PDG Bill Fine made Opening remarks and conducted the inauguration.  The first Interact Cub was formed in 1960 and there are 38 clubs in our district.  He talked about the 4 way test, the development of leadership skills, the Rotary Youth Exchange, and Facebook.  PP Gonzo Accame organized the Interact Club last year, working with Jacques Paraskevas, and trying to get other Rotary clubs to participate.  Bill Fine presented pins, a banner, shirts and caps to our new Interactor partners: Nicholas Bernhardt Lanier, Ryan Hunt, Dimitri Karabassis, Maxime Joly: Treasurer,  Andrea Kilajian: Secretary,  Lucy Jeffries: VP Aster Lambert: President (who talked about their project)

David is the author of works of history and has talked to us 4 times.  He presented a power point presentation of his latest historical novel on the 1919 Paris Peace conference.  Using the characters of a previous historical novel that took place in 1900, David describes the Paris Peace Conference (that effected conditions in Europe and the Middle East for the next 100 years up to the present 2015) with clarity as if you were there.  Paris in 1801, 1919, 1945 and 2015 were all different.  The personalities of Wilson, Clemenceau, Lloyd George of Britain, and Orlando of Italy; plus Sec. of State Lansing, his two Dulles nephews (in their 20’s), Col. Lawrence of Arabia, and Prince Feisal (who claims his ancestors had been Sharifs of Mecca for 900 years, with kings being far beneath his family) produces a stew that David sorts out.

Michael O’Hanlon has been a senior fellow at Brookings for 21 years, Specializing in national security. His degrees are from Princeton in physics and a PhD in public and international affairs.  In the last 2 administrations he has made many trips to the Middle East and talked about the complications in Syria, which he says is slow motion genocide. Half the population of Syria is displaced and are refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Greece and on their way to the EU. Secretary Kerry is trying to put together a shared group to replace Assad. With no borders, he wants to form a confederation model. With the US having so little current skin in the situation – Good Luck