Kids can’t cast a ballot, but they still want to be heard. So the Red, Write and Blue Challenge, hosted by Cleveland State University, is giving them the floor. More than 600 first- through eighth-graders from throughout the country submitted civic-centered essays and posters about what America means to them. The submissions will be displayed in Public Square, along Euclid Avenue and elsewhere in town starting July 10 and throughout the month. Here, in an excerpt from her essay, 11-year-old Olmsted Falls student Celia Head appeals to the future president to make America more inclusive.
“I have a dream for many things to happen in America, but one of these things is for people with disabilities should be treated the same way that any every day person is.
I can only see out of my left eye. The next president should try to convince others that just because people have a disability, doesn’t mean that they have to sit inside while there brothers or sisters go outside, instead see what they can do.
We could help make the world or just the country understand that people like me, we’re not that much different. I rode The Top THRILL DAGSTER at Cedar Point. I also ski, jetski and ice skate.
America can help support this because they can pass this message on to others: everybody is different, so why are you staring at someone who looks a different, you might as well stare at everyone else if you’re going to do that.”