Bill of Rights Contest Winner

Chris La Vigna, a junior at Rye Neck High School, won second place in the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Bill of Rights essay/poetry contest. The annual competition encourages students to think critically about American freedoms. All tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders in Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan and Ulster Counties were eligible to participate.

This year, the topic focused on social networking websites and government intervention.

An aspiring writer, La Vigna described his position, “The government shouldn’t be involved. I don’t think it should infringe upon someone’s right to privacy.”

Rye Neck High School history teacher Jennifer Hansen thought her students’ entries were engaging. She praised Chris La Vigna for his thoughtful, lyrical poem.
Winners were announced last month at St. Paul’s National Historic Site in Mount Vernon. La Vigna won $200 for his second-place entry, which is published below.

“A Cautionary Poem”

By Chris La Vigna

Our nation’s constitution
Preserves our 1st amendment rights
But hundreds of years later
We’ve never given up the fight

They’ve sterilized the media
Censored radio and TV
And now you’re going to tell me
Not even the Internet is free?

For some Myspace and facebook may be
Stupid social websites
For others they’re a bastion of free speech
The last of their kind

But fears of crooks and pedophiles
Keep the people up at night
So here comes Big Brother to tuck you into bed
Don’t let the bedbugs bite

So I beseech you, America — don’t fall asleep
Unless you want the government in control
Soon we’ll be another China
At Tiananmen Square, heads will roll.