schools in the Valley, and it must set an example for all other schools to follow. If it lets censorship and mistrust seep through the chinks in its armor, what is left for its students? Granted, the books Brave New World and Stranger in a Strange World are no Sesame Street episodes, but they teach the children of this world a valuable lesson. They teach us how to accept one another regardless of what culture we come from, and what customs we believe in.

          As we speak, our world is being torn apart by racism, bigotry, and hate. Are we to pass that message to posterity? Are we to publicly denounce terrorists like Osama bin Laden? Are we to denounce tyrants like Saddam Hussein, who deny their people fundamental choices? Then, back in the safety of our own homes, deny choices to our children? No, we are not hypocrites. Or are we? Is America founded on a principle of hypocrisy?

          The Founding Fathers established this country for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Are we to deny that selfsame liberty, the liberty that our forefathers shed their blood for, to our children? Part of growing up in this country is being able to make choices. We have to learn to make choices from birth to death; it is a fact of life. If children don’t learn to make those choices, then what kind of adults will they grow up to be? Patrick Henry’s famous words were, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” If we deny the liberty of making choices to our children, then we are no country at all.