Dear Arthur,
More on "You Too Can Run for Congress"
In the seventeen years of Civitas, we have never received a response equal to reader feedback on our story on Congressional candidate Brock Olivo, a former running back at the University of Missouri. Much of it is interesting, negative towards Mr. Olivo, and not fit to print. However, we have below a link to a YouTube video Mr. Olivo's comments. You may find it most interesting.
In case you missed it last week, we mentioned that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently reported that former University of Missouri running back Brock Olivo has announced that he will be a candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress from the 9th District in Missouri. Sounds fair enough, but we're not quite sure what qualifications he has over any of our student readers.
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Click here for the link to the YouTube video.
Again, 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 besides 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 a 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 advantageous and better prepare someone to run for public office.
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Follow-up from Active Citizenship Conference; this week's discussion group
- Continuing with the Jeff Smith Challenge
- Present Student Bill of Rights to A.C.L.U.
- Working on Electoral Reform Group to Meet with Robin Carnahan
For students who participated in the Active Citizenship conference last month as well as those who want to join the project now, we have follow-up activities for each subject discussed. As part of our discussion group this Saturday at Crossroads (map) from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM, we will provide time for students to refine their recommendations in advance to meeting with adult decision-makers who will respond to the recommendations. In addition to the discussion, we will have time for individual students to get on computers at Crossroads to present their own ideas, using the new Civitas forum.
Here is what we have lined up for the next activities in the project:
- On Saturday, March 29, Senator Jeff Smith is coming to meet with Civitas students at Crossroads (map) at 9:00 AM. He will respond to the recommendations from all three committees and possibly introduce some of the ideas as legislation in the Missouri General Assembly. This is a unique opportunity to exchange ideas with a major policy-maker.
- On Saturday, April 12, representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri will be coming to Civitas to respond to the recommendations of students who worked on the Student Bill of Rights proposal. Among the presenters will be Nikki Doughty, board member of the ACLU, who participated in our workshop on Feb. 9 with active adults and students.
- Regarding proposals for electoral reform, Civitas is in contact with the office of Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan to set up a meeting. On the state level, the office of Secretary of State is entirely different from the U.S. Secretary of State. In Missouri, one of the primary responsibilities of the Secretary of State is regulation and oversight of elections.
In the meantime, you can comment on or propose improvements to recommendations that were agreed upon at the conference. Information on how to use the forum is provided below.
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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 bookmark it as well. -
Once you've found the forum (congrats!) you'll need to join it 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. -
Almost good to go. Now you need to sign in. (You've signed in to something before, right?) Just toss in your username 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 the trolling to a minimum. To enter the discussion on the Jeff Smith Challenge, Election reform, or the Students Bill of Rights, click on the Active Citizenship board (listed on the left) and then the desired thread. if you have any questions, email 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; Refining recommendations from Active Citizenship Conference
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03/29 | 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM | Crossroads | Jeff Smith challenge and High School Discussion #14 | Sat.,
4/12 | 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM | Crossroads | Meeting with representatives of American Civil Liberties Union on proposed Student Bill of Rights |
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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 11, 2008
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