Freedom

There's a point Ervin Mears Jr. wants people to understand, and it's the reason he filed a federal lawsuit when his son was ousted from the high school track team: "Children have rights," Mears, 68, said, "just like any adult. " In this case, he said, it's the right to run. On May 6, Mawusimensah Mears, a sophomore at Sterling Regional High School in Camden County, was kicked off the team, the suit says. Eleven days later, his father sued in Camden, naming the coach, athletic director, principal, superintendent, and school board.

AT A TIME when most of us are busily preparing for Christmas, let us remember and thank our troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. To those who protected our freedom in World War II, thank you. To those who fought in Korea and Vietnam, thank you. To those who fought in the Gulf War, thank you. And to those firefighters and police officers in New York, the ones who head into a burning building as we are heading out, and lost their...

South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his leadership of nonviolent opposition to apartheid, paid a hectic two- day visit to Philadelphia last week. At packed assemblies around the city, he called for divestment of South Africa-related stocks, thanked American supporters and vowed that efforts to end white-minority domination would continue. "Freedom is coming," he said.

WHEN THIS great country was in its infancy, I don't believe that our forefathers envisioned freedom of religion to include religions or cults that sanction the killing of non-believers. Can someone from please explain exactly what constitutes a religion verses a cult, and just exactly what religions are recognized as legitimate religions per the Constitution? If the killing of innocent people is considered a crime, why do politicians turn a blind eye toward literature that specifically sanctions the killing of non-believers?

FOR TOO MANY years, newspaper ownership in this country has increasingly been concentrated in the hands of a few large companies. Newspaper traditionalists have been mourning the loss of individual community character, as well as spirited personality, in their hometown papers. The industry has been resigned to a fate of bland, generic corporatization, and concepts like family or local stewardship were as quaint as hot-lead type. The trend has seemed so inevitable, so relentless, and so unstoppable that even giants like Times Mirror and Knight Ridder have succumbed to the same family squabbles and Wall Street pressure that swallowed up great newspapers from Louisville to Des Moines to Los Angeles to Boston.

YESTERDAY was Independence Day - the day America told Britain to go fly a kite. Because our country's founders had the foresight to make that bold move, we now have the freedom to barbecue and go to clearance sales on every major holiday. I, along with my family and friends, will be enjoying each of these freedoms this holiday weekend. However, we'll be making a few minor adjustments to our usual Independence Day celebration due to the economic slowdown. We won't be throwing any steaks on the grill.

One paragraph deep in yesterday's account of the disgruntled investor who blew away the manager of a Merrill Lynch office in Miami stood out: "About 10 a.m. Katz left the brokerage house and drove his 1986 Pontiac Fiero sports car to the Tamiami Gun Shop South on Dixie Highway. He used a credit card to purchase the .357 (magnum revolver) for $300 to $400 . . . . " Whatever drove Arthur H. Katz to murder the branch manager, shoot his broker and then kill himself, Florida's super-lenient gun law should be credited with an assist.

The word from South Africa is bad. The state of emergency has been intensified. Press censorship has become more severe. Black education groups are not permitted to hold meetings. The imprisonment of dissenters continues. People continue to be killed, and bordering African nations live in constant fear of attack. Some observers think this deterioration of conditions is evidence of the failure of U.S. economic sanctions. But those who want to reinvest U.S. dollars - in the wake of increased South African trade with Israel, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Switzerland and South America - are dead wrong.

Protesters gathered outside City Hall yesterday to begin a 24-hour fast demanding the release of political prisoners in Vietnam. The Movement for Freedom and Democracy in Vietnam is organizing the demonstration.

ALTHOUGH RELIGIOUS freedom is protected under the First Amendment, prosecutors say the law can get involved if there is reason to believe a child is in danger due to lack of medical care. "If the police come or if somebody calls the police and they see something, just like child abuse, anything like that would be investigated or looked at or somebody could intercede," said Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore, who is prosecuting Herbert and Catherine Schaible for a second time.

ON THE 40th anniversary of Secretariat's Belmont Stakes win, when the colt ran off 31 lengths in front of the field into an unknown realm, we wait in vain for the next Secretariat or Seattle Slew or Affirmed, the Triple Crown still elusive. No Triple Crown is on the line in Saturday's Belmont Stakes, but we do get a rematch between the winner of the Kentucky Derby (Orb) and Preakness (Oxbow), as well as a terrific betting race, promised by a 14-horse field with much intrigue and more than a few question marks.

By Melissa Chea-Annan Chilling remarks about press freedom in Liberia have led to a standoff between the government and the media. At a ceremony on May 3 marking World Press Freedom Day, Othello Daniel Warrick, the chief security aide to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, referred to journalists as "terrorists. " The threatening remarks by Warrick, the head of Liberia's presidential guard, the Executive Protection Service (EPS), also included a vow to arrest journalists if they continue to report negative stories on the president and her administration.

THEY ARE gray-haired now and approaching 70, but the Cecil B. Moore Freedom Fighters, who protested the all-white policies at Girard College nearly 50 years ago, are marching again. But the protest, this time, is against violence. "This march is going to remind people we still have to fight back and we have to show courage," Meldorn Shamlin, president of the Freedom Fighters, said this week. "We want to stop the crime and stop the killing of our children," said Shamlin, 68. "We're showing men they need to get out of the house and protect our kids.

At a luncheon Friday in Radnor, Freedoms head coach Josh Cohen introduced his 2013 roster, headlined by 2013 Australian Open semifinalist Sloane Stephens, currently the No. 2 ranked American women's player. "With all her accomplishments, she really hasn't changed a bit," Cohen said of Stephens. "She's a nice, sweet girl even though she's a tennis superstar. " Cohen also listed the rest of the roster for this year's World Team Tennis season. Returning for the Freedoms is Jordan Kerr, joined by Samuel Groth, who has the fastest recorded serve in tennis history, at 164 m.p.h.

THE 1996 ATLANTA Olympic Park bombing. The World Trade Center massacre. The London subway bombing. The stabbing death of a U.S. citizen during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Newtown. Three dead and, at last count, more than 140 injured in Monday's bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. That's our world. These are timelines my three children will use to mark their ascent into adulthood, just as the deaths of JFK, RFK and MLK, and the attempted assassinations of Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan marked mine.

By Eileen Glanton Loftus Violence is always wrong, but sometimes it's even more wrong. When someone attacks our children, it cuts to our core. When someone violates our public spaces, it reminds us of the fragility of the hope that, when we go out in the world, we will return unscathed. The explosions at the end of the Boston Marathon killed a child, and ravaged a public space. Those are two strikes against the perpetrator. Here's the third: They went after runners. On social media and running websites, runners expressed deep sorrow for the victims of Monday's attack.

TUCSON, Ariz. - A man who has spent more than 40 years in prison for a 1970 hotel fire that killed 29 people agreed to a deal with prosecutors Tuesday that cleared the way for him to be released after his conviction was called into question. The plea deal marks a stunning reversal for Louis Taylor, who was 16 when he was arrested in the fire at the Pioneer Hotel in Tucson, where employees of an aircraft company were celebrating at a Christmas party. He was expected to be set free Tuesday or Wednesday, once his paperwork was processed.

The Freedoms selected Jessica Pegula as their first-round pick on Wednesday in the World TeamTennis roster draft. Pegula, a 19-year-old WTT rookie, has a WTA singles ranking of 142 and doubles ranking of 96. She is the daughter of Penn State benefactor Terry Pegula, who owns the NHL's Buffalo Sabres and AHL's Rochester Americans. In the second round, the Freedoms drafted doubles specialist and 2011 WTT female MVP Liezel Huber. The third-round pick was Australian Samuel Groth, best known for hitting the fastest recorded serve in tennis history (163.4 m.p.h.)

Quadir Rice grabbed a last-second rebound and made a put-back layup as time expired Saturday afternoon, giving Upper Darby a 47-45 victory over Bethlehem Freedom in the first round of the PIAA Class AAAA boys' basketball tournament at William Allen. Rice finished with nine points and nine rebounds, and Kulty Slanger led the Royals with 12 points. "It feels great for these kids," Upper Darby coach Bob Miller said. "This team has been special, and they believe they're going to win these close games.