[speaker001:] Okay [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Was I supposed to do something?
[speaker001:] No. I had to press one.
[speaker002:] Good [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Uh, let's see, so, uh, were we right in the Middle East?
[speaker001:] Sure.
[speaker002:] Should we have been there?
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Did we do what was correct there?
[speaker001:] I think we should have stayed longer.
[speaker002:] Should we have fought them harder? Used more weapons equal to their chemical weapons that weren't used?
[speaker001:] Uh, I think what we did was good, but I think we just should have stayed there longer and continued doing what we did do.
[speaker002:] Oh, you agree with Schwartzkopf who says, uh, Drive on into Baghdad.
[speaker001:] Yeah. I think we should have stayed and kind of helped the people in Iraq out now because it's kind of like a civil war going on now. And it's almost like they're killing each other off and there is not going to be anything left of Iraq at all [NOISE] [sounds like zipping].
[speaker002:] Would that be so bad? Was there anything there to begin with?
[speaker001:] Well, I think, I don't think it would be good if we were to completely lose it, um.
[speaker002:] It wasn't ours.
[speaker001:] Well, no, I just mean that, that, the world in general [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] We've got to talk so it's just, just as well we argue.
[speaker001:] Yeah. Um, I don't know, I think we should have helped the, the innocent people in Iraq out a little bit more,
[speaker002:] I agree.
[speaker001:] than, rather than just quitting where we did.
[speaker002:] Wouldn't it have been wonderful if we could have freed the country.
[speaker001:] Yes [LAUGHTER]. But I think that's almost impossible, next to impossible.
[speaker002:] Yeah. So other political things that's going on. I heard Mister Bush say, excuse me, President Bush say that he, uh, wanted to improve the highways.
[speaker001:] Oh, see, I haven't really been keeping up with them so I really don't know what he said.
[speaker002:] [Cough].
[speaker001:] What did he say about it?
[speaker002:] Oh, he wanted to take the current secondary highway system
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and turn it into interstates like the rest of the country.
[speaker001:] We don't have the money for that.
[speaker002:] But wouldn't it be wonderful.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] It would be really nice because I'm kind of tired of driving in pot holes [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] And back east,
[speaker001:] [Beep].
[speaker002:] you all drive at fifty-five, don't you? What's that?
[speaker001:] I'm sorry, I dropped the phone [LAUGHTER] [NOISE].
[speaker002:] Oh, okay, um, I say back east you all drive at fifty-five don't you?
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] See, out here in the west a lot of our secondary roads are fifty-five
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] we drive sixty-five.
[speaker001:] Oh, really.
[speaker002:] Oh, yes.
[speaker001:] . [Voice is distorted.]
[speaker002:] Well, I, uh, last weekend, went home to visit my parents. My dad's in the hospital.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And, uh, between here and west Texas, there was probably three and four hours at sixty-five miles an hour.
[speaker001:] Oh, I didn't realize that.
[speaker002:] Nonstop. Have you ever been out here?
[speaker001:] No, huh-uh.
[speaker002:] How far west have you been?
[speaker001:] Only in Ohio.
[speaker002:] Oh, you've never,
[speaker001:] I've never been past Ohio.
[speaker002:] You've never seen the great American desert.
[speaker001:] No, huh-uh. I've never seen anything out, I never seen the great, I've seen,
[speaker002:] The Rocky Mountains?
[speaker001:] I've never seen, I've seen pictures of it but,
[speaker002:] Yellowstone?
[speaker001:] I've never been there. I've seen pictures, I just, I'm a college student and, um, I'm paying for my own education and I'm, I come from a large family and we, we we're never able to take vacations because there's, there's twelve kids in the family.
[speaker002:] Uh,
[speaker001:] So,
[speaker002:] Well, my college educa-, uh, thirty-six, worked for Texas Instruments for [breathing] seventeen or eighteen now.
[speaker001:] Oh, my.
[speaker002:] Uh, know, virtually nothing else.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Uh, yeah. I got my four year,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] got my B S in General Science.
[speaker001:] Really.
[speaker002:] Yeah, I know, it's a funny degree [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Anyway, uh, I know nothing other than the west.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] In fact, uh, down in east Texas
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] where the company's located
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] there's streams and water and things I don't understand. Trees and the gulf and it's really interesting.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] So tell me about where you live.
[speaker001:] Well, um, I'm, I'm originally from Butler and that's about an hour away from where I am now. I'm at Clairon. And, um, it's, it's pretty, like, windy and hilly.
[speaker002:] Uh, how high is the highest elevation?
[speaker001:] Oh, I couldn't even tell you.
[speaker002:] Like, uh, probably
[speaker001:] It's not like a mountain. It wouldn't be like a mountain. It's, uh,
[speaker002:] three thousand feet?
[speaker001:] Oh, I don't even know. I have no clue.
[speaker002:] Close to sea level?
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] I would say it's closer to sea level.
[speaker002:] Okay, uh, right here in Colorado Springs where I live
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] it's over six thousand foot.
[speaker001:] Oh, well, see, um, [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Um, yes when I lived in Texas, every year I had to drive, you know. I drove every year to the gulf and, you know, so I could have a feast of fresh seafood
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] six, eight, twelve hours away.
[speaker001:] Um.
[speaker002:] You know, just, just for fresh. I, I'm really interested in the basic concept differences between west and east coast and the central parts of America.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] How many hours have you been from home?
[speaker001:] Uh, the farthest away from home?
[speaker002:] Yes.
[speaker001:] Probab-, [sigh] I'd say five or six.
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Uh, now when I was growing up in the Panhandle of Texas, look at your map later and see the, the town of Amarillo
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] fifty miles north of that up in the Panhandle. To just go buy a pair of jeans, we'd drive an hour.
[speaker001:] Oh, my [LAUGHTER]. Oh, my Gosh.
[speaker002:] When I was growing up,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Now things are different and people buy jeans in town, but uh, we thought nothing at all of wake up, waking up in the morning hopping into your car, grabbing the fishing poles and driving four hours.
[speaker001:] Oh, yes. Now see for me, that's a long ways.
[speaker002:] Yeah. It is I imagine.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh. Even, well, like, I, I'm in like a little town right now. It's smaller than Butler and, um, Butler, Butler is about an hour north east of Pittsburgh. So that will give you some idea of where I'm at.
[speaker002:] Okay.
[speaker001:] And I'm about,
[speaker002:] Okay, I'll look at my map later.
[speaker001:] I'm about two hours north east of Pittsburgh.
[speaker002:] Wow. How neat.
[speaker001:] And, uh, I mean just this, this little town here is basically a college town. The college, without the college here, this town would be nothing. It would be absolutely dead. Because it's completely made up of fast food restaurants and, and in the summer when we co-, uh, my fianc3ee's family lives up there, *typo we come up here in the summer, and it's, I mean, there's just no one around.
[speaker002:] So are you working your way through college?
[speaker001:] Um, well, I go home in the summer and I work in the summer and between what I make in the summer and student loans, that's how I go to college.
[speaker002:] Well, how neat. What's your major?
[speaker001:] Finance.
[speaker002:] Finance.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Well, that's interesting.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] So, uh, what do you plan to do with it?
[speaker001:] Um, well, like I said my fianc3ee, *typo
[speaker002:] Savings and loans, uh,
[speaker001:] No [LAUGHTER]. No, no, no, um, my fianc3ee works down in D C *typo and I'd actually like to work for a company rather than a bank or a, something. I'd rather work for a company and, um, like be their financial advisor or something.
[speaker002:] Oh, that would be great. That would be neat [breathing]. Let's see, uh, so we're all excited in Colorado Springs.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Apple Computer is coming to town.
[speaker001:] Oh, really.
[speaker002:] Yes. The, uh, new employer is in the city.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] So we're expecting our local economy to [breathing],
[speaker001:] Take a boom a little bit.
[speaker002:] Well, maybe not a boom, but, uh, at least, recover to where we can all hold regular forty hour jobs still.
[speaker001:] Well, well what would be the unemployment rate out there?
[speaker002:] Uh, unemployment runs approximately six percent.
[speaker001:] See that's what it is here too.
[speaker002:] But, now under employment I would suspect to run closer to eighteen or twenty percent.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And the problem is that there are no good permanent full time jobs for people without a technical four year degree.
[speaker001:] Yeah. It's even getting hard for the four year people to find jobs.
[speaker002:] Yes. It is.
[speaker001:] I know people they are out of school for two or three years and they have a job that has nothing to do...