【正文】 ile, as well as agreeing on policies and procedures for making, enforcing, and amending these decisions. Query whether a functional global university is politically feasible, given that sovereign nations naturally wish to advance their own agendas. A second problem inherent in establishing a global university involves the risk that certain intellectual and research avenues would bee officially sanctioned while others of equal or greater potential value would be discouraged, or perhaps even proscribed. A telling example of the inherent danger of setting and enforcing official research priorities involves the Soviet government39。 cultures. In the final analysis, government cannot philosophically justify assisting large cities for the purpose of either promoting or preserving the nation39。 (2) government support is needed for our large cities and cultural traditions to survive and thrive。s strategies for thwarting specific plans of an international terrorist or a drug trafficker, those strategies would surely fail, and the public39。s diverse population. A national curriculum might not allow for this feature, and California39。 concerns about autonomy and about peer pressures parents can learn the valuable lesson that effective parenting and control are two different things. At the munity level, through dispassionate dialogue an environmental activist can e to understand the legitimate economic concerns of those whose jobs depend on the continued profitable operation of a factory. Conversely, the latter might stand to learn much about the potential public health price to be paid by ensuring job growth and a low unemployment rate. Finally, at the global level, two nations with opposing political or economic interests can reach mutually beneficial agreements by striving to understand the other39。 disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning. Do we learn more from people whose ideas we share in mon than from those whose ideas contradict ours? The speaker claims so, for the reason that disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning. I concede that undue discord can impede learning. Otherwise, in my view we learn far more from discourse and debate with those whose ideas we oppose than from people whose ideas are in accord with our own. Admittedly, under some circumstances disagreement with others can be counterproductive to learning. For supporting examples one need look no further than a television set. On today39。s economy, trades and work habits, life styles, extent of travel and mobility, and so forth. Linguists are needed to interpret hieroglyphics and extrapolate from found fragments of writings. And an astronomer can help explain the layout of an ancient city as well as the design, structure and position of monuments, tombs, and templessince ancients often looked to the stars for guidance in building cities and structures. An even more striking example of how expertise in diverse fields is needed to advance knowledge involves the area of astronomy and space exploration. Significant advancements in our knowledge of the solar system and the universe require increasingly keen tools for observation and measurement. Telescope technology and the measurement of celestial distances, masses, volumes, and so forth, are the domain of astrophysicists. These advances also require increasingly sophisticated means of exploration. Manned and unmanned exploratory probes are designed by mechanical, electrical, and puter engineers. And to build and enable these technologies requires the acumen and savvy of business leaders, managers, and politicians. Even diplomats might play a roleinsofar as major space projects require international cooperative efforts among the world39。s subjective state of mind, impressions, or reflections of an event or experience. Indeed, to the extent that personal interpretation adds dimension and richness to the record, written documentation is actually more important than video. Finally, a video record is of no use in documenting statistical or other quantitative information. Returning to the riot example mentioned earlier, imagine relying on a video to document the financial loss to store owners, the number of police and firefighters involved, and so forth. Complete and accurate video documentation of such information would require video cameras at every street corner and in every aisle of every store. In sum, the speaker39。 and legitimately so, since immediate disclosure would have served no useful purpose and might even have resulted in mass hysteria. Having recognized that withholding information from the public is often necessary to serve the interests of that public, legitimate political leadership nevertheless requires forthrightness with the citizenry as to the leader39。s distinct cultural traditionsits folk art, crafts, traditional songs, customs and ceremoniesburgeon instead in small towns and rural regions. Admittedly, our cities do serve as our centers for high art。s most persistent social problems. I agree that it would serve the interests of all nations to establish a global university for the purpose of solving the world39。s preeminent intellectual talent might be drawn to the sorts of problems to which the university is charged with solving, while parochial social problem go unsolved. While this is not reason enough not to establish a global university, it nevertheless is a concern that university administrators and participant nations must be aware of in allocating resources and intellectual talent. To sum up, given the increasingly global nature or the world39。s African Americans aptly illustrates. In short, people resist language assimilation because of a basic human need to be part of a distinct cultural group. Another important reason to prevent the extinction of a language is to preserve the distinct ideas that only that particular language can convey. Certain Native American and Oriental languages, for instance, contain words symbolizing