2nd Prize Winner
Age Group 0-9

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I Want To Know About Waco

by Rylla Cathryn Smith, age 9

           On April 19th, 1993, the government killed 82 people, 22 of them children, near Waco, Texas. I want to know why they did it.

           The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms started it. They said the Branch Davidians had illegal guns. (No gun is really illegal, according to the Bill of Rights.) No illegal guns were found.

           Next they said the Davidians treated their children badly. (So the government killed the children? That's what I would call being treated badly!) But the local sheriff said it wasn't true.

           Then the B.A.T.F. said the Davidians were making drugs, but that was a lie, too.

           The Davidians were forced to be in their church for 51 days. They were forced to hear tapes of rabbits being killed. Then they were killed, themselves, and they didn't do anything.

           I want to know why.

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