First Amendment Contest Winner Announced

During February, this newspaper participated in a statewide essay contest sponsored by the New York Press Association. High school juniors and seniors were invited to submit an essay on the role that the First Amendment plays in American life.

Winners were judged on a local level, with the winning essay to be submitted to the state level of the contest. The winner of the state contest will win a $10,000 college scholarship, a $250 second-place or a $100 third-place prize.

In addition to the state prizes, the Garden City News has decided to add a local prize of $1000 for the top essay.

We received many fine essays, and from those have chosen the following essay:

The First Amendment

by Amanda Gogh, a junior at Garden City High School:

Take any point in United States history and imagine an American lifestyle without the first amendment. Abigail Adams would never had warned her husband about the difficulty to get thirteen clocks to strike at the same time. Martin Luther King would not have been able to share his famous dream. Millions of Americans would never have chanted for their MTV! Fast forward to the 21st century and we see the first amendment as the nucleus of the internet. This connected world enabled by technology, is grounded in a freedom to share opinions, exchange instant messages without filters, gather in cyberspace communities and access late breaking news.

Today's American society revolves around the ability to share and communicate views based on recent current events. We are able to provide our thoughts in open on-line forums, create our own virtual speaking spaces, take part in internet polls and capture an individual's perspective with a word search. Woven into our DNA is the belief that if we have an opinion, we can state it. If we desire access to information, we can obtain it from mediums unencumbered by government censorship. Following the recent Presidential State of the Union, thousands of citizens gave their views on the President's remarks without fear of retaliation. Why are we able to do this? Simply because we enjoy the rights granted to us under the first amendment.

Alexander Hamilton and James Madison may never have envisioned a country where Americans can be connected at anytime and anywhere. However, they did recognize that it is essential for society to advance with the support of public opinion and the evolution of new perspectives which could emerge into new ideas to strengthen the nation as well as the right to assemble. Clearly the Constitution authors weren't thinking of chat rooms or blogs when they wrote about the right to assemble, but we are living in a society with the ability to assemble freely based on common interests or beliefs without government reprisal. Americans are able to collaborate in nanoseconds, to gather electronically, "assemble" and rally public opinion across the country in a moment's notice.

The internet is a living technological testament to the first amendment, but what about the original old and new testaments? How does the first amendment clause which respects an establishment of religion act as the core of the internet? One needs to only conduct a keyword search using the word religion. The search produced 284 million results with a diverse selection ranging from the Kabbalah Center to single god religions. There was nothing preventing an American from accessing this plethora of religious information or establishing a new religion.

We would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge that all internet users do not have the capabilities described above. Certain governments censor internet transmissions and content. Their governments lack the trust, confidence and the reservoir of goodwill that the first amendment is built upon. This foundation created the amendment which is the core of the internet and American lifestyle.