The work of a local student is headed for the Smithsonian museum
in Washington, D.C. Miriam Carlson just got her driver's
license, but the Rockford teen is more excited about an exhibit
on communism and the palmer raids. "You don't hear a lot about
it. It's kind of a sore subject people just want to forget about
it," says Miriam. But this ambitious home schooled 16-year-old
dug it all back up and found an interesting Rockford connection.
In the 1920's, the U.S. government arrested more people per
capita for alleged communist involvement in Rockford than
anywhere else in the country. "I learned that the government
overreacted to this and they should have just let the democratic
government work things out," says Miriam. Miriam's turned the
research into an exhibit that's earned her national recognition
from the state and now on a national level. "It's wonderful,
exciting. The technique that she used worked finally in the end.
But I was a little skeptical of her vision that she had. But she
pulled it off," says