A senior at Greene County High School is looking to continue on to a higher level of competition with a passionate driven speech.

Payton Wadsworth is going up against several other high school students in the American Legion Oratorical Scholarship Program Area Contest on Sunday. She previously won at the local level and most recently placed second at the district contest, which she qualified for the area competition. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio there are several speeches that are presented, including a main oration of either eight or ten minutes on any aspect of the US Constitution, along with four to five minute speeches on four selected Amendments to the Constitution. 

Wadsworth describes her main speech as, “We The People” and it is based on what she believes is that the US is descending into fascism. She admits that her topic was nerve-racking in competition, as she is presenting in front of people who served in the military and others who may not agree with her. 

“And it was intimidating because it was like, ‘What if they don’t like me?’ ‘What if I offend them and such?’ You just gotta (say to yourself) this is right, this is what I believe in. Fascism is wrong, we cannot control the will of other people, or the will of each other, or one another. And so I had to kind of say it with my whole chest that ‘We The People’ is the basis of Democracy, is the basis of the American Constitution, and it’s been violated multiple times which means everything else is nullified essentially.” 

Wadsworth points out the main driving factor that inspired her to enter the contest was earning scholarship money so she could more easily afford college, which she has been accepted to Iowa Central Community Center and is planning to go into the fields of art and accounting, with the overall goal of having a double masters degrees at Iowa State University. The contest on Sunday takes place at Des Moines Area Community College in Carroll.