VOL II, No. 34

In addition to reading our newsletters, you may also want to visit our web site by clicking on the link below. We have a good deal of current information, and through the year we will be working on building up our archives from previous years.
Civitas home page

First Student Meeting for 2003-04 this Saturday, August 30 (Updated)

Civitas' first of nearly fifty activities this school year begins this Saturday, August 30. We will have a discussion group and informational meeting from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM at Crossroads School (link to directions and map below).

During the first half, we will show our 7-minute video and provide additional information about:

1. Our Fall Model U.N. conference
2. Our Fall Conference on the Middle East
3. The October Urban Convergence Conference
4. Our February Conference on "Revenge & Reconciliation"
5. Our Spring focus on Urban Studies, and our ongoing focus on Campaign 2004

During the discussion period, we will have open conversation on a topic or topics of students' choice. Among our suggested ones are:

1. 40 Years after Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" Speech delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. To What extent has his dream been fulfilled? [Note: See next story]

2. Who is best equipped to manage the rebuilding of Iraq, the United States or the United Nations?

3. Does former Vermont Governor Howard Dean's run for the presidency represent the "internet campaign of the future?"

4. School uniforms: good idea or bad idea, or neither?

We want all of our discussions to be both informative and informal. If we can combine conversation that sheds light on issues with some good humor, we'll reach our goal. We hope that you will join us at this first gathering of the new school year.

Directions to Crossroads School
40 Years of the Dream: Aug. 28, 1963 - Aug. 30, 2003 (New)

It was forty years ago when more than 200,000 marchers descended on the Washington Mall to hear Dr. Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders call for America to provide equal rights to all people without regard to color, national origin, religion, or beliefs. To what extent has Dr. King's dream been realized? What are the main obstacles to fulfilling the entire dream? These questions will be up for discussion at this Saturday's discussion group at Crossroads.
Text of "I Have A Dream" Speech
High School Teacher Meeting on Sat., Sept. 6 (New)
Our second Civitas event of the 2003-2004 school year will be a gathering of model U.N. high school faculty advisors. It will be on Saturday, September 6, from 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM at Crossroads School (map below).

The meeting and the agenda will be short. This is because we ask very little of our high school teachers. We appreciate how terribly busy they are as well as the middle and elementary school colleagues.

We essentially want to review with teachers how they can best make interested students in their schools aware of how they can receive up-to-date information on Civitas activites. We will provide you with a quick "lesson" on how the Civitas web site works. We'll also give you plenty of written materials to take to students at your schools.

This is the only meeting that we have all year for high school teachers and since there are no activities scheduled on school days, you're basically "home free" after this. However, the experience for the students from your school will be greatly enhanced if you can make this one meeting.
Directions to Crossroads School

Fall Conference on Middle East on October 17-18 (Revised)

The first major international conference of the school year for high school students will be our "Conference on the Middle East." It will begin at 3:00 PM on Friday, October 17 and end at 5:30 PM on Saturday, October 18. The conference will be at a new venue: the Doubletree Airport Hotel. We will have very good conference rooms, excellent eating and rooming facilities, and an extremely helpful staff.

We will be sending out a separate e-newsletter on the conference later this week. It will include far more information on our goals for the conference as well as the agenda.

In the meantime students who want to participate in the conference must come to the two preparatory sessions on Saturday, September 20 and Saturday, October 4. They must also commit themselves to research time prior to the conference. We are looking for students who want to really engage in the issues of the Middle East and who are willing to "think outside the box."

With this week's newsletter, we have a link to a sign-up sheet for the conference. Applying to participate will not guarantee a student a slot in the conference, but it will be an excellent first step for a student to take.

We also have available other information on the conference. It can be accessed by the second link below. More information will be available next week.

Application form for Mid-East Conference
Link to Index of Information on Mid-East Conference

Urban Convergence Conference Coming Up (Updated)

Metropolis St. Louis is sponsoring a conference on the future of St. Louis the weekend of October 3-5. It is called Urban Convergence.

We are looking for any student who is interesting in participating. You don't have to commit yourself to the entire weekend; in fact we have a discussion group and prep session for the Mid-East Conference on Saturday morning. If you are interested, please go to the sign-up link at the bottom of this article.

We will have more information in next week's e-newsletter.

Link to Metropolis St. Louis

Civitas Photos Now Available in On-Line Photo Gallery (Updated)

Civitas has entered into a new working agreement with "MyCapture.com" to make photos from events available to any student, parent, teacher, or friend of Civitas who would like to have photo prints or photo imprints on novelties such as mouse pads or coffee mugs.

We currently have well over 100 photos from this summer's Urban Studies program. Beginning with our Saturday, August 30 initial discussion group with high school students, we will have numerous photos of virtually every Civitas event.

The photos are contracted out for prints, so there is a charge. When you click on any photo in the gallery, you can click below to see the charges that apply. At the present time, you can only order by using a credit card (Civitas never sees this information). If you are uncomfortable using a credit card, contact Civitas and we will order it for you after receiving some other form of payment from you. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Link to Civitas Photos
Civitas Urban Studies Video Now Available (New)

We now have over one hour of video available from the ten days of Civitas Summer Urban Studies this past July. Included are scenes from our "Bird's Eye" View of St. Louis; our meetings with various public officials, our Urban Council, and much more.

As of Tuesday, August 26, the clips are available only in "Real Media" format. By the end of the week, we hope to have everything also available in "Windows Media" format.

We will be adding video from as many Civitas events as possible. We will start with this Saturday's first discussion group of the year.

Please click below to get to our Video Index.
Link to Video Index

Survey on Role of U.N. in Rebuilding Iraq (New)

Last week, U.N. headquarters in Baghdad was firebombed. Nearly 20 people were killed and over 100 injured.

During the same week, President George W. Bush of the United States is asking the United Nations to provide more assistance in the rebuilding of Iraq. However, he is not willing to share any more control with the United Nations. If the U.N. provides more assistance in the rebuilding of Iraq, do you think that it should have more "say" in policy regarding the rebuilding of Iraq? I

Link to Survey on the role of the U.N. in rebuilding Iraq
Link to sign-up for conference

Link to Poll on Civitas Intranet Site

Previous Survey Results (New)

Last week's survey was:

"It has only been within the past fifteen years that public utilities such as electricity producing companies have been deregulated. This means among other things that they can set their own rates and also choose how much money to invest in improvements and expansion of their equipment. The 'Great Blackout of 1965' occurred when utilities were regulated; the "Great Blackout of 2003 (unless there is another one to come in the next 114 days) occurred when utilities were deregulated. Our survey today is whether or not you think that future policy towards utility should include more emphasis on regulation and government oversite. Who do you think is best equipped to conduct an honest investigation into the power blackout of August 14, 2003?"

Responses % #

1. Utility Companies 11.11 % 1

2. Government 22.22 % 2

3. An Independent Organization 66.67 % 6

Total 9

Special Note:

One of our readers, Mr. Buck Hatcher of Indianapolis, wrote the following in response to the survey:

As a point of interest on the Power Outage comments, the Transmission portion of Electric Utility infrastructure is still regulated by the government. Generation, for the most part, has been deregulated. The Bush administration has been pushing Congress for two years to pass energy legislation that specifically would promote the upgrade of the country's Transmission infrastructure. Democrats have delayed it's passage, mainly due to the piece in the legislation about oil drilling in Alaska or some area that is sensitive to the environmentalist concern.

We truly appreciate the enlightenment from his comments.

More information about Civitas