Freedom

Gary Moskowitz Nine-year-old Melissa Ramirez will admit she doesn't know everything there is to know about the U.S. Constitution, but she does know what freedom means. Melissa and about 150 Cerritos Elementary School students on Wednesday joined more than 1,000 Southern California students at a Pledge Across America event at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. Celebration U.S.A., a nonprofit educational organization, teamed with Forest Lawn to host the event at Forest Lawn's Hall of Liberty.

Crowds gather at Forest Lawn to honor those who have fought for their country.Hoover High School Alumnus Larry Powell "played hide and seek with the Germans," for two days before getting caught and thrown into a camp for prisoners of war in 1945. That experience made him something of a celebrity Friday afternoon at the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills. Former servicemen, relatives of fallen soldiers and Girl Scouts stood in line to shake his hand and get his autograph. Some just wanted to say "thank you" for his contributions to the U.S. military and the nation.

When George Simonyan and David Amirian — eighth-graders at Toll Middle School who also happen to be cousins — were asked to create posters to artistically represent what the concept of freedom meant to them, they avoided obvious symbols like the Statue of Liberty, instead painting metaphorical scenes. George, 13, sketched a winding road next to a street sign labeled “Freedom.” The road is supposed to remind people looking at the poster that everyone must safeguard their freedom by following the right path, and to not take a detour in life that would take that freedom away from them.

For some slaves, quilts were the roadmap to freedom, and the La Canada Flintridge Library is planning a program to spread that message. Before the Civil War, quilts were hung on fences to help slaves navigate through the underground railroad. On June 14, Dorothy Taylor will discuss the importance of quilts in African-American history, and she will demonstrate how to cut colorful fabrics and paper to construct a quilt block of the designs slaves used.

As the night sky crackles with the sounds of fireworks this weekend, listen close, and you'll hear freedom ringing. The celebration of our nation's independence from Britain on July 4, 1776, is alive and well in our community. In the foothills, Crescenta Valley High School on Monday will continue a rich celebration. A few miles to the east, the Rose Bowl will host a pyrotechnic spectacular and to the west, the Burbank skyline will light up from festivities at the Starlight Bowl.

Gary Moskowitz To Marjorie Kemper, being a writer means having the freedom to be anybody she wants to be. By the time she was 18, Kemper had decided she liked that feeling enough to make it her life's pursuit. Kemper, a longtime resident of the Adams Hill area of Glendale, took a big step in her career this year by publishing "Until That Good Day," her first novel. Thomas Dunne Books published the book earlier this year. Over the years, Kemper's short fiction has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, the Chattahoochee Review and The Greensboro Review, and she was the 2003 O. Henry Prize recipient for her short story, "God's Goodness."

My recent visit to Russia was a real eye glower, and it is wonderful to be home in the good old USA again. The Russian people are good, decent, warm, friendly and hard-working; however, they are facing the enormous challenge to live in freedom, speak their mind, read a free press, attend a religious service, work for themselves and pay taxes. Throughout my visit to Russia, I was reminded of former President John F. Kennedy's ringing admonition: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

For most students, being allowed to leave campus during a snack or lunch period is the pinnacle of freedom. But at Hoover High School, no such open-campus lunch exists. So, with Principal Kevin Walsh in attendance, students in teacher Dan Kimber’s Debate Club gathered last week to plead their case for an open-campus lunch. The meeting mostly revolved around two points. First, student freedom. Most students felt they deserved and were mature enough to handle a half-hour of freedom off campus.

On the Fourth of July, we should all take a few minutes to remember what this midsummer holiday is all about -- freedom. The Fourth of July reminds us that, above all, we are a free people -- and we intend to stay that way. Freedom comes so naturally to Americans that it is easy to forget that freedom is a precious and, unfortunately, a rare commodity. A glance at a map of the world shows that freedom is limited largely to North America, Western Europe, Japan and a few other nations scattered here and there.

Spring break for some Rosemont Middle School students meant a trip to St. Louis. The Seventh Annual American Freedom Tour spent spring break week traveling the Midwest and getting an up close and personal look at history. They began their trip in Chicago where they climbed the Sears Tower and had dinner at Tommy Guns Garage, where they also enjoyed a play based on the prohibition era. Then they moved on to Springfield, Mo. and laid a wreath at Lincoln?s Tomb and visited the Lincoln Presidential Library.

The City Council on Tuesday signed off on giving the city's treasurer greater freedom to invest in corporate bonds in an effort to preserve Glendale's roughly $385-million portfolio until the market rebounds. City Treasurer Ron Borucki had asked for the changes given that his office's “meat and potatoes” option - federal bonds - is becoming more limited. Glendale's investment returns have been stifled by low interest rates and a still struggling economy, prompting the review of the city's investment policy, according to a city report.

Pilgrims heading up and down the Glendale (2) Freeway for the last couple of months have noticed a shadowy figure or two gazing into the distance from the hills above. Cardboard cutouts of Clint Eastwood, John Wayne and Gene Autry, bearing labels that read “Glendale Public Art Project 2012,” have been a mystery - something their creator says is intentional. Justin Stadel, the Glassell Park resident and artist behind the cowboy cutouts, said he created the works so viewers could draw a spiritual feeling, a sense of freedom, from L.A.'s varied landscape.

Last month, tens of thousands of people took to the street to remember ethnic Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was gunned down five years ago by an ultranationalist teenager. The number of people who turned out underscored the level of discontent about how the media are treated in Turkey. "Without belittling the achievements of the government, the roof has fallen in on freedom of expression," said Hurriyet columnist David Judson. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders recently published its annual press freedom index, which dropped Turkey 10 places to 148th in the world, just behind countries such as Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Police arrested a 34-year-old man Thursday after they say he was driving around naked from the waist down because it gave him a sense of “freedom.” During the ensuing investigation, police say they learned that the man, Umar Khan of Glendale, often drives around the city at night or early morning hours naked from the waist down and looks for a cul-de-sac or home driveway to masturbate in, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. Khan was convicted of indecent exposure in 1998, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court records.

Some news in the last few weeks has demonstrated the fragile nature of our freedoms. As riots in Great Britain spread, on Aug. 11 the British prime minister's reaction was to begin an assault on freedom of speech and assembly by attempting to ban social media and other communication channels, hoping it would quell protesters. Less than a week later in San Francisco, protests broke out against Bay Area Rapid Transit in response to the July shooting of a homeless man by BART police.

GLENDALE - Amy Ennis, a former baby sitter convicted in 2004 of abusing a Glendale couple's newborn, has been released from prison for a second time after a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled that state corrections officials were grossly negligent when they mistakenly freed her early and then re-incarcerated her two years later. Acting on a Superior Court order, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation discharged Ennis from the California Institution for Women in Chino on July 28, agency spokesman Luis Patino said.

Collaboration. What does that word mean, exactly? One definition is “to work together on a common enterprise or project.” I was at a conference this past weekend put on by Harvard University on Attention Deficit Disorder. We sat for hours listening to the latest research. Doctors took the time to present this information to a group of about 250 medical doctors, psychologists, social workers and marriage and family therapists. One night on our down time, we walked around Boston, a city so rich with history.

I rarely speak publicly about my military experience in Vietnam because I feel lucky to be one of the soldiers who returned home in one piece and in sound mind. I was in my early 20s, naive and fresh out of college, when I volunteered for the Army. The politicians called Vietnam a "conflict," but to the soldiers on the ground it was "war." When talking about the war I would say to family and friends that I was a "lover" and never a soldier. When I was discharged, there was no military for me and my comrades-in-arms, as it was just best to blend into society and move on with one's life.

Sonia Yeghkian feels blessed to be a single mother going to school and working two jobs — because it’s something she could have never done in her home country. Yeghkian is from Iran, and came to America almost three years ago to gain freedom, an education and a better life for herself and her 16-year-old son. In Iran, Yeghkian said, “opportunities are for men. There are very little opportunities for women.” Because of the laws of the government limiting women’s rights and because of her husband, she was not allowed to go out or attend the university even though she passed the entrance exam, she said.

For most students, being allowed to leave campus during a snack or lunch period is the pinnacle of freedom. But at Hoover High School, no such open-campus lunch exists. So, with Principal Kevin Walsh in attendance, students in teacher Dan Kimber’s Debate Club gathered last week to plead their case for an open-campus lunch. The meeting mostly revolved around two points. First, student freedom. Most students felt they deserved and were mature enough to handle a half-hour of freedom off campus.