Saturday, September 20, 2008

Where I Fit In.

My husband was able to take some time off during his business trip to visit South Point on the Big Island of Hawaii. This point is the southernmost point of the United States and from what I remember during the two times I have visited there, it is a windy and vast and humbling place. If you walk toward the water you will see the green sand beaches where polished olivine mineral colors the sand with lime green. I love places like these. I love the desolate parts of the desert in the mid-west where the sound of human civilization is not heard. You are all alone and you can almost feel as if you are the only person on the planet. South Point also gives this isolated and breathtaking feeling. My inner spirit does not shrink with loneliness or fear or loss in places like these. I do not feel alone, but instead, feel as if I am part of something so big and so wonderful that I also have a place on the vast green beach just like the grains of sand. These isolated places are restorative for me. They give me some perspective on my daily problems and concerns.

While visting South Point, my husband encountered a Canadian couple on their honey-moon trying to take their own picture. He volunteered assistance and that lead to a conversation about the U.S. election. The Canadians asked my husband where he stood in this time in our history. My husband is an ardent supporter of Barrack Obama as he feels his ideas reflect global views and reasonable approaches. He explained that having a President of color would also improve the skewed view that the world currently has of us. It would show that we have moved beyond prejudice and finally grown up as a country. As they talked, the Canadians could not believe that there was still prejudice in the United States to the extent it would affect an election.

Well, it appears from a recent poll that the evidence (and I caution my readers that I do not place much weight in political polls nor do I think the connection of the dots in this particular poll is necessarily supported) does not bode well for our evolution as a country. If you are still afraid of something different, big changes or concerned with something you do not understand about human behavior that bothers you, I strongly recommend you take a course in Critical Thinking.

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:15 PM

    On the shore of the beach where my grandmother was born in Youghal Ireland, the boulders were purple!

    I'm voting for him first because he's intelligent and offers a change from Bush Co. who have set our country back by leaps. Being part black is an added bonus for me.

    Didn't know you liked mushrooms so much! Thanks for being a fan.

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  2. I am an ardent supporter of John McCain. It does worry me that votes for McCain will be interpreted as votes against color. I share an ancestry with Obama but might still be labeled racist. I celebrate the advance of Obama to this position as a black man in America and I am ashamed if other countries find us behind the times but I don't believe there are as many as some might think.

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  3. I love that place in Hawaii (and most of the other places there too!) and I don't feel alone there either.

    I'm voting for Barack for the same reasons as Colleen. He is way beyond Bush in intelligence, appearance, ability to orate - in short - someone we can be proud to call president, instead of the malaprop we currently have. McCain is just more of the same in a better suit.

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  4. I cringe when I think about a McCain Palin administration. I don't think the country can afford another arrogant president whose idea of success is always war and whose vision is myopic at best. If anything should happen to him (should he win),HER incompetence would sink us for sure, I suspect. I am so glad the economy has pushed everyone to finally pay attention to the current state of affairs we are living in and let go of the ridiculous topics the media has focused on for much too long. It is about time we all looked at the cold, stark facts "without blinking" as Ms. Moose Hunter, Wolf Killer would say. There are too many reasons to enumerate as to why I will vote for Obama, but his website is filled with his ideas and plans if anyone is unsure of or curious about his platform. The Supreme Court is one of the most important reasons I can think of - that decision will linger long after our next president will. And, I would like to see my neighbor who once sold a lot of real estate but whose income has now drastically changed, and my hair dresser who is self-employed, and my 55 year old friend who is a mortgage broker and is considering a new line of work, and my housecleaner who is self-employed and has limited funds ALL get reasonably priced and good healthcare coverage! That would be so dandy. I would also like to be the one who stays in charge of my reproduction and who makes the important decisions about how to handle my life should I face a rape induced pregnancy. Since Republicans don't like to fund social services programs meaning welfare, housing, food stamps, Medicaid, mental health counseling, etc., I wonder who is expected to take care of the babies born to mothers who can't afford a child, either financially or emotionally. Someone should ask. Ahhh, there are so many reasons why I am a Democrat.

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  5. Here is my Sunday prayer:
    Creator of us ALL, We cannot change each others minds and we only create animosity with loving friends when we take on political issues. Let us remember we each have one vote and that we should spend it as we see fit. But allow us to walk out of that voting booth and greet the same friends we walked in with in a totally bipartisan embrace. Amen

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  6. Granny Annie...you are so right. We are all in this together at the end of the day and we will have to work together even though we wonder if the glasses our friends are wearing are working correctly. ;-)

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  7. During our short time on the Big Island we had time to see the Place of Refuge, the Ethnobotanical Gardens and visit Volcanoes National Park, but didn't get to South Point. I guess living in the Southernmost State Capital will have to do!

    I share your husband's hope, Tabor, that "It would show that we have moved beyond prejudice and finally grown up as a country..."

    Annie

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  8. Just reading a book "The Wild Places" by Robert MacFarlane. Its about UK, and as we are a lot smaller, our desolate places are harder to find.

    However, even in the Sinai desert, with a silence so deep it hurt your ears, one could still see the stars moving (or jets up so high you couldnt hear them) !

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  9. The lime-green sand in this beautiful southernmost beach will stick in my mind long after I turn off the computer today.
    Granny Annie makes a good point when she says that she hopes her vote for McCain isn't perceived as racist. It's a shame that race overshadows the plethora of policy differences between these two candidates. It's disappointing that politics is always so polarizing.

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  10. Bigotry, bias, prejudice -- whatever, it's a shame it can't get gone from the USA.

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