2017 -- S 0687

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LC002309

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2017

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S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

CONGRATULATING DOMENIC KAFFENBERGER OF WESTERN HILLS MIDDLE

SCHOOL IN CRANSTON, RHODE ISLAND, ON BEING NAMED AN AWARD WINNER IN

THE 2017 ANNUAL STUDENT ESSAY CONTEST SPONSORED BY THE NATIONAL

WWII MUSEUM

     Introduced By: Senators Lombardi, Miller, Gallo, Metts, and Satchell

     Date Introduced: March 30, 2017

     Referred To: Recommended for Immediate Consideration

     WHEREAS, The National World War II Museum, in New Orleans, Louisiana, was

founded in 2000, and was designated as America's official National World War II Museum by the

United States Congress in 2003; and

     WHEREAS, The National World War II Museum sponsors an annual essay contest for

middle school and high school students across the United States, with approximately 1,000

participants. Each year has a different theme. This year's theme, in memory Elie Wiesel, a

survivor of Auschwitz who passed away in 2016, was for entrants to write an essay in response to

a quote by Mr. Wiesel, coming from the point of view of a young person coming of age in the

twenty-first century; and

     WHEREAS, When Mr. Hank Maine, an English Language Arts teacher at Western Hills

Middle School in Cranston, offered his students the option of doing an essay in place of one of

the required readings, one of his eighth-grade students, Domenic Kaffenberger, took him up on

his offer and proceeded to be named an award winner for his essay about indifference, a topic the

Nobel Prize winning author Elie Wiesel wrote about in his book, "Night"; and

     WHEREAS, The exact quote from Mr. Wiesel's book that Domenic wrote about was

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it's

indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not

death, but indifference between life and death." In his essay, Domenic connected events of the

present with events of the past and wrote about how indifference to the plight of others is

primarily what ails the world today and he went on to write that "The only way for evil to

conquer good is to do nothing." Hopefully, with young people like Domenic in our midst, evil

and darkness will not conquer the good again; and

     WHEREAS, Domenic Kaffenberger is a caring, bright, and intellectually curious young

man. According to his teacher, "Domenic thinks at a very high level and we talk about that

higher-level thinking a lot in class. Our group discussions often go in unbelievable directions and

I always want them to bring their discussions to that next level. Domenic certainly does that";

now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

hereby congratulates Domenic Kaffenberger for being named an award winner in the 2017

Annual Student Essay Contest sponsored by the National WWII Museum; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to Domenic Kaffenberger.

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LC002309

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