The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 39

Your daily guide to whaVs happening Alumni honors: Hoban High School will present distinguished alumnus awards to John LaGuardia and Ronald Zaucha. Page D10. The Beacon Journal Sunday, February 28, 1993 Our children 's DON'T WORRY, WE'LL FIGURE SOMETHING OUT Producer Robert Evans said he and actress Faye Dunaway are discussing a new film that would revive the character Dunaway Akron zoo curator has visit with Mr. Rogers Dave Ford helps teach TV host, kids about birds played in the movie Chinatown. It is unclear how Evans would overcome one small problem, Penthouse says: At the end of CUi unce upon a time, rred Kogers Mister Rogers to you was sitting in his office, pondering ways to make his neighborhood a better place.

He came to two conclusions: 'V It needs more integration. It needs birds. So the call went out to Akron's Dave Ford. And before you can say, "Would you be mine?" Ford was on national television. The animal HOPES 8 Bob if curator for the Akron Zoological Park appeared Tuesday on PBS stations from coast to coast via Mr.

Rogers Neighborhood, the legendary kiddie show. "They were looking for a black person and someone with some knowledge of birds," Ford says. Sure, they could have asked Eddie Muiuhv to remise his Mr. 1 I n.L' i I i' Siahirrtav Nicrht T.ivp hilt wpll Dunaway Dunaway character is shot and killed. The high price of peace Remember the Beatles' '60s guru Maharlshi Mahesh Yogi? Life mag says the hirsute transcendental meditator is still around, hawking music cassettes, Himalayan Bliss mineral water and social perfection.

The Maharishi has been advertising in big-city newspapers the services of a group "trained to create a powerful influence in harmony, balance and positivity in the atmosphere, thereby neutralizing criminal tendencies." The price tag for a city that wants the cure? About $160 million for a full year of urban grooviness, says Life. Who'dathunkit! Twenty-five years ago today, the New York Times dubbed Jimi Hendrtx "the black Elvis." This day in music 1974 No. 1 Billboard hit: Seasons hi the Sun, Terry Jacks. Out of the mouths of babes A young girl, 10 or so, was talking with her father in a Kent restaurant about U.S. geography states, capitals, that sort of thing.

When talk turned to our nation's capital, the child suddenly inquired: "What's the D.C. stand for? Dema Crat?" "Does now," her dad said. Quote du jour "Are you saying the president should KILL Rush Iimbaugh? He could have a heart attack and die." White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, when asked whether Bill Clinton may defuse the 300-pound conservative critic by jogging with him, in Newsweek. Furor, vice folly A bodybuilding extra injured during a fight scene with Jean Claude Van Damme in the movie Cyborg was awarded $487,500 in damages. Rock Pinckney told the jury the actor hit him in the eye with a prop knife as he tried to make the scene more realistic.

Dolly Parton is upfront about her mammary glands in a Village Murphy's ornithological expertise is a bit suspect. Not to mention his attitude. So, because Rogers tapes his show in Pittsburgh, his people turned to officials at the -Pittsburgh Aviary. "They didn't know of anyone else in the country (who fit the description)," says Ford, "so they contacted me." r. Ford was thrilled.

In mid-October, he traveled to Pittsburgh and met with Rogers' producer at the aviary, which has an exchange program with the Akron zoo. Thev talked about the areas MATTHEW HATHORN Walls Elementary School they would cover on the program, and Rogers' camera people took some preliminary shots. The.next day, shortly before the taping, Ford met Rogers for the first time. They chatted "quite a Ford says, noting that Rogers was attempting to get a feel for his guest and help him relax. So what's Mr.

Rogers really like? "Like St. Francis of Ford jokes. "The guy off-camera is just as nice and pleasant as he is on-: -camera. He has the same tone in his voice. But he's real serious See DYER, Page D4 and Voice interview.

"I was offered all kinds of money to just show one of them," says the country singer. "But I'm not interested in putting them on the table. th 1 We did not change the children's spelling or grammar. And we're not using the writers' names because many of the essays deal with personal and family concerns. After you read these children's hopes and fears, we hope you'll talk with your children about theirs and yours.

KIM McMAHAS AND THRITY UMRIGAR University, while Schumacher is an urban school with a high percentage of minority pupils who mainly come from middle-income homes. But the boys and girls from both schools have similar preoccupations death, the ozone layer, drugs, money and their family's breakup. Their hopes are to have friends, to keep their families intact, and have a safe, clean world to live in. We chose these schools at random. tisa strange innocence this, so tainted by the corruptions cf the world.

The following excerpts are from essays written by the fourth-graders at Akron's Schumacher Academy and Kent's Walls Elementary School on their hopes and fears. Walls serves pupils from varied economic backgrounds and attracts many children qf foreign graduate students attending Kent State Commentary Debate over racial identity is rekindled African-American or black? Depends on age BY Anh do Orange County Register As brothers, the Weatherspoons agree on many things: the importance of family, hard work, good health and their lifelong passion, football. But once the topic turns to identity, they differ. Edwin Weatherspoon sees himself as black. Cephus Weatherspoon describes himself as African-American.

"I grew up with whites, Mexicans and Indians. They used the term black, though I think now the trend is turning toward African-American," said Cephus Weatherspoon, a California resident who was born and raised in Arizona. The Weatherspoons personify a debate that rages on college campuses, at workplaces and in homes. Black or African-See BLACK, Page D10 Parton I've prettied them up a little. When I lost the weight, I had some reconstructive surgery to put everything the way it ought to be." Wilson Pickett has struck a deal to perform a free concert in exchange for Englewood, N.J., Mayor Donald Aronson's dropping charges that the singer threatened him during a drunken spin across the mayor's lawn.

"I've always said Wilson Pickett's worst enemy is Jack Daniel's," the mayor said of his next-door neighbor. Reginald Bates empties New York parking meters for a living. Bates, 32, also owes New York City $15,745 in parking ticket fines and penalties, Newsday reports. Comedian Denis Leary, 35, tells Time why he loves New York: "This is the most exciting place in the world to live. There are so many ways to die here." The final word The president hopes to have his economic plan enacted by year's end.

It might happen sooner, but Congress needs time to work the bugs into it. BUI Tammeus, K.C. Star Edited by Mickey Porter torn staff and wire reports. In 1993, 1 hope that schools will close because of a teachers strike. I'm sick and tired of the ways schools are run.

Don't these people have We just bombed Iraq and the teachers punish kids for fighting! They're crazy. Teachers say things like: When I was your age to stop people from doing things. Times have changed! They're stuck in the Walls pupil friends. One friend doesn't like me but pretends to. Another friend likes me but is a fifth grader and seams to think I'm too babyish to play with.

I'm worried about the economy, homeless people and people without jobs. It scares me and makes me think that that might happen to my mom or dad. Walls pupil My hopes are to become president and take my whole family to Hollywood, Hawaii. And my fears are doing drugs, See ESSAYS, Page D2 that I live to be fifteen years old. Schumacher pupii My hopes for my family is to rebuild our love for each other and try to make our decisions better If we keep doing the things that were doing it's going to put a big hole in our lives.

Walls pupil Some of my hopes are that my father will stop yelling. He yells alot and seams to enjoy it. It scares me and I hope it will stop. Another hope is friends. On the playground I'm having a hard time with my My hopes are that the world becomes a better place my friends make it thru collage.