Welcome

I've just figured out how to check on who's reading my words and I've learned that in the last week, my little blog has had visitors from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Iraq. In the last month, I've been a virtual host to visitors from Ireland, Russia, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

As you might imagine, just from the title of my little blog, this pleases me a great deal. I love the thought of being connected, in some small way, to so many other people from so many other places. You are all very welcome. I hope you feel comfortable here.

I am just an ordinary person, with a less than average blog about noting in particular. I can't fathom how you might have stumbled across this page. And I like that, too. There's a certain romance in it, is there not?

I realize that my country has suffered the loss of two real ambassadors this month. Maybe this has something to do with people searching that word and finding my blog. As I said in the 911 post, we all suffer for hate and ignorance. It's horribly tragic.

People who've never known freedom of speech and personal expression often have a difficult time understanding Americans. Truly, when you have people out there sculpting their hate into art forms, or those with nothing better to do than to stir up someone else's hatred simply for their own entertainment, it's not difficult to think that Americans are crazy for this free speech business.

But it's vital to who we are. How do you stand against an oppressor if your oppressor will not allow you to speak? It's much more difficult, I suppose. The real danger is often not the speech, but the thought that the speech inspires in others, right?

But I am a very proud free thinker. I think that it's very important to allow even the hate mongers to spew, because it shows me how I need to think about that person, how much or how little regard for his/her words I need to have, or in what way I should regard them.

I've written a lot here about the American education system because it obviously no longer actively strives to inspire and instruct critical thinking. But the worst thing about the education system in Taiwan is that it practically disallows critical thinking, or thinking of any kind.

Students still must memorize Tang poems. Not that these aren't worthwhile poems, but very little is allowed in the way of questioning or considering the poems. Teachers tell the students what the poems mean, why it was written, and that's it. Students are not encouraged to question their teachers abotu anything at all.

The great thing about the liberal arts, such as poetry, is that they're supposed to inspire you to think, to feel, to identify, or to reason. They're not meant to be pills to swallow and regurgitate on command.

Free thinking. Free speech. You have to take the good with the bad so that you can learn the difference and why that difference is important to you.

I haven't wanted to talk about the ambassadors here because I don't want my blog to be political. But it's important. One idiot's right to free speech. Rioting and deaths. There's that thing again, about a religious belief in love and a practice of hate. Ignorance abounds. Sometimes, you simply have to say to yourself something like, "No, I don't understand that type of action, that type of speaking. But I know the person who did it was indeed a person. If I want him to respect my rights, I must also respect his."

Another idiot who is running for the presidency of the United States has lately practiced the same freedom of speech and has likely cost himself the election. So, sometimes, there is an odd type of balance to the process.

Anyway, welcome friends. Thanks for dropping by. I hope you'll visit again soon.