Conquering the Divide

In a crushing blow to both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, I have decided to vote for John Edwards in my upcoming Democrats Abroad primary.*

For a year, I’ve been going back and forth. I could think of good reasons to support any of Clinton, Obama or Edwards. And I will enthusiastically support the party’s nominee, no matter which of the 3 it may be. But for now, I’m mad.

There is no reason for the current cheap shots, the mud that both Obama and Clinton are slinging. Is there any doubt that either will enthusiastically support the rights of minorities and women? That either will be far better for the country than Bush and the crop of Republicans wanting to replace him? Did Obama support slumlords? Is Clinton the source of Walmart ills? Nopey, nope nope.

A message to the Clinton & Obama: Please grow up, Hillary & Barack. Your rhetoric (and the rhetoric of both of your spouses) supports Edwards’ point: he is the adult in the race.

Most importantly, please take a moment to look past the primaries and nomination, to a long summer & autumn where the Republicans will delight in re-slinging the mud that you’ve so generously provided – they won’t have to come up with new information (true or untrue) thanks to the poorly-thought-out long term strategy of your campaigns. I’m disappointed in both – a pox on both of your houses. I only hope that the Democratic Party won’t implode in November because of the petulant, selfish acts of you, our leaders, in January. If the Republicans win the White House, I hope each of you has a mirror handy if you’re looking for the reason.

*For those who may be saying: “Why should you be able to vote at all?”, the answer is simple: Form 1040. Yep, most US expats retain US citizenship (Don & I would never give it up, even after we get our Canadian citizenship), and we annually file our IRS form 1040s. The US (unlike many other countries) taxes on worldwide income. There are tax treaties between the US & Canada, so for the most part we’re not double taxed, and it’s true that sometimes my income is low enough that I pay no US taxes, but I still file. Further, last I heard, one still had the right to vote even if one had no tax liability.

With an acknowledgment that I’m far from the world’s best gardener (okay, I admit it, I’m not even a competent gardener – that’s a shout-out to Lynette), I do alright with houseplants.

Our home has a room off the great room that we refer to as the sunroom. It’s not really a sunroom in the classic sense, but it does have expansive south-facing windows, and is a source of warmth on sunny days, winter & summer. (It’s also a royal pain for day-time television watching, because the glare hits the television screen directly, but I digress …)

We’ve got a dozen or so houseplants in our sunroom. Yes, Don & I water them (Don’s a more frequent, but quite stingy, waterer; I really douse them, but not often). They seem to thrive. And as they thrive, they provide good feelings about friends, past & present – most have links of one kind or another to friends.

Perhaps the oldest is from a friend in Wisconsin, with whom (sadly) I’m in only infrequent touch. Margaret and her then-husband had a wonderful plant called a wax plant (hoya carnosa). It’s a wonderfully apt name, as the leaves are tough with a waxy feel, and the flowers stiff and almost fake looking – it’s as if they’d been dipped in wax. From a tiny cutting I got from Margeret nearly 30 years (and at least 7 moves) ago, my wax plant is now thriving, climbing up a wall, and across near the ceiling. It occasionally blooms, and the smell is wonderful. A progeny of Margaret’s original cutting is now at work for the enjoyment of others. I like our wax plant so much that in October I picked up another at our church fair – this one of a variegated variety.

Another old Wisconsin friend connection plant is my schefflera. Jane had one, and I fell in love with it. It’s not susceptible to easy cutting, so I bought my own, a little one, about 20 years ago. It’s now large, and in wonderful shape, straining southward toward the sun. We’re now cultivating a 2nd, variegated schefflera, the sole remaining plant from a combination pot given to us as a housewarming present nearly 5 years ago.

And then there’s the Son of the Son of Sam. (It’s probably more accurate at this point to say the Great-great-great Grandson of Sam, as we’re probably into the 4th or 5th generation by now, but we’ll stick with Son of Sam.) The Son of Sam is an aloe vera plant, a gift from a good Baltimore friend (and contributor here), Michael, and his wife Kim. I’ve nearly lost Son of Sam several times (leaving it outside too far into the fall, forgetting to water it in the height of the summer), but it always comes back to sooth our latest cooking or sun burns.

Other plants have histories – one was given to me when I was laid up for several weeks with my broken leg; another a reminder of an old friend of my mother’s who had a magnificent Christmas cactus, magnificent because it was decades old, and I wanted to grow one just like it (it still has a l-o-n-g way to go to match Pearl’s!).

Years ago, I took cuttings and rooted several plants to give to my daughter as a housewarming gift – she’d just moved out of the dorm into her first truly independent living situation. My guess is that the plants lasted about 3 weeks ( perhaps longer for the ones that didn’t need any water). It didn’t sit well with me then, but I think I understand now. At age 18 or 19, she didn’t need the connection to the past – hers or mine. Were I to do it again, the results might be different.

So I sit here on a bright winter morning, looking out at the white outside, and the green inside, and think of my friends, past and present, Mike & Kim, Margaret, Jane, Myrtle, Pearl, Lynette, Lynn and so many others who’ve shared their greenery and knowledge with me. Thanks, friends, for these green reminders of all you’ve given me.

Don rightly points out that making resolutions often sets up one for failure when the resolutions aren’t met. That doesn’t mean, though, that I can’t try. So, here are my 2008 resolutions (goals? hopes?):

• I want to lose weight, and keep it off. I lost a lot of weight a couple of years ago on a very low calorie diet, but regained it all by poor eating habits. This time, at least at first, I’m going to try to do it on my own, by making good food choices – lots of veggies and fruits, cut way down on breads, pastas, etc. If I’m successful, I’ll look better, and it’ll help my bum ankle, as well.

• I’m going to be more cognizant of social justice in my purchasing decisions. For the past couple of years, we’ve been good about purchasing Fair Trade Coffee, at first (and still occasionally) from Ten Thousand Villages, but my church has now adopted Fair Trade Coffee as its standard. We use the coffee at the church, as well as sell it. Our supplier is Planet Bean Coffee in Guelph, itself a cooperative that has the added benefit of promoting a coffee named Cafe Feminino. Cafe Feminino is not only Fair Trade coffee, it also helps women from a society that’s not always woman-friendly.

In 2008, I’m going to expand my fair trade horizons, and do what I can to purchase clothing and other goods from vendors who care about how their products are produced. We started this year by purchasing all of our Christmas presents through Ten Thousand Villages (a favorite vendor, because it not only assures that the makers of the products are fairly compensated, but it is also an effort of the Mennonite Central Committee, an excellent group (along with other organizations such as the American Friends Service Committee) promoting peace.

But I digress . . . making a decision to purchase items that are fairly produced, non-exploitive is not all that easy. Fair Trade coffee is always labelled as Fair Trade Certified. But when looking at other items – be they socks, spatulas, or whatever – how is the purchaser to know if a child was exploited in the manufacture of the item? And I won’t become a protectionist, either. While I know that it’s unlikely that a US worker is not being exploited, at least in the same way that perhaps a Chinese worker might be, I don’t think that’s a reason to adopt the “Buy US” mentality. (Of course, I needn’t mention that the “Buy US” approach would be a bit absurd as we live in Canada.) We are very much in a global economy (Lou Dobbs, the idiot, notwithstanding), and I have no problem with a spatula being manufactured in Indonesia. I do have a problem if the low-price-above-all-else mentality causes the spatula to be manufactured by children, or if a living wage isn’t paid.

As I figure out how to do this, I’ll share with you. I welcome any and all ideas!

• I’m going to figure out who I’m going to support for President. (Well, that’s not really a resolution – it’s a decision, one that I have to make soon if I want to vote in the Dems Abroad primary.)

• I’m going to try to be better with paperwork.

• I’d like to take up drumming in a drumming circle, perhaps with a djembe.

• I’m going to be a more regular blogger.

Well, that should be enough to get me started and keep me busy. Here’s wishing to you a gentle 2008 – may lots of good things come your way.