Christopher Jones and Christine Wallace

Group aims to promote discussion of U.N., U.S.

A newly formed local chapter of a national group devoted to educating Americans about the United Nations hopes to inform Charlottesville residents about the United Nations and its relationship with the United States. The Blue Ridge Chapter of the United Nations Association USA held its inaugural meeting Sunday at the Charlottesville Unitarian Universalist Church, featuring a speech by David Newsom, an expert on United States foreign policy and the American relationship with the United Nations. Newsom's speech reflected the chapter's goals: Informing local citizens about the United Nations and emphasizing the positive roles it plays. In his speech, Newsom, a former undersecretary of state for political affairs and former ambassador to Libya, Indonesia and the Philippines, discussed the history of the United Nations, critiques of both the United Nations and the United States by each other, and the beneficial roles that the United Nations plays both toward the world and the United States. Newsom argued that despite problems between the United States and the United Nations, the United States has much more to gain from participating in the United Nations than it does by ignoring it. "We can join the world and work to strengthen the primary international organization or we can turn our back on it.