Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay Contest Winners

Congratulations to the following students who are semi-finalists in the Utah State Office of Education 2012 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay Contest: Talia McKinney, Cameron Bradshaw, Conner Campbell, and McKenna Hall. Following are excerpts from these inspiring essays:  

• "A gumball machine

• Filled with gumballs,
• Blue, green, red, and orange.
• Each candy waits for its chance
• To show all it has to give.
• They are bought and tasted,
• Not appreciated for who they are.
• An outcast, degraded.
• Why are we prejdice
• Against those with differences?
• Gumballs start out the same
• And so do we.
• Deep down, under all those differences
• We are all human."
• Talia McKinney

 

• "As I envision unity, I think of being a chain; if we have more links, the stronger and longer we go in life. If we are not kind to others, create unity, and equality, then we will fail the chain game." Cameron Bradshaw

 

• "'A house divided . . . cannot stand,' Abraham Lincoln once said. Today, America is united. We work, play, and suffer together. Once we were unable to say that. 'All men are created equal,' the Declaration of Independence reads. In the early '60's the words of the declaration were defiled. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught the world many different things: equality, unity, and civil rights are a few of the most well-known."
• Conner Campbell

 

• "'I have a dream" that I can be like Martin Luther King, Jr. and spread unity through the land, change the ways of people to believe that racism, discrimination, and injustice is wrong. To be be together as one nation, not divided in groups, where people are not higher than the others in a land of darkness. 'I have a dream.' Most importantly, I am . . . I am going to change the world. I am going to change the laws making everything work together, no differences or dividing. I am going to paint a masterpiece, keeping it healthy and strong, looking better every day. I am the future leader, the leader that will change the world . . . 'I have a dream.'" McKenna Hall

  Thanks for your words and for your examples.