Speakers address moral responsibility, baseball lessons
Lessons learned from baseball, and the moral challenges of caring for neighbors, were the winning themes last Friday as the UF/IFAS Franklin County Extension Office hosted the 4-H Public Speaking Competition.
Sponsored by Florida Power and Light, the competition featured students from Franklin County Schools, the Apalachicola Bay Charter School, First Baptist Christian School and home schoolers. They competed either in the fourth and fifth grade division, or in the sixth grade division.
“There was tough competition in both groups giving the judges hard decisions to make,” said Erik Lovestrand, UF/IFAS Franklin County extension director. “Special thank you to Carrie Jones, an environmental supervisor with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and Anita Grove, training and engagement lead for the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve for taking on the difficult task as judges.”
Topping the fourth and fifth grade competitors was the Franklin County School’s Tripp Sheridan, who spoke on “Lessons I Learned from Baseball.” The ABC School’s Ella Donahoe, speaking on “Kids and Social Media” was runner-up, and the Franklin School’s Abigail Williams, with a topic “Fun Facts about Space,” was third.
Also competing and their topics were the ABC School’s Fisher Lee (“Hunting Trip”) and Hallie Zingarelli (“Doing the Right Thing, or Being Popular”); Franklin County’s Cathryn Rudd (“The Walking Dead”); and First Baptist’s Kendylyn Crosby (“Siblings”), Aubrie Gaskill (“Dark Ages”) and Ryder Johnson (“My Home State”).
Among sixth graders, Joshua Allen, who is homeschooled, finished first with a speech entitled “The Choice is Yours.” (See sidebar). Another homeschooler, Lailah Wayt, was second as she addressed the topic “Blanket Octopi.” and the Franklin Schools’ Jahzarra Aguirre finished third, speaking on “Sea Animals.”
Also competing, and their topics were the ABC School’s Kierstyn Cardin “Why Dance Is The Best”), Ezra Hernandez (“Story of Anne Frank”) and Zara Carter (“ADHD”); and Franklin County’s Kensleigh Evans (“Reasons We Should Not Have Homework”) and Asher Malone (“German Shepherds”).
Allen and Sheridan will compete at the District III Level on Saturday, April 26, at the Leon County Extension Office. They each were awarded scholarships in the amount of $550 to attend 4H Summer Camp.
The Choice Is Yours
The following is the speech given by Joshua Allen, who won the 4-H Public Speaking Competition among sixth graders.
Thomas Jefferson once said, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” This is as true today as it has ever been. Throughout history, there have been multiple examples of this. Two of which are: Slavery and the Holocaust. If you could go back in time, would you follow the law even if it was morally wrong?
The first example is Slavery, one of the worst stains on American history.
To begin with, people were taken from their homes in Africa, in chains across the ocean. Then, they were separated from their families and sold as property. They were verbally abused and violently whipped. In addition, slaves were only counted as three-fifths of a person by law!
Harriet Tubman was a former slave who repeatedly chose morals over the law. She worked on the secretive underground railroad to sneak slaves into the northern states where they were free. This was extremely dangerous. Although slavery was legal, Harriet Tubman, and others like her, decided to make the right choice.
Another example is the Holocaust. Six million Jewish people were persecuted, forced to work in concentration camps, and then murdered. Many German citizens took no action when their neighbors were being treated less than human. This is a perfect example of a quote by Albert Einstein. “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”
Oskar Schindler was a businessman who didn’t only look on. He took action. He saved the lives of over 1,200 Jewish people because he had decent working conditions and food in his factory. Would you be brave enough to help like Oskar Schindler, and others like him, or look on and watch the cruelty?”
What if this happened today? What would you do if you found out your neighbor was harboring a Jewish person in the Holocaust, or a slave during the Civil War? Would you turn them in, or follow your conscience?
Do you have the courage to branch off and have your own opinions? The choice is yours.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.