COLBY, Kan. - What is your opinion of the promise to rush into Cuba, as soon as Castro 'kicks the bucket', and establish a democracy? I guess the leading Republican contenders for the presidency don't realize the failure of establishing democracy, U.S. style, in Vietnam and Iraq.

I'm not an expert on the state of the Cuban people, but it seems to me they are better off under Castro's rule than they were under the U.S. backed dictator that Castro overthrew. This, in spite of the embargo and isolationism imposed on Cuba by the U.S.

Perhaps we should let the Cuban people decide their own political system. It appears that some Eastern European countries were fairly successful in establishing themselves, after the fall of the U.S.S.R., without direct interference or aid from the U.S.

SALINA, Kan. - First impressions are lasting. And mine was very positive. In November I had the good fortune to be part of a group from Salina that traveled to China for ten days. After a fourteen-hour flight from Los Angeles we arrived at the Beijing International Airport and stepped into another world. Inside the spacious terminal everything was sparkling. The pristine scene contributed to our sense of excitement as we contemplated the adventure that lay ahead of us.

By now I've had time to reflect on the many experiences of our trip. And as I try to sum up my sense of this rising power I keep coming back to the feeling I had when I first arrived.

SALINA, Kan. - Not that many were paying attention in our country, but the long reign of one of the world's most despotic dictators ended last month. And while the road ahead for Libya will be treacherous and uncertain, it will not be directed by Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi. President Obama and American diplomacy deserve a share of the credit.

Ever since the United States emerged as a world power in the aftermath of World War I Americans have struggled with the continuing question of when and whether to intervene in foreign conflicts. President Woodrow Wilson believed that American engagement with the world community would help prevent another world war. But a wave of isolationism swept the country in the aftermath of the "Great War," and the U.S. Senate refused to ratify United States' membership in the League of Nations.

SALINA, Kan. - For a fleeting moment Albuquerque, NM, resident Antonio Diaz Chacon was a hero. Upon witnessing the forcible abduction of a six year-old girl he jumped in his pickup truck and chased the kidnapper until the suspect crashed his vehicle into a light pole. When the individual took off on foot Diaz Chacon reached into the van, grabbed the little girl and whisked her to safety.

For his heroism Mr. Diaz Chacon was honored in a special ceremony by Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry, who recognized his bravery with the presentation of a special plaque hailing his effort in foiling the kidnapping.

But shortly thereafter it was revealed, and the young man admitted, that he is an illegal immigrant. Suddenly, he is the focal point of a renewed debate over immigration policy in our country. And many are quick to demonize immigrants. Examples abound.

MANHATTAN, Kan. - The Monthly Film Series, sponsored by the Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice, presents The Dark Side of Chocolate on Wednesday, July 13th at 6:30 pm at the Manhattan Public Library Auditorium. The public is invited to attend.

Film Synopsis: While we enjoy the sweet taste of chocolate, the reality is strikingly different for African children. Since the '90s numerous non-governmental organizations working in the Ivory Coast and Ghana have reported the use of children as slaves on cocoa plantations. The Ivory Coast alone produces about 43% of the world's cocoa beans. The simple truth is that all the heavily advertised chocolate, M&Ms, Hersey, Godiva, and Nestlé, is made by child slave laborers.

Estimates placed the number of cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast at approximately 600,000. The number of children working these farms is estimated as high as 15,000. Young boys from the age 12 to 16 are forced to work on cocoa farms in order to harvest the beans from which chocolate is made. Most boys that are forced to work on these farms come from Mali were slave trader agents hang around bus stations looking for children who are alone or begging for food.

COLBY, Kan. - Perhaps a short history lesson on the birth of this wild experiment of a United States (tribal?) and how it was to be organized is in order. We were tribes, some from the same ethnic backgrounds, but definitely from different religious loyalties and doctrines. Even though the English background was dominant, we didn't have the power to face the west, with its hostile entrenched residents, and the East, with the mother country that didn't want to relinquish parental control. The basic Christian philosophy was dominant but quite fractured in absolute theology.

Open opposition to the British colonial power surfaced about 1765. This led to open rebellion and the war of independence began in 1775. Total independence was finally achieved in 1783.

A brief and short lived attempt to survive under the loosely organized Articles of Confederation (1777) resulted in the calling of the Constitutional Convention (1787). And, finally, George Washington was inaugurated as our first president in 1789. We look back and discover this whole process took 25 or 30 years.

COLBY, Kan. - What are we getting into?

I can't verify this quote but here is what Quadafi supposedly ask our President. "What would you do if you found them controlling American cities with the power of weapons? Tell me how would you behave so that I could follow your example?"

Does anyone in our group or any of our commenters want to answer that question?

I like to point out that it is easy for war mongers to be war mongers as long as other people are doing the sacrificing. At least people arguing for peace aren't expecting other people to suffer if they get their way." -- John Page, Gulf War Veteran

WICHITA, Kan. - One of the earliest accounts of an anti-war demonstration is found in Aristophanes' Lysistrata. Written in 411 BC, the play is a humorous look at the quest of one woman, Lysistrata, to end the Peloponnesian War. The protest is two-pronged. What most people remember of the play is that Lysistrata rallies the women of Greece to withhold sex from their husbands and lovers until they end the war. More crucial to the success of the protest is that the old women of Athens take over the Acropolis, the site where the state treasury is stored. This of course means the military will be unable to fund the war they're fighting.

The Peloponnesian War lasted from 431 BC to 404 BC, a long war by anyone's standards. The word "Lysistrata" means "Army-disbander" in Attic Greek and, while the women's war protest was only a fiction, the play gives voice to resistance to never-ending war. More importantly, it shows the inseparable relationship of economics to war. Wealth from tribute and land holdings, as well as access to the sea and to silver mines kept hostilities alive for almost thirty years between Athens and Sparta.

WICHITA, Kan. - Here are some of the good, the worse and the worst reasons, or excuses, for our occupation of Afghanistan.

"This will not end well," George Will, the conservative columnist wrote early on after we lapped our war in Iraq over into Afghanistan. As political predictions go, it was right on. As a matter of fact, it is not even close to ending. Despite President Obama's promises hopes and commitments, Secretary of Defense Gates this week sent in 1400 more troops.

I cringe when I see another announcement of an American soldier, sailor or Marine killed over there or another man from the supporting NATO countries who has died. I always remember the Wartime Prayer found in Eleanor Roosevelt's papers: "Dear Lord, lest I continue my complacent way, help me to remember that somewhere, somehow out there, a man (or woman) died for me today. As long as there be war, I then must ask and answer, 'Am I worth dying for?'"

EMPORIA, Kan. - I attended the December graduation ceremony for Emporia State University where my wife is a professor. In casually scanning the brochure that had been prepared to accompany the 'pomp and circumstance,' I noticed an exceedingly larger percentage of business (especially MBA) grads were of Asian or Arab ancestry.

Perhaps that is to be expected given the increasing globalization of the marketplace. Having so many foreign students helps keep tuition for in-state residents lower than it would otherwise be but in the long run I fear we, as a nation, may find ourselves to be little more than mass market consumers of goods made in China, information technology supported from India and over-extended debtors to Saudi princes.

What a shame.