 And neighbors, we are gathered here today on the shore of our beautiful lake to witness the joining of these two lives as one in marriage. Jane Driscoll and Bernard Sanders have come to their decision to marry freely with certainty and joy. And they are delighted and proud to share this moment with so many of their friends, family and coworkers who have been an intimate and essential part of their lives. I would like to make a few personal comments about Bernie and Jane and what their marriage today means to me. Bernie, I've realized that when you and I first met, you were the aides that Levy is now. What most impressed me then was not your politics, though you were a political activist even then. It was not your tremendous energy, though you've always had that. What impressed me then was your ease with children and your caring about children. It seems fitting to me that that is one of the areas of interest and concern that you and Jane share. Jane, you and Bernie met in the heat of Bernie's first mayoral campaign. I watched you grow in your work and I watched your relationship grow in the ensuing years. You have both been actively involved in the world and working for social justice throughout your adult lives. I am confident that your new relationship will only add strength to your commitment, that by your very natures you will continue to strive to make the world a better place. You're also creating something new here today, something that did not exist before, a new family. For Levy, Heather, Karina, and David, you will provide a home and a model of possibilities of ways of being in the world. My wish for the two of you on this day is that you will provide a solid base and refuge for one another, as well as for your new family. A base for going out in the world, for continuing your life's work. And also a refuge, a retreat from your struggles, a place to comfort and to support one another. I wish you both many years of happiness. Among Jane and Bernie's closest friends for many years are Jonathan and Roxanne Leopold. Roxanne would like to make a statement for the two of them to the bride and groom. Me and Jane, Jonathan and I have had the privilege of sharing some very private moments with you, the joys and sorrows and hopes and disappointments in what otherwise has been a very public relationship. And I would like to speak of some of the things that you hope for and the things which many of us here wish for you today. First we wish for you a love and a trust that will last a lifetime and will give you strength and confidence. We wish for you a home, not simply a place of stone and wood, but an island of security in this very hectic world, a home with books and music and poetry, all the things which represent the highest strivings of men and women. We wish for you a rich family life filled with laughter and hugs and kisses, with children who are not mere reflections of yourselves, but who will learn from your best traits and will go forth to recreate the values which you have taught them so well by your example. We hope that one of these values will be the concept of family, not as an economic unit, but as a transcendent force which brings people close in times of joy and in times of need. And we finally we wish that you will always be able to say, as you are saying today, this is my beloved, this is my friend. Are you, Bernie and Jane, in the presence of your family, friends and co-workers, and in the presence of your children, Levy, Heather, Karina and David, prepared to make the commitment of marriage? Bernie and Jane, your vows are your own and you have expressed them one to the other privately. Do you now wish to make a public declaration at this time of your commitment to marriage? Do you have a token to offer in pledge of these vows? May these rings be a symbol of your true faith in each other and always remind you of your love. And as much as Bernie and Jane have consented to live together in marriage and have pledged themselves to each other in the presence of this company, I now pronounce you, man and wife. You will see, we're videotaped by Jane Sanders, Yaroslavl and all of the people that we met there. They were just as friendly as they could possibly be, certainly want to see assist the city relationship established with Burlington. The way it's done in the Soviet Union, however, is they're going to have to go through their bureaucratic process through Moscow. Our hope is, it's at this stage still tentative, but our hope is that a delegation from Yaroslavl will come to Burlington in late September or early October. On occasions we all went out together, sometimes we went out separately, but we did have the opportunity to meet with teachers and pupils, with physicians in their medical school, with lawyers and a judge in their court system, with people who are in charge of some major industrial development projects that they have, in fact one plant, an oil refinery which employs 6,000 people, with Mayor Ryapkov and the deputy mayors of the city. The truth of the matter is, they like Americans, they respected Americans and they admire Americans. We were also there, needless to say, in a historical moment. And they were very, very pleased and excited by President Reagan's going to Moscow and by signing the summit agreement. And in fact, I was personally surprised at how popular Reagan is in the Soviet Union. It's a little bit more popular than maybe here, but also I think before we went to Yaroslavl, we had the opportunity to meet with a gentleman named Sergei Plakhanov at the Institute for Canadian and American Studies, and we were impressed there and throughout the entire process at the openness of Soviet officials to acknowledge many of the problems that they had. I went there expecting them to say, well, everything is great, there's no problem, but that certainly wasn't the case. They're proud of the fact, for example, that their health care system is free, but they would be open to acknowledge that it is probably 10 years behind the United States in terms of medical technology, and they would very much, I think, love to see some of their physicians come to Burlington and some of our physicians go there. So they're proud of their achievements, but they're also very free to admit that by no stretch of the imagination are things perfect. They've got a lot of work to do. Also while we were there, just, I mean, history is undergoing some, Soviet history is undergoing some major changes right now. We brought back with us a couple of copies of a newspaper, they're called Moscow News, in which we're seeing enormously strong criticisms of the present Soviet establishment and the need for major democratization in their country, and I think that whole process impressed many of us, and it was just an exciting time to be in the Soviet Union in addition to everything else. What was your impression of the Soviet Union before this trip, and did it change after the trip? To be very honest with you, you know, 10 days doesn't make any of us an expert on the Soviet Union, and I don't think that I was an expert before I went, either. I was impressed by the friendliness of the people and their respect and admiration for Americans. They really do like Americans, and over and over again, and this is something that I think others will confirm, they are very nervous about war. They don't like war, and in at least two cities, we all went to the Leningrad Memorial, which is a memorial in honor of the, I think it was 700,000 people who starved to death during the Siege of Leningrad, and when we were in Yaroslavl, one of the very first things that we did was jointly dedicate a bouquet of flowers to the war dead of Yaroslavl. They lost 22 million people in World War II, and they have not forgotten that, and I think want to make sure that another war doesn't happen. If I would say to answer your question, Enrique, I was impressed by their friendliness toward Americans, and they're really wanting, hopefully, to work with us, and their excitement about this summit agreement and their hope that out of this will come a closer relationship with the United States. Do you just impress or surprise as well? Both. Both impressed and surprised. Are you still planning on coming to the United States? I would be happy to if you would like to. Okay. I need to go and get the beginning of the show. Okay. Is that you? What time? 11 o'clock? Well, a few minutes before 11 o'clock would be nice. Okay. Thank you. If I fall asleep on the other end, forgive me. Well, while you were gone, there was an AP story that came out of Yaroslavl, and they talked about it. It was right after the summit, and they said, there's no hot water. There's no food. What was your experience? Oh, well. They must have saved it all for us. Well, obviously, that there was no hot water and no food. Yeah. It was just a paper story. It was a terribly inaccurate story. The people were going back to, like, having to go to Moscow. Everything had been fixed up for the summit, and now that it was over, there was people. None of us did an exhaustive study of living conditions in Yaroslavl. Our impression, and please correct me if I'm wrong. You have people here, Republican, Democrat, and so forth and so on. First of all, it's a very beautiful city, physically. It is a beautiful city. Right on the Volga River, it has, and it was during the day you have, I don't know, many hundreds, if not thousands, well, hundreds, I guess, of people swimming right in the lake and boating. They have some thousand, two community boat houses. They beat us. Is there a waterfront in his public wheel? Yeah. What is he public about? And so you have people swimming in the downtown. You have some beautiful old churches that we had an opportunity to tour. They're in the midst of building a whole lot of housing. They have a serious housing problems in terms of the shortage of housing. I mean, I don't want to, please correct me if I'm wrong. I, you know, we didn't do a study of these things, but people there seem reasonably happy and content. I didn't notice much deprivation. Howard, is that a fair statement? Yeah, that's real fair. I was really surprised by the beauty of the city. And in many ways, I think it's a good partner for building because the pace of life there was pretty similar to here. People were very open and friendly. I guess one of the things that surprised me about the Soviet Union in general, all of the cities we were in was our ability to move around on our own, particularly in Moscow and Leningrad. Most of us broke away from the regular tour and just went off on taxi cabs, and we met people. We looked up people who were friends of friends. We visited people in their apartments. Were those visits unsupervised at all? Totally unsupervised. In fact, some of us met with the people who you could really think of as dissidents who were unhappy with life there and other people who were pretty satisfied. But it was just like moving around in New York or Boston. I mean, I did go into two different food stores, just my line of work. I was curious to see how it was. I mean, the assortment in Soviet Union generally speaking, particularly this time of year, it's the end of the storage season for cabbage and et cetera, et cetera. It's not like what you have in the United States. You're not going to find 25 different varieties of citrus fruit, but basic food stuffs are certainly there. So is there any shortage of food or anything like that? Okay, does anybody want to add anything that hasn't been said? Don't be shy. That article that you're talking about, I think it referred to the approach of Yaroslavl as being something, the equivalent of going to Paris, New Jersey. And I can't think of anything that could be farther from the truth. The only town I can think of that's as pretty as Yaroslavl is Burlington. It's an awful pretty place. There is housing on the outskirts that lack what we would consider normal plumbing. But in the city, the housing is pretty interesting. 300-year-old one frame. The housing is like the farm of Vermont. Where do you think was accomplished as a result of this? I think a lot was. I mean, I think, and I feel this as strongly as I believe anything, that the future of this world is going to depend upon the ability of the United States and the Soviet Union to develop a positive relationship. One of the interesting things that happens is when mayors get together, when city officials get together, is they always complain about not having enough money. And it's amazing to hear these guys in Yaroslavl say, yep, we need more money for housing. We need more money for health care. And we in the Soviet Union are spending too much damn money on military expenditures. And it sounds like three-quarters of the mayors in the United States of America. I think what is going on, you know, what went on at the very top between Reagan and Gorba Jeffery, what went on at a lower level, is an understanding that you have two people with a lot of common aspirations and common needs. And we have differences of opinion. But we don't have to spend hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars and bring this world to the brink of annihilation because we disagree. You know, Burlington City Council disagrees occasionally. You know, you don't have to threaten to kill people. And I think the fact that we received the warmth that we did made me leave there with an understanding that if we put our minds to it, we can develop a positive and peaceful relationship with them and use the energies for constructive ways, in constructive ways. We have a lot to learn from them. We really do. They have a lot to learn from us. And if we start pooling our talents and our intelligence, we can make this world a lot better place to live. So that's the message that I got. And I think they're ready for it. What kind of a timeline do you think we're going to see on the sister thing becoming formalized? That's in a sense, we'll move as fast as their bureaucracy allows it to move. They indicated that late September or early October would be a good time for them to come here and we'll try to do that. They want the relationship. That's for sure. They already have... They indicated that. Yes, they did. They already have forced sister city relations with Finland, West Germany, France, and Portugal. And they take that stuff very seriously. And they would like the relationship. So all that has to... And I think it will happen. It just has to go through Moscow. That's the way it is done in their country. So did the trip help to expedite that? Yes, it did. In fact, we are moving much faster in this process, much, much faster. It often takes... If I'm not mistaken, where's David? I think it often takes several years to bring this about and we might have it in seven or eight months from beginning to... And so we're moving very, very rapidly. And one of the ways you move rapidly is to go. That's the way it's done. Do you think that when they come in September or October, that could be the... Yes, if they come... Yes, yes. That's what it would be, exactly. And would it be people like the mayor or the equivalent? I think he would give his right arm to come. I think he would like to come, but I don't know who makes those decisions. I honestly don't know. And also, what do you see... I mean, we know what the sister city relationship with Puerto Cabez is like. What do you see happening in this... This is very different than Nicaragua. This is really a very different one. Nicaragua, you know my views on Nicaragua. Nicaragua is a very, very poor country. And the heart of our sister city relationship there is basically to provide material aid to those people. But the Soviet Union, we're not going to be providing them with material aid. Basically, it is an attempt to bring the two peoples together to get to know each other better. And the possibility of real trade. How it's even, you know, talk to some of the people and others did about the possibility of developing an economic relationship. It's not going to be simple, but that's certainly something that we would like to see. And under Perestroika, their local factories are now given a lot more freedom than before. So it is not going to be quite as complicated. And if that could happen, that would be extraordinary. But essentially, it's bringing the two communities together and people of the United States and the Soviet Union together. And we've met with our candid parts and have laid the groundwork to do that, even starting the planning process before we actually signed the sister city agreement. We've met with teachers and talked about teacher exchanges and student exchanges, economic exchanges. As a matter of fact, we've even gone so far as to set up some different things that we are going to have our students study together, write reports and exchange them with a school over there. So there will be a lot of things happening between now and September. It's not just sitting and waiting. Okay. Good. This is... This is Moscow's Church Street Marketplace for our box. Do you remember where Reagan... I think that was the place where Reagan was walking down? That's it. And this is not Ronald Reagan, actually. This is me. Oh, nice. It was great. It was just so nice. It was a perfect facility. Within this facility, they had three theaters, including what they called Children's Spectators Theater and the Puppet Theater. Here's a shot of their waterfront where they had this boulevard, this walkway that just went for miles and miles. It just was a phenomenally beautiful city blown away by the beauty of it. Very ancient churches. And all of this is green space right along the water. 100-foot setback. Interesting idea. I heard that before. They had not one, but three floating community boat accesses. So we're going to help them wall it off of condominiums, right? So those guys don't want access to one another. There were different kinds of facilities at parties. Yeah, clubs. This is a war memorial, but it was just a spectacular city. Wow. Are these pictures you took, or are these pictures? No, these are postcards of yours, but here's their main street. What was it? Yeah, this was not a... Hello, Johnny. This was not a shabby city. Is it 500,000 people? It's about 600... What's going on in the revolution? It's about 650,000. So what did you get out of this? I mean, what was your... as a community and economic development director to find anything new and learn anything? Generally, this is kind of an extraordinary experience. In terms of their commitment to housing, I was very impressed. I mean... Hold this, Luke. As a constitutional right, people are assured a minimum level of decent housing. For example, in the nearest level, their goal was to construct 5,500 units of housing per year. And, you know, they were meeting that goal. It was also very exciting in terms of the whole issues around perestroika, many of them which related to economic development, the very radical and revolutionary changes that are taking place, both in terms of the democratization of the society, but also in terms of the changes in the structure of their business, the ownership of their enterprises. In many situations, they're moving from state ownership to cooperative ownership, which we've been promoting in Burlington, which was interesting. And their commitment to... arts, cultural facilities... Very sweet. Luke? What would you like to say? Today's Luke's birthday. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Happy birthday. Alan, do you want to introduce yourself, Alan? I'm Alan Rubin. I was a physician representative with the group. And I agree with the mayor. I can't agree more with the surprise of the civility and kindness of the people we met. I feel like we met our counterparts. A little bit louder. I felt more comfortable with those people in any other European country I'd been in. I felt like I'd found cousins or uncles, our grandparents there. They treated us... royally is probably the wrong word, but they treated us very, very, very well. I was awestruck and touched. I was also surprised by my own feelings of warmth toward the people I met and how they stuck with us. I'd read a lot about the instant friendships that Americans have found over the years. That is, they'd meet people for one day and then not see them again. We really felt differently. We felt like these relationships would last. And I'd like to emphasize how important I think it is for all of us in the city as a whole to pursue fully the sister city relationship. I'm Howard Siever. I'm a lawyer here in Burlington and I've also been active for a number of years in the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce. And I'm, I guess, now chairman of the Chamber's International Trade Committee. I found some things that I expected and some things that surprised me. I guess my overall impression was that Soviet society to me seemed like the flip side of our society. We put our resources in private hands and people here have nice houses and cars and clothes and consumer goods. There, they seem to put their resources into public facilities. And what I saw there was a transportation system in the big cities and public parks and recreation facilities in Yaroslavl that really, in my view, surpassed what we have here. On the other hand, the goods in their shops are shabby and their housing construction is also not up to our standards by any means. I was also surprised by the freedom of movement that we had, particularly in the larger cities, Moscow and Leningrad. The members of our group at various times just broke away from the tour bus. There were no restrictions placed on us. It didn't seem to be a problem for the government tour guide. And we went off essentially on our own in groups of twos and threes and fours. We used the subway system, taxis, buses on our own without any feeling that anybody was hindering us or watching us to the extent that some of us even met in an apartment for several hours with people who were unhappy with the system, with a couple of Jewish young men who were interested in emigrating and wanted to apply to emigrate. And also met on our own, that was in Moscow and met on our own, some of us with a family in Leningrad and had a number of pickup conversations on the streets and buses and subways with people. I was also interested in a little bit surprised by what I heard from the business end there. That was my particular interest. And I met in Yato Slavo with people who represented the largest industry in that community, which was an engine factory that employed about 50,000 people. And what they told me was that in the past, in order for a manufacturing entity in the Soviet Union to do business with a foreign company, they had to go through a central government ministry, but that the rules have changed and that currently the plant manager in that city would have the authority on his own to enter into a deal with a U.S. or another Western firm. And that really surprised me. They seemed very interested in doing business with us. The problem is that they have a shortage of hard currency and they're looking for deals of a nature that don't involve them putting up hard currency going in. So there are only a certain range of types of arrangements that they're particularly interested in, but if there's interest on this side and those kinds of arrangements, they were very excited about the possibility of setting up some kind of trade and felt that they had the authority at that level to enter into the arrangement. Because I have a number of other thoughts too, but I'll just pass to John at this point. I'm John Franco. This was my second trip to the Soviet Union. I went in 1986 and two things stick out most in my mind. First of all, the incredible beauty of the city of Yaroslavl. We couldn't have a better sister city anywhere. It's an incredibly beautiful city. The pace of life and the feel of life is very similar to Burlington. And if we can get a waterfront, half as beautiful as the one they have in Yaroslavl, we'll be doing very well. But the other thing that really struck me was the effect that Perestroika is having in the political climate of the country. The difference was very pronounced even from two years ago. When we flew from Moscow to Leningrad the first weekend we were there, we picked up a copy of this newspaper called Moscow News. And we were frankly flabbergasted at the level of debate and criticism that's going on in this newspaper about their society. For example, this issue here has a variety of articles and opinions ranging on the faults of the Soviet economy to the faults of Soviet education. In fact, the article on Soviet education states that the Soviet education to this date had produced a generation which had grown up in an atmosphere of reversible lives. And if Perestroika fails, the USSR will become a society of talkative idlers past the cynics in infantile parasites obeying only the whip. This is the level of debate that's beginning to emerge now in the Soviet Union. What's very clear and very exciting is that there's a real opportunity for that society to become a true democracy. And the other thing that was apparent to me that the entity that really holds the Trump card in whether or not Perestroika is successful and whether or not democracy in the Soviet Union is successful is the United States of America. If we continue a belligerent and cold war attitude toward the USSR, I fear that the Stalinist hacks and the Soviet bureaucracy, which are everywhere, will succeed in getting Gorbachev out in strangling Perestroika. And then their society will go back to the dictatorship that they've suffered for the last 70 years. My name is Jim Dunn. I'm also an attorney. And after a while you end up echoing what other people are saying. And I'd like to just indicate my impressions. The beauty of the city is one that I have to note. Peter Clavel and I took the opportunity early in the morning to run along the Volga River. The city sits up above the river and it is a phenomenally beautiful place. Many people out running in the morning fishing along the Volga River. And I think all of us were struck by it, by its absolutely astounding beauty. Also, in terms of the changing times, I think we all came away with a sense of a phenomenal change taking place at all different levels. We met with some intellectuals in Moscow who are advisors at the highest level of government. We were very fortunate to have this meeting. The mayor arranged it. And we learned firsthand a number of the major concerns that people are dealing with as they go through this, this agonizing change. It was described as a shedding of the shell that they had been in. And it was going to happen. It was evolutionary. And the direction that it was going to go was what really was being debated, not really whether it was going to go forward or not. In Yaroslavl, we had the opportunity to meet with some of our counterparts in the legal system, which we found very interesting. We met with a couple of attorneys. We talked about a wide range of legal issues. They brought us to court one day, the equivalent of the district court, if you would, in Burlington. We sat through a DWI trial, which we found to be extremely similar. They had blood tests and percentage of alcohol issues that are raised here. After that ended, we went behind the scenes and we spoke with the judges. By the way, there are three judges to whom are elected by the people, very similar to what we have here in the state of Vermont. These kinds of similarities, I think, highlighted for me the essence of, I guess, what I came away with in terms of the secret to attaining world peace, and that is really that people need to meet each other. If they can meet each other and talk to one another, I think that the world really could live in peace. My name is Jenny Green. I'm a student at Burlington High School. My name is Jenny Green. I'm a student at Burlington High School. I was in the Soviet Union in November with Project Harmony. So it was my second time there. And the same things struck me as being true, mostly about people that, most people that we ran into were very curious and eager to talk to us. And like Jim said, that you really need to talk to the people and get to know them. And that if you're there and you're willing to speak, there was no end of people that were willing to do the same. And, again, it's a beautiful city, really, I think, appropriate to be matched up with Burlington. It feels the same. I'm Beth Phillips and I'm the children's librarian at Fletcher Free Library. I was really struck by the enormous interest and curiosity of Russians about us and people stopping us in the street or in squares and just wanting to talk, to practice their English and find out what the real scoop was on the United States. Before I left, I did a fair amount of preparation and reading and really viewed the journey as a culmination of my preparations. Now that I'm back, I see the journey as just the very beginning of a wonderful friendship. It's hard for me to be brief because there are so many things to say, but with so many people here and you probably have questions, I will try to be. I was the member of the group who spoke Russian the best. A couple of people spoke a little bit here and there, but I was actually able to talk with people, strangers on the street, taxi drivers, university students and so on, and I have to echo the basic conclusion that I think everybody in the group came to, which is that Russians as a people are incredibly friendly. They are more willing to talk to strangers than any of us would have imagined. The hospitality shown was staggering. The taxi driver who sang to us for the half-hour taxi ride and then refused to take any money from us at the end because he liked us. The university students who heard us speaking English and wanted to practice their English and met us on three different occasions at different locations and came back to our hotel, and just the level of changes that are going on in that country where a few years ago those students that came back to our hotel would have been unwilling to go into the building because to go into a tourist hotel was an indication that either you had foreign currency to spend, which you must have gotten on the black market, or maybe you were somehow suspect, but this year, while a couple of them were sort of like, I'm not sure if we should go in there with you, others said, why not? It's legal. Let's do it. And this new sense of freedom that they were having was striking. The Stalinist fears are not gone. Stalin is held up in their newspapers and so on as being one of the worst criminals against humanity in history. The evils of Brezhnev are being revealed. But overall, I would say that what we experienced there was we felt like we were in the midst of history being made, revolutionary really, not in the sense of a revolutionary new toothpaste, but of changing the way that human beings relate to other human beings in the world. We saw a lot of things that were beautiful and wonderful. We saw a lot of things that were shabby and stupid. Very much like the United States. Different things were stupid. Different things were wonderful. That's what made it very interesting. The fact that people pay approximately two to five percent of their income on rents that healthcare is free, that education is free. There are after-school programs for all the children, whether it's horseback riding or karate or chess or dance or whatever, the commitment to the arts and children is staggering. On the other hand, if you wanted to make a gourmet meal and you wanted to get some fresh produce, you'd have a choice of green cabbage, beets, onions, leeks, apples. That's the choice that you had that day. And you had to wait in line quite a while just to get one of those items. The priority is not put on consumerism or the ability to get products efficiently and easily and to have the variety that we are accustomed to. In that sense, it is definitely not a rich country. In other areas, such as the cultural programs, the transportation, et cetera, it is just light years ahead of this country. On total, I guess I'd say I'd rather live here, but I am very, very excited about what's going on in that country. And I just wanted to conclude by saying the Leningrad Memorial we visited I think was probably one of the more moving experiences of my life. Most Americans forget that part of the history of World War II. The Soviets lost more people killed by famine and starvation and bombs due to the Nazis in that one city than all of the Americans who died in the entire war. That one city lost over a half million people. Six or seven hundred thousand people buried in mass graves. We looked at the diary of a little girl who lived in Leningrad at the time talking on this page. She says, today my mother died. A few pages later, my brother died. A few pages later, my cousin died. And finally, after several pages, nobody's left but me. And there was not a dry eye in anybody in the museum and then this memorial where you see these mountains of earth where literally nearly over a half million people died in a very, very short amount of time. And when people over there talk about the need for peace, it's not an intellectual thing as it is for a lot of people here because their country has been invaded so many times. Their soil has been conquered so many times. And there's nobody in the Soviet Union who does not have a relative who died in the World War II that when they talk about peace and everybody we met did talk about the need for friendship and peace with the United States, it is a very heartfelt plea for peace. A lot of us I could say, but I won't right now. I'm Michelle Weiss. I'm the assistant city clerk. I mean the first thing that I wrote down that I wanted to talk about was the issue about peace. I didn't know what to expect in going to the Soviet Union and I think that that was the key thing. I mean, what is this war about? I just, in meeting people and realizing how much they're just like we are, it just didn't make sense. And it also felt like we were each other's counterpart, like keeping separate, we were denying each other information that both of our nations need, that there was a way that the things that they did really well around after school programs for children were things that we really need to know more about and the things that we do really well in terms of housing and the market would be really useful for them to have. So coming away with, alright, let's do it. And also hearing some things that came out of that meeting with the intellectuals, the think tank for the political government. Some of the things that were coming out of there were astonishing in terms of where we can go as a human nation, as a world nation in terms of our two countries setting a model for peace between us and also ending world hunger, that if our two nations can come to an agreement with each other that it's limitless the kinds of things that we can do as a world. I wanted to talk some about the language barrier because in the Soviet Union, like in any European country, people learn English, they learn German and French, they learn more languages and it's something that I would really like to see happen more in the United States, that that's something that's needed even more than anything to promoting peaceful relationships that we, our country should take an effort to learn Russian so that we can deepen our friendships. In terms of what Terry just said a minute ago about I would much rather live here, I just read an article in Parents Magazine where the author said, yeah, when it, you know, push comes to shove I would rather live here but in terms of where I want my children to live, I'm not sure. And I left feeling like, I left feeling like, oh, I want this education, I want to know all of this that I don't have a handle on yet. It was quite opening. I think that all of us have been changed by this experience. My name is Dave Kelly. I come from, I think, a much different perspective than anybody else on the trip. I've been to the Soviet Union six times. I've been there for several months and I'm certainly the only public in this group. I think that the thing that I agree with that we said the most is what Terry Beresia said. I think the changes are truly revolutionary and I think that they're primarily inspired by Mikhail Gorbachev who is a man of extraordinary common sense but I would add to that that there is no guarantee of his success or his future and the Soviet Union is not a democracy. It's more like a large corporation and it doesn't have the public interest always at the closest, close to its heart. My very best friends can't come visit me here in Vermont. It breaks their heart and it breaks my heart but the country is going through incredible changes and our country unfortunately is responding at the grassroots with a groundswell like this with Democrats and Socialists and Republicans but there's no intelligent political response on our part in the U.S. Congress to the changes taking place in the Soviet Union. What we need to do is everything we can at this moment to seize the time and stabilize our relationship. We need to repeal the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. We need to tear down the barriers we've created to trade. We need to offer most favored nation status. We need to get the Soviet Union involved in the general agreement on trade and tariffs. We need to get them into the International Monetary Fund and we need to do the same thing the Europeans did after World War II. We need to normalize our trade relationship, create economic interdependence and do everything we can to allow for the freest possible flow of products, people and ideas. And the United States Congress isn't doing that and I think what projects like this can do is begin to put pressure not just for local action but for federal congressional action to create a more intelligent common-sense relationship. I'll read first the short message that the President of the United States sends along with these awards when I announce who they were. I'm pleased to honor the winners of the Academic Fitness Award for 1988, a fifth year of our program to recognize outstanding scholastic achievement among America's young people. The three million young men and women who have received this award amplify those attributes that make them better students and better citizens. We'll success-paste a white picture for our country's future and you'll find an example of what can be accomplished through hard work and dedication and development of the mind of your fellow students. You, your parents, your teachers should take pride in the standard of excellence you've set. And I want you all to know that I'm as proud of you as well. Nancy and I send our best wishes now and for the future. God bless you. Long wait. I see the following students, please. Javier, Maria French, Jenny Storch, Molly Webb, my principals in trustworthiness, service including cooperation, kindness and unselfishness, courage to overcome obstacles, leadership including personality, originality and good sportsmanship, and patriotism. And the winners this year are Nat Ives and Jenny Savage. Anybody that got to know him, I think, felt that way. Eventually drowned in a tragic accident. He was the kind of student who could get along with just about anybody. He got along with the kids you're expecting to and he got along with the kids you might not expect him to. He got along with adults just as well as he did with kids in school. There aren't a lot of kids that can do that. One thing I'm always going to remember about him that always sticks in my mind when I get up to give this award and when I look at the name of the recipient of it. One thing in my mind that will always stick out about Stephen Jones was his smile. That boy had a smile that no one, I don't think will ever in this world duplicate. He took over his whole face and radiated. He made you want to smile about how you were feeling. This award goes to a student that best has those kind of characteristics that Stephen Jones had. Somebody can get along with a lot of people. Someone who maybe isn't the best student, but is a good student. Maybe isn't the best athlete, but it's an athlete. It may be not in a traditional sport. It doesn't have to be your basketball soccer type sport. It's going to be ping pong. But it has to be somebody that shows an interest in that. Somebody with an artistic ability. And again, it doesn't have to be traditional. It can be just sitting in their home playing the banjo and the kazoo. Tonight's recipient has, I believe, I'm really happy to see this name here, all those characteristics. She's a wonderfully young lady with a very beautiful smile that cheers you up just like Stephen's smile did. She's an athlete. She's played on the basketball team and in several other sports. And I'm proud to say she's a physician. She was a chorus member and a show chorus member. I'm very proud this evening to present the Stephen Jones Award to Sancy Catherine. When my daughter was seven years old, my wife and I were told that Jenny had some learning disabilities and probably would not be able to achieve any academic success in school. She also had vision impairment that only compounded her troubles. Nine years have passed and transformation born out of trust allowed the hard work to progress taking place. Transformation isn't over. Nor will it ever be. I hope not anyway. Jenny received a lot of help, but she fought hard and would not stay down for the long count. Nor will our recipient tonight be denied. Be told you can't push aside hear the word failure. This award for most improved student is really shared by all of us. If students, parents and teachers are doing their jobs then we are witness to excellence and the wonder of coming. However, with every graduating class there are a few students who have run the longest and the hardest and then there is always the one who must be recognized. Her struggles, achievements and transformation are to be emulated, admired and applauded. This selection has been a labor of love. This year's recipient for the Robert E. River Senior Award for most improved student to candy labor. Back in fields for comes from the Greeks but also from the Greeks comes the origination of logic thinking from the Greeks we give philosophy from the Greeks we give drama these are the things that the Greeks give our culture wisdom and civilization and from this idea of the athlete excelling in the Olympics and the same countrymen excelling in logic and philosophy came the idea of a sound mind and a sound body just for being nominated these people get a certificate of recognition. The nominees were Nathan Berenberg Nick Canis Arrow for the boys the girls were and are I should say Lonnie Ayer Sansi Cabin Nina Beninger Amy Bercoglio give it to your your vote which doesn't count because the vote has already been casted and it's been casted by the faculty okay the boy athlete has much innumerable experience basketball, softball, football, light soccer you name it, we had it, he did it he was scholastic he was on the varsity basketball team for two years he was on the varsity soccer team for two years honor roll five times Nick Berenberg will have him stand as a shy boy this will be good for him the girl recipient, scholar athlete innumerable light soccer prison ball, basketball he was scholastic varsity basketball two years varsity softball one year honor roll seven times Amy Bercoglio