During my college years in the late 1970s, I actively competed in intercollegiate oratory and debate contests.  One winter our debate coach announced that she had secured an opportunity for a few of us to attend the Model United Nations event in Boston.  This was a chance for students like us to study parliamentary procedure, act as delegates from various countries, and experience what it must be like to function as a UN delegate.   After a few weeks of study and preparation, we headed from our state of Michigan to Boston. I was happy, having taken three years of Russian language classes in high school, to have been assigned the role of “ambassador from Belarus.”  I looked forward to taking part in a mock UN general session where I could participate in debating world issues and voting on them. Shortly after arriving at the host site, I received word that the “ambassador from the USSR” had called a meeting of the eastern bloc...(Read Full Post)