Civitas Newsletter of May 2, 2006

Third & Fourth Middle School Model U.N.s This Week

We have two Middle School Model U.N. sessions this week, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday. Here are the line-ups of resolutions with the schools that are sponsoring each resolution:

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

1. Child Soldiers & Rehabilitation (John Burroughs -- Ladue)
2. Amazon Tropical Rainforest Ecological Efforts (Hixson Middle School -- Webster Groves District)
3. Child Labor (Hoech Middle School -- Ritenour District)
4. Bride Burning (John Burroughs -- Ladue)
5. Closing of Guantanamo Bay (Hixson Middle School -- Webster Groves District)
6. Religious Conflict (Hoech Middle School -- Ritenour District)

Thursday, May 4, 2006

1. Unhealthy Water Supplies (Saeger Accelerated Middle School -- St. Francis Howell District)
2. Bird Flu (Northwest Valley Middle School -- Northwest R-1 District)
3. Poor Education (Ralph Bunche International Studies Middle School - St. Louis)
4. Heroin Addiction in China (Loyola Academy -- St. Louis)
5. Health Care Reform (Saeger Accelerated Middle School -- St. Francis Howell District)
6. Terrorism (Northwest Valley Middle School -- Northwest R-1 District)

We had a wonderful session last Wednesday, April 26 with Cathedral School (St. Louis City), St. Francis Cabrini (St. Louis City), City Academy (St. Louis City), St. Dominic Savio (South St. Louis County), and St. Mary Magdalen (mid St. Louis County). The results of consideration of the five resolutions for the day were as follows:

1. Torture and Abuse of POWs (St. Dominic Savio) -- Passed 20-6-0
2. Child Trafficking -- Defeated 11-11-4
3. Domestic Violence (City Academy) -- Passed 16-4-6
4. Irrigation, Unemployment, & Education -- Defeated 6-16-2
5. Guantanamo Bay Prison -- Defeated 5-14-2

As the number of resolutions per date grow to five and six, 2e want to let you know in advance that it is possible, though not desired, that the chairs (Lisa & Arthur) may limit the speaker's list if we are running significantly behind schedule. Also, we want to reiterate how important it is for all schools to arrive prior to 9:00 AM.

Remaining schools will have their General Assemblies May 10 and May 11. We will give you the line-up for the resolutions in the e-newsletter prior to these sessions.

You can access all submitted resolutions by clicking here.

If your school has not yet participated in one of the M.U.N. sessions you still have an opportunity to have a Civitas staff member read your rough drafts and provide you with some helpful feedback. E-mail your rough drafts (soon please!) to Lisa at [email protected] and she will get back to you quickly with comments about the resolutions and ideas for how to improve them for your General Assembly. Of course, if you already have the final drafts of your resolutions completed please send those in so we can get them posted on the web.

All sessions are at the Creve Coeur Government Center (map and directions) from 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon.

As always, if you have any questions or need any additional resources for your students, please contact Lisa Granich-Kovarik at [email protected] or (314) 865-4704.

Middle School Country Selections for 2005-2006

Photos from April 26, 2006 Middle School Model U.N. Session

High School "Teach-in" on Darfur Last Saturday Big Success!

Thanks so much to the "Fearsome Fivesome" from Washington University (lead by Danielle Silber, chairperson of the Washington University International Film Festival) who came to Crossroads last Saturday to conduct a "teach-in" on Darfur. Darfur is the western area of the Sudan in Africa, and while many of its citizens have been fighting for their own independence, the Sudanese government has suppressed them, using a variety of forms of torture as well as the conscription of child mercenaries.

The "teach-in" was extremely informative and most students seemed anxious to see if they could do something to address the situation.

In next week's newsletter, we will have links to a number of resources regarding Darfur, including ones in which Americans can directly help. One item that concerned readers may want to put in their calendars now is a "Call for Action -- Vigil for Darfur" on Wednesday, May 10, 2006. It will be at the Missouri Historical Society (Jefferson Memorial) at 6:30 PM. We will have more details next week.

Link to Photos from April�29 Discussion

Final High School Event This School Year: PICNIC!

The final event of our 2005-2006 high school year will be our annual Spring picnic and softball game. It will be on Saturday, May 13, from 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM. However, we have had a change of venue; the event will now be at Junior High Park in Maplewood. This is a little-known park with tremendous facilities for softball and sheltered picnicing. You can access a map and directions to the park by clicking here.

We will provide some softball equipment, but we can always use more. In particular, if you can round up a baseball or softball glove, that would be terrific. By the way, no serious competition is permitted!

Map and Directions to Junior High Park in Maplewood

Photos!

Streaming Video!

Sign-up Form for Civitas Summer Activities Still Available

As mentioned in earlier newsletters, Civitas is sponsoring a variety one and two-day activities this summer. Now you can access our sign-up form and indicate your interest. The form allows you to indicate what activities are of interest to you and what days and weeks work best for you. If you are interested, please access the form by clicking here:

Once again, the activites are:

Urban Studies Event: An analysis of the controversy over 12 acres of Forest Park located east of Kingshighway and just south of Barnes-Jewish Hospital. We will meet with planners for both Forest Park and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. We will also meet officials the city of St. Louis and close-by neighborhoods. And....we will make a necessary stop at Crown Candy Company. (This was the topic of last week's on-line survey!) [Update: On Thursday, April 20, a vote was held by a city panel that gave permission to Barnes-Jewish Hospital to move ahead with plans to negotiate the lease with Forest Park. However, the measure must pass to other legislative hurdles including the St. Louis Board of Alderpersons.] This issue will still be "hot" when we analyze it this summer.
Urban Studies Event: "Bird's-Eye View of St. Louis"...this is an "oldie-but-goodie." We will study how land-use changes in St. Louis from the perspectives of the Metropolitan Life Building (downtown); Continental Building (Mid-Town); University Club (Richmond Heights), and possibly the DoubleTree West Hotel (Chesterfield). We'll also make sure that we have time for a tasty meal.
Public Policy by the Numbers: This is an activity open to students and teachers alike. We'll examine how important it is to analyze issues by "smart use" of numbers. Using computers, we will take a look at issues ranging from traffic management in St. Louis to raising revenue for the United Nations.

Unfortunately, we do will not have a Civitas Night at the Ballpark this summer. Tickets are hard to get for a spontaneous group such as ours! We will revive this activity when the team tanks and the novelty of the less-than-overwhelming new stadium wears off.

Once again, we want you to know that we want you to know that we have an on-line sign-up sheet available for you. If you have any questions about the activities or the form, please call us at (314) 367-6480 or e-mail us at [email protected].

How You Rank St. Louis

This will be the first of several surveys that we will do in the coming weeks on how you feel about St. Louis, This one is rather straight-forward; simply indicating which of the localities we have on our comparative list you would rather live in and which ones you would prefer to live in St. Louis.

A partial listing of the localities is:

New York City, NY
Chicago, IL
Kansas City, MO
San Diego, CA
Baltimore, MD
Columbia, MO

(for the complete listing, you must click below to go to the survey)

Click here to take the survey:

Previous Survey Results!

Survey on Who Should Pay for Research into Alternative Fuels for Automobiles

One of the "hits" of the nation in the nascent years of the 21st century has been the development of hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius. Hybrid cars use both gasoline and electrical power; thus giving drivers more mileage per gallon. The Prius claims to give over 50 miles per gallon (reports from drivers tend to put that figure more in the 35-40 mpg range). Actually, the first hybrid car was manufactured nearly 90 years ago.

On display at an exhibit opening Saturday at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles will be a 1917 Woods Dual Power, which had a gasoline engine coupled with an electric motor-generator, just like modern hybrid cars. Unlike the Toyota Prius, however, the Woods Dual Power was a marketing flop. Production ceased after just two years.

As we all know, American automobile manufacturers have been slow to adopt alternatives to the internal combustion engine. They have also been losing considerable market-share to foreign competition. All three major American auto manufacturers are near financial bankruptcy. Thus or topic for this week, "Do you think that the government should subsidize research into alternative fuel systems for American auto manufacturers, or do you think that the companies should do the research on their own?"

RESULTS:

COMMENTS:

Additional Links

Photo Gallery

Streaming Video [Real Media]

Civitas Calendar

Civitas Intranets Site

Civitas Home Page

Maps & Directions

Previous Newsletters

Resolutions (High School U.N.) for 2004-2005

Checklist for Writing a Model U.N. Resolution

Reinventing U.N.Conference Home Page

General Assembly Countries

Security Council Countries