The Washington, D.C., Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has chosen Thomas Stone High School senior Charles K. Kahahawai II as the winner of an essay contest.
As part of SPJ's annual national essay contest, high school students were invited to explain "Why Free News Media Are Important."
Kahahawai's essay, titled "No Paine, No Gain," focused on American Revolutionary writer Thomas Paine and the effect of his writing.
Kahahawai's essay (printed in its entirety) will represent the Washington, D.C., region at the national level, where scholarships will be awarded for first, second and third place.
As the Washington, D.C., area winner, Kahahawai and a parent or adult chaperone are invited to the D.C. Pro chapter's annual Hall of Fame dinner at the National Press Club in June. As he has done for previous essay contest winners, chapter member Dan Kubiske is paying for the two tickets.
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No Paine, No Gain
By Charles Kahahawai II
"Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated" (Thomas Paine, The Crisis).
It's January 10th, 1776. A man steps out of his home onto the snow smothered streets of Philadelphia. With each breath, a billow of grey escapes his lungs and dances into the frosty Pennsylvania air. His tired eyes squint, struggling to adjust to the bright sun and gleaming snow banks. He has been up all night, arduously applying the finishing touches to his document Common Sense. Today, it will be published. Tomorrow, it will be a leading force behind the American Revolution.
It is possible that without Thomas Paine's Common Sense and The Crisis, what is now the United States of America might still be a territory of Great Britain. When Paine released Common Sense, it ignited thoughts of independence that spread throughout the colonies like a wildfire. It became the most successfully selling document in 18th Century America.
Paine didn't introduce any new ideas; he only reported old ones in a simple style of writing which could easily be understood by the common colonist. Sometimes portraying ideas successfully is as equally important as the ideas themselves. Thomas Paine delivered the revolution to everyday colonists.
Later, in the fog of the Revolutionary War, Paine's series of pamphlets The Crisis served as a moral beacon, guiding troops and encouraging them to keep fighting. Paine's pamphlets were so motivational that General George Washington read them to his soldiers before battle.
Thomas Paine exercised his right to free media before it was ever guaranteed. He understood the ideas of the Revolution and reported them to the common man. These ideas had to be spread, and if his right to spread them had been restricted, the tyrannical reign of imperial Great Britain may have prevailed.
That is why free media is so paramount. From the enlightened Oliver Cromwell and French Revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat, to more recent journalists like Joseph Pulitzer and Anderson Cooper, the spread of ideas and sharing of news is vital to society's advancement. If the battles of Lexington and Concord produced 'the shot heard around the world,' Common Sense is the musket from which it was fired.
"The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen." (Tommy Smothers)