St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 73

WbUNbSUAY, UfcUtMBtrt IB, layi SLLUUIb' 3F Freedom: The Kids Carry The Torch ELAINE VIETS i '60s Girls Flipped, Straightened Out JV 1 1 I 1 IN CELEBRATION of the U.S. Bill of Rights bicentennial, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and the Bar Association of Metropolitan St Louis held an essay contest for area students and teachers. The topic: "What the First Amendment Means to Me." Three -hundred essays were submitted.

Here are the first-place essays, slightly condensed. I can go outside and scream and holler or whistle whatever I feel like saying. I can talk to my family or friends or teachers whenever and for how long I want to. I can talk on the telephone. I can go to church and sing and pray to Jesus.

I can go to bed at night and pray to my Guardian Angel. I can speak out for what I think is right or wrong or good or bad for me. David Kreitler, First Grade Sacred Heart School St. Mary's, Mo. The First Amendment means a lot of things to me.

Freedom is a very important thing. Because I live in the United States of America I can go anywhere I want, say anything I want, write anything I want and believe in anything I want. I also can meet with a group of many people as long as we meet peacefully. This means I can go to any school, join Boy Scouts, go to any church, write stories about anything and travel to many different places. The First Amendment makes me glad and thankful that I live in the United States of America.

I am proud to be an AMERICAN. Joey Mowczko, Third Grade Salem Lutheran School, Florissant To me the First Amendment says: "Yes you can do it!" Anyone can believe as they wish. I can worship how I want; I can read what I want; I can protest what I want; and I can say what I want. The First Amendment means, in one word, FREEDOM. Without it, we would be another USSR.

The First Amendment makes the United States what it is today. Everyone in the United States has a choice as to how they Want to live their lives. A citizen has the right to speak and express himself. If one doesn't agree with the government, he can peacefully protest. No person can tell another how he has to live his life.

If I want to criticize the president of the United States, I can! If I want to vote for someone else I can! Richard Poston, Sixth Grade North County R-l Gifted Program, Bonne Terre Ratified on Dec. 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights created the basis for rights illustration shows Red's basket with a bottle of wine in it. In the 1988 decision of Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier, the court gave administrators authority to abridge freedom of student press. A flood of administrative restriction followed.

More significant though was the silent revolution caused by the '88 decision. Fearful of reprisals from administration and community, students delete the soliloquy challenging modern morality, the editorial delving into the controversial, the opinion confronting authority. We need courage and wisdom to stand against the mounting silence and reignite the freedom of expression. Eric Greitens, 12th Grade Parkway North High School The First Amendment is often thought of as the freedom of speech amendment and little more. Freedom of speech is a fundamental right and should be defended at all costs from oppression.

History teaches us of men like Clarence Darrow who put his life and liberty on the line so we could have the right to voice our opinions, join labor unions and peaceably assemble. Darrow went to Dayton, to stop bigotry, hate and ignorance from stifling the teaching of science regardless of the personal cost to him. The Supreme Court held that "freedom of speech is the fundamental right through which all other rights may be redressed." However, they did so only after a fight by a man who had a dream that someday the First Amendment would protect those who oppose government actions such as wars, illegal police raids, police brutality and the establishment of a religion, by allowing nativity scenes on public grounds. Roger Baldwin, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, was the man, a man who did not let public opinion keep him from doing what he knew was right. If we are to remain a free society, we must allow others the right to voice their opinions.

Today people are once again too quick to condemn and too slow to understand. To me the hidden meaning in the First Amendment is to be tolerant of fellow human beings. History teaches us there is nothing more wicked than the will of an enraged majority. Michael D. Carter Jr.

Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville Freedom of speech is the hallmark of what the First See RIGHTS, Page 4 and freedoms enjoyed by Americans today. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights provides Americans with four basic freedoms. What does this first and very important amendment mean to me? The First Amendment guarantees Americans the freedoms of speech, assembly, press and religion. These freedoms are important to me as an American citizen. Freedom of speech gives me the right to protest an election I feel is unfair and to speak out about the drug problem in our area.

It allows me to write letters to protest the violence, sex and vulgar language on television, in movies, and in newspapers. It would allow me to speak out against sexual harrassment in school or on the job. Freedom of assembly enables me to belong to organized groups, such as Student Council, TREND and SADD. It allows us to assemble peaceably as a group to discuss our ideas. It allows us to hold protest rallies against war, such as the Vietnam War protesters did in the 1960s and early 1970s, or against the killing of unborn babies in abortion clinics.

Freedom of the press is vital to my future because I am considering becoming a journalist. It would enable me to write and submit essays and news stories on topics of my choice. Freedom of religion has always been an important part of my life. Being a confirmand, however, has made me realize how fortunate I am to be able to be a member of a Christian family and be able to attend the church I want to attend without government interference. What the First Amendment means to me can be summed up in one very Important word: Kristen Koch, Eighth Grade Franklin County R-2, New Haven Over the past two centuries the wisdom and courage of judges, citizens and legislators has nourished the First Amendment with a freshening spring of insight and tolerance.

The First Amendment has grown from the "parchment barrier" of Madison's fears to the "bulwark of freedom" of his dreams. Over the past two decades, however, a storm of protest, censorship and self-righteousness has begun to erode the liberties which are the basis for freedom of thought. I am specifically concerned about erosion of student rights protected under the First Amendment. The 1969 Supreme Court decision, Tinker vs. Des Moines, was the high point of student liberty, establishing that students do not "shed their constitutional rights of freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." This principle has been under attack since its inception.

In 1982, the court ruled school library censorship acceptable. Censorship began with classics such as "Catcher in the Rye" and "A Light in the Attic." Now "Little Red Riding Hood" has been banned because an (T 00K at those bangs," said J-iSusan, in her best mother voice. She pointed to the spiky fringe on her daughter's forehead. "Looks like she stuck her head in a light socket." "The child does have major mall hair," I said admiringly. "Don't encourage her, Auntie Elaine," Susan warned.

Her patented mother glare put two burn holes in my silk blouse. Excuse me, Susan, but I remember your hair in the '60s. You looked like Cousin Itt. I didn't know you had eyes until 1972. Of course, Susan doesn't remember.

Childbirth seems to cause amnesia. My friends with kids forget the stupid stuff they did as teens. But I have no children. I remember everything. Because I love the truth (and like to stir up trouble) I'll give you the gory details, kids.

Next time your mother gives you some lip about your hair, remind her of these lost styling techniques: The premiere high school hair style in the mid-'60s was the flip. Young women put themselves through agony for the perfect flip. That meant our hair "flipped up" on the ends, all the way around our heads. The problem was one section always flopped, so we had this hair gutter around the bottom, except for a one-chunk cave in. Only prom queens and varsity cheerleaders could achieve the perfect flip.

We knew this. But each night, we slathered our hair with Dippity-Do, put it in pink sponge rollers and prayed we would have a perfect flip in the morning. Then we tried to sleep without moving so the flip would stay in place. Each morning we awoke with stiff necks and found our pink sponge curlers were crooked and our flip was as straight as a drunk's walk. If we rolled our hair tighter, we had a nerdy "wiener roll" with one collapsed section.

This was before styling mousse and sophisticated blow-drying techniques. All we had to fix flopped flips was Spray Net. Spray-on glue would have worked as well. After we flailed our failed flip, we teased the hair on top of our heads. Then we crowned it with a tiny velvet bow, right above our bangs.

We looked like poodles just back from the groomers. A version of the flip with the bow was in style this summer for about 17 minutes. Christie Brinkley wore one, which should tell you what kind of people had perfect flips. Even she couldn't stand it for long. UNIVfRSM STUDIOS FLOBIOPSS'SSH?" raWM NOW SHOWING NO PASSES OR COUPONS ACCEPTED I rax llii ill Our Lowest Price Ever! Single Papasans $79.98.

irs-yjfirjsr The columnist with an imperfect flip, circa 1968. No mother can complain about the peculiar things kids use on their hair not if Mom used Spoo-lies. Spoolies were obscene pink rubber curlers that folded in on themselves. They curled our hair all right a night spent with Spoolies and we looked like Shirley Temple on acid. Even odder were the methods for straightening hair.

After the Beatles came on the scene, the flip fell. Straight hair was in. No one had that, either. But it was possible to torture our hair into acceptable straightness with orange juice cans and a steam iron. If we had short hair, we wrapped it around the small-size frozen orange juice cans.

If we had long hair, we used the big cans. Then we taped our bangs flat to our foreheads. There was non-sticky hair stylists' tape, but we never used it. We stuck Scotch tape on our foreheads, and ripped off half our hair when we pulled it off. We spent a lot of time in our rooms, because our father and brothers laughed themselves silly when they saw us wearing Scotch tape and orange juice cans.

We always hoped they'd bust something and it would hurt a lot. After our hair dried on the cans, it had to be ironed. Our clothes could be wrinkled, but our hair was always ironed. First, we set the iron on "steam." That made the hair nice and shiny. Then we burned some part of our body, usually an ear or forehead, with the hot iron.

Unless we singed our hair. Remember this next time your mom complains about what you've done to your hair. Tell her at least it didn't leave scars. Simply 51749 IBM LaserPrlnter 101 1 0 PPM 300 dpi Prints graphics 45 faster 200-sheet 1 MB memory (expands to 9 MB) Model 4029030 SIMPLY COMPUTERS 721-4300 htc. 1 Wl lMmori InHmo'iPwol.

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