2006.11.26: November 26, 2006: Headlines: COS - Philippines: Diplomacy: Speaking Out: MaineToday.com: Philippines RPCV Michael Beaudoin thinks U.S. foreign policy could use a serious overhaul
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2006.11.26: November 26, 2006: Headlines: COS - Philippines: Diplomacy: Speaking Out: MaineToday.com: Philippines RPCV Michael Beaudoin thinks U.S. foreign policy could use a serious overhaul
Philippines RPCV Michael Beaudoin thinks U.S. foreign policy could use a serious overhaul
"I think if we had more Peace Corps workers around the world and fewer soldiers - the world would be a lot better off," Beaudoin said last week. It's more than just an idle observation. Beaudoin, 64, traveled to San Francisco this month to reunite with 38 other 60-somethings who share a two-year chunk of history. "So many of these people have gone on to travel the world," he said. "And of the 62 who went (to the Philippines) that year, all but 10 went on to what I'd call service-oriented careers." Beaudoin sees a cause-and-effect here: The more little connections you make with the world at large (a young girl whom he taught to throw the javelin went on to represent the Philippines in the Olympics), the better the world becomes. "If more of our political leaders had had the Peace Corps experience that we had, we wouldn't be asking the question today, 'Why do they hate us?' " he said.
Philippines RPCV Michael Beaudoin thinks U.S. foreign policy could use a serious overhaul
Peace Corps could teach leaders a lot
By Bill Nemitz Maine Sunday Telegram Sunday, November 26, 2006
Like most people these days, Michael Beaudoin thinks U.S. foreign policy could use a serious overhaul. But his suggestion, unlike many others, couldn't be more simple.
"I think if we had more Peace Corps workers around the world and fewer soldiers - the world would be a lot better off," Beaudoin said last week. It's more than just an idle observation. Beaudoin, 64, traveled to San Francisco this month to reunite with 38 other 60-somethings who share a two-year chunk of history.
Forty-four years ago, they gathered in the same spot as volunteers for the then-fledgling Peace Corps. They all ended up in the Philippines and, in their own ways, they all believe to this day that they helped change the world. Beaudoin, now a professor of education at the University of New England, was a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Maine when the telegram arrived in the summer of 1962.
President John F. Kennedy's new Peace Corps, a socio-political experiment if ever there was one, had received his application. And they wanted him. The next thing he knew, Beaudoin was building a thatch-roof home in a remote village on the Philippine island of Mindanao. He still remembers the day a telegram arrived from Peace Corps director Sargent Shriver encouraging him to "continue to do good work, now more than ever" following Kennedy's assassination.
He also remembers feeling incredibly alone and way too far from his home and family in Brunswick.
"We had no e-mail back then," Beaudoin said. "And in two years, I don't remember once talking on the telephone with my parents."
But something happened during those two years - not just to Beaudoin, but to the other idealistic young Americans scattered across the South Pacific and, for that matter, all over the world.
"I think it helped us understand that the United States isn't the center of the universe," Beaudoin said. "And that we don't have a monopoly on the way things should be done."
It also taught them at an early age that we Americans need to get out more. Beaudoin, who's visited 50 countries in his career as a pioneer of long-distance, Internet-based education, was pleasantly surprised during his reunion to learn that he's far from the only globetrotter in the group.
"So many of these people have gone on to travel the world," he said. "And of the 62 who went (to the Philippines) that year, all but 10 went on to what I'd call service-oriented careers."
Beaudoin sees a cause-and-effect here: The more little connections you make with the world at large (a young girl whom he taught to throw the javelin went on to represent the Philippines in the Olympics), the better the world becomes. "If more of our political leaders had had the Peace Corps experience that we had, we wouldn't be asking the question today, 'Why do they hate us?' " he said.
Beaudoin, whose next stop is Ghana this winter to spend four months teaching as a Fulbright scholar, can't count the number of times people have heard about what he did 44 years ago and said, "You know, I once thought about joining the Perace Corps myself."
His response?
"Think about it again."
Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6323 or at: bnemitz@pressherald.com
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Headlines: November, 2006; Peace Corps Philippines; Directory of Philippines RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Philippines RPCVs; Diplomacy; Speaking Out; Maine
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Story Source: MaineToday.com
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