Today's Communications among Ordinary Folks Show Us that Local is Global!
Daily I check the hits for my blog (http://peoplepowergranny.blogspot.com). I'm amazed at how many people from
outside the United States are reading it. For a little ole Granny from
Tennessee, this is extremely overwhelming!
I know there are some
out there, especially you younger tykes, who will say, "Get with it,
Old Lady! We are now global....have been for eons now. Where have you
been? Rubbing on that Vick's lotion?"
No arthritis yet!
But I am truly honored to see that people from Mexico, Russia, Iceland,
the United Kingdom, Malaysia and scores of other countries have at
least checked me out. I would love to know what I could write to
keep them coming, or what I should write to get even more from other
countries to read my blog.
When you come right down to it, we
are more alike than different. And you know, it may be folks like us
bloggers and readers who will eventually set our world leaders straight.
I
want to make it clear right now! There is not a single country whose
citizens I don't like. How can someone fight folks whom we have never
even given them a chance to tee us off! We Americans, and probably people everywhere, are swayed far too frequently by our leaders, elected,
appointed or born into the job, into despising some foreigners. And
don't think this isn't a well-thought out strategy! It's much easier to
kill someone whom you hate that someone you have no opinions on
whatsoever.
For example, I have a daughter-in-law from China.
She is one of the nicest women I know! As loving as any of my own
daughters. Before I met her, I had some preconceived ideas about
Chinese people that I would be embarrassed to admit now. I have met
her parents and her nephew. They are all wonderful! They love and feel
other emotions just like me, so now I know that I have more in common
with them.....like two marvelous grandchildren....than I do with my
next door neighbors.
And speaking of next door neighbors...they
are from India, a newly-wed couple whose parents chose them for each
other. We were looking at their wedding pictures the other night after
my husband and I showed our rather plain pictures of our discounted
wedding, cheap but legal.
Conversely, their wedding was HUGE! It
lasted at least two days. Wedding garb was out of this world! But
today, here we are next door neighbors. They are young; we are old.
We're winding down; they're just getting started. They speak one
language with each other, English with us. We have lots in common, yet
we are so very different.
I pray that as we come to know one another in the blogging world that we will come to wish for peace among ourselves.
I remember a book that changed me into a pacifist. It was called "Johnny Got His Gun."
It was set in World War I. A young American solder comes back from the
war with no limbs and can't talk. He is blind. The entire book takes
place in his head. Eventually he starts communicating with those who
care for him by using the Morse code. Throughout the entire book, he
re-examines war, how young German and American men like him, who have
more in common with each other than they do with the leaders who sent
them there. Yet, who do they kill? Those who are farmers or tradesmen
just like him. He concludes that we all have to refuse to fight. If our
leaders want a war, let them fight it themselves. This should be
required reading in every school, but I know it won't be. Our leaders
wouldn't allow it.
What do you think of going to war? Do you
believe in equal rights for women, homosexuals, Christians, Jews and
Moslems, or Hindus, or Communists?
Do you think that every
citizen should have an education so they can at least read and write?
Do you think that there should be no hunger, no uncontrolled diseases;
that everyone deserves a roof over their heads and parents who have
time to spend with their children?
There is so much more that
could be accomplished if we invested our time, talents and resources
in positive matters rather than by trading arms, teaching better
military training, overthrowing leaders we don't like, etc.
I
would love to hear from my brothers and sisters around the globe on
this one. How can we learn to get along despite leaders who seem to
want to fight all the time? How can we work cooperatively rather than
competitively?
I'm open to new and wonderful ideas.....for my grand children's sakes!
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