MR. KOJO NNAMDIIt's "Your Turn." Any issue you'd like to talk about, start calling now. 800-433-8810, or go to our website kojoshow.org. Send us a tweet @kojoshow or e-mail to kojo@wamu.org. Just a few suggestions, last week we took "Kojo In Your Community" into Fairfax County, and one of the issues we discussed was school discipline. A lot of parents upset at what they claim are zero tolerance policies. We had superintendant Jack Dale there.

MR. KOJO NNAMDIHe said they were considering a number of suggestions to change. One such suggestion that's been raised recently in the news media, recording all of the hearings that involve young people because some parents claim there is an environment of hostility when the kids are being questioned in these hearings. So if these hearings are recorded, then everybody would know. What do you think? For budgetary reasons, the Smithsonian National Zoo says it's going to have to close down the popular Kids' Farm by the summer of this year.

MR. KOJO NNAMDIIt costs about $250,000 a year to maintain Kids' Farm, according to the zoo. But the blog "Greater Greater Washington" says the money spent on parking, food and gifts by the thousands of families who visit Kids' Farm every year -- the attraction draws about 30 percent of the zoo's visitors. He says that will result in a loss of much more revenue so he suggests restrictions on FONZ members, that Friends of the National Zoo members, free parking benefits and tweaking the parking for staff members to allow more parking spaces for visitors. What do you say?

MR. KOJO NNAMDI800-433-8850 is the number to call. Did you see President Obama's speech on Libya last night? Two words stuck out for me -- two words stuck out for me, that is, Bosnia and opportunity. Bosnia, and I also frankly thought Rwanda, genocide, when the world waited until it was too late before mass killings occurred. And the opportunity to strike without putting U.S. forces on the ground, work with a coalition and then get out. Others say it's clearly not that simple. What do you say? 800-433-8850.

MR. KOJO NNAMDILet's start with Gary in Washington D.C. Gary, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

GARYGood afternoon, Kojo.

NNAMDIGood afternoon.

GARYMy opinion on the American and Western intervention in the civil war in Libya is that skin color of the inhabitants plays a large part in why we tend to intervene in one place -- in one war and not in another situation. Especially we see this in Africa.

NNAMDIWell, so -- well, before -- before you go any farther, so nothing the president said last night made any sense to you?

GARYIt's not that simple. It's not that none of it made any sense. I just have the opinion that -- that...

NNAMDIHe wasn't telling the truth.

GARY…that we will not -- that we will -- well, I don't think he -- I think was playing -- he was playing politics, which all presidents do. The truth isn't something we can always expect out of president. But I think if the United States had put some of the same energy into Ivory Coast or Zimbabwe, even absent military efforts, but full diplomatic efforts, with the full power of the president behind it, we could have saved many lives and had significant positive effects on these countries, without...

NNAMDISo you don't -- you don't...

GARY...having to spend the great amount of money that we've already spent in tomahawk missiles on Libya.

NNAMDISo you don't make any distinction between Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, and Libya. What the president apparently was trying to point out last night was some of the distinctions, including the fact that Libya finds itself between Tunisia and Egypt, both of which are fairly unstable right now. That Gadhafi has the power and actually threatened to commit greater mass murder than has been committed in either of those countries. You didn't find any of those particularly credible. How about people who say, well, we did it because there's oil there.

GARYI disagree. I don't -- perhaps for the Europeans that was a significant impetus, however, I think for the United States it remains a question that we need to examine of why we do things in certain places, and why, in the darker -- in the -- in the countries...

NNAMDISo where do...

GARY...with darker skin populations we tend not to.

NNAMDII was about to ask, where do you think that the color line starts? At what point of racial complexion do we decide to stop intervening?

GARYWell, I specifically use darker skin and lighter skin instead of dark skin and light skin, because it's not always that simple. And that's my -- that's my point. But where there are lighter skin peoples we tend to be more likely to act, and where there are darker skin peoples we are less likely to act. It's not a simple on or off.

NNAMDISo even in the so-called dark continent of Africa, we make distinctions based on color prejudice is what you're saying?

GARYAbsolutely.

NNAMDIOkay. Thank you very much for your call. I don't think you'll find a whole -- well, let me not say who will disagree and who won't. We'll see. On to Connie in Potomac, Md. Connie, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

CONNIEHi, Kojo. I'm sorry that I may have called you about ten -- five minutes too late after the specialist had left.

NNAMDIOh, but it's "Your Turn," so you can talk about what we talked about before.

CONNIEWell, what I -- what -- the subject matter that I'd like to bring up is what's happening in Libya right now.

NNAMDIYes.

CONNIEIn the sense that it's a good marking of what we have progressed. That the way the rebels are being treated, bombarded with planes and bomb, et cetera, by its own so-called head of the country, it's comparison to what happened to -- in Europe, in Germany. I'm talking about 70, 80 years ago, when Hitler, the way that he had treated his people, you know, the Germans, the German Jews, how he had -- behind the scene almost too a good part of it, murdering them, not by the thousands, millions.

NNAMDIWell, there are people who will say that -- there are people who will say that President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe did the same thing in (word?) where he felt he had opponents. What would you see as the difference? Why are we not in Zimbabwe, some people would argue.

CONNIEWell, what the point that I tried to make is, see, I'm not expert in the knowledge and the information behind all the scenes and -- other than what's been reported to me...

NNAMDISure.

CONNIE...through the news. But my point to make is, in some sense that because of the improvement in information flowing from country to country, news and technology and so on, that I'm in some ways feeling that it's such a blessing to see that we have progressed so far that we are able to act as a people the world can act upon this...

NNAMDIWell, one of the points that the president was making last night is that there is a coalition here that involves both countries of Europe and countries in the Arab League. And I think one of the things that I was looking for were responses from people to what the president said last night, but there seems to be some people who simply decide to ignore anything the president said. It's one thing to oppose him or to agree with him, but to ignore everything he said in order to simply stick to your own ideas about what went on seems to me is a little bit of a stretch, but we move on.

NNAMDIOn now to Raj in Sterling, Va. Raj, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

RAJHi, Kojo. Thanks for taking my call. This is completely off topic, but there...

NNAMDIThere is no topic. The topic is yours, Raj.

RAJOkay, thank you. The recent vote in Virginia assembly they passed mandating (word?) coverage for all the kids and it's at the governor's desk for his decision now. We don't know whether he will veto it or he will sign it to government. But what I would say is he should sign this bill. It is really good for kids, and also that the bill should mandate all -- not only the group insurance, but the individual insurance policies, all of us to be eligible for this coverage, because this a much needed one actually.

NNAMDIOkay. Thank you very much for your call, Raj. We move on now to Tony in Arlington, Va. Tony, you're on the air. Go ahead, please. Tony, are you there?

TONYTony? Tony?

NNAMDIYes.

TONYDid you say Tony?

NNAMDII said Tony.

TONYWell, I've got two things, Kojo. One is, I wanted to rebut the guy who said that it seems in Africa when the -- regarding the Libya intervention. Whenever there's light-skinned people at stake we intervene, and when they're dark-skinned people, we don't. That may be true, but it's not a racial thing or a color thing. It's because the lighter-skinned people are in the desert countries where you can very easily do things from the air, and no loss of life. You can just blow up artillery and things like that.

TONYNo loss of life on any side if the artillery gunners are smart enough to run away.

NNAMDIAnd you below the -- below the Sahara it's more difficult?

TONYWhat?

NNAMDIBelow the Sahara, that becomes a more difficult proposition?

TONYExactly. You have solid tree cover. You can't do anything from the air. You have to put people on the ground, and then it's like Vietnam. It's, you know, it's, you know, it's home team advantage you might say.

NNAMDIOkay.

TONYAnd the other thing...

NNAMDISure.

TONY…was on your show a couple weeks ago about windmills and NIMBY.

NNAMDIYes.

TONYWell, that got me -- I sent you that e-mail. I don't know if you got it. It was a little bit late, about NIMBY blimps. Now, this is a -- if you want to come in on this anybody we could make billions of dollars. What you do is you put a windmill on the front of the blimp, and then you have the blimp on a flexible bunch of cable or some means of (word?) so you can move it around, and you cite it according to the free market dynamic.

TONYSo let's say Joe was having his daughter's wedding on a Saturday. The...

NNAMDII hear you.

TONY... (word?) blimp citing authority threatens to put it there, and he says, well, I'll pay you $10,000 to move it. So they move it.

NNAMDIHave you discussed this -- have you discussed this or filed anything with the U.S. Patent Office?

TONYI haven't. Now, this constitutes a disclosure, so I better do that within a year.

NNAMDIYeah. You better hurry up and do that. In the meantime while you're filing, we -- thank you very much for your call, Tony. We do have to move on. We move on now to Levine in Burke, Va. Levine, you're on the air, go ahead, please.

LEVINEHi, Kojo. My question is about Libya. I have to say I'm a little bit perplexed about how this is being covered in the media, and also the reaction of some of the politicians on Capitol Hill. I mean, the very same people who essentially give the previous administration a blank check to go to war in Iraq without asking any tough questions. There are no questions about cost. We were told all these things about we would be greeted as liberators, and now what we have is a president who's taking a very deliberate action. He's using a pretty small footprint, and there's international support for this effort.

LEVINEAnd these very same people now are trying to -- I think, play political games and make the president appear weak and indecisive. And I think it's -- I have a problem with it because I think that in times like this, we should get the best from our politicians, because it's a very serious issue. And yes, we have the very same people who were essentially absent in the (unintelligible) war, now trying to game the president on what I think is the right thing -- he's doing the right things, so that's pretty much my argument.

NNAMDIWell, Levine, we will have some institutional memory in here on Thursday when Marvin Kalb joins us to talk about this action in Libya in the context of U.S. Actions in that part of the world. In previous years, Marvin, you know, a veteran correspondent and a veteran foreign correspondent. So we'll hear a bit more about it then. But thank you -- thank you very much for your call. We move on now to Steve in Springfield, Va. Steve, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

STEVEHi, Kojo. Love the show.

NNAMDIThank you.

STEVEQuick question. The headline is, why not just stuff a tomahawk down his tent pole. We spend $550 million in tomahawks and we're arming at the wrong targets. She's the villain in this case. Reagan tried it with a 500-pound bomb dropped from a jet and only succeeded in killing his stepdaughter. He run around in the desert ever since, you know, hiding every night.

NNAMDIWell, you may have -- you may have answered your own question, collateral damage.

STEVEBecause he's running around and we don't know where he is?

NNAMDICollateral damage. You may as well be asking why have we not yet captured or killed Osama bin Laden. These are questions that people with a lot more information than you and I have trouble answering, so I won't try to answer it. On to Chris in Falls Church, Va. Chris, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

CHRISYeah. Hi. I've been concerned for the last few days since the story came out from a British group, Stop the War Coalition, saying that large quantities of depleted uranium tipped munitions have been used both on the tomahawks and some of the air drops in the Libyan air war. And I just have been trying everywhere, my senators and congressmen, and other liberal ones who I thought might be able to shed some light, International Committee for the Red Cross, all over the place, looking for any more hard information.

CHRISAnd I don't know if Mr. Kalb would be able to answer anything about that on Thursday, but if you or any of the people you know can bring any facts to that story, it would be very helpful.

NNAMDIWhat did you think about what the President had to say last night?

CHRISYou know, if he had been talking about Honduras 20 months ago, I would have said, whoopee, he went in and kept the military goons from taking over there. Here he has a similar situation, and yes, he's trying to protect people from the military goons, but we certainly haven't been very, you know...

NNAMDII'm afraid that's about all the time we have, Chris. Thank you so much for calling. Thanks to all of those of you who called, and thank you all for listening. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.