And The Winners Are.....

Barack Obama & Joe Biden!

As the numbers come in, it it becoming evident that the Obama/Biden ticket has won both the popular vote and enough states to secure the electoral vote as well.  The last numbers I saw had them with a 303 electoral votes to Romney/Ryan's 206, and a 2½ million vote advantage in the popular vote.  Of course, there are ballots yet to be counted, but I don't see any way Romney/Ryan could win this now.

4 More Years:

Yes We Did!

Update Sunday, 11/11/12: As of yesterday afternoon, Florida has been officially called for Obama as well, putting him at 332 electoral votes.  He won the popular vote in Florida with 50% of the vote to Romney's 49.1%, a margin of roughly 74,000 votes.

Our Election Day Adventures

At 7a.m. On the dot this morning, Kaleb and I left home heading for my polling location roughly a half-mile from the house. When we arrived at 7:03, we almost couldn't find a parking spot! Having voted at this same location numerous times before and having never seen more than 3 or 4 voters there at any one time, I was totally unprepared for the crowd. We pulled into a spot after waiting for another voter to vacate, and climbed out to join the line outside the polling place (St. Andrew's United Methodist Church on Michigan Ave.). Kaleb pulled the hood of his jacket onto his head and over his ears, and stood excitedly beside me in line as we waited for our turn, 15 minutes in the line outside and then another 10 minutes in line on the inside of the building.

During the entire wait, Kaleb was on his better-than-best behavior. I'd been coaching him for days on what to expect when we went to vote and what behaviors were and were not acceptable at the polling place. We had added new words to his vocabulary: polls, ballot, election, vote. I had told him over and over how important it is for grown-ups to vote, and how important it is for kids to learn about voting so that they know what to do when they get to be grown-ups. Kaleb had learned the names of some of the bigger candidates, and has been watching the news with me over the last few weeks. He has been asking intelligent questions (relative to his age) about the candidates and how voting works. As someone who takes a real interest in politics, it makes me proud to see Kaleb so interested. I honestly think he knows more about the voting process, at this point, than many of my middle school students!

We finally made it to the front of the line and the check-in table. I presented my voter card and my driver's license to the lady at the table, and Kaleb handed her his photo ID as well (it's actually his emergency info card). Everyone giggled a bit, and Kaleb beamed from ear to ear, feeling very grown up. The lady made a show of finding “us” in the book and having me sign the register. She handed me our slip to take to the next table and have our ballot issued. This time, there was no line, and we were able to hand the ballot issue slip right over to the lady at that table. She handed me my ballot, and went over the basics, as I suppose they are required to do with everyone. She then handed Kaleb a sample ballot (the kind that shows you how to shade in your selections), and we stepped away toward the voting area.

Women Who Want Equality But Won't Live It

To my fellow American women:  If you're going to keep demanding equality, it's time you start living it!

Let's face facts:  It's simply not fair for us, as modern American women, to demand chivalry and equality.  The two are almost entirely contradictory.  You cannot expect a man to think of you as strong when you cry out for help every time you are faced with a task that requires a tiny bit of grit.  You cannot expect a man to think of you as independent if you get visibly offended when he doesn't open the door for you.  You cannot expect a man to respect your employment income when you constantly assume it is his responsibility to pay for everything, on every date, regardless of how long you have been together.

If you want to be treated as equal to a man, then act as if you are equal.  If you play the part of the "weaker sex," you deserve to be treated as a weaker person.

Most often, I think about this when I hear about incidents of domestic violence.  I am not talking about those sad occasions when one person in a relationship is abusive toward the other, unprovoked.  That's wrong, regardless of who is the abuser.  Rather, I'm talking about those times when a woman hits, punches, or abuses her male partner and then has him arrested for assault & battery when he fights back.  Really?  How is that at all fair?

Ladies, it is no longer acceptable—really, never has been, in my opinion—for you to think that you can be physically violent toward a man and then expect to hide behind your femininity as protection from retaliation.  If you are tough enough to hit a man, then you better make sure you are also tough enough to take the hit-back.

In the end, I think that most of the focus of "Womens' Liberation" has been focused in the wrong direction.  We have come a long way toward equality, and we should continue to press onward toward full equality with men.  Along the way, however, I think we ought to be kind enough to liberate men from the unfair double standards of an outdated system of chivalry and "kept" women.

Why I'll be Voting for the Guy Who "Lost" the First Debate

People who know me know that I'm a committed liberal in nearly every way.  I dutifully tuned in to the first of the Presidential debates, which took place this past Wednesday.

I didn't expect that either candidate would say anything embarrassing or outright stupid.  I was right.  I didn't expect either candidate to say anything explosively wonderful.  Again, I was right.  In fact, while I didn't hear everything I expected to hear, I also didn't hear anything unexpected either.

I had already made up my mind to cast my vote for Obama in November 2012 just as I did in November of 2008.  That hasn't changed, and is unlikely to change.

Leading up to the 2008 election, I was heavily pregnant and excited at the prospect of bringing my baby into an Obama-led United States.  I cast my vote proudly at my local precinct, with one hand on my swollen stomach the way I imagined some good church ladies might lay their hands on their Bibles as they cast their votes for their chosen candidate.  That night, I stayed up later than usual to watch the election results roll in to the news networks, and I had tears in my eyes as I watched Obama officially acknowledge his victory.  I breathed a sigh of relief and watched as the monstrous Sarah Palin faded from all but the most radically conservative news headlines.

Less than 2 weeks after my son was born, Obama was inaugurated, and I watched the event live on CNN while Kaleb peacefully slept in my arms.  Again, I had tears in my eyes, though by this time I had decided that it was because pregnancy had forever ruined my hormones, leaving me vulnerable to crying over nearly anything at nearly any time.

Accepting Un-Pretty

I spent most of my childhood being teased mercilessly by my peers, both at school and at church.  I have always been the fat, freckle-faced, redheaded, unpopular kid.  I didn't play sports.  I didn't have any particularly enviable talents  I didn't come from a "rich" family.  I rarely ever had more than one or two "friends" at any given time.  It didn't take me long to understand that I have never fit into the mold of what common society considers to be physically beautiful.  I probably understood this fact by the time I had finished elementary school—although acceptance of this fact would come much, much later.

As I grew into adulthood, I learned that it didn't really matter that I'm not beautiful.  I'm smart, I'm funny, I'm passionate, and I'm a hard worker.  I have learned that I don't need a hundred "best" friends, and I'm honestly much happier with a smaller, closer circle of genuine friends.  I have learned that who I am is good enough, and that I'm worthy of love and friendship and respect.  I've learned that I don't need to be beautiful, and I've come to realize that I'm not sure I'd even want the pressure that would come attached to maintaining a beautiful me.

Working around middle schoolers, these past several years, has given me the opportunity to develop an entirely different perspective on being "un-pretty" by watching it unfold through the eyes of my students.  While it's not something I point out to them, I have students who do not fit into the "beautiful" category.  Some of them may never fit into that category, and there's really nothing that they can do about it.  While the "un-pretty" seems to afflict both male and female students, it is the girls I worry about the most.

The problem I see is this:

When a girl goes crying to her friends, parents, or teachers, telling them that she has been harassed or bullied by someone who said she was "ugly" or "fat" or some other such derogatory term, it is almost always handled wrongly.  The first reaction or these friends and parents and teachers is to comfort the girl—and rightly so—and then to say something like "Just ignore them.  You're beautiful no matter what they say."

Weekend DIY Project: Fixing Up a Tiny Bathroom on a Tiny Budget

I have a tiny bathroom.  It measures 5' wide (I can easily touch both side walls at the same time) and 7' from the door to the back wall (with the back 30" of that being occupied by the bathtub/shower).  Like I said, it's a small bathroom.

When we moved into this house 4 years ago, I thought it would be so bad having a small bathroom, as long as I could figure out a way to work in enough storage space.  So, in addition to the built-in cabinet under the sink, I brought in another small cabinet and shelf, stacked them, and positioned them in the only available floor space which happened to be directly across from the toilet.  This worked and gave me the storage space I needed, but it left everything feeling even smaller because it shrunk the open space in front of the toilet down to about 24".  And it was in that tiny cramped spot that I had to kneel to bathe Kaleb try to dry myself off after showers without stubbing my toe on the cabinet or toilet.  But lacking any better ideas or the funds to find something better, I worked with what I had.  And I'd lived with it that way for the past 4 years.

A few weeks ago, I had mentioned to my good friend Jack that I had almost broken my toe while getting Kaleb out of the bath in that tiny little space.  Little did I know that, a couple of days ago, a Visa gift card would show up in my mailbox, a gift from Jack with a note telling me to use it to fix my bathroom.  So that's exactly what I did!  I took that $200 gift card and put about $150 of it toward supplies for a bathroom fix-up.  I even had enough left over to fill up the gas tank in my car!

Check out how far the money went!

Privilege, Entitlement, & Pushy Parents

Today three intelligent, strong women (myself included) were defeated by one of "those" moms.  We had been resolved to a decision we had all but made final, and this one pushy mom managed to shove her way in and override us all.  You know the type: pushy, stuck up, and used to getting their way.....the kind who believe that everyone they meet is there purely to meet their needs and fulfill their every desire.  They're the types of moms who raise children who think they're better than everyone else.  They're the types of moms who believe that their children, though no virtue of their own, are better than everyone else's kids and deserve to be catered to.  They're the moms who want what they want, expect everyone to give it to them, and don't particularly care what sorts of hardships they create for the people who must cater to their whims.

I absolutely loathe moms (and dads) like this, and while I can paste on a smile and force myself to be civil toward them, they will never never never earn any genuine respect or admiration from me.

Working in a public middle school, it is extraordinarily easy to spot the glaring disparities between the haves, the have-nots, and the have-nothings among our student body.

The haves are usually the children of these pushy, privileged parents who raise their children to be sniveling, pampered, stuck-up brats.  They have name brand clothes, perfect acne-free faces (courtesy of high-priced dermatologists), and they win every form of popularity contest—prom queen, homecoming queen, student body president, etc.  These kids rule the school, lording over their peers with jewelry-clad fists and holding court in the hallways, bathrooms, and cafeteria where they are attended to by those on the outer fringes of their kind....the almost-haves.  The haves may not be the best or the brightest at anything, but their high-priced tutors and delusional parents ensure that their kids receive unwarranted recognition for even the most mundane and average accomplishments.

Kaleb's Jobs

No matter what I do, Kaleb is growing up.  He has learned to identify colors, count objects, and sing numerous songs.  His vocabulary continues to grow, and he is getting better and better at communicating with those around him.  He's also developing his own opinions and learning how to express them.  As a preschooler, many of his opinions are expressed through defiance, so I'm constantly looking for new ways to inspire Kaleb to do the right things: follow directions and follow the rules.

And I'm trying to accomplish this with as few tears (his or my own) as possible.  When several of the incentives I had offered weren't working, I started looking for a new strategy.  What I have ended up doing is actually recycling a tactic I used last summer when Kaleb was potty training: a sticker poster.  It's so simple, yet so effective.

During potty training, Kaleb would get to stick a sticker onto the poster on the bathroom door.  He was always so proud and excited to add a new sticker to the poster.  Last week, I created a new poster which is now hanging on the wall in Kaleb's bedroom.  It's a little more involved than the Potty Poster, but it also covers more jobs and is divided into one-week columns—enough columns to last us until school starts back next Fall.

Each job is labeled in words, for me, as well as pictures that Kaleb can interpret on his own.  They are lines up on the poster, from top to bottom, in chronological order as they occur during the day.  Most are jobs he will do every day, while a couple are jobs that occur less often.

So, what are Kaleb's Jobs?

Spring Equinox: Life in Balance

For generations, the arrival of Spring has signaled the start of a time for renewal, for cleaning, and for refreshing.  It's the time when we begin to shake off the winter gloom and turn our thoughts toward the bright happiness of lengthening days.

The onset of Spring is a time of balance, both universally and personally.  In our solar system, the first day of Spring is the day when the sun is most-directly above the equator—rather, the equator most-directly faces the sun—causing night and day to be equal in length.  Today I will live half my day in the light of the sun, the other half in nighttime darkness.

In some ways, I think my body sensed the equinox even while I was still asleep last night.  I awoke refreshed, for the first time in a long while, even though I got less actual sleep than on a typical night.  Upon waking, I felt instantly wide awake, determined to have a productive day, ready to get up and being Spring.

From time to time we all get that feeling that we are precariously perched on the edge of some unstable precipice.  Our footing wobbles and we know that at any minute one wrong step could plunge us over the side into some dark abyss from which there is no simple escape.  We are faced with hundreds of decisions every day, every one of which determines the course of our lives.  The goal, through all of our decision making, is to keep things balanced so that we can move toward our goals and accomplish those things which are most important to us.

So, how do we get there?  How do we achieve this all-important balance we all need?

Unfortunately, this is a question that we each must answer on our own.  I cannot tell you how to find your perfect balance point.  In truth, I am still searching for my own.  I do know that I feel like I'm moving in the right direction.  I have finally identified what things make me happy and what leaves me feeling empty.

What is it that brings balance into your life?  Identify it, then do whatever you must to move in the direction of your happiness.  Take advantage of the promise of Spring, the promise of new life all around you, and let the warm breezes of the season breathe renewed enthusiasm into your journey toward balance.

A New Direction in Life

Seven years ago, on a random day in the middle of a very cold January, I was on my way to visit a friend and happened to drive past a homeless man by the side of the road, shivering noticeably, holding a sign that said, "I'm cold and hungry. Please help me if you can." 

On that particular day, I was pretty broke myself.  I also instantly realized that I had eaten both breakfast and lunch that day and was driving down to road in a heated car on my day off going to visit a friend and hang out watching television all day.  Surely, there was something I could do.  A few blocks down the road, I pulled into a parking spot at a McDonald's restaurant and started digging in my purse, the ashtray, and the floorboards for change.

What I found was enough to buy three double cheeseburgers—they were still on the dollar menu then—and a medium coffee.  I drove back the way I had come, found a spot in a nearby parking lot, and walked toward the man with the food and hot coffee in hand.  When he spotted me, and realized that I was intentionally approaching him, he came in my direction.  Completely unsure of what to say, I wordlessly handed him the bag and cup.  He smiled back at me and turned to walk back and collect his sign and the old milk crate he had been sitting on.  By the time I had walked back to my car, the man had silently melted away into some nearby woods.  I never saw that man again, but I have also never forgotten the genuine smile that crossed his face at the gift of fast food and coffee.

In the years since that day, I have helped when I could.  Sometimes it has been a dollar or a handful of change handed out the window of my car.  Other times it has been a sack of fast food or a few cans extra purchased during a grocery store trip.  The feelings that come after such a small donation last for days, and these encounters make very lasting impressions on my heart and mind.

A Darn Good Christian

A co-worker friend of mine said to me today, "You know, you'd make a darn good Christian....Well, you know, if you believed in God and stuff."  I must have had one pretty quizzical look on my face, because he then looked at me and added, "I meant that to be a compliment, just so you know, 'cuz you're always doing nice things for people and stuff."

At first, I thought this entire concept was somewhat silly, since if I remember correctly, belief in the Biblical God is the primary defining quality of a Christian.  And, while the reasons for my non-Christianity are a topic for another post coming in the near future**, I can say for now that I do not identify myself as a Christian—and never have.

What a crazy thing it seems to me that because I make an effort to affect change in the world—on whatever scale I am able—people will assume I must be a Christian.  I know I live in the Southern dip of the Bible Belt, but have people really begun to believe that Christians have a monopoly on doing good?

If this were the first time this has happened to me, I might assume it was just a random occurrence and dismiss it entirely.  But this has happened to me for years now!  When I've done volunteer work, people always ask me what church I'm affiliated with.  When I reply that I'm intentionally not affiliated with any church, they look at me as if that thought is incomprehensible.

Really?!?!

So, let me just set the record straight, in case there are any questions.  I don't need a Bible to tell me that helping people in need, even if I can only do a little, is the right thing to do.  I don't need to be a church member or be church-sponsored to see a need and do what I can to fill that need.

So, to those of you who keep asking, let me put forth the suggestion that your time might be better spent helping the less fortunate rather than concerning yourselves with my chosen beliefs.


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**Update 3-20-2012: You can now read more at my latest post, "Why I'm Not A Christian."

I Can't Do This!

When faced with a difficult task, it can sometimes be so much easier to just say, "I can't do this," and let someone else do it for us.

I notice Kaleb does this all the time.  Just tonight, he had trouble reaching the light switch in the bathroom and said, "Mommy, I can't reach it."  A short while later he was trying to open the plastic case that contains his play set of doctor's tools.  When the case's latches got stuck, he said, "Mommy, I can't open this!"  The difficulty he encountered trying to put a book back onto his slightly-overcrowded book shelf caused him to exclaim,"Mommy, this book don't fit on here!" Finally, as Kaleb's bedtime drew near, I told him to go take off his clothes in preparation for bath time.  He was wearing new pants today, and the buttonhole is still a little tight.  He called out to me, "Mommy, I can't unbutton my pants!"

And in our house, this is a very typical evening.  Whenever Kaleb runs into trouble trying to do something on his own, his first reaction is to call in Mommy for help, to do it for him.

As children, we learn to depend on the grown-ups in our lives to take care of us and provide for us.  That trust and reliance is an important aspect of the parent/child relationship.  While we grow up, those grown-ups begin to teach us the skills necessary to grow up to be self-reliant.  And then the cycle begins again once we are adults, and begin to pass along these skills of self-reliance to the children in our lives.  This cycle has been repeating for millenia throughout the animal kingdom, and is not unique to we human creatures.  What is more unique to humans (and some other primates), however, is this desire to proclaim we "can't" and have someone else handle things for us.

So, did I turn on the bathroom light for Kaleb tonight?  Or open the case of toys?  Or put his book back onto the shelf?  Or unbutton his pants?

Red! Blog: New Features & 2012 Goals!

This past week has seen several changes to Red!, and I wanted to tell you all a little bit about them as well as my goals for Red! during the rest of 2012.

The Red! Main Blog

This is where it all started. Things are basically the same, but I'll be posting much more frequently this year than in the past.  I've been on a bit of a blogging spree so far this year, and even if it wanes a bit, my goal is to maintain at least 2 posts a week.

Red!'s Family-Friendly Recipes Blog

In August of 2010, I began to notice that around dinner time every night my Facebook news feed would be filled with friends who had run out of new ideas for family dinners and fallen into a rut, eating the same old tired foods over and over again every night.  So, I launched this recipe blog to facilitate the sharing of family-tested and -approved recipes.

Quote of the Day has replaced Red!'s Life Lessons.

Life lessons started out as something that really excited me.  I had planned to micro-blog each day, telling of the lessons I learned each day just by living my life.  Unfortunately, my days tend to be more routine than I realized, filled with quick lessons specific to my life that were not noteworthy enough to blog.  Because of this, that blog went dormant after only about a half-dozen posts.  But something I do hear each day is at least one quote worthy of sharing, hence the new—and much shorter—Quote of the Day format.

Help Father Nathan Feed Pensacola's Poorest

A local Pensacola priest, Father Nathan Monk, has spent a lot of time in the public eye lately after his First Amendment rights were trampled by City Council president Sam Hall at a December 15th City Council meeting.  If you somehow missed that entire incident, the previous sentence contains enough keywords to make Google light up on the subject.

But long before he was demanding speak for his remaining 2 minutes, Father Nathan Monk was hard at work building a mission ministry geared at raising money to feed the poor and homeless of Pensacola.  And in the years his ministry has been operating, he has provided thousands of meals to those in need in our community.

Daisy List

All kinds of people compose lists, often called "Bucket Lists," to name all the things they hope to do before they die one day.  I think it can be a useful tool for helping to realize your dreams, analyze your goals, and organize your priorities.  Some items on peoples' lists can be unrealistic, like marrying a bazillionaire or climbing Mt. Everest naked.  But if you realize that you do have some finite limitations, you can compile a list that is both realistic and challenging.  I, however, just don't like the imagery associated with a Bucket List to name all the things one would like to accomplish before they "kick the bucket."  So, in creating my before-I-die list, I have chosen, instead, to use the imagery of "pushing up daisies" and am creating my Daisy List.

My Compliments

From the time we are small children, we are taught how to act and react around others.  We are taught to be polite and consider other peoples' feelings.  We are taught to use proper manners—well, most of us are taught—and say all those lovely "Yes, ma'ams" and "No, sirs."

And all of these lessons are fairly straightforward.  But, unfortunately, not all our life lessons will prove to be so clear and easily understood.

While we are learning our manners as children, the adults in our lives continually stress the importance of saying "thank you."  We are taught to say our thanks to people who serve us at restaurants, the people who carry our groceries to our cars, the people who help us find those an item we can't locate at the store, the telephone customer service reps employed by every company with which we do business.  We give a quick wave and a smile of appreciation to people who give us a spot to cut out into traffic on a busy street.  We say thank yous to people who hold open doors for us to pass through.

We are also taught to say "thank you" when people pay us compliments.  And while our parents and teachers are teaching us to thank those who compliment us, they are simultaneously teaching us to be humble and not to brag.

Then we hit.....the teen years.  And we change forever.  All of a sudden, we become acutely aware of our own flaws.  Our self-confidence plummets to extreme lows, and we even begin to imagine non-existent imperfections and greatly magnify minor ones.  It's a terrible thing that we, as teenagers, do to ourselves.

As adults, we begin to recover from this low period, but it will forever leave its mark on our lives and on the way we react to compliments.

Red!'s First Ever Red! Box Giveaway!

Do you read Red! Blog?

Do you like free stuff?

Well, then you're in for a treat!

As of the time I am clicking the button to publish this post, Red! Blog is only a mere 7 page views away from a lifetime total of 9,000 views!  This is very exciting, as it means Red! and I are approaching a milestone: 10,000 page views!  If you're a blogger, you should understand that this is very exciting.  If you're not a blogger, you'll have to just take my word for it: It's exciting!  Either way, this is your opportunity to get free things.....in the mail.....in a box.....that might or might not be red!

So, here's the deal:

Tell your friends and family and co-workers all about the wonder, beauty, and magnificence that is Red!  Give them the web address (www.PcolaRedHead.com).  Ask them to come look; order them to come look; beg them to come look.  Do what you can do to help me get to 10,000 legitimate page views—this means that I would not appreciate people hitting the refresh button repeatedly to run up the counters.  Also, tell all your Facebook friends about Red!'s Facebook Page, and ask them to "Like" it.

When I reach 10,000 page views at Red! or when we have 200 "Likes" on Facebook (whichever happens first), I will announce the guidelines for entering a drawing the win a box of free stuff!  What will be in the box?  I won't tell you -- actually, I haven't decided yet.  But believe me when I tell you that it will be totally cool, and those who don't win will be horribly jealous of the person who does win.

So, get busy helping me to spread the word.  Bring me some new readers, and let's reach a milestone worthy of a Red! Box Giveaway!

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**Details: Giveaway will be open to persons aged 18 (or legal age of majority in your state/country of residence) or older.  No purchase, credit card, or other exchange of monies will be required to enter the contest, however all persons wishing to enter must have a valid email address.  Entries will be accepted for 14 days after the date/time of the post announcing the start of the contest and the contest's official rules and requirements.  At the end of the entry period, all names will be placed in a drawing, which will be recorded and posted in video format in another post on this blog to announce the winner.  Each person will receive only two entries into the contest, and additional entries may not be purchased.

Quest for a New Daycare: The Reasons

About 6 weeks ago, the process began for Kaleb's daycare to come under the control of new ownership/management.  When I first got the news, I seriously considered looking for new arrangements because the director that Kaleb has known and adored since he began daycare there at 6 weeks old was going to be leaving the when the new ownership came in.  Within a few weeks, however, that director and the new management had come to an agreement that would keep her on as a co-director, so I felt comfortable staying where we were.

However, as the new owners have implemented changes over these last weeks, I have begun to seriously reconsider my decision to stay.

Responsibility, Part VI: Caretaker of Mother Earth

We do not inherit the earth

from our ancestors; we borrow

it from our children.

~Native American Proverb

I think it would be safe to say that, today, every person in the modernized world has been taught about the importance of protecting and preserving our precious planet.  Native people all over the world have understood this since time began, because they lived more closely in tune with the lands they inhabited, but industry and modernization and technology seem to have caused a collective amnesia of this fact in the minds of modern people.  Over time, this selective forgetfulness has allowed us to cause damage to our environment, some of which may be irreparable.  But this doesn't mean that we ought to simply give up and let the swift destruction continue....quite the opposite, in fact.  Rather than resign ourselves to the inevitable outcomes of events already set in motion, we should instead redouble our efforts to correct our behaviors and accept responsibility for the fate of our planet.

As Earth's caretakers, we have numerous responsibilities, many of which fit into our daily lives without inconvenience.

Responsibility, Part V: Citizen of the World

"I must do something" always solves more problems than "Something must be done."

~Author Unknown

Where do you live?  Of what larger entity are you a part?  Of what place are you a citizen?  I, personally, am a citizen of Pensacola, FL, Escambia County, the state of Florida and the United States of America.  Each of those levels of citizenship comes with its own set of responsibilities.  However, the citizenship that is the most meaningful to me is being a citizen of the world.  Moreover, I want to be known as a responsible citizen of the world.

This means many things to many people, but to me there are two things of primary importance in being a responsible citizen of the world community.