changing character to a vector name

Dear R People:

I would like to generate a vector/variable name from within a loop to be 
passed to a table
function.

This is what I have so far:

assign("p1",paste("raw3.df$",rw2$V1[3],sep=""))
p1

[1] "raw3.df$CITIZEN"

Essentially, I want to use the raw3.df$CITIZEN along with another value to 
generate a table.

However, I'm stuck here.  I know this is incredibly stupid.

Thanks in advance.
Sincerely
Laura Holt
mailto: lauraholt_983 at hotmail.com