From the Liberty senior football team’s tradition of picking one word to describe the team, came the phrase “We are One”. The motto was created by the football team and its fans in 2009. “We are One” describes the unity of the Liberty student body.
Seven years ago, the motto took the school by storm, bringing a new sense of community to Liberty. However, we wondered if the motto’s influence on the school has since changed.
We found that some students believe that the motto is only applicable in certain situations.
“Only at sporting events, or only if our sports team needs motivation, does the ‘We are One’ motto apply. We are a very diverse school. Not everyone has the same motivation,” senior Brendan Chin said.
Although many students at Liberty believe that the phrase only applies to athletic events, others disagree and claim the motto can be seen at Liberty every day.
“Every time we have a new student, there is always a friend group that that they can be a part of,” junior Marco Sobrino said. “No one here is a jerk; no one really hates each other. Everyone here is pretty respectful of everyone else’s personality. No one is discriminating.”
From the year the “We are one” motto was created to the present day, there have been many bumps in the road, but Valach believes that the school’s sense of community has not changed.
“Outside of Liberty we are all so divided,” Valach said. “And that’s the great thing about our school, but the only thing we can do is protect that sense of unity and that’s what we have been doing with our motto for the past seven years. We own it, so we try to enforce it.”
Despite the controversial opinions expressed by some students, Valach claims that by protecting our sense of unity we uphold the “We are one” motto at Liberty.
“I think there’s a lot of diversity and uniqueness that’s celebrated. If that’s what we want Liberty to be, we’ve got to protect it. I don’t think our community is perfect, I don’t think it ever will be, but I do think “We are one” has become woven into the fabric of who we are,” Valach said.