Young Americans

MANY OF US have been shocked and appalled by a compelling photo of two gay teenagers having their necks being put into nooses by hooded officials just moments before they were executed by hanging July 19 in a public square in Mashhad, Iran. For many young American gays, the image is a chilling reminder of their own vulnerability as their families reject them and communities across the country attempt to legislate against them. In fact, the myriad anti-gay messages throughout American society persuade many gay teens to slip the noose of self-destruction around their own necks.

PHILADELPHIA -- They say the house was a mess. There were holes in the floor. The walls were pulling apart. There were no windows, doors or fixtures. It was filled with trash. The stairs were unsafe. There were dead cats in the basement. Today, a construction crew - all young and black - is at work on the house. There are new cabinets in the kitchen and there is fresh paint on the walls. New stairwells lead up to the three bedrooms and down to the basement, where there is a new heating unit and no dead cats.

The African-American holiday of Kwanzaa, which begins Monday and lasts for seven days, provides an antidote to the commercialization and consumer excesses of Christmas.Lavish gifts aren't the focus of Kwanzaa. Created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, a professor at Cal State-Long Beach, Kwanzaa is based upon different African customs.It celebrates the Nguzo Saba, which is Swahili for seven principles: Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility)

Rejected from the Air Force five times for poor eyesight, Capt. Eric Schultz finally won a commission after earning a doctoral degree in aeronautics and undergoing eye surgery. The Annapolis native is preparing for overseas combat missions in an F-15 fighter jet and training other pilots. Nominated by his fellow officers, Schultz, 33, was honored Saturday by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce as one of its Ten Outstanding Young Americans this year, an award that honors those who exemplify the best attributes of Americans ages 18 to 40. Past recipients include presidents John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton.

At-risk youth in Baltimore city will have an opportunity to join an international network of young people in taking on a royal challenge to improve their lives by participating in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award-Young American's Challenge. Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, the youngest child of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip and seventh in line to the British throne, visited Tuesday with students of the Living Classrooms Foundation to announce that Baltimore would join 132 countries, and 20 states and Washington, D.C., in the program.

IN 1961, President John F. Kennedy made an audacious promise. Within a decade, he said, Americans would walk on the moon.To accomplish this goal, he brought together thousands of the country's top scientists, engineers and designers to carry out a broad-based program of research, development and experimentation. Eight years later, Neil Armstrong made President Kennedy's promise a reality.In 1996, President Clinton made an equally audacious promise. Every 9-year-old, he pledged, will be a reader.

LOS ANGELES -- It was the early 1990s, and recent college grad Stephanie Brail was doing precisely what someone of her generation was supposed to be doing. Nothing.Like many so-called Gen-Xers -- the 80 million Americans born between 1961 and 1981 -- she was rudderless. The English and music major drifted for several years, working at a nonprofit here, writing a free-lance piece there. In between, there was a lot of time in coffeehouses.Then she started to teach courses about computers, something she had used in one form or another since childhood.

NEW YORK - James Blake shimmies with excitement. The crowd surrounding the Arthur Ashe Stadium court shimmies back. There is desire in the air. Desire by Blake to win this increasingly difficult match against Sargis Sargsian. Desire by the record crowd to see Blake, a personable young American from Yonkers, become a full-blooded star. It's a curious phenomenon. It's putting the age-old cart before the young horse. Blake won yesterday, 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6), but not before Sargsian made the point that Blake still has a ways to go. "I think this is another match since Wimbledon, where I've done a great job mentally," said Blake.

Hugh Wolff may be the only music director of a major American orchestra whose telephone number is listed."You should have just called Minneapolis-St. Paul directory assistance," Wolff tells a caller who tries to excuse his tadiness by explaining that he had temporarily misplaced the conductor's home telephone number.Lanky, freckled and red-haired, Wolff is a grown-up version of the boy next door. Never mind that he's a Harvard Phi Beta Kappa, that he studied composition with Olivier Messiaen in Paris, and that he was Mstislav Rostropovich's favorite protege in the late '70s and early '80s, when he assisted the cellist-conductor with the National Symphony.

MEMORIES of the acrimony that preceded the Million Man March of 1995 have blurred. Fears raised by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan's plans for that mass rally are not recalled as vividly as stories of the harmonious event that took place.Years hence, will that also be the case with the Million Youth March to be held this weekend in Harlem? One can only hope.New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani tried to withhold a parade permit for the march, organized by former Nation of Islam henchman Khalid Abdul Muhammad, whose anti-Semitic rhetoric was deplored even by Mr. Farrakhan.