[Vision2020] Heated Debates Promised at this Year's NIC Popcorn Forum

[Tom Hansen]

Greetings Visionaires -

Having attended North Idaho College and having experienced several NIC
Popcorn Forums, I strongly encourage you to attend.  It is most definitely
worth the tip to Coeur d'Alene.

>From today's (February 1, 2005) Spokesman Review:

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Heated Debates Promised 

Speakers to discuss Patriot Act, same-sex marriage, privacy issues and more
starting March 21

By Taryn Brodwater Staff writer
February 1, 2005

"Hot Talk" is the theme for this year's Popcorn Forum at North Idaho
College, and it promises to be a scorcher, organizers say.

The 35th annual event kicks off March 21 with a debate over the U.S. Patriot
Act. Same-sex marriage, the Second Amendment, censorship and free speech,
privacy issues, violence and technology will also be tackled during the
weeklong series.

Popcorn Forum Coordinator Tony Stewart, an NIC instructor, said the
committee in charge of the forum decided to pick five "aggressively debated
topics" and find speakers with differing views to debate them.

Nearly every expert they asked agreed to participate, Stewart said. He said
every speaker has impressive credentials.

"It isn't one speaker is slightly qualified and the other is highly
qualified," Stewart said. "We really worked hard at that."

The events are free and open to the public.

Events in the series are:

-- 
A debate of the U.S.A. Patriot Act, at 10 a.m. March 21.

Saying the act causes an erosion of civil liberties, U.S. Rep. Butch Otter,
R-Idaho, advocates changes when Congress debates whether to renew it this
year. He will debate Thomas Moss, the U.S. attorney for the district of
Idaho, who supports the Patriot Act in the name of national security.

 
-- 
The Eighth Annual Human Rights Banquet, at 6 p.m. March 21. Tickets are $25
and proceeds go toward providing full-ride scholarships to NIC for minority
students. This year, four students will receive scholarships from the Human
Rights Education Institute.


-- 
A debate about freedom of speech and freedom of the press, at 10:30 a.m.
March 22. James Vache, a professor from Gonzaga University School of Law,
who advocates a broad interpretation of the First Amendment, will debate
Gary Maehara, a Seattle attorney who agrees with some U.S. Supreme Court
decisions that restrict some forms of free speech and the press.

Two panel discussions also are planned that day on the free speech, one at 1
p.m. in the afternoon and the other at 7 p.m..

-- 
A debate about same-sex marriage, at 9 a.m. on March 23.

Praveen Fernandes, of the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C.,
believes the U.S. Constitution guarantees same-sex couples the right to
marry. He will debate Dwight Duncan, a professor at the Southern New England
School of Law, who will argue that the Constitution doesn't give gay couples
that right.

-- 
A debate about citizens' right to privacy versus the public's right to
information, at 9 a.m. March 24.

Jack Van Valkenburgh, executive director of Idaho's American Civil Liberties
Union, argues that the Constitution guarantees Americans extensive
protection against government intrusion. He will debate Boston Globe
columnist Jeff Jacoby, who says that government access to some information
is reasonable in a time of heightened terrorist threats.

-- 
Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, will speak against gun control at 11 a.m. March
25. Following Craig's presentation, Marilyn Levine, social sciences
chairwoman at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, will talk about the
relationship between violence and modern weapons.

-- 
A free concert at 7:30 p.m. on March 25.

The Popcorn Forum commissioned composer David Jones of Seattle to write
"Southern Skies," which will be performed by the Eastern Washington
University Percussion Ensemble and the NIC Jazz Ensemble. The piece includes
swing, ballad, funk, Afro-Cuban, Cha Cha and Samba influences.