Thursday, June 22nd
Washington, DC

Today was a little less hectic because we stayed on campus. The morning academic sessions centered on a basic lesson in economics from Dr. Eagles and public speaking from Mr. Saunders. Both are excellent teachers. Dr. Eagles is amazing. He graduated from Albans in the 1953 and after numerous degrees at the staple Ivy League schools he returned to Albans where he eventually chaired the History department for about 20 some years. Although his resume is quite impressive he never flaunts it. He will say, I teach history and economics. He is “retired”. Here is his farewell to the Albans community from SIX years ago when he retired. (Story) You must read this, it epitomizes the man. If my regular career ever gets as active and fulfilling as his retirement I truly will have accomplished something. He rides his bike to school every morning and his mind is sharp as ever, very analytical. The kids love him. It has been a pleasure to get to know him. I really owe him my presence here. I interviewed with him nearly two years ago at X-Mas and he agreed to let me tag a along last summer. We spoke at length for about an hour and half. Whenever he speaks on any talk I shut up and soak up as much as I can. Yes, Pete is quiet for an extended period of time…, don’t judge me.

After lunch I get to teach for about an hour and a half on the “Anatomy” of a newspaper. Another teacher and I design a scavenger hunt of sorts based on that day's Washington Post. We discuss declining readership, the role of the digital media, and the editorial page. The astonishing thing is that 80% of the students read the newspaper on a regular basis, not just the sports section. What this proves, in my mind at least, is the role that reading, and the newspaper in particular plays in the academic development of young people. I remember as a child waiting each week for my family’s subscription to Sports Illustrated and Newsweek. I really owe my regular reading of Newsweek to my interest in Politics and History. Class went well; I mainly facilitated kids discussing the above mentioned issues. The only reason we stopped because they needed a quick break before the next guest speaker came.

David Ignatius is an op-ed columnist and associate editor for the Washington Post. Here is a link to a collection of his pieces. (Columns) Here is a link to an older bio, he has since moved to the Post and another book is due this fall. He is also an Albans alum. He spoke of his career told and had a charming anecdote about his friends at Albans used to get together before debates and …, “wore tuxes and had their mothers make them a fine meal before their debates in the government club. We believed we were all quite impressive, our peers thought we were idiots” I love meeting someone who can make fun of themselves; I believe it to be an excellent quality. Ignatius told students the best way to become a good journalist and writer is to write, all the time. The best way to learn is to do. He spoke about some policy issues form past columns that the students had read and asked questions about. Ignatius also plugged one of his new endeavors at the Post called the PostGlobal. It is basically a blog that seeks opinions from a world wide audience on issues from around the world. (Story). I looked it over for about a half hour and it looked pretty informative. It allows those of us living here to get a reading on issues from other parts of the world. The blog is monitored by the Ignatius and Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria. The students asked probing questions and he stayed past his time to speak with the kids.

After dinner the faculty did a presentation on academic research for the students and then we broke into our individual tasks forces to utilize these new research skills. Then a quick walk for ice cream at Max’s. Man cannot live on academics alone.

If anyone is up this Sunday morning, our group is going to the NBC studio in Washington to watch a Meet the Press and then we’ll get a chance to hang out with Tim Russert for a while and talk about the role of media in politics. I am giddy. The guests are Sen. Russ Feingold, D-WI, on the Iraq war & his potential candidacy for the White House in 2008. Then, a political roundtable on how Iraq will affect the 2006 and 2008 elections with David Broder, Ron Brownstein, David Gregory & Anne Kornblut. (Story)

Wednesday, June 21st
Washington, DC

Today was quite busy. Let’s see first the students met up with Stuart Gerson, a lawyer with a great deal of experience as a practitioner before the Supreme Court. Mr. Gerson gave our group some of the ins and outs about arguing cases before the Supreme Court. He then accompanied our group to the actual Supreme Court. Upon our arrival we were met by Cynthia Rapp who is assistant clerk for the Supreme Court. She spoke with us for about a half an hour and explained the procedural aspects of the court work. Mrs. Rapp also described her career path to her present position. After a tour of the building and sitting in the court room itself we were whisked into one of the side rooms for a meeting with Justice Samuel Alito. In years past the students would speak with Justice O’Connor.
Justice Alito spoke with the students for about an hour. They asked many questions about court theory, his pathway to his present position, and the political aspects of his confirmation process. The remarkable thing is that he seemed slightly nervous. This is no way a criticism. He answered all their questions in a patient and thoughtful manner. This guy has only been on the bench for not even a half of year. One the people even mentioned that the newest member of the court must take notes at the initial hearing to that determine the schedule. So basically Justice Alito gets hazed for being the newest Justice and must do this until another one is named. Anyway the students were really hoping that the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision would have been announced to so they might have had a chance to even ask one questions about the case.
From the Supreme Court we traveled down the road to Georgetown University. We then ate lunch at the student union then met at the School of Foreign Service. At that point we were able to have a sit down with the Dean of the School, Robert Gallucci. He spoke about the program at the School of Foreign Service and then about various policy issues. Dean Gallucci spoke about managing US dominance. He basically gave a question and answer lecture version of the speech he gave at the Carnegie Foundation one day before. The kids were in the palm of his hands. They were able to express view on North Korea and nuclear disarmament and antiquated missile defense plans. The dean spoke for about an hour and half and the students left a bit spellbound. As we walked around the campus and the area the students conducted mini debates that lasted well into dinner time.
After dinner the students then met into our task forces. In addition to the newspaper prep and class the task force is the main teaching responsibility for me. We will meet at least three times a week, for the next three weeks, for about two hours. The task forces are divided into Iran policy and Energy policy. I am on the energy task force and am to facilitate the kids to answer the question and make recommendations in the area of how domestic energy policy affects US foreign policy. The students got the basic framework on the task force, which acts as the overriding and cumulative project for the month. It should utilize all the information they learned in their time in DC.

Tuesday, June 20th
Washington, DC

Each morning of the day begins with breakfast and a review of the Washington Post. This is responsibility I share with one other faculty member. Our job is basically two fold. Our first responsibility is to highlight articles that apply to what we are studying and who the students are meeting. The second task is to teach students to read a newspaper.
In this information age we often forget this is a lost art and skill. As newspapers turn to digital renderings our next generation is losing the “art” of newspaper reading. I can’t think of any greater pleasure than Saturday/Sunday morning with a fresh pot of coffee, no where to be, and a good newspaper. What makes this task better is that the Post is such a good newspaper. I’m sorry but my Commercial Appeal leaves me wanting for more.
Today the kids worked on the judicial branch issues most of the morning and afternoon. The task they were assigned was to read, break down, research, argue, and rule on the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Here is a link to a write up of the basics of the case if anyone wants to take a look at it (Understand) The Washington Post has been running an editorial series on this case this week. The court is expected to issue a ruling in the nest week or so. It must render a ruling before this judicial session is over at the end of June. The work of these kids is nothing short of remarkable. This aspect of the program I am simply sitting back and marveling at the faculty and students that I am working with. The cases, with primers from the previous days prep classes and homework reading, was basically broken down and taught in one day. Definitively, there are some future lawyers in this group. I’m not just talking about the ability to argue, I am citing specific acumen in the area of reasoning skills. This group got excited about 100 pages of work. There were some student groups stronger than other others but they all worked in teams and everyone contributed.
Let me remind you that this all happened before 6pm in the evening. From that point the students got dressed up for a reception that would preview a debate, hosted by the St. Albans community, for two city council members who running for chairperson of the council. The kids worked the crowd like seasoned pros. After the students sought people to talk to the people began to seek them out. We eventually had to leave early to listen to the next speaker who came at 7pm.
The speaker was the author Jennifer Miller. She published a book earlier this fall titled, Inheriting the Holy Land. (Website). She was the former student of one of our faculty members and is only 26 years old. The story of the book is remarkable, I really can’t do it justice in a reasonable amount of time. So here is a link to the transcript and audio version of an interview she did on NPR, just click on the light blue title for the audio version. This kid, for all intent and purposes, completed this program called Seeds of Peace when she was sixteen, got a book deal after college, then moved to Jerusalem, and wrote a book. This is all quite impressive, more impressive however was her ability to relate to the SPS students. She was frank, funny, serious, and gave these kids a lot to think about. She spoke of writing and passions. Jennifer spoke for about an hour the answered questions formally and informally for another hour. The kids ate up everything she had to say. I can only imagine how proud her ninth grade teacher, fellow faculty member, was of her. What struck me was her story of how her interest in foreign affairs came about as a punishment for refusing to get out of the car on a family outing to tour the Antietam battle field. Her parents made her read the Washington Post for week and write summaries of different articles.
There are times in the past week that these kids’ bios and the people they are meeting have made me doubt who I am, where I am in my life, and what could have been. That feeling passes quite quickly though. I don’t think that I would have appreciated nearly as much as I’m appreciating these experiences now. Besides I definitively know that I am far from done and am quite happy who I have become.

Monday, June 19th
Washington, DC

Now we’re cooking with gas. We spent the first part of the morning with group at a Ropes course on the campus of an all girl’s school in northern Virginia, called the Madiera School. For the those who don not know a ropes course is a basically an obstacle course, usually elevated above the ground. The challenges force groups to work together in team problem solving activities. The activities progress from easy to hard to let the groups gain confidence in each other. They also help build leadership and listening skills among the group. Younger people are much more successful at these endeavors than older ones. The students performed wonderfully. There was some initial talking over people but that subsided quickly and most of the activities went without a hitch. The debriefing of the actives was minimal, due to their facilitators not the students. I think the Bridges folk due a much better job getting more out of the activities. But I digress. We transport the kids via the BYB, “Big yellow (school) bus”. For many of the private school kids this was their first time on such a bus. Funny to watch.
After cleaning up and getting fed the students began work on introduction to the basic Constitutional foundations of the US court system and the process of Supreme Court cases. The case they focused on was Gideon v. Wainwright (1963). In this landmark case the Supreme Court ruled unanimously using the sixth and fourteenth amendments to rule the government must provide lawyers to those defendants unable to afford their own. The kids, led by other faculty members, went into a great deal procedural history and information that the handling a Supreme Court case requires. Interestingly enough one of the key lawyers in this case was Abe Fortas, a graduate of Rhodes, and his son was a classmate of mine at Rhodes also. The kids handled the studies quite well, particularly because they were working from about 7 till 9:30pm on this.

This is the party set up behind Bill and Amanda' s house.

This is a yard of beer. One of Bill’s friends brought it to the match. It was a gift by some Germans friends he played soccer with while was stationed in Deutschland.

Saturday, June 17th
Washington, DC
No student responsibilities today. There were responsibilities of anther order however. It was my charge to supervise the cooking of the German foods at Bill and Amanda’s hose. There were having friends over to watch the US/Italy World Cup match. We cooked up Brats, Kraut, and my Mom’s German potato salad. This version contains no mayo, is hot, and has bacon and vinegar. To quote Bill and Micah, “everything is better with bacon!” Micah is the newest edition to the Erie Gang. He joins by agreeing to marry Ryser. Ryser has been out of the country the past week working on business and relief efforts in Indonesia. She also acquired an odd sun burn, if you know her she’ll show you, oh let’s be honest even if you don’t know her she’ll show you. Anyway a good time was had by all and the US was able to hold off some questionable refereeing for a 1 all tie. This keeps the US alive, barely. I win over Ghana is necessary to even hope for a chance to advance to the next round.

Later that evening Truk arrived after many airport weather delays into DC. We grabbed a quick meal and then walked around town, enjoying the cool evening and drinks. It was great to see a Memphis face in town. Truk and I have enjoyed many travels together around the country. He and his wife are more then just old friends. The true measure of friendship is to around in good times and bad. They have been around for both. It takes a village to raise Pete.

Sunday, June 17th
Washington, DC
The students arrived today from around the country and the world. They come from Hawaii, Washington State, Memphis, South Carolina and Maine. They come from Poland, Lithuania, and Slovakia. There is even a girl from a Pueblo tribe in New Mexico. They are sharper and brighter than their bios reveal. I am really looking forward to working with them all.
Check in. At any program like this the registration process has all the usuals. Anxious kids, more anxious parents, lots of forms, details, and questions. It all gets done and we finally take the kids to a welcome BBQ at the head of the St.Albans house around the corner. It was a very nice affair. Lots of official introductions. We were even graced by former Presidential Candidate and longtime elected official John Anderson. Anderson was the first third party candidate to get on all 50 states ballots. He has a sharp, self deprecating wit and had kind and inspiring things to say to the students. It was a great time.

Friday, June 16th
Washington, DC

The first kids of the program arrived today. Two girls from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was my charge to pick them up from Dulles International Airport. To say that my driving knowledge of the DC is suspect would be an understatement. I received excellent directions to the airport and the pick up went fine. I then briefly lost the parking receipt/ticket that I had paid for only to find it blowing around my car. We then took the scenic route back to school, read I missed the turn for the beltway and had to go through Virginia. It was really no big deal because they got to see I bit more of the area and we were able to talk a bit more. After we got them to their rooms’ one of the female staff members accompanied us for pizza and tour of Georgetown. They could hardly believe that they had started their day in Sarajevo and were now in DC. One of the girls had been to Boston for about 2 weeks before for another program which I will discuss later and the other had never been to the US. It is always fun to see the wonder and amazement of people, especially young ones, to a brand new country. After a short walk, the girls got some much needed rest back at the dorm under the watchful eye of the other staff.
I on the other went out to meet one of my sister’s friends Meg and her coworker for a few drinks. We had this excellent Cuban/Latin drink called a Mojito, at a place called Rumbas in the Adams Morgan area of DC. It was a good time and always great time to visit with my sister’s and my friends. UD (University of Dayton) produced some great times and friends for my sister.