Inequality. Bigotry. Poverty. They continue to challenge and divide the nation.
They test Marjorie Leary too. But the Portsmouth High School junior won’t let America’s problems overshadow its values. She sees them as motivation to fight for freedom and progress in her prize-winning Voice of Democracy audio-essay titled “In Order to Form a More Perfect Union.”
Leary, 17, of Little Compton, is the Rhode Island winner in the national competition organized by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). She will read her essay as the keynote speaker for the state’s annual Memorial Day Ceremony Monday at the Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Exeter…