Columnist Susan Snyder: Essay is the spirit of America

Friday, Nov. 15, 2002 | 9:27 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

Maybe patriotism runs in Jake Gigar's blood.

We'll get to that in a minute.

The 10-year-old Richard Bryan Elementary School fifth grader won a $50 savings bond Wednesday for his essay on "What it means to be an American." It's an annual contest sponsored by the ladies' auxiliary of the Jewish War Veterans Association Post 21.

The contest isn't one of the myriad events spawned by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The ladies' group started it five years ago at William Lummis Elementary School in Summerlin. That one is conducted near July 4.

Gigar's school was added two years ago for Veterans Day. And next year the group hopes to add a third school for Flag Day June 14, said Ruth Weinrott, who co-chairs the event with Selma Portnoy. The women say they cull winners from fifth grade classes, which means they spend an evening reading about 150 essays.

"You psyche yourself up for it," Portnoy said. "When I saw (Jake's), I said, 'I think this is the one.' "

All of Bryan school's fifth graders filed into the multipurpose room Wednesday morning. Each received a small American flag and a pamphlet about the flag before Jake was announced as the winner.

Jake's mom and dad, Carmen and Bob Gigar, were there to watch. Carmen didn't wear mascara, figuring she'd cry as soon as her son read his essay aloud.

She did.

"It is wonderful to be an American because being an American means you are free," Jake read. "All Americans have the freedom to speak their minds and make their opinions known without persecution. Our Constitution provides for protection across the land and makes all citizens equal in the eyes of the law.

"In America, all children have the ability to grow and realize their dreams," he wrote. "As a citizen of the United States you have the opportunity to shape your own future. No one dictates to anyone what he or she has to do."

That's the Reader's Digest version. Jake's 274-word piece talked about Americans' rights to speech, religion, assembly and to bear arms. He spoke of equality and how these rights are extended to everyone. And he wrote of a "just and fair" government that has checks and balances to make sure people can govern themselves.

His mother recalled the day he came home from school and began writing. She said she was amazed by what she learned about her son and patriotism.

"He came home, and he was just writing and writing," she said. "He felt very strong about the ideals he put down in there. He valued the idea that you can be anything you want to be, and you can do anything you want to do in your country. He valued equality."

It's something that strikes to the heart for Carmen Gigar, who is first-generation Cuban-American.

Her parents fled Cuba when Fidel Castro took over, she said. Personal freedom and fair government isn't just American history, it's family history. Maybe that's how this scholar, barely tall enough to reach the microphone and see over the winner's podium, knew a thing or two about being an American.

"He didn't enter it with the idea he could win. Something just struck a chord in him," she said. "And that's what education is all about, isn't it?"