May - St. Augustine Catholic

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Courtesy of the Miss America Organization When Urbana, Ill. native, Erika Harold, was crowned Miss America 2003, she became a role model for millions of young girls. Thrust into the public eye on television and in magazines throughout the year 2003, she shared the pages with other headline-grabbing females like Paris Hilton with her sex tape expose and Britney Spears’ liplock with Madonna at the MTV Video Music Awards. But Erika had a message that seemed a direct contradiction to the popularity of the scandalized pop princess and social heiress – the importance of abstinence. 18 St. Augustine Catholic May 2007 Cha
c o v e r s t o r y The Cost of the Crown The petite 27-year-old from a multi-racial family has a lot to say about her platform of “Respect Yourself, Protect Yourself: Preventing Youth Violence and Bullying,” as she was a victim of racial hate acts and sexual harassment in high school. But Erika says she also expected that her platform and year in the spotlight would also include talking about abstinence, a topic she has spoken on publicly since the age of 17. She was surprised when the topic was labeled “too controversial” by Illinois pageant officials. Erika was asked not to discuss her stance on abstinence during the national competition to make her appear more liberal. She wanted to speak about abstinence after being crowned Miss America but was later accused of hiding her position, Erika’s father, Bob Harold, explained. Erika stood her ground with pageant officials and refused to stay quiet. It just wasn’t her nature. She maximized her time in the public eye and continues to use her experience as Miss America to prove to young adults that they too can stand strong for what they believe in and have “the courage to say it, even if it may be unpopular.” Speaking to the 6th-8th grade classes at St. Paul Catholic School in Jacksonville Beach March 2, Erika explained that her commitment to abstaining from drugs, sex and alcohol was not what others were doing at her high school, but she wanted to be a leader. Quoting the last stanza of the Robert Frost poem, The Road Not Taken, Erika told the students that her most important decision has been “to take the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” Bob Harold was also in town to attend the Project SOS (Strengthening Our Students) Father-Daughter event called, “Dancing With Your Star.” As a father of three girls and one boy, he explained the role he has tried to play in the lives of his children by teaching them Christian values, a responsibility to God and self-worth. “Having respect for yourself demands that others respect you as a person, not as an object,” Bob says. “With children, (parents) instill in them a sense of worth and importance.” Erika, who says she still talks to her father on the phone every day, sees men or strong male figures, such as fathers, as important in how women and girls see themselves. “Young women are taught that the only way to get male attention is through sex,” she says. Rather, “it is their intelligence and character that are the most important. Males can encourage them to cultivate those traits.” Have Girls Really Gone Bad? In February, Newsweek magazine ran a cover story called, “The Girls Gone Wild Effect,” focusing on today’s teenage idols that seem to be following the path to rehab instead of fairy-tale romances. In the B y A m e l i a E u d y s ity St. Augustine Catholic May 2007 19
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