Michel Gorbachev comes to Town.

Hello everyone! Yesterday, my dad, sister and I went into town to hear a speech given by former U.S.S.R. President Michel Gorbachev. As we entered the building, I took note of the high volume of security. There were policemen and highwaypatrolmen guarding every door and stairwell of the building. We worked our way to our seats and sat down. Mr. Gorbachov entered and began his speech. He was a bit hard to hear, but I managed to make out most of it. He spoke on issues of national foreign policy and globalization. Here are some of the key parts of the speech that I made note of.

"Communication is the key to reconciling disputes"
From my experience this quote is very true. Without good communication no one gets anywhere with anything.

"Trust but verify" Very true statement.

"Reagan was a real dinosaur"
BHODL, he used this quote to show that while he and Reagan were at such odds at one time, good communication pulled them out and allow negotiations to continue.

"Rise above current problems to reach for future goals" Sounds like good advise.

He made note that there are new nations coming to the forefront of the world. He advised to to ignore them.

He hinted that good communication would solve all of our problems with Al Quita. This is totally crazy. The communication would run something like this.

Bin Ladin: Join our national Muslim State or die you infidels!
U.S.: No
Bin Ladin: Jihad! Jihad! Death to Americans!
U.S.: *Tank fires*
Bin Ladin: Retreat! Retreat! Death to Israel!
Israel: *Tanks fire*
Bin Ladin: Ok guys, you stay here and blow yourselves up while I run back and hid my cowardly little self in the mountains of Tora Bora.

Get the picture? Anyway...

He spoke against "policing the world". This I agree with to some extent. We don't have to go in and solve everyone's problems for them. However, if something in a foreign land threatens Americans or Americas national security, we have very right to go after them.

He made note to a JFK speech about or called "Pax America(cana?) I thought I might look that up later.

With that he concluded his speech and begin to take questions. While I was there I got to speak with Oklahoma House Representative Shane Jett. I found out he was homeschooled for a time and them went to a Christian school. He was very encouraging to me and offered some good advise for me to pursue in the future.

Altogether, it was a very fun and educational evening.

Travis