THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505020094
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
A SMOOTH-VOICED TV anchorman, a.k.a. Chris Osborne, a student at Booker T. Washington High School, introduced the audience to his station, WNATO.
With him on the call-in show were two experts on the NATO alliance between the United States and Western Europe, fellow classmates Charmagne Harris, who portrayed a college professor, and Tracy Reamey, a government official.
After fielding a couple of questions about NATO's importance in the world, it was time for a commercial break.
Up stepped Kim Carney, dressed in her dad's blue Navy uniform coat with a message from the show's sponsor - ``Peace'' brand clothing, perfect for those military, medical and humanitarian occasions.
``Peace clothing,'' Carney intoned, ``the brand that fits for a brighter tomorrow.''
The light-hearted moment brought a roar of approval from the crowd of about 300 parents, students and dignitaries in attendance.
The point of Booker T.'s presentation was to illustrate the changing - but still vital - role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military and political alliance formed after World War II to combat the spread of communism.
As part of the 42nd International Azalea Festival, which recognizes the common bonds of the 16 NATO nations, students from Booker T. and five other Norfolk high schools took part in the forum to voice their views on the organization. Maury, Granby, Lake Taylor, Norview and Norfolk Collegiate also participated.
In their own creative ways, the high school teams concluded the same thing: While the threat of Soviet communism no longer exists, NATO remains vital in a world made unstable by ethnic conflict, international arms trade and the development of weapons of mass destruction by rogue countries such as North Korea and Iraq.
``Even though the Soviet Union is no more, (NATO's) members still have enemies,'' said John Bailey of Granby High.
Norfolk Schools Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr., who handed out certificates of achievement to the student participants, said the forum showcased the types of skills he wants to see every student in the public schools acquire. It involved research, critical thinking, public speaking and deep understanding of the topic.
``I got excited about the learning I saw taking place,'' Nichols said. ``I would like to see every student in Norfolk schools, not just an elite few, have an experience like this every year.''
Working with mentors from Norfolk's Allied Command Atlantic, military headquarters for NATO, the students did much more than simply read from reports.
Norview's Joyce Vitug donned Army camouflage in a skit to illustrate the military and political tensions that often seem to hamstring NATO when it comes to addressing conflict around the world.
Maury students framed their presentation around an encounter in a Washington, D.C., coffeehouse of residents who represented the warring factions in the breakaway republics of Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzogovina in former Yugoslavia.
Maury's Magan Viccellio said the atrocities being committed in the fighting are ``startlingly reminiscent'' of the way Nazi Germany precipitated World War II. NATO and the United Nations, she said, are the only groups with the ``moral fortitude'' to intervene.
Norfolk Collegiate, the only private school participating, made slides to outline why NATO was formed and how it operates. In the process, Collegiate students coined a phrase to explain why NATO remains since the fall of communism in Eastern Europe: ``The new world order is disorderly.''
Students repeatedly referred to the Bosnian conflict between ethnic Serbs and Muslims to justify the continued existence of NATO. But they had no answers for what NATO could do to stop the fighting.
``There's no clear cut answer as to what NATO should be doing,'' Viccellio conceded. Classmate Vladimir Pajkic, an exchange student from Croatia, was pessimistic about the prospect of peace.
``I don't see a just peace coming soon,'' Pajkic said. ``There is so much hatred.''
Clinton Harris of Norview summed up the dilemma this way: ``NATO has to not please either Muslims or Serbs. Whatever NATO tries to do, someone gets mad and upset.''
Vice Admiral Sir Peter Abbott, deputy supreme allied commander Atlantic, told the audience that the U.S. cannot be complacent. Last month's bombing of Oklahoma City's federal building shows that the U.S. is not immune from security threats.
``Security is something you should be thinking about,'' Abbott said.
The threat to security in Europe, Abbott said, lies in an economic imbalance that has created a dangerous level of instability between the ``haves and have nots.'' And modern history has shown that if Western European countries become involved in war the U.S. will be dragged along.
Abbott said NATO could promote stability by encouraging trade with former Soviet satellite countries and perhaps eventually drawing them into NATO's fold, a plan already under consideration.
The conflict in Bosnia, he said, presents an ``opportunity to learn'' about resolving conflicts in a post-communist world. by CNB