T Shirt

For one shining sentimental moment, that T-shirt from the East Idaho 10K Turkey Dash was more than a wonderful idea. It was imperative. So was that T-shirt from the regatta in which your boat capsized and you were nearly swept off to sea. And that "I (Heart) Vermont" tee from the camping trip with the friendly deer ticks. Ah, what's a memory without a T-shirt to commemorate it? Your overstuffed closets and bureau drawers are willing to find out. So is the American Friends Service Committee, the Quaker organization.

Coming toward me on a sunny sidewalk a few weeks ago was a young man in a white T-shirt. He sauntered by, looking relaxed and happy. His T-shirt stopped me cold. In bold black letters, it said: "Kill Me. " No pictures; nothing on the back. I couldn't tell if the guy was daring strangers to do him in, begging for help, or making a joke. Or maybe he thought the words on his shirt were mere decoration. No one stared at him or stopped - it was bizarre how little attention he attracted.

The parents of the Charles Carroll High School student ridiculed and ordered by her teacher to remove a t-shirt supporting Mitt Romney sued the teacher and school district on Friday, claiming the act violated the girl's civil rights. Filed in federal court in Philadelphia, the suit says the district ignored Samantha Pawlucy's right to free speech, let other students threaten and harass her and subjected her "to emotional distress, simply because she exercised her First Amendment rights.

School is supposed to be where young Americans learn about the Constitution's guarantee of freedom of speech. It's not where students should be ridiculed for expressing a preference in the presidential election. Children can't vote, but they can let the adults who do know which candidate they like and why. That could create one of those coveted teachable moments in which students, guided by a capable teacher, get to exchange ideas and learn something valuable without resorting to a dull textbook, website entry, or video.

Mayor Nutter reached out Sunday to the student and teacher at the heart of a controversy in a Port Richmond school over the student's wearing of a Romney/Ryan T-shirt. Nutter separately visited Lynette Gaymon, a geometry teacher at Charles Carroll High School, and Samantha Pawlucy, a 16-year-old sophomore. Neither of the parties, nor their families, would discuss the mayor's visits. Nutter, in a brief telephone interview, said he had no comment. "It's up to my daughter," Pawlucy's father, Richard, said Sunday when asked what comes next.

Sure is a good thing we emerged triumphant from our war for democracy and other good things in the Persian Gulf. If we hadn't, Saddam Hussein would be having his Hitlerian way with the poor people who live in his country, especially the Kurds and Shias. Those miserable people would be under devastating attack from his army and in continual danger of disease and starvation. And who knows what this terrible man would do had we left him in control? Kuwait would not be the democratic nation we fought to save.

Samantha Pawlucy's parents were met by heckling students Friday who shouted obscenities through the open windows of Charles Carroll High School. At the same time, a lone man who identified himself as a former district teacher and administrator paced in front of the Port Richmond school with a sign supporting the sophomore student for her right to wear a Romney t-shirt to dress down day. Pawlucy claims she was harrassed by Lynette Gaymon, her...

The student and teacher at the center of the Romney/Ryan T-shirt controversy returned to Charles Carroll High School on Tuesday - briefly and for different purposes. Samantha Pawlucy, the sophomore who received a highly publicized classroom dressing-down by her math teacher for wearing the pink T-shirt, appeared overwhelmed as she was greeted by supporters outside the Port Richmond school. Pawlucy read from the Declaration of Independence at a brief rally before school. As the group of about two dozen supporters crowded around to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner," the 16-year-old held her hand to her mouth, tears filling her eyes.

The boy, seated with a friend at the shopping mall, wore a black T-shirt and a baseball cap over his straight, longish hair. He looked 13. The message printed on the back of his shirt was much older: "(Expletive) you. " In the aftermath of Oklahoma City, much has been made of the deteriorating tenor of public discourse in America. President Clinton and others have asserted that, increasingly, virulent and threatening verbal attacks are being made on the U.S. government and its employees and elected officials.

Now we know what Randall Cunningham's 1994 slogan - "Get Dangerous" - means. The Eagles quarterback showed up for his weekly press session yesterday wearing a "Dangerously Committed" T-shirt, the type he said he is giving to committed teammates this season. We can't really explain what it's all about, or what would possess Cunningham to do such a thing, so we'll let him explain. All we know is it's an ugly T-shirt. Underneath "Dangerously Committed" is this: "You scared?"