Honoring our veterans is one of the most important duties we have as citizens in the U.S. These are the people who have and are putting their lives at risk, for the betterment of our country and the ability to uphold our democracy. To let us as citizens have the right to vote.

Junior Will Ziegler recently entered and won an essay competition about “Why His Vote Matters.” The contest was held through the “The Veterans of Foreign Wars” (VFW) Organization, and his essay will move on the next level of judging.

Mr. D’Antonio, his American Government teacher, was the one who introduced the opportunity to Ziegler’s class as extra-credit, and he was one of the few students who actually took an interest.

“I know Government is a class a lot of students despise, you know it’s not a class they really take a lot of interest in,” D’Antonio said. “But I also think they should know it’s probably one of the most relevant classes they’ll take in their life. That’ll get obvious as you get older. You’ll learn to appreciate that the government dictates what you can and can’t do and things like that.”

Ziegler plays baseball for a post that the VFW represents.

“I thought it would be cool to write something on why our vote matters – even though the scholarship money was a big part of it,” he explained jokingly.

The award was presented by Sally and Ron Owens. Ron is the Commander of the Wentzville VFW Post. He is also a Veteran from the Vietnam War.

“Well, it all started with the VFW back in 1947 – every year we try to promote this to the high schools,” Sally said. “We also do Patriot’s Pen, which is on the lower class level.”

Ron was proud of this organization explaining that they help support the community, and other veterans on the way.

Ziegler finally went on to explain that even though he didn’t vote in the midterms this year, he still understands the responsibility he will have once he is able to.

“When you have the opportunity to vote, you should vote… Don’t think that just because you’re one person it doesn’t matter, because your idea always matters.”