Dear President Washington: After I sent my last letter to you, I realized I might have depressed you with all the bad news that's happened since you passed on. So, I thought I'd better cheer you up. I know you liked the Constitution, so I'll tell you about the First Amendment. That's the big one, remember? It's the one that covers religion, and free speech, and the press. In case you're wondering, we still have the same Constitution, but we're always looking for new ways to interpret it, just to make it better!

Let's start with religion. We can still worship the way we want. When I was growing up, we could talk about God in school, but that's changed. The Supreme Court decided God didn't need to go to the schoolhouse anymore, and we should just leave him home. Funny thing is, we've had a lot of problems with guns in those same buildings since then, but that's the Second Amendment, and I'm not talking about that one right now. The press is still free, too. Most Americans can't wait for the latest news about celebrities and athletes and shows where celebrities dance with athletes. The press covers elections and crime and important social issues, but that's not as popular from what I can tell. I like reading news about celebrities! And I like cartoons too, but not the ones with dancing.

As you probably guessed, we still have freedom of speech! I don't have to worry about going to jail for writing these letters, even if someone finds them and puts them in a newspaper. And you should see what else "free speech" includes. An artist put a crucifix in a jar of something nasty, took a picture of it, and called it art. A lot of religious people were hopping mad, but others jumped in to defend his "right to free speech." I bet you didn't see that one coming, did you? Personally, I don't like that kind of art, but I'm not going to say anything about it. You have to be very careful about what you say now, or people will say your words are "unforgivable" or something mean like that. Don't get me wrong. We still have freedom of speech, but you just have to be very careful about how and when you use it... unless you're an artist, of course.