VOL. V, No. 21;
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Dear Arthur,
Today's newsletter includes:
1.
Report on Monday, May 22 year-end Middle School Faculty Meeting
at Chevy's Restaurant.
2.
Final Opportunity to sign up for
Civitas
Activities this Summer.
3. New
Survey on whether President Bush's religious
beliefs hinder his ability to make sound foreign
policy decisions.
4. Results from survey on the nomination of
General Michael Hayden as new head of the
C.I.A.
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Middle School Teachers Wrap Up Year
With Meeting at CHEVY'S
 The 2005-2006 Civitas school year
came to an end yesterday with a faculty wrap up to assess this
year's program and suggest improvements for next year.
Working under the strict Civitas rules of "No Gossiping," teachers
told their favorite stories of faux
pas by Civitas staff. No nasty words were
said about anyone who was present at the meeting.
| Debbie Green (Holman
Middle School) [left] and Lori Kapler (Pattonville Heights
Middle School [center] chat with Civitas Middle School M.U.N.
coordinator Lisa Granich-Kovarik [right]. Turnout from the
Pattonville School District was 100% -- a figure not
surpassed by any other
district. |
In
addition, we praised ourselves for once again pulling off a fine
year, giving full credit to the Civitas staff and middle school
teachers who were in attendance. We brainstormed some
excellent ideas for next year but chose to keep them secret
until the DaVinci Code is truly unraveled!
The food
was terrific; the company great; and we send our regrets to
everyone who was not there. Finally, we passed a
resolution saying that we did not want anyone who was AWOL to
feel guilty about it. After all, you might have been
having a better time than we did!
We'll meet again in
early September!
| | Photos! | | Streaming
Video! |
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Last Chance to Sign-up Form for Civitas
Summer Activities
As mentioned in earlier
newsletters, Civitas is sponsoring a variety
one and two-day activities this summer. This is
the last week to sign up if you are
interested. 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].
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Survey on President Bush's Religious
Views & His Foreign Policy
 Reuters News Agency
reported the following yesterday from London regarding the issue
of President Bush's religious commitments and his ability to
make sound foreign policy decisions:
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- U.S.
President George W. Bush has alienated Muslims around the world
by using absolutist Christian rhetoric to discuss foreign policy
issues, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
says.
"I
worked for two presidents who were men of faith, and they did
not make their religious views part of American policy," she
said, referring to Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, both Democrats
and Christians.
"President Bush's certitude about what he believes in,
and the division between good and evil, is, I think, different,"
said Albright, who has just published a book on religion and
world affairs. "The absolute truth is what makes Bush so
worrying to some of us."
Our question this week is: "Do you think that President Bush's
certitude about the division between good and evil weakens his
ability to make sound foreign policy
decisions?"
Click here to take the survey:
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Previous Survey Results!
Survey on President Bush's
Nominee to head C.I.A.
We are extending last week's
survey for another week because
it is so
timely!
President Bush has
nominated General Michael Hayden to be the next director of the
Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.). Many Republicans and
Democrats alike have already expressed reservations about
supporting General Hayden, primarily because (1) they do not
feel that this is a good time to have the head of the C.I.A. be
from the military, and (2) General Hayden has been an
enthusiastic supporter of the administration's policy of spying
on American citizens without court-obtained warrents. Our
question is, "From what you know at this point, would you
support General Hayden as director of the C.I.A.?" (If you
would like more information, click
here to get background information from the New York
Times).
RESULTS:
COMMENTS:
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Additional
Links
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| Resolutions
(High School U.N.) for 2004-2005
| Checklist
for Writing a Model U.N. Resolution
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