Miss Universe 2017

Since I've become involved in the Miss Minnesota Scholarship Pageant as their emcee over the past few years, I'll usually indulge in national and worldwide pageant broadcasts. Sunday evening was no exception, as a new Miss Universe was crowned.

Of the three Miss Universe finalists — Miss France Iris Mittenaere, Miss Haiti Raquel Pelissier and Miss Colombia Andrea Tovar — only one could take home the crown.

The honors went to Miss France, with Pelissier named the competition's first runner-up and Tovar the second-runner-up.

To be honest, I was ambivalent about whom would win once Miss USA was eliminated when the competition was pared down to the Top 6. Nevertheless, I was interested to hear how the remaining young ladies would answer their respective on-stage question. Given this past weekend's hysteria over the handling of border security and admission of refugees, I paid rapt attention to Miss France's retort to a question regarding that subject matter.

....Mittenaere praised France's open borders and refugee population. "In France, we want to have the most globalization that we can, we want to have the biggest exchange of people that we can," she told the judges.

Eighty Six people who attended Bastille Day activities in Nice, France this past July were unavailable for comment.

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