This Issue:

Table of Contents

Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

Mini-Lesson

Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

Free Speech

Spanish Translation

-By Martha Pickerill

Stephen Downs, 61, and his 31-year-old son, Roger, went shopping at a mall in Guilderland, New York, last Monday. They got a lot more than they bargained for.

The two had T-shirts printed. Roger's said, "No War with Iraq." His dad's said, "Peace on Earth." They put on the shirts over their other clothes. The antiwar messages caught the attention of a security guard, who asked the men to take off the shirts. They refused. The guard came back with a police officer, who asked them to remove the shirts or leave. Roger took his off, but his dad still said no.

"I said, 'All right then, arrest me if you have to,'" Stephen Downs recalls. "So they did. They put the handcuffs on and took me away." Two days later, about 100 protesters marched in the mall to support Downs. A trespassing charge was dropped, but both men were upset.

"I think he'd like an apology," Roger said of his father.

IT'S A FREE COUNTRY

Americans treasure free speech and expression. Our right to share our ideas--by writing them in books, shouting them at a rally or ironing them onto T-shirts--is protected by the First Amendment. The amendment is one of 10 in the Bill of Rights, added to the Constitution in 1791. Lawmakers of the day passed the Bill of Rights because they believed that some key freedoms, including speech protection, should be part of the Constitution.

But First Amendment experts say that the right to speak freely comes with an unwritten requirement to act responsibly. "Many Americans have an overdeveloped sense of rights and an underdeveloped sense of responsibility," says Sam Chaltain, coordinator of the First Amendment Schools project. "Our rights are spelled out in the First Amendment. But the amendment will work only if we guard the rights of those with whom we disagree."

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH

With a possible war in Iraq looming, emotions across the country are running high. Last Wednesday, tens of thousands of high school and college students all over America left their classrooms and staged large antiwar demonstrations. Other Americans feel just as strongly about expressing support for our leaders' decisions. Those groups also held rallies and spoke out. When the two points of view clash, trouble can follow.

Take Toni Smith, a basketball player for Manhattanville College in New York. Because she objects to certain U.S. policies, she does not salute the flag as the national anthem is played before her games.

Some opposing teams' fans began to boo Smith. They wore American flag pins and waved the flag to taunt her. On February 23, a Vietnam War veteran came onto the court and held a flag in front of her. He was thrown out of the arena--not for expressing his view but for disrupting the game.

"Toni Smith was being patriotic by doing what she felt she must," Chaltain told TFK. "Every person who chose to stand and put a hand over his heart during the anthem was exercising the same freedom."

The First Amendment is often amended itself. Court decisions have limited its freedoms to protect individuals' privacy or national security, among other goals. But speaking out, whether in favor of the government's policies or against them, is among the fundamental rights--and responsibilities--of every American. It is, in fact, at the very heart of our democracy.

---

The Pledge Under Fire

The First Amendment gives us the right to speak freely, even when criticizing our government. So how could the Pledge of Allegiance, seen by many as an expression of national unity, be limited by the same law?

In June, a California federal court ruled that when recited in public schools, the words "under God" in the pledge suggest that the government is supporting religion. That would violate a part of the First Amendment that protects freedom of religion.

As of last Tuesday, the Elk Grove school district, where the case began, had 90 days to ask the Supreme Court for a review. If the high court agrees with the lower court, the pledge could be banned in schools in the nine states that form the California federal court's district.

Most court watchers believe that if the Supreme Court hears the case, it will defend the pledge as a voluntary expression of patriotism protected under the law. That would please Elk Grove superintendent Dave Gordon: "We want our children to keep saying the pledge."

Next: A Deep Divide in the U.N.