Oh, by the way...

In 2011, it was my goal to post something to my blog once every day for the entire calendar year.  But at some point, I realised that I was posting for the sake of posting.

In 2012, I realised that I wanted my blog to have a direction.  So I pondered.  And pondered.  And pondered.

Wedding blanket finished this summer

In 2013, I decided that I would just blog when the mood struck.  When I had a book review to share, I would.  When I had an exceptional recipe that I was excited about, I would let you know.  When I finished a knitting/cross-stitch project and I wanted to show it off, by all means...

But I wouldn't feel pressured.  I wanted my blog to be something people WANTED to read -- not something that was a chore to read.  And I decided I'd ease back into blog writing.  We're into September, and I figure an average of one post every four months should give you plenty of time to catch up.

Let's catch up on a few things that have happened this year, shall we?

I had hip surgery where the surgeon went in and cut some extra bone off of the joint.  The rehab is going really well.  In fact, the surgeon says I'm MONTHS ahead of schedule!  For the first time in YEARS, I'm walking without either a cane or crutches!

I got reunited with a friend I'd lost touch with several years ago.  She's local, and we just happened to run into each other on the sidewalk outside of work one day when I was walking to lunch and she was walking to a parking garage to pick up her car.

I got accepted to a doctoral program in my field; it was my second time applying.

I quit my job so I can go back to being a full-time student.

I just joined three fantasy football teams, each with a different format (not that I'm excited about football season or anything).

But that's pretty much all I've had going since the last time I wrote.  

Like I said...  I'll just pop in and write when I have something to say.

See you again in another four months!

World-Wide Need

It is times like these that kind of drive me crazy: an earthquake in Haiti, a tsunami in Thailand, an earthquake in China, etc. The pictures are horrifying, the loss is unimaginable, and the news coverage is non-stop. And then it starts: celebrities suddenly crawl out of the woodwork to tell you how to help. They let you know what they are doing, how much they are donating, and to whom.

Even Ravelry, a site I normally love and adore, has gotten into the act. Designers can tag their designs with special tags, and if one purchases such a tagged pattern a designated portion of the proceeds goes to a Haitian relief effort of the designer's choice. A person searching for a pattern can even filter for the special tag!

Before you keep reading, let me be as clear as I can be. I have nothing but the utmost empathy for what people most be going through in those situations. Obviously, I have not gone through a natural disaster of that magnitude. The closest I have experienced is the Missouri Floods of 1993, which was plenty for me, thankyouverymuch. And before you ask, yes, I participated a great deal in the clean-up efforts. I can only imagine what it must be like for people who have lost their entire families, for people who can't find their families, for people who have lost everything they have ever owned, and for people who now literally have nothing but the clothes on their back. Truly, it's unimaginable.

However, what disturbs me about the outpouring of "Help Haiti/China/Thailand/etc." campaigns is that there is a ridiculous amount of suffering and death on a daily basis that goes largely unnoticed by these same celebrities, media outlets, and dare I say it, Ravelry Powers That Be. For instance:

• Approximately 8,500 people die every day of AIDS-related complications
• Approximately 4,500 people die every day because they don't have clean drinking water
• Approximately 2,700 people die every day of malaria
• Approximately 33% of North Koreans are malnourished

These things happen EVERY DAY. These are problems that doctors, politicians (you know, the good ones - they DO exist; I promise!), public heath practitioners, and human rights advocates fight against EVERY DAY.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't give aid to Haitians right now. I'm not saying that they aren't deserving of prayer and compassion. Of course they are.

What I AM doing is imploring you to give aid to other, equally worthy causes every other day. They aren't as sexy, they won't make the news every day for two weeks straight, they won't have star-power backing them up; I can almost guarantee you that. That's kind of what makes the fight so special and meaningful. It's what will make you have so much passion for the cause later.

So, now that I've implored you to help, here's how you can:

My favourite HIV/AIDS sites/charities:

• CDC Factsheet on HIV
  
• Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
• amfAR, The Founation for AIDS Research

How to help with clean drinking water:

• Thirst Relief International

How to help eliminate malaria:

• CDC information on malaria
• Nothing But Nets

Information on North Korea's plight:

• World Food Programme

The Story of Hoa: Please help her

Some of you met my friend Sara when she came to Philadelphia to visit this past spring. Her friends Dan and Hoa are going through something at once so painful and so ludicrous that I'm having trouble writing coherently and cogently about it. But I will because Hoa and Dan need your help. URGENTLY.

Ten years ago, Hoa came to the U.S.A. from Vietnam to study at Luther College in Iowa. There, she met and fell in love with Dan. In 2008, they got married (in Minnesota, where they then now reside) and eagerly looked forward to starting their lives together. In the meantime, Hoa finished her Master's degree in French Literature, and Dan started his own construction business.

Two months after their marriage in Minnesota, they travelled to Vietnam to celebrate the union again. However, at that time, the status of Hoa's visa became unclear. Upon returning to the country, Hoa discussed the situation with immigration officials. Eventually, she received notice to appear in court on 13 August 2009. Unfortunately, she confused and missed the court date. As a result, she was taken into custody the very next day and has been incarcerated since then.

On 22 September 2009, Hoa's family and friends received the news that Hoa's case will NOT be reopened. She is scheduled for immediate deportation and is barred from re-entering the U.S.A. for five years.

PLEASE consider helping Hoa. You can go here to find sample letters that you can print out and mail (or email/fax) to Minnesota legislators. Please also consider contacting YOUR local state legislators for help. This page also features a link to help you figure out who your legislator is and what her/his contact info is.

While I believe that immigration laws serve an important function in our country, I do not believe that they exist to punish people like Dan and Hoa.

Thank you.

Please visit FreeHoa.org.

On Michael Vick

I've got a lot going on in my life. I've decided to transition my career path, I've decided to start applying to grad schools for Fall 2010 admission, I've been dating for the first time in three years (I mean, those three dates in the past three years really weren't meaningful attempts). The schools that I'm applying to are not in Philly, which means that I will be moving in less than a year (unless all three schools reject me), so I'm already looking around at my books and thinking about a massive yard/book sale.

So given the upcoming stress in my life (most of it eustress, but stress nonetheless), it makes total sense that some of my most recent therapy session was centred around none other than Michael Vick.

The issue of Vick has been weighing heavily on my mind. I am known for being a completely leftist, bleeding-heart liberal. I took a lot of heat on my blog from total strangers for defending Ben Appleby, a death row inmate (and high school friend of mine). I won't go into that issue again on this blog post, but you can about it here. What I've been turning over (and over and over) in my head is how I can go to the mat over cases like Ben, but I've felt so ready to nail Vick's ass to the wall. I've felt so ready to join the Vick protests and refer to his return to the NFL with derision.

But where was my compassion? I've had so much compassion for Ben and other criminals. I've always tried to focus on society's responsibility (which I do NOT believe takes away from an individual's responsibility) to a person, whether in rehabilitation, assistance, fostering community, etc.

But with Vick, it's been different. And it's been bothering me. Is it because he hurt defenceless animals who had no voice? Is it because I knew Ben but didn't Vick? But I've also defended and advocated for others with whom I had no personal connection, so that didn't make sense. And this is why I went to my therapist with it.

And she helped me untangle it. It's still a little hazy for me, and I'm not sure why this is so difficult for me to wrap my head around. I'm hoping that my blogging about it and getting some feedback, it'll help me. But basically, here's how Nancy broke it down:

With Ben, if one believes that he committed the crimes for which he is in prison (he had told me he didn't, but testified in court that he did), then justice is being served. The injustice and compassion comes in because it is my belief that society failed Ben in a major way and that had society NOT failed him, he wouldn't be there in the first place. At one point as a young adult, Ben DID ask (in court, no less) for help and none was given to him.

With Vick, he absolutely committed the crimes (he admitted his guilt), but seems to show little remorse. Although dog-fighting was part of his culture growing up, at some point in his life, he must have realised that this mass cruelty was wrong and that bringing other neighbourhood children into this culture was all kinds of wrongity wrong wrong. When he made it big in the NFL, he had plenty of opportunities to pursue other hobbies, but instead kept on with dog-fighting - never tried to change. And now that he's out of prison, has anyone seen him in a shelter? Has anyone heard of him donating money to the SPCA? He's spent plenty of time at the Eagles compound - has anyone seen him at a pound? Didn't think so.

Nancy said she heard that one of the local SPCA shelters is using a Vick jersey to scrub the floors.

Still... part of my brain says, "But doesn't he, too, deserve his second chance? Is any less deserving of my compassion than someone who is accused of murdering and attempting to rape a 19-year-old young woman?"

This is what keeps me awake at night.

Damn you, Michael Vick.

(For more on this issue, please read the Philadelphia Weekly's cover story, Pit Bulls in Pain, which is on Philadelphia's weak history of punishing dogfighters.)

Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein

This post has the potential to be controversial. It covers cultural anthropology, world affairs, and human rights.

In case you don't want to read it, aren't in the mood, etc., here's a pretty picture to serve as a buffer:

For those of you who haven't yet heard about this, you can read about it here. The basic gist is that Ms. al-Hussein went to Sudan, where it is illegal for women to wear "indecent clothing." She was caught in public wearing trousers, which has traditionally been defined as "indecent" for a woman. She now faces a punishment of public flogging (40 lashes). She could have avoided it by claiming diplomatic immunity, but she instead chose to resign her position with the U.N., presumably to shed light on these issues.

I've been turning this issue over and over in my mind for a few days now, and no matter which way I come at it, I remain truly ambivalent about it. It's a complex issue, and I'm going to try to explain my thoughts about it in an articulate manner. So, stick with me here. Or at least try to!

In the U.S., women can wear trousers. It isn't considered indecent. However, in Sudan it is. In the U.S. what we can and can not wear isn't codified. However, in Sudan it (apparently) is. While these differences surprise me, I don't find them appalling. I find them to be cultural differences. And I'm OKAY with that. I don't find anything there to be all up in arms about.

I find it extremely difficult for one country (ANY country) to dictate to another what is RIGHT. "We do things THIS way, so it MUST be the RIGHT way. Therefore, YOU must do it this way, too."

My friend Kristi and I had discussions along this line when she was working on her KAA dissertation some years back. I was bemoaning the fact that there were so many Chinese baby girls being adopted and aborted because of the population cap and how that should be changed. And she said that she was uncomfortable with us (meaning Western culture) dictating to another country how they should run their country. They HAVE over-crowding. Who are WE to tell them how to solve the problem? If their culture dictates that men are valued more, then that's THEIR culture. I learned that afternoon that there exists a delicate balance between human rights and cultural rights.

And that's where I find myself again.

Sudan has laws about what women can wear. She broke the laws. Some people may find the laws "archaic" or "old-fashioned," but that IS their law. When people visit our country, we expect them to abide by our laws; they have a right to expect the same by visitors to their country.

Now, the next issue: some people find the punishment "too much" or "humiliating." Talk to me about that one again when the U.S. gets rid of chain gangs and the death penalty.