Jan. 6, 2004

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Trading Dates -- Jan. 10 & Jan. 17
In an effort to avoid some of the problems we had in the Fall with prep sessions for the Mid-East conference being held too far in advance of the conference, we are making the following change in our January calendar:

1. We are moving our Campaign 2004 workshop up to Saturday, January 10, 2004 from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM at Crossroads.

2. We are moving our first prep session for the Revenge & Reconciliation conference back to January 17, 2004 from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM at Crossroads. Civitas Web Calendar
Map & Directions to Crossroads School
Campaign 2004 Discussion this Saturday

After months of discussion and debate by the Democratic candidates for president, the voting will actually begin this month. The Iowa Caucuses is less than two weeks away and the New Hampshire Primary is just a week later.

Do we have the best men and women running for office that we could? Do we have a fair system for selecting our candidates and elected officials? What roles do money and the media play in the process?

These questions as well as some funny notes of trivia on the candidates will be our primary subject with our discussion this coming Saturday, January 10, at Crossroads from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM. Map & Directions to Crossroads School

Civitas Announces Next Conference! (Repeat)

Following a successful conference on the Middle East in November, Civitas will sponsor a special conference on Revenge & Reconciliation on February 20-21. We will present full details on the conference in our next newsletter, but you can "bank" the following items about the conference:

1. The weekend portion of the conference will begin with registration at 3:00 PM on Friday, February 20 and extend through 3:30 PM on Saturday, February 21. [Note: we will be ending this conference two hours earlier than previous conferences because we have learned from student evaluations and our own observations that just about everyone is tired out my mid-afternoon on Saturday.

2. The conference will once again be at the Doubletree Club Hotel by the Airport. We chose the Doubletree once again because in the Fall they provided us with fine service at a most affordable price.

3. We are going to have an outstanding keynote speaker on Friday evening: Ms. Laura Blumenfeld; author of the 2002 best-seller Revenge, the story of her personal feelings on revenge following the shooting of her father in Jerusalem. She has studied revenge and reconciliation from many angles and is an excellent communicator on the difficulty in searching for simple answers to complex problems.

4. This conference is going to have a fundamental structural change from previous ones. The Saturday sessions that we have prior to final weekend will not be preparatory sessions; they will actually be part of the conference. This is because there is so much territory to cover in this conference that we figured, "let's get to it as soon as possible." In addition, by providing ourselves with a longer conference because of the Saturday sessions, we will be able to learn more along the way and make changes along the way if they are desired. The Saturday sessions will all be in 2004: January 10, January 31, and February 14. On those Saturday's we will have simulations, films, additional speakers, and much more.

Once again, the cost of the conference will be $60.00. We do not have a sign-up sheet posted on the web yet because we still need to settle on a few details regarding committee arrangements, etc. However, if you know that you are already interested, you can e-mail now to let us know so.

We will provide you with much more in the way of details in our next newsletter.

To Our AOL Subscribers (Repeat)

We apologize to all of our AOL subscribers who did not receive our newsletter last week. (We hope that you receive this one, otherwise this message will be for naught.) As AOL subscribers know, AOL is very sensitive about SPAM. As a result, they block out a lot of "real mail" because they cast a broad net to look for SPAM. Many legitimate newsletters do not get through to AOL. Last week it happened to us, and it can happen again.

Our chances of reaching you are much better when sending the newsletter in TEXT format as opposed to HTML. Thus, we have just changed the settings for our 180 AOL subscribers so that they all receive text copies of the newsletters. From our initial testing, this will go through.
Please click on Show images and enable links to get all the features of the newsletter.

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Photo Novelties Available from Civitas
In conjunction with St. Louis-based MyCapture.com, Civitas is selling photo novelty items such as T-shirts, cups, mugs, mouse pads. In addition we have all sizes of professionally developed photos available for sale.

Click here or on the image below if you would like to check out the images that you can order for any novelty item in which you might be interested.

Survey on 2004

Now that Saddam Hussein has been captured, people throughout the world are wondering how he should be brought to justice. There are dozens of ideas and presumably there is ample time to choose an ethically strong and feasible one. Please let us know which of the following would be acceptable to you. [Note: In options 1 & 2, the death penalty would probably apply. In option 4 it might. It most likely would not apply in options 3 & 5.]

1. Trial in Iraq before a new judicial system created by Iraqis.

2. Trial in Iraq before a new judicial system created by "coalition forces."

3. War Crimes Tribunal under auspices of the U.N. in the Hague.

4. A "truth and reconciliation" commission in Iraq.

5. An international "truth and reconciliation commission for all war criminals.

Link to Survey on Peace in 2004

You can also respond to our surveys on our Intranets site!
Civitas has a most interesting intranet site -- a place where students can not only answer survey questions, but also engage in discussion groups on timely topics. The site also has considerable background information for Civitas members with a host of links to other interesting sites.

The kind folks at Intranets.com (located in the hi-tech Route 128 corridor around Boston) have made it easier than ever for interested individuals to join our intranet site. For a helpful tutorial on how to quickly join and engage in the activity on the intranet site, you can click here. The tutorial is a creation of Bobbi Clemons of the Civitas staff.

Link to Poll on Civitas Intranet Site

Previous Survey Results (New)

Last week's question was:

Now that Saddam Hussein has been captured, people throughout the world are wondering how he should be brought to justice. There are dozens of ideas and presumably there is ample time to choose an ethically strong and feasible one. Please let us know which of the following would be acceptable to you. [Note: In options 1 & 2, the death penalty would probably apply. In option 4 it might. It most likely would not apply in options 3 & 5.]

Responses:

1. Trial in Iraq before a new judicial system created by Iraqis. 20% (5)

2. Trial in Iraq before a new judicial system created by "coalition forces." 4% (1)

3. War Crimes Tribunal under auspices of the U.N. in the Hague. 36% (9)

4. A "truth and reconciliation" commission in Iraq. 16% (4)

5. An international "truth and reconciliation commission for all war criminals. 24% (6)

Total: 25

Please keep in mind that respondents could select more than one answer. A plurality of people felt that it would be fair to try Saddam Hussein at a War Crimes Tribunal under the auspices of the U.N. in the Hague.

Michelle Ritchie; St. Joseph's Academy, 2006

As much as we want Saddam Hussein gone, he still needs to be brought to justice. Also, a trial could clarify any unanswered questions about Saddam and his works. I agree with President Bush when he said he "found it interesting that when the heat was on, you (Saddam Hussein) dug yourself a hole and crawled in it".

Noah Metzler; Crossroads, 2006

I want to know when G.W. is going to be removed and the Americans will be "liberated". The American people did not elect him, yet he sits in the oval office and uses our tax dollars to pay for his wars and bombs. If the Iraqis felt Saddam had taken power unjustly and wanted him removed, then I am glad he is no longer in power, but I think it could have been handled in a much better way. I do not know how Saddam should be punished, but maybe we can put both him and George W. into a space shuttle and launch them into space, with just enough fuel to make sure they never came back. We could make them a little room on the space ship, with padded walls and enough freeze dried pineapple to last until the end of time. I'm sure they would work out something then, or maybe not.

Raquel Rodriguez; Home School, 2006

I don't agree completely with an eye for an eye, but I think a life for tens of thousands of lives is no where close to justice. I hope he doesn't willingly give any info to the US.

Pat Minute; Teacher, Hazelwood Central High School

It's very important that the U.S. take a back seat to the Iraqi government in dealing with justice for Saddam. They are the victims.

Additional Links

More information about Civitas
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Middle East Conference Index Page
High School General Assembly Assignments for 2003-2004
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Checklist for Writing a Model U.N. Resolution
Sample Resolution