Dear Bobbi,
You Too Can Run for Congress
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently reporte that former University of Missouri running back Brock Olivo has announced that he will be a candidate for the Republican nomination for Congess from the 9th District is Missouri. Sounds fair enough,but we're not quite sure what qualifications he has over any of our student readers.
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The Post reports that since Olivo became eligible to vote a dozen years ago, he has not cast a single vote in any primary or general election. That puts him on a par with all Civitas students who have not yet reached the age of eighteen. Olivo still thinks that he is qualified to be a member of Congress because beside being an outstanding tailback in college, he says that he "also was in a social studies class." If any of the Civitas students reading this newsletter have never taken aa social studies class, please let us know so that we can more fully respect Olivo's qualifications. Maybe this is why we try to emphasize active citizenship. Now at age thirty-one we don't mean to imply that Mr. Olivo is too old to start, we just suggest that starting earlier might be somewhat avantagous and better prepare someone to run for public office.
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Continuing with the Jeff Smith Challenge
For those students who currently are active citizens, we want to remind you that at the February 9 Active Citizenship workshop, Missouri State Senator Jeff Smith challenged students to submit to him ideas that they would like to see him propose as legislation. One of the project committees at the Active Citizenship conference on Feb. 15-16 addressed that very task. Two other groups worked on projects that include ideas that could result in possible legislation. We have posted some of the ideas on our new on-line forum and invite you to join into the discussion.
Senator Smith is coming to meet with Civitas students on Saturday, March 29 at Crossroads (map) at 9:00 AM. This is a unique opportunity to exchange ideas with a major policy-maker. We encourage all interested students to come join in the discussion.
Information on how to use the forum is provided below. We will have postings from other committees next week.
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High School Students Discuss Report on Religion
Last Saturday's high school discussion group was a lively one on a number of topics. Metro High School freshman Sarah Harrington suggested discussion a recent Pew Center Report that an increasing number of Americans are changing religions, or moving entirely away from organized religion.
Students also discussed the need for more interesting, engaging, and sensitive teachers. Arthur and Gloria are disappointed that they missed it because of a Spring Training obligation, but they'll be back for the next discussion on Saturday, March 15.
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Joining the New Civitas Forum is easy! 1. The first step should always be finding the forum. Ours is located at http://www.civitas-stl.com/forum/ . (There will be a link to it on the home page of the website but feel free to book mark it as well) 2. Once you’ve found the forum (congrats!) you’ll need to join if you want to post things. Right under the Civitas logo on the upper left hand side of the page is a nifty little button called “Register” hit it. Agree to the rules, fill out the next page (don’t worry, it’s short), and you’re good to go. 3. Almost good to go. Now you need to sign in. (You’ve signed in to something before, right?) Just toss in your user name and password and you should be logged in.
From here it’s pretty self explanatory. Read the boards. Post something. You can even start your own thread. Just keep in mind a few things. Civitas has the right to delete any posts deemed “offensive”. We’d also like to keep the flame wars and trolling to a minimum.
To enter the discussion on the Jeff Smith Challenge, go to the Active Citizenship board [listed on the left] and then the "Student thoughts on Jeff Smith Challenge" thread [listed on the left]. If you have any questions, e-mail us at info@civitas-stl.com or call (314) 367-6480.
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Resolution Topics for M.S.M.U.N.s Available
Thanks to the fine work by all the middle school teachers who were at the Monday, Feb. 25 planning meeting, tentative resolution indexes for each of the seven middle school model U.N. sessions are available. You can access them by clicking here.
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Upcoming Civitas Events
(Actual events in bold -- always subject to change when change occurs!) Black: High School Blue: Middle School | Date | Time | Place | Activities | | Sat., 03/15
| 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM | Crossroads | High School Discussion #13
| Sat.,
03/29 | 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM | Crossroads | Jeff Smith challenge and High School Discussion #14 |
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Arthur H. Lieber 314-367-6480 |
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Civitas Associates 10845 Olive Blvd.
Suite #155
Saint Louis, Missouri 63141-7760 Phone: (314) 367-6480
Fax: (314) 367-7742 Tuesday, March 4, 2008
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