A good idea

The good idea of the day award goes to Tom Friedman in his February 6th article in the New York Times. He discusses dropping the reward money offered by the US government for the capture of bin Laden and Zarqawi and proposes:

to use [the money] instead to sponsor an essay contest for high school students in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria and Egypt. The contest entry form would say the following: "In 2,000 words, write an essay on one of these two topics: 1. Why do you believe the Arab-Muslim world is fully capable of achieving democratic, representative government and how do you envisage it coming about through peaceful changes inside your country, without any American or other outside help. 2. Write an essay about the lives of any of the great medieval Arab or Muslim mathematicians, scientists or philosophers and how their innovations helped to shape our world today."

The winners would be awarded visas and four-year scholarships to any accredited university in America to which they could gain acceptance. The winning essays would be posted on the Web in English, Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and French. What do you think would make America more secure? Rewarding one person for turning in bin Laden or putting thousands of young Arabs and Muslims through American schools?

I've always felt that if we spent half as much of our energy trying to make it easier for foriegners to come to the US, and encouraging them to study and work here, than combating terrorism with weapons, we'd be in much better shape. You don't tackle terrorism from the top down, you have to start at the grassroots and move up. Mr Friedman's idea would be a great symbolic way to begin.