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are a couple of scrub pines in Afghanistan, but not very many. And the one-week that I spent out there providing healthcare to the Kuchi People, they're one of the few nomadic people left in the world where they pack up literally an the backs of camels and migrate hundreds of miles across Afghanistan and Pakistan. You realize these people don't have any freedom. They don't have any freedom of expression. They don't really have freedom of where to live because they have to go where they can get their camels and their goats to graze. And they sure as heck don't have any freedom of expression like we're enjoying tonight. I thank you for the opportunity to stand up here and speak tonight. And I can speak against merger, knowing that there are people in this room who are very solidly in favor of merger. And I know I can walk out of here knowing I'm not going to have to pay someone an AK47. No one's going to put a land mine in my front yard tonight, which is the kind of thing that happens in Afghanistan over things like firewood and goats. This is a great country. What I ask you to do is take some time, really listen to what the people have said to you tonight, and what the people continue to say to you. Take into account what we want for ourselves, for our families, for our children, for their education, and for their future. And if this does come up to where you seriously think merger is a good idea, give us a chance to speak an it directly. Thank you. Robin Staudt: Good evening. I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak again to you on the merger issue. But before I address you on this issue, I must digress in order to aid the young Mr. Chambless. My uncle, who was in the 82nd Airborne, Brigadier General, and buried with honors in Arlington cemetery, was a West Point graduate. He was a coal miner's son in a poor farming community. He demonstrated excellence in school and a desire to serve his country as a first generation American. He wrote his congressman, and then was referred with his application and letters of recommendation. His school, which he came from, was one building for first grade through twelfth. First through third shared a classroom. Three through five shared a classroom. I'm saying all this so that you understand that excellence and education does not necessarily mean high funding. With desire and study and some direction, anyone can achieve his heart's desire in our great country. I believe there is little more fact to present to you tonight on the merger issue than you've already heard. In order to have any absolute certainty of the effects of a merger in Orange County, one would need to merge our two separate, distinct, and relatively successful systems. I also believe that you, as Commissioners, already understand there is a majority belief that merger would not be best far Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Orange County school systems. Nor would it benefit the majority of students in either of these systems. The time has come for reason; the time has come for logic; and the time has come for common sense. Social engineering to bring a so- called social justice to every minority student is a failed theory and practice. It is a more logical and beneficial path to seek out the injustices and deal with them individually. Reason calls for each system to seek out its weaknesses and address them accordingly. The biggest weakness, the most easily viewed weakness in bath of our systems appears to be a lack of expectation towards achievement by many failing students. This is the core of the issue, not one size fits all. Let us strive to encourage and develop all of our youth. Merging Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Orange County school systems will not address this issue. It will only serve to engorge an already loaded bureaucracy. The issue is how to reach our students, how to serve and grow them to be successful fulfilled adults that in turn will reach out to the next generation and encourage and educate them to their fullest potential. We don't need merger. We need reason and respect for our children. This will serve us all. Thank you.