I grip the podium and take a gulp of air trying to soothe the lump in my throat. Then, I take one more big breath before presenting my speech to the crowd of people judging me.

“Citizens of Greenwood, hear me and listen to what I have to say without judgement. These faults I am about to present is not just one person’s fault, but all of are faults.” I look in the crows and get a variety of head nodding and blank stares. I proceed anyway trying to forget the people in the room and focus on the message I’m trying to send through this speech.

“Recently, my children have made come to a abrupt realization of how little focus as a community we have to better our children.” I hear audible signs of disapproval, but continue on.

“Before you hastily judge what I have to say, please listen to all of what I have to say. Continuing on, my children have come to me with the problem of reading. To summarize, they told me that the library at school is too small and lacks current, popular literature for them to read. The the library in town has not been updated in years having the same collection of books they’ve always had for years. And, the most important part of all, that during school there is no time to read during class and when they do get to read, it’s a novel or piece of literature they have already been assigned to read. Now, you may be thinking this is not a huge deal compared to the other issues this city faces, but I implore you to think otherwise. If we do not let our children have a safe, quiet place to read with a spectrum of current to classic literature, their imagination and knowledge will never be able to grow. We need to have a library that has the books they want to read and stop bounding them to read things in class or outside of school they have no interest in. If we keep making them read it will no longer be to them a enjoyable activity, but a punishment. Instead, we should encourage reading with not only updating the town and school library, but by also making a new elective class in the school system so that the students who want to read now have the time do so during school without getting in the way of other school activities.” I finally hear sounds of approval and talking. I take that as cue to finish up my speech.

“The school system to me seems to favor sports over academics; unless those academics make the school look good. I have a dream that when I become mayor of Greenwood that students will be able to enjoy reading and have the time they need to pursue it.