Politics - I'm venturing into deep waters, here.

Now that I'm registered to vote in my new location, I thought I'd better start doing my research on the candidates, beyond the annoying t.v. commercials I don't pay much attention to...
So, I kept half an eye on the Democratic Convention last week, and read some articles on each candidate, feeling pretty torn between Obama and McCain. I must be one of those swing vote independents that is a valuable target right now in the campaigning efforts.

Having lived overseas for a number of years, I know that cultural differences play an important role in people and countries understanding each other and effectively communicating with each other. Someone with little cross-cultural experience will have a hard time with international concerns and will need to depend on their State Dept. advisors for issues dealing with foreign wars and peace-keeping efforts. Principles regarding Democracy and freedom, for example, are very important to the United States, but respect and interdependence are more important, perhaps, in a clan-oriented society. When we (Americans) go blazing into a country with our anti-terrorism ideals, we have to present them in a way in which they will be accepted and integrated if we want to see real, long-term change. But is that our responsibility?! To change other societies?

So, Obama's lack of cross-cultural experience could make him vulnerable to mistakes of miscommunication of ideals or to an assumption of motivations not really there on another country's part. McCain's so-called "temper" or "prickly" interpersonal dynamic might add to tensions, but he does have many year's experience dealing with foreign nations and non-American ideals.

Obama's age and "color" are certainly exciting to think about breaking historical "boxes" put on the position of President of the U.S., but there's so much we don't know about his past and his former associations. And his job record is certainly lacking in real-life work experience, but he's obviously been able to work with the resources available to him to get where he is, so I don't think it's necessary to have worked at McDonalds, for example, to prove you can follow instructions or be a valuable team member. It certainly helped him to add Joe Biden to his ticket if he was wanting to add experience to his "tool chest" of advisors and resources.

But, honestly, I'm a pro-lifer, who wants to see the value of human life honored in every stage of life. I don't believe that a woman has the right to be promiscuous and then kill a life she didn't want, but was too irresponsible to prevent. We all have consequences to our actions, but my consequences should not lead to murdering someone else. But don't label me yet or box me into a certain corner...

I also believe that we should be good stewards of the Earth God created, and I'm all for wind and solar energy options. After Chernobyl, I'm not so excited about nuclear power plants. All you have to do is look at our crumbling infrastructure and you can get nervous about having nuclear power plants spread around our country. And how about hydroelectric options? Can't we turn some of this flooding doom and gloom into a positive resource? Is it an engineering possibility to make levees also be hydro power sources?

On the environmental issue, I was looking at pictures of strip-mined German landscape the other day and wondered why we don't make mining companies repair like tree-planters in Canada, where they have to turn around and replant what they chopped down to restore the land and prepare for the future? My husband tried tree-planting one Summer before we got married. He didn't do so well with it, but his buddy tree-planted every Summer to pay his way through college.

Anyway, back to the politicians...I happened to be working in the kitchen the morning that Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's running mate, and I was very interested in his choice. I must say that I'm favorably interested in seeing how her assets play out in the media, and the "box-breaking" excitement is there, too. Being a mother of 5 children and working in government already says something to me about her ability to MULTI-TASK successfully. And she's been effective at being a help-mate to her husband, by going out and helping in his fishing business, and cheering on her kids' educators on the PTO, was it? She's been applauded and promoted at every opportunity, so she must be the kind of person people not only want to have around, but want leading them. Granted, her learning curve going to Washington, DC, will be huge, but somehow, given a little grace, I think she can handle it.

So, McCain's gamble has impressed me, a 41-year-old religious wife and mother; and I will be hoping and praying for Mrs. Palin's successful entry into the vicious world of national and international politics and media coverage. On the topic of modern communications and media, McCain doesn't use e-mail, but I'm guessing that Mrs. Palin is more computer- and cyber-savvy. Do you think she's on Facebook??

Pets and disabilities

The other day, I took my youngest to the park and beach near our house for a little afternoon swimming as we near the end of Summer. And lovely surprise, it was the Humane Society's "Adopt a Pet" day. They had cats and dogs for sale, in cages or tied to trees for us to touch and talk to.

You see, we're in pet withdrawal living at Grandma's house for the Summer and this next school year, while I have surgery and do rehabilitation for my hearing. At our house in Africa, we have 2 cats and 2 dogs, all of which are female, so we have a regular rotation of kittens and puppies to enjoy. We love it and never have trouble finding people to give them away to. Cats are great for keeping the mice population to a minimum, and dogs are great guards. The problem out there is that we don't have great vets; they're used to treating donkeys, sheep, and cows. Who in their right mind would put money into vaccinations or care for a dog or a cat?! Most of our neighbors think we're a little nutty to feed our animals the same that they eat everyday, and that we pet them and play with them.

Another problem with keeping pets out there is that they sometimes get killed by snakebite, or people looking for free meat for their evening meal. We've had cats wander off, never to return, and our friends say that certain people groups have no problem with setting traps and eating them. I don't think they noticed the cat collars...

So, we have to keep our pets with a bit of an "open hand" mentality; don't get too attached to them, but enjoy them while you have them. So, we enjoyed the Humane Society's offerings for a few minutes, realizing that we couldn't take on a pet at this time.

And then on the way home, I saw a mostly blind neighbor lady out for a walk with her assistive dog, and it made me think about some recent conversations I've had with other deaf people about the benefits of having a disability dog. Of course, I'd love to use my deafness as an excuse to get a pet, but then we'd have to move out of Grandma's house.

But I pondered the problem of what a blind person does when out for a walk with their dog and the dog, umm, moves its bowels. Up and down the street are signs saying, "Leave only footprints", implying that pet owners must clean up their dog's leavings. But how would a blind person be able to do that with any amount of self-dignity? Perhaps you'd know the rhythm of your dog and sense that it had paused to do it's thing, but would you be bending over, feeling around for the warm, smelly pile? This must be terribly embarrassing, and it gives me a new compassion for the challenges of disabled people, especially now that I am one.

I have enjoyed beautiful bike rides this Summer, now that I've gotten the courage to go out and not fear traffic so much. You have to learn how to use the crossing signals and be very alert. But my deaf challenges and embarrassments have to do with trying to enter conversations with people. I want to follow what they're saying, but get bored with just standing there smiling while hubby does all the talking. I miss the jokes; I miss the details. Once in awhile I think I've followed it and have some witty story to tell, and afterwards realize that they are being polite at trying to figure out what that has to do with it... and then the pity smile.

I know that even when I was a hearing person, sometimes I couldn't think of a thing to say, or that no witty comebacks were forthcoming in certain situations, and I'd be embarrassed at my lack of social synchronization, but generally I felt I could be me. Being deaf certainly takes that away, and is one of my challenges that I'm hoping to overcome with my cochlear implant. I just need to remember that hearing or deaf, or whatever a person's personal challenges might be, we all have them, and we need to have respect for each other and have compassion in those embarrassing times.

Chat rooms and listening

I'm new to chat rooms and forums, but I have the sense that with so many groups and interests available out there, when you're in a chat room, there's a specific reason why "you", collectively, have assembled. There's a topic to discuss, or an interest in common. Perhaps there are people with lots of time on their hands and nowhere else to go, so they wander aimlessly in and out of chat rooms looking for conversation about whatever. But I don't think that's most people.

You're there to meet other people who share a part of who you are. No two people are exactly the same, but there are many ways that your interests can cross with my interests in a common connection at a certain moment in time in a certain place. So we chat and see what we can learn, or share, or be entertained by, for that passage of time together. Or maybe, we just get to know each other better because we learned that we have something in common and can have fun with it.

Last night, I was in a chat room where one person got offended by others' religious comments. He felt that he wasn't being listened to about his concerns, and that perhaps some were "preaching" and not dealing with the common issue at hand. He couldn't understand the worldview that several people had in common that God is in control of their lives, and allows bad things to happen sometimes, to refine their character or help them to become useful to others with a similar problem because they've "been there".

He couldn't even entertain the idea that God could allow difficult circumstances. So he "stormed out" of the room, and those left behind felt really bad that he'd quit listening as well. They had made efforts to apologize and clear the air, but he'd already closed his mind and heart to everyone there. He was in that chat room for one common interest, but felt left out when several others discovered they had another common interest that he didn't share or want to entertain. At least that was how I saw it. I'm sure his story is much more complicated than that, but it helped me to see a few things about chatting.

When there are too many active participants, the chatter goes fast and it's hard to keep up with reading what's whipping by and still add relevant comments. Emotions flare and then things get said and responded to at different paces, so misunderstandings happen because one person types faster or someone else's post arrives quicker. And then it's hard to retract the misunderstanding because you're not face to face to resolve it with body language or a smile.

Also, people should try to more or less stick to the issue at hand. Personal experiences can and should be shared if they're relevant, but more personal sharing is better done one-to-one in an email context or IM mode. If the topic is of a technical nature, and someone is sharing a deep emotional issue, everyone gets derailed with either wanting to help the hurting person, or feeling that someone is commandeering the discussion away from the topic they have come to discuss.

There is certainly a variety of people that arrive in a chat room, and to have a meaningful discussion you need various people's input. But that can become an issue as well, because you want to keep people in, so you have to be touching them all in some way, or they get bored and leave, and the discussion is over. But when the variety is either too wide a demographic, or too wide of discussion topics, someone will realize that it is not worth their time.

So, I'll continue to watch and learn how chat rooms work. And if I see that guy again, I'll try to build a bridge of understanding with him and hope he'll come back next time, and be ready to give and take as the discussion unfolds. Because we're all the better when we take time to really listen. Am I listening to myself??

It's a new blogsite; welcome to my scene!

This is my place to record what I'm thinking about. And if you care to read it, you're welcome here. I'm new at blogging, and still getting up to speed on the world of computer literacy, since I've lived many of the last 15 years in a third-world country. But I enjoy musing about life, philosophy, cultures, God, family, deafness, and whatever I'm working through at the time.

Do you ever have wild, random thoughts that could be moments of greatness or moments of complete embarrassment? I do, and thankfully I've learned how to laugh at myself (most of the time) and I'm married to someone who doesn't mind entertaining my wild ideas; he gets them once in awhile himself! So if I'm brave enough to post them here, you may see them. I think blogging takes great courage to expose yourself to whoever; they may laugh or be critical and there you are, just hanging out there for the world to see.

I suppose my biggest fault (well, one of them anyway) is being too concerned about what people think of me. I've always been that way, though it's not a debilitating problem, just something I think about before I speak or act. Which is sometimes good, because it saves other people's feelings, but it's sometimes bad because I don't express ME. So, this blog is an effort to discover and express myself in an honest way. I hope you like it...: )