'I Really Believe in You Guys'

Eureka: Times-Standard
Thompson offers congressional glimpse to high school students EUREKA -- To make a difference, Congressman Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said he realized he had to get an education. The one-time high school drop out -- moved to make a difference after witnessing racial discrimination first hand -- joked that he decided to go to what he called the Northern California equivalent of Harvard to kick off his public service career. That is, he attended Chico State University. But getting an education was the first step toward making an impact in the world, he said. The message was a kind of morale as Thompson spoke before dozens of gathered students in the St. Bernard High School. An education gives one the tools necessary to make a difference, he said. ”I really believe in you guys,” Thompson told the group after fielding a number of their questions. “You are the future of our county, our state, our country. You're the future of the world.” The questions from the students were slow to get started, but once flowing, covered the gamut from immigration and the war in Iraq to the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the budget deficit. He discussed the bill that would allow for a 700-mile fence along the 2,000-mile-long border with Mexico. The bill, Thompson said, offers no way to pay for the fence and doesn't even mandate that the fence get built. ”There's a loophole in that big enough to bring all the immigrants through,” Thompson said. Thompson again blasted the Bush administration for its handling of the war in Iraq, and for every major foreign policy decision its made since Sept. 11, 2001. ”We just squandered an opportunity to that unprecedented,” Thompson said, by wasting the international good will extended to the United Nations following those terrorist attacks. On taking the troops out of Iraq, Thompson said the time is now. ”I think we could reasonably start taking the troops out right now, and I think we should,” he said. One student asked if bringing the troops home now would increase the chances for another terrorist attack on American soil. Thompson said no, and decried what he said was the Bush administration's errors in connecting Iraq to terrorism in the first place. Another student asked what Thompson felt was the best way to pay down the national debt. Thompson said the first step is to stop spending money that the government doesn't have, then put in place a pay-as-you- go approach that would mandate that every thing coming out of the federal government have an identified funding source. The problem is getting people interested in such a boring topic, he said. ”People's eyes tend to glaze over when you talk about it,” Thompson said he as he looked around the room to prove his point.