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CNN Student News

Aired July 05, 2002 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN STUDENT NEWS seen in schools around the world because learning never stops and neither does the news.

SUSAN FRIEDMAN, CO-HOST: A nation celebrates its independence. From fireworks to the flag, we've got it all covered, starting with what the president did on the Fourth. And we learn about the effort to restore Old Glory. Then...

MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: I'm Michael McManus on America's most historic mile. Coming up, we'll tell you what July Fourth meant to those celebrating, and we'll get a report card on how Security Chief Tom Ridge is handling the job.

FRIEDMAN: Later, a discussion on freedom.

Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS on this Friday, July 5. I'm Susan Friedman.

Celebrations galore as America marks its 226 birthday. For every major festivity yesterday there was major security due to fears of terrorism, yet President Bush urged everyone in cities large and small to get out and enjoy the holiday. And he seemed to take to his own advice.

CNN's Kelly Wallace has more on the president's Fourth of July.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush bringing his Fourth of July message to Smalltown, U.S.A. arriving in Ripley, West Virginia on the front lawn of 81-year- old Mabel Chapman. She mowed her two-acre lawn herself to get ready for the president's visit.

Mr. Bush told this town of just 3,500 that the country remains united following the September 11 attacks.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In a moment we discovered again that we're a single people, we share the same allegiance, we live under the same flag. When you strike one America, when you strike one American, you strike us all.

(APPLAUSE) WALLACE: The president pledging his resolve in the war on terror, promising to take the battle to the enemy.

BUSH: Once again history has called America to use our overwhelming power in the defense of freedom, and we'll do just that.

WALLACE: Mr. Bush saluting the men and women of the Armed Forces and announcing a reward for 15,000 immigrants in the military, immediate access to apply for U.S. citizenship. Until now, they had to wait three years to apply.

BUSH: These men and women love our country. They show it in their daily devotion to duty.

WALLACE (on camera): This the president's fourth visit to West Virginia since taking office. It is a state that traditionally votes democratic in presidential elections, but it went Mr. Bush's way during Campaign 2000. And aides hopes visits such as this one will ensure that the state goes Republican again in 2004.

Kelly Wallace, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Thomas Jefferson is best known as the author of the Declaration of Independence, which he wrote at age 33. Nicknamed "man of the people," Jefferson was an advocate of free public education and freedom of speech. However, one of his proudest accomplishments, founding and designing the University of Virginia in 1819. Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, died on July 4, 1826.

FRIEDMAN: Thomas Jefferson was a learned man known throughout history for his high ideals and brilliant ideas. He is also renowned for his eloquent expression of those ideals.

But as Garrick Utley tells us, Mr. Jefferson best expressed himself on paper.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If there was an alter of American life it is the Declaration of Independence. Its powerful words and ideas gave inspiration to a nation and immortal fame to their author. But if Thomas Jefferson were with us today he might say that's not the declaration I wrote.

Jefferson suffered the ordeal of so many writers, his work was rewritten by committee, there in Philadelphia the members of the Continental Congress.

(on camera): For example, "we hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable," wrote Jefferson. The Congress thought the truth should be self-evident, not undeniable. Jefferson wrote "all men are created equal and independent." Hold the independent said his congressional editors, although of course the declaration they were creating was about the right to be independent.

(voice-over): By the time their mangling was finished, Jefferson complained only a quarter of my original text had been removed. What is remarkable and little remembered today is that as the Declaration was being reworked, Thomas Jefferson remained silent. He took no part in the debate. John Adams defended him.

The man who was one of the most eloquent of the nation's founders in his writing was tongue-tied in public. In fact, as far as historians have determined, Jefferson gave only three public speeches in his life, and two of those were his inaugural addresses.

Jefferson preferred the sanctuary of his home in Virginia. Here he could think and write in the privacy of his study and delight in intimate conversation with friends. Those who knew him there said he was always singing. He was happy as long as he didn't have to speak in public.

I was a shy man, Jefferson would say of himself. I had a slight speech impediment and I shrank away from public gatherings. I do not like committee work of any kind.

(on camera): Which raises the intriguing question, if Thomas Jefferson were alive today, would he, could he be elected president in our era of political spin, hype and sound bites? Not likely.

(voice-over): Thomas Jefferson was indeed a man and a president for his time, but not ours.

Garrick Utley, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Another symbol of America's grand past is our grand old flag. But this July Fourth there's one flag that wasn't flying, it's the original Star Spangled Banner. Conservators are now in their fourth year of trying to preserve this historic flag.

Kathleen Koch has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It survived the bombs bursting in air over Fort McHenry in 1814 inspiring Francis Scott Key to write "The National Anthem." But preservation work underway at the Smithsonian reveals time has taken a toll on the Star Spangled Banner.

SUZANNE THOMASSEN-KRAUFF, CONSERVATOR: There are very large lost areas in the flag. In fact, the 15th star is missing, and so that's a three-foot by five-foot area almost dead center in the flag.

KOCH: Workers discovered the extent of the damage after they painstakingly removed stitch by stitch a linen backing sewn on by flag restorer Amelia Fowler. THOMASSEN-KRAUFF: But we can see a side of the flag that hasn't been seen since 1873. It's always been covered, and this is the first time the public's getting a chance to see this side.

KOCH: At this point in the $18 million conservation project, workers are cleaning the fragile but still vibrant flag.

MARILYN ZOIDIS, CURATOR, STAR SPANGLED BANNER PROJECT: We're doing this without any chemicals. We are taking sponges from a scientific lab and blotting as much of the dirt off as possible.

KOCH: Using a machine called a spectrophotometer, they check the color and analyze the dye to determine the change in the soiled woolen fabric.

ZOIDIS: Reading the density intensity of the color to be able to discern the difference before we clean the flag and after we clean the flag. Visibly you can see a difference.

KOCH: And workers can see a difference in public appreciation of the project since 9/11.

THOMASSEN-KRAUFF: They'll look up occasionally and they'll see somebody giving them the thumbs up or they'll walk out of the space and somebody will thank them for working on the project and saving the flag.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Glad to be American. Glad to be here. Glad that they're restoring it so other people can see it. It's just very inspiring.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a nation we're hurt and the flag is hurt as well. But the way our flag is being restored, our country's -- our country will be restored.

Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LINDA BEERMANN, LINCOLN, NEBRASKA: I'm Linda Beermann from Lincoln, Nebraska. And my question is: When and by whom was the Pledge of Allegiance written?

BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Linda, a Christian Socialist minister named Francis Bellamy wrote the pledge back in 1892. His version appeared in "The Youth's Companion," a family magazine kind of like "Reader's Digest," and it was meant for students to recite on Columbus Day.

CHILDREN: I pledge allegiance to the flag...

MORTON: Bellamy wrote, "I pledge allegiance to my flag, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." As a Socialist, he wanted to add equality, but he knew not everyone believed in equal rights for women and minorities.

In 1923 at a national flag conference, they dropped "my flag" and instead, inserted "the flag of the United States." Congress officially recognized the pledge in 1942 during World War II. The Supreme Court ruled in 1943 that children could not be forced to recite it in school.

KEN RHOADES, BLAIR, NEBRASKA: My name is Ken Rhodes from Blair, Nebraska. And I was wondering when "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance.

MORTON: Ken Rhoades, you asked when they added the phrase "under God." That was in 1954 during Dwight Eisenhower's presidency and at the height of the Cold War.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: As people have gathered to celebrate this independence holiday, many reflect on the trying and extraordinary times of our nation's past. Often those times are recounted in stories told by parents or grandparents, old family photos or just pictures in a textbook. Sometimes memories are all that remain. But one artist made it his mission to illustrate and immortalize a special era in American history.

Phil Hirschkorn has the story of Norman Rockwell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL HIRSCHKORN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Norman Rockwell said the commonplace was his richest subject and that's what he painted again and again, families on vacation, men at work, girls growing up. His work captured a more innocent time, a bygone America of soda fountains and barbershop musicians.

(on camera): A lot of what we see in Rockwell's paintings are iconic images of America and Americans, but aren't these images in a large way idealized...

VIVIEN GREENE, CURATOR, GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM: Of course.

HIRSCHKORN: ... versions of Americans...

GREENE: They are.

HIRSCHKORN: ... and what the country's all about?

GREENE: He focused on things that were very much part of American daily experience. But then I think he put a very positive spin on them in a way that he himself said he painted America the way he would have like -- have liked everything to have been.

HIRSCHKORN (voice-over): What Rockwell clearly liked were children before they lost their innocence, Boy Scouts or simply boys being mischievous. He was known as the people's painter. Many of his paintings really posters, frequently magazine covers, most often for the "Saturday Evening Post," once the most widely read U.S. weekly.

GREENE: Rockwell was an illustrator. That was his job, his career. So while he made these paintings, they were always paintings that were made for -- to be transferred into a mass produced image whether it was a Boy Scout calendar or the "Saturday Evening Post."

HIRSCHKORN: All 322 of his "Post" covers are on display at New York's Guggenheim Museum, the last stop of a two-year U.S. tour for this retrospective from Atlanta to Washington to here.

Rockwell's first illustrating job was at 17. He would paint every day at his homes in upstate New York and then in Massachusetts. But at times, he ran out of ideas and made fun of his own creative block. Portraits were Rockwell's specialty. He used real people, often neighbors, as models. Other times, he looked to the highest office in the land.

HIRSCHKORN (on camera): And in a sense, Rockwell is really the first pop artist.

GREENE: I think you could say that in -- on a certain level, yes, he definitely is. He's doing popular imagery for mass produced kinds of products so -- and he's also addressing popular culture.

HIRSCHKORN (voice-over): A pre-television culture when modern art was becoming abstract. Rockwell was never the art critic's darling. His work sometimes seemed too sentimental, openly patriotic. A series on American freedoms spurred the public to buy World War II bonds, and he highlighted women's contributions, Rosie the Riveter filling jobs abandoned by men.

GREENE: But when I started working on this exhibition several years ago, I looked at these pictures with different eyes. They were -- they were more about nostalgia. And now, yes, they're about nostalgia, but suddenly you can start to see more what they would have meant for the people then because we are again sending people away to war.

HIRSCHKORN: As times went a changing in America, Rockwell's style stayed the same, but his subject matter did address the most divisive issue of the day, integration.

(on camera): When you get to the 1960s, what is Rockwell trying to say about civil rights?

GREENE: He is very much in support of the civil rights movement, and he's trying to bring it to the forefront for Americans much in the same way that everyone saw the "Saturday Evening Post." I think his way of presenting that material might -- I would imagine made it easier for some people who might not have been as receptive to those subjects and topics.

HIRSCHKORN (voice-over): Rockwell died in 1978. His work is now getting another look as a genuine illustration of the American spirit. GREENE: There's narrative. People can see recognizable imagery and they can recognize themselves or a version of themselves in these pictures and that is what they respond to.

HIRSCHKORN: Phil Hirschkorn, CNN NEWSROOM, New York City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."

FRIEDMAN: Now to the city where much of America's history began. Philadelphia is where the Declaration of Independence was written and signed. The hall where that took place is still there as is the nation's famed Liberty Bell.

Our Michael McManus spent the Fourth in the City of Brotherly Love, and while there he talked to some people about the meaning of freedom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: And hello again. I'm Michael McManus coming to you from Independence Square right here in Philadelphia Pennsylvania and what better place to celebrate the Fourth of July than what's known as the birthplace of Freedom.

Now the meaning of freedom is different for everyone, some celebrating the country, some remembering our forefathers and others cherishing their rights. So let's take a look now at what Independence Day means to some of these visitors here in Philadelphia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: However, I bring sad news for the British are coming.

MCMANUS (voice-over): Some came to remember America's history.

ADAM VINCIGUERRA, MAINE: To be able to come back here and just remember and know what happened in the past and why we have our freedom.

MCMANUS: Others came to show their pride.

KIMBERLY CAMPBELL, MARYLAND: It's a time to take part in your country. It's a time to wave that flag and be happy that you're an American citizen.

MCMANUS: What all visitors had in common was to spend this Fourth of July in the birthplace of freedom, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Surrounded by the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and other monuments, it was a real life lesson in history.

JEREMY MARTIN, OKLAHOMA: And it's helped me in the classroom also being able to relate back to, you know, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Be like, yes, I've seen that and I've been there. ALISON VOGT, OREGON: I learned that the big crack that's in the bell isn't actual -- isn't the actual crack, it's the repairment (ph) and that surprised me.

RAY: My name is Ray, and I would like to welcome all of you to the old statehouse bell (ph).

MCMANUS: But the lessons weren't just for Americans. Nicolien Kuiper's family traveled all the way from Holland.

NICOLIEN KUIPER, HOLLAND: They celebrate their freedom, I think, their independence, they're proud of the country.

MCMANUS: The colors for this holiday were easy to spot, bright red, white and blues on flagpoles and on shoulders.

But with security so tight this Fourth of July, the dark memories of last fall were never far behind.

CHERYL GUSS, PENNSYLVANIA: Instantly that brings to mind the skyscrapers that are not standing in New York City and how we've grown and maybe out of a disaster it has helped us to realize and appreciate what we've had.

MCMANUS: Others pause to remember America's earliest heroes.

JEARY VOGT, PENNSYLVANIA: Their wisdom was incredible and uncanny that it could last this long and to still remain effective and useful and accurate and provide the environment that we have here today.

A. VOGT: We're one country and we're free, and we all have a right to be, like, happy.

CAMPBELL: And the freedom that we enjoy as a result of being here, it's just -- it's a delight to be here and it's a privilege to be here.

MCMANUS: For visitors and tourists alike, independence took on a tangible meaning. It was something they could see, touch and hear. Many surrounding themselves in a patriot moment not about to let it go.

(on camera): And we move from Independence Square inside to Independence Hall. This building is part of the National Park Service, and it's here where the U.S. became an independent nation.

Joining us to discuss this U.S. landmark is the Park Service's Phil Sheriden.

Phil, welcome, and thank you very much for joining us.

PHIL SHERIDEN, U.S. PARK SERVICE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

MCMANUS: Why don't you tell me about one of the most important aspects of this building? SHERIDEN: Well quite literally this is where the United States was born, and it's important for two reasons. In 1787 this is where the U.S. Constitution was debated and signed. And as most people also know, on July 4, 1776 the Continental Congress, meeting right here in this building, approved the Declaration of Independence.

MCMANUS: Now what does this hallowed hall represent?

SHERIDEN: Well I think for many Americans it's their roots. Whether they arrived in 1776 or before or very recently, there's a sense of permanency. This building is the real place and it endures, just like our democracy endures.

MCMANUS: And I know you have an interesting story you don't tell very many people so please share with us.

SHERIDEN: Well you have to come to visit the hearer of George Washington who was named Commander-in-Chief of the Army in here in this very room where the Declaration and the Constitution were signed, the assembly room. He excused himself because they were going to debate whether to pick him, but he was pretty confident, I think, because he did wear his colonel's uniform to the meeting.

MCMANUS: Well thank you very much, we really appreciate it.

SHERIDEN: Great to have you.

MCMANUS: OK.

Well whether visitors came to enjoy the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall or just to see the fireworks, the bottom line, everyone came here to celebrate America's birthday and the freedoms that come with each passing year.

Now don't go anywhere, just around the corner a profile of the head of Homeland Security and former governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge. Stick around.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Meantime, we continue our look at America's celebration of Independence Day. The cloud of darkness cast by the September 11 terrorist attacks simply strengthen the resolve of millions of Americans to have their freedom and celebrate it openly.

As Bruce Morton reviews this occasion, he gives us pause to reflect on freedom and why it's so widely cherished.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Freedom's been with us since the start, liberties on the Declaration we celebrate today up there with life and the pursuit of happiness. September 11 changed that some. Would Americans give up some freedom in exchange for feeling safer?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, if it's going to be safer for me I think I would.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I definitely wouldn't give up the freedom at all, not in America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's our right. That's why we're here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's our right. That's why we're here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that's why we're celebrating on the Fourth of July.

MORTON: Freedom's been a journey, not a fact. Union soldiers in the Civil War sang a hymn, "as he died to make them holy, let us die to make them free." And slavery ended, but freedom, not for all.

Almost a century later on the eve of World War II, Franklin Roosevelt saw a world founded upon four essential freedoms, freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from wants and freedom from fear. But the U.S. military was segregated, and black soldiers and sailors from the South came home to a region where they could not vote.

Freedom's been a journey. During the Cold War, Americans suspected other Americans of disloyalty, maybe spying for the communists. And we had FBI checks and loyalty oaths, restrictions on whom you could meet and what you could say. Freedom's been a journey.

It shrank some then but recovered. Now we have an American citizen, Jose Padilla, held without a lawyer or a day in court because the government says he's an enemy combatant, though it offers no proof he is whatever that is.

Fifty-two percent told a CBS news poll last month the military, not the courts, should decide his fate. Fifty-five percent told the Pewsetter (ph) Poll they favor holding Americans without charges if they're suspected of terrorism. The people in that poll split pretty evenly on whether they worried the government wouldn't enact new anti- terror laws or worried that it would excessively restrict civil liberties.

We asked some people, would you give up some freedom for more safety?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wouldn't like to but I guess I would have to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I wouldn't. I don't feel threatened by the terrorists at all.

MORTON: They're in New York. In Miami, the same split.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Definitely, I think we've already given up some now. And if I have to give up some more in the future, it'd be no problem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well obviously you're going to have to give up something, but I think right now they're overdoing it.

MORTON: Freedom's been a journey, now forward, now back toward what the poet Langston Hughes called "America, the land that never was and yet must be where every man is free."

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Although perhaps best known for his electrifying experiments, Benjamin Franklin played a key role in American history. Franklin was one of the five men appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence and also served as a diplomat by representing the colonies in their negotiations with England, a common man's philosopher. When the delegates approved the Declaration of Independence, Franklin is said to have quipped, "We must all hang together or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

FRIEDMAN: Indeed Americans didn't seem to give up any freedoms this Fourth of July. The fireworks went off, the barbecues went on and the parades strolled through the nation's streets all amidst very high security though.

Government officials, including Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge, pledged to make the holiday a safe one. Police were out in full force yesterday to ensure that was the case. And a new round the clock homeland security center monitored more than 2,000 events nationwide.

Our Student Bureau looks at what it takes to lead this top agency with this profile of Tom Ridge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM RIDGE, DIRECTOR OF HOMELAND SECURITY: I learned to value and respect people and other people's opinions. I learned that my family was very important. And perhaps as I got older, I didn't realize it as a kid but I realized it when I got older, no matter what kind of success I enjoyed in life probably the most important title that I'd ever have wasn't congressman, it wasn't governor, it wasn't this adviser to the president, it would father and husband.

LEAH BURFIELD, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): Caring family and close friends can help a lot with succeeding in life, but that's not all. Personality can also be the key.

DAVE RIDGE, BROTHER: He's always been very consistent. You know despite the fact he really is in the upper levels of government, he has always kept his feet very firmly on the ground. He's really a down to earth person.

MARLENE MOSCO, FRIEND: He truly is the same person that I -- that I knew years ago that he is today. Obviously no matter what he's doing, what his position was, whether he was a student, whether he was in the military, an attorney, a congressman, a governor, he's always given 1,000 percent. T. RIDGE: The president has given me a rather unique and historic opportunity to serve this country and the president has been my friend for nearly 20 years, and I'm grateful that he's given me this opportunity.

JIM LECORCHICK, FRIEND: Tom Ridge was happy being governor, but he took the job of Homeland Security because he answered the call. He was a great soldier in Vietnam. He's a great person.

BURFIELD: Commitment, seriousness, down to earth and intelligence are just some things that have made these accomplishments possible.

T. RIDGE: Education was the ultimate tool of empowerment. And if I could say this to -- and I say it to any group of young men and women whenever I go into grade schools or high schools, education, education, education.

D. RIDGE: And I know when he became -- he was offered the job of director of Homeland Security, I just frankly told him brother to brother, there's no one else I'd want protecting my kids and protecting all the kids of the United States.

LECORCHICK: I think America's getting a good deal no matter what Tom Ridge is doing. Tom Ridge is a fine worker, a fine family man. I consider him a good friend. He comes from a good family. He has a good family. That's -- you know that's pretty much what I can say. He's the all-American guy, Tom Ridge.

BURFIELD (on camera): Family, friends, personality, hopes and dreams are what made Tom Ridge who he is. Without these qualities, who knows where he would be today.

Reporting from the White House in Washington, D.C., I'm Leah Burfield for CNN Student Bureau.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

"Where in the World" about half the size of Russia, government is a Federal Republic, first recognized as a nation in 1783? Can you name this country? United States.

FRIEDMAN: For more on all of yesterday's events as well as our Philadelphia story, head to our Web site, CNNSTUDENTNEWS.com. In the meantime, we're out of time so we'll see you back here next week. I'm Susan Friedman.

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