South Valley residents interested in American foreign policy
will have an opportunity to join a Great Decisions discussion group
starting Thursday, March 17.
South Valley residents interested in American foreign policy will have an opportunity to join a Great Decisions discussion group starting Thursday, March 17.
Great Decisions is a nationwide program sponsored by the Foreign Policy Association to promote citizen participation in the foreign policy process. Each participant in the program receives a briefing book outlining eight different issues facing the American people. The briefing book presents each of the issues in a series of three or four short articles, which are then discussed during the meetings. For 2005, the issues are U.S. Intelligence, Russia, Outsourcing Jobs, China, Sudan’s Crisis in Darfur, the Global Poverty Gap, the Middle East and Global Water Issues.
President George W. Bush’s inauguration speech on Jan. 20 focused almost solely on foreign policy issues, underlining the necessity of citizen understanding.
The meetings will alternate between the Morgan Hill and Gilroy libraries on the third Thursday of each month and will start at 7pm and are co-sponsored by the Morgan Hill and Gilroy libraries and the Morgan Hill and Gilroy branches of the American Association of University Women.
Cost for each participant’s briefing book is $15, plus $5 for a video that will be shown before each meeting. The half-hour video features a discussion between two experts and an interviewer that focuses on other aspects of the topic and jump-starts the discussion. Preparation time for the meetings is minimal, a couple of hours, but the amount of information that comes out in the discussion helps understand these important issues.
Deadline to join is Feb. 15.
For more information, check www.fpa.org and click on Great Decisions. Or call Joanne Rife, 779-0706. Checks for $20 should be made out to Joanne Rife, with “Great Decisions” in the memo line, and sent to her at 17620 Holiday Drive, Morgan Hill, CA 95037.
Participants also may order individual briefing books online through the Foreign Policy Association, then pay at the first meeting the additional $5 for the video.
