I’m a victim of my upbringing…you know, You Are What You Were When. Forty years in the world of big business has hardened me, but I grew up in a place and time when the biggest lie you told when you were a kid was about whether you had taken another cookie out of the cookie jar. Honesty prevailed. Whether it was a kid bet or an adult business transaction, handshake deals were honored. People who were dishonest or lied habitually did not fare well. I conducted my business career in lockstep with the way I was brought up, and was once told by a business person I respected that my kind of thinking was old fashioned. You can succeed in today’s world if you think that way…it’s just more difficult.

As hard as I try to swim upstream against an overwhelming tide of anti-Obama, anti-liberal dogma that is flowing out of countless sources every day, I am impacted by it. Much of what comes at me through the internet is pure garbage…and if it is obvious that it is manufactured or just malicious, I delete it. Some of what comes at me seems to be very real, and is frequently confirmed by what I have naively assumed are non-biased television news reports. That bubble is popped when someone lectures me on what news channels favor liberals and which ones favor conservatives.

Snopes.com is supposed to be the definitive arbiter of what is true and what is untrue…I used it today to check out a story emailed to me by a conservative friend. It was allegedly penned by noted historian, Dr. David Kaiser, and was entitled “History Unfolding.” It’s an intriguing article, but according to Snopes, it was not written by Kaiser, but by someone identified as “TPS” who posted it on a blog. Okay, so what am I to believe when my conservative friends tell me that Snopes is controlled by liberals? In this case, I think I believe the information Snopes presented because it sounded reasonable, but then, so did the information about who wrote the article.

All of this starts at the top. When Joe Wilson called out President Obama, he did it in a way that was beyond political decorum…but he may have hit the nail on the head on the subject that triggered his outburst. As a result of Barack Obama’s denial that illegal immigrants would benefit from health care reform, and Joe Wilson’s outburst, Democrats decided they needed to “drill down” on the health care proposal. Senator Kent Conrad (D-N.D) and Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said “The group would add a proof-of-citizenship requirement for participation in the new health-care exchange— a move likely to inflame the new left.” Did the President lie intentionally…or did he simply misinterpret the information? Again, how do we know what to believe?

What has been driven home to me lately is that I am part of the unhealthy division of our country now. In spite of my efforts to try and understand both sides, I am more politically conservative than I am politically liberal. Most of my friends and associates are conservatives. I probably tend to believe too much of the anti-Obama, anti-liberal dogma that is floated past me when I am trying to be a good liberal conservative. I can only promise that my drive to get to the truth will intensify.

Leader of the Conservative Liberals?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edUuhfcJPzg

Barack Obama was hailed as the messiah when he was elected. Now, many supporters loosely claim that he was elected with over 60% of the popular vote, when in fact he was elected with 53% percent of the popular vote. No matter which poll you dare to believe, he now has the support of no more than 50% of Americans. The latest Rasmussen Report shows that 32% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way he is performing his job, and 38% Strongly Disapprove of the way he is performing his job. Any way you massage it, you can’t deny we are a country divided right down the middle.

That is not anti-Obama information, it is truthful information. I am presenting it because I am disgusted with what we have become as a country. Politics aside, there are moral, social, and financial issues nipping at the divide as well, but they are more subjective. It is fortunate America is not geographically and politically divided cleanly along north/south or east/west lines, or we might be headed toward a modern version of civil war.

I had originally intended to continue this article with support for my contention that Barack Obama is not John F. Kennedy or Ronald Regan, and discuss some of my feelings about things like ACORN, but then realized that I would be contributing to the very thing I am railing against.

No matter what you believe, our nation needs Barack Obama to succeed because he will be the president for the next three and a half years. If you don’t like him, work hard for a potential successor, and do it with honesty. If you do like him, support him with honesty. This country was built on honesty and hard work. That’s not just corny rhetoric…it’s something real that everyone can participate in. I for one don’t want to be the worst kind of liberal conservative.

[Photo credit to Eva Heinsbroek, Netherlands for "cute monkeys."]

Attention! Attention!

The French accent did not disguise the intent of the word our languages share from the Latin.

Whirrrrrr! Clunk! Clunk! Gone! The melon-sized rock, falling from a French Alp at terminal velocity, would have taken my head off had I not been fully attentive at that particular moment and hugged the vertical ice encrusted rock with the intensity of a lover.

Climbing vertical rock and ice has a way of acutely focusing your attention while releasing a delicious sense of aliveness.

A mid-life crisis in my early thirties sent me off to Europe to spend a summer trying to kill myself by doing obscenely difficult Alpine routes. With just a few climbs on a small rock in West Virginia under my belt, I somehow survived and learned one of my most valuable lessons: the value of attention to this life.

This seemingly basic concept of “attention” deserves a closer look.

[From Wikipedia:]
William James, in his textbook Principles of Psychology, remarked:
“Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.”

I wonder if our increasing tendency to multitask (of which I am guilty) is robbing us of the ability and affinity for focusing on the precious intense moments of living that are within our grasp daily.

If our brain is trying to accomplish several things at once, something is lost, and that something is the intense pleasure to be had from focusing on one thing: one simple beautiful piece or moment in the universe.

I don’t want to focus on the negatives of multitasking, but on the rewards of attention:

The day I wrote this, my wife Claire and I rode our bicycles to Ski Valley in the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson. We began our ride at sunrise in saguaros heavy with white blossoms and the faintly acrid scent of creosote, both signatures of the Sonora Desert, and ended at nearly 9,000 feet in aspens alive with the eager gobbling of a turkey in the deep forest.

Along the way as the saguaros gave way to bushy oaks, we caught the scent of dry grass. Then came the gin smell of juniper and the vanilla of ponderosa pines – all punctuated by the liquid descending call of a canyon wren – and finally into the clean sharpness of spruce and thin air.

You get the idea. I was paying attention – very close attention – to the subtle changes of the varied climate zones that span from Mexico to Canada, that we had passed through in just three hours.

Of course we could have driven it in a motor vehicle more quickly, and we do sometimes, but we would have missed most of the smells, all of the sounds, and the involvement of our own bodies.

Muscles working against gravity have a way of demanding one’s attention. Contrary to popular perception, that sensation is mostly pleasant if focused on, rather than trying to ignore the “pain.” Pain and pleasure can be interchangeable with the right attention and attitude.

On the way down the sense of speed was intensified by gusts tugging at the light bicycle and skinny tires. At this speed paying attention is not only rewarding, but required. Forty – or even fifty miles per hour – on a bicycle is pure joy, even if it is just on the edge of being scary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSXQJK57tus

While we were at a rest stop for a snack and to enjoy a view of the city, Claire was using her water bottle to wash a bug from her eye. I got close to her to see if it was gone. The aliveness and attention of our day together coalesced into my desire to hold her – and I did. I focused my attention where our damp bodies met, the smell of her hair, the sun on my back. As I held her I told her something very personal that I’d been wanting to share with her about my desires for the end of my life. I’m not sure any other combination of circumstances would have led me to make that revelation.

Life is only fully appreciated through attention – especially attention to emotions.

This subject deserves more than I am giving it now – perhaps I will come back to it later. For now, those muscles I used so fully are demanding me to give full attention to a fade into a long deep sleep.

It’s about the doubt I’ve always had about so-called man-made global warming. I admit that I didn’t particularly like Al Gore as a vice-president, but I felt that he was relatively harmless during his time in office. I actually think he’s caused a lot more harm in his post political years with his scientifically unsubstantiated cries that “the sky is falling.”

Gore, along with a media that is ever ready to jump on the wrong bandwagon, harangued the deniers, a growing cadre of scientists who have been expressing their doubts about the science of “human caused global warming.” 

In many countries throughout the world, global warming skeptics are outnumbering believers by as many as ten to one. In the United States, Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the UN’s 2007 climate summary on global warming. That’s thirteen times the number of scientists who authored the summary. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist, calls man-made global warming “the worst scientific scandal in history.”

For me, as a lay observer, the mass balance of it all has just never made sense. The associated sciences, chemistry, math – and my own common sense - makes it impossible for me to comprehend the premise that mankind and our machines are having any major impact on the this massive planet’s climate. 

One major factor: The Ice Ages

It’s generally conceded that the earth has had four major ice ages dating back almost 3 billion years. While an ice sheet on Antarctica began to grow about 20 million years ago, the current (yes, current) ice age started over 2 million years ago. Since that time there have been cycles of glaciation with ice sheets advancing and retreating on 40,000 and 100,000 year time cycles. 

There are glacials (when ice sheets advance) and interglacials (when the ice sheets retreat). The last glacial period ended about 10,000 years ago. The earth is currently in an interglacial period that has lasted almost 11,000 years; all that remain are the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets. While it is generally conceded that interglacials last about 12,000 years, there is also an argument that this interglacial period may mirror one that lasted 28,000 years.

Forty years ago in Alaska, the face of Portage Glacier, located just south of Anchorage, was right next to the parking lot at the visitor center. If you go there now you won’t be able to see it from the visitor center and you’ll have to take a boat to get close to it.

Do you begin to get a sense of the immensity of what happens to the earth? Given this information, does it surprise you that the polar ice cap is retreating? It’s been retreating for a very long time. Do you think that you or anybody else could have done anything to either start or stop this process?

Another arguable cause: Sunspots

Al Gore would have you believe that we have global warming that is causing sunspots to disappear. That is akin to saying a mosquito makes an elephant step out of the way – and may explain why Al thought he should be president. For a while, I subscribed to the idea that sunspots were a major culprit in global warming. It is more correct to say the sun drives the earth’s climate. In other words, the activity of the sun can cause global warming or global cooling. There is heated debate on both sides of the argument, but there is no question that the sun impacts our climate.

A study points to the sun’s impact: Solar Energy

The amount of solar energy that reaches earth can vary due to changes in the sun’s output. One study by Rhodes Fairbridge of Columbia University with help from NASA found that the sun embarks on a new cycle of orbits about every 179 years. We are currently in a cool period that began in 1996, and if the pattern holds, the effects will be felt beginning in 2010 – and some predict will begin three decades of severe cold. Last year, in Anchorage we had the third coldest, wettest summer since readings have been recorded. How many of you around the “Lower 48″ had the winter from hell in 2008-2009?

The most misunderstood factor of all: The Greenhouse Effect

“The Greenhouse Effect” is the rise in temperature that the earth experiences because gases in the atmosphere trap energy from the sun. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space.  Scientists disagree about how much the absence of these gases would impact earth’s temperature, but they all agree earth would be much colder- from 30°F to 60°F colder. In either case – life as we know it would be over.

Not the major culprit: Carbon Dioxide 

Water vapor is earth’s most significant greenhouse gas. It accounts for about 95% of earth’s greenhouse effect, and it is 99.999% of natural origin. Other greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and other miscellaneous gases are also mostly of natural origin. Human activities contribute slightly to greenhouse gas concentrations through farming, manufacturing, power generation, and transportation. In reality these emissions are dwarfed when compared to emissions from natural sources we can’t do anything about. According to many scientists even the most costly efforts to limit human emissions would have a very small -  and probably undetectable – effect on the global climate.

Skip from the concept of natural global warming to the concept of man-made global warming. One reason that man-made global warming has never made sense to me is because the earth’s surface is 71.11% water. That leaves 28.89% of the earth’s surface as land, with huge areas that aren’t populated or are un-livable. 

The Human Footprint Map was completed by a collaboration of The Wildlife Conservation Society, Columbia University, and NASA a few years ago. The purpose of the map was to identify human impact around the earth. I think that what the map does best is to show massive areas on this planet where there is almost no human impact. These are represented by unpopulated areas of Canada, Alaska, Antarctica, Greenland, northern South America, north Africa, Siberia, Australia, and other smaller areas.

The areas mentioned above all have a “human impact factor” of 0-1 on the map’s scale of 100 – meaning that there is little or no impact. On the other hand, huge areas where the human impact is actually much greater are regions that are not industrialized. All of this makes it almost impossible to measure the true impact of humans and their activities on earth. 

Considering the information that I’ve presented above regarding ice ages, sunspots, the effects of the sun’s heat, and the natural greenhouse effect - I believe, as many scientists do, that the human factor in global warming is relatively miniscule.

Environmental Responsibility

Don’t take all of this as a step away from environmental responsibility. Cleaning up emissions, regulating de-forestation, and finding alternatives to the use of fossil fuels are all common sense measures that need to be accomplished. Even if humans are having a tiny impact on earth’s climate, it is still too much. Let’s approach it that way, and not run around like Al Gore, blindly claiming the sky is falling. 

Some efforts, like the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill, accomplish some things that are good and needed, while going overboard on others. The cost of the bill over the next fifteen years will be $190 billion, and the oversight requirements will be daunting and expensive. In a fashion that is all too familiar in the Obama administration, there are elements in the bill that are very socialistic: fifteen percent of the revenue from the selling of pollution permits sold by the government will be used to offset increased energy costs for low and moderate income households and the “cash for clunkers” program. Workers displaced due to new emission regulations will be entitled to 156 weeks of income supplements, a health-care supplement, a job search supplement, and a moving supplement.  That’s for three whole years – sign me up!

We have a home in Arizona. A few million years ago Arizona was completely covered in ice. Oh, boy! Wouldn’t Al Gore and his fellow criers have had quite a time with that one when that ice started to melt.

In fact the White House has clearly stated that it won’t stop gays and lesbians from being dismissed from the military.

The Supreme Court has ruled that it will not hear any current motions before the Court because it found that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is “rationally related to the government’s legitimate interest in military discipline and cohesion.”

The White House stated that the Court ruled correctly in this regard and then referred requests for comment to the Justice Department. It did issue this brief comment:

“The law requires the Department of Defense to separate from the armed services members who engage in or attempt to engage in homosexual acts; state they are homosexual or bisexual; or marry or attempt to marry a person of the same biological sex.”

A spokesman representing gay and lesbian members of the military stated that there are no studies showing unit cohesion, morale and order have been harmed by openly gay people. He pointed out that attitudes among troops and society as a whole are far different than they were in decade of the 1990s when the policy was formulated and first instituted. Our military members who are actually serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have much more liberal attitudes about gay people are very different than some of the high ranking generals and policy makers who are now in their 50s and 60s.

It’s a travesty that several valuable members of the military, both male and female, who have served well and loyally for many years, are now being forced out of military because they refuse to deny or hide their sexual orientation. Some of these people in service have earned medals for bravery under fire, have taken on dangerous assignments, and have provided their branch of service with their special skills and talents.

None of the military members who have recently been forced out, or have been told that they will soon have to leave, have had any reports of misbehavior or disloyal acts during their service.

Some of these gay and lesbian soldiers and sailors have stated that some members of their unit did not realize that they were homosexual, and when they finally learned of that fact they either didn’t care or were vocal in their support of their gay comrades. Yes, there are some in the military who dislike homosexuals and will harass or bully them when given the opportunity. With very few exceptions most members of military units are judged by their peers for how they handle their duties, carry out their orders, and how they treat their subordinates – not whether they are gay or straight – the same as anyone else in service.

President Obama is Commander-in-chief and has the power to take action to stop this injustice from continuing. Even if his preference is to let Congress create laws and regulations as to how to handle specific problems in the military that arise due to some one’s sexual preferences, he should still suspend current enforcement of the policy until that happens. As Commander-in-chief he can reinstate the policy at any time that he feels that it is needed or that military discipline and security might be compromised.

The presence of gays serving in American military units has been documented going back to the French and Indian Wars of the early 18th Century. Many of the officers of both the British and American forces during the Revolution were known to be “dandies,” yet they led their troops and made battle plans with the same skills and sense of duty as their peers.

In the past, one reason for not allowing  homosexuals to serve in the military, or as spies, or in connection with critical secret projects, was that they might be compromised because of their fear of being blackmailed with the threat of public disclosure because of their sexual orientation.  Because of the shame and and public scandal that such a revelation could create, this was probably the right policy for past generations and past wars.  Yet history tells us that many people who were privately gay served well in the most critical secret projects, including development of the atom bomb, jet aircraft, and code deciphering. In fact, all of the major breaches of security that were made public after World War 2 involved heterosexual men and women, many of whom were married and had children.

The presence of homosexuals in the navy was common knowledge among American sailors and officers during the major wars of the 20th century. “Don’t drop the soap in the showers” was a common humorous warning shared between American sailors serving in the Pacific during World War 2. Yet those sailors and soldiers who were gay served just as faithfully in every military unit and in every capacity, were wounded, maimed, and killed just as often as their straight companions.

2007 Senate hearings discussing gays in the military

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe2bJmMKZ5k

This is the 21st Century: Let’s face it folks – gays and lesbians will eventually get their constitutional rights returned to them sometime before this century is over. Are we going to make them sweat it out for several more years, suffering and continuing to be discriminated against like the blacks, Hispanics, and Asians did during the 19th and 20th centuries? Or are we finally going to do the right thing for once and act now to eliminate all discrimination and finally let the Equal Rights Amendment be fully implemented?

I call upon President Obama to take the lead and fulfill his campaign promise to end the unfair and unconstitutional “Don’t ask, don’t tell” rules and guidelines NOW! He has the power to do that under his authority as Commander-in-chief. Do it now, Mr. President, and then let Congress take the time they need to work out the details of any new regulations – or hopefully they will realize that there should not be special rules for homosexual Americans and simply ban all discrimination in the American military once and for all.

[Photo credits: Lou Clarke, UK (Bronze statue- Tankies); Gabriella Fabbri, Italy (Color graphic - Three Soldiers)]

Editor’s Note: This article was first published on March 14, 2009 on Chi Newman’s own website, www.Chi-Newman.com. We are very pleased to reprint it here for the enjoyment of our own readers. Chi invites everyone to come over and check out her site. If you are a fan of Chinese culture, world travel, and Chi – check it out!

In December 1967 we were back in California on home leave from La Paz, Bolivia. We stayed with Ruth, Dick’s older sister, and her family.

Ruth and I went shopping every week because I was busy buying shoes, clothes and other supplies to take to our new post in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. One of the most beautiful items I bought was a silver punch bowl with 12 cups. I could imagine the delicious lunches I would prepare and serve my guests champagne punch, or use the bowl for “walnut tea”, one of the most famous Chinese deserts.

One morning while we were having breakfast, the doorbell rang. There was a telegram for my husband, Richard, from Lyndon B. Johnson ordering him to go to Vietnam instead. Wives and children were not allowed to go. We could, however, choose to live in the United States, Hawaii, Bangkok, Manila or Taipei. I was devastated and could not imagine what I would do with my children for the next two years.

Dick arrived in Vietnam in January 1968, two days before the “Tet Offensive.” All hell broke loose. He and one other American were in a downtown hotel were awakened by the sounds of gun fire and explosions all around the area. By 8 AM all was quiet – unnaturally so. The Armed Forces Radio said there was a 24-hour curfew so they did not dare leave the hotel. As all but one or two of the hotel staff had gone home for Tet, there was neither hot water nor food. The two men shared some pretzels and gum drops, which was all they had. By the next morning, they were so hungry they decided they had to venture out. They crept along walls towards the nearest Army mess, finding it surrounded by a wagon train of vehicles with armed soldiers in helmets and flack jackets on guard. They waved and called out, and were permitted to enter the mess, where they feasted on powdered mashed potatoes, canned beans and canned beef. It took a few more days before the city began to function again and the two men could report for work.

I decided to go back to Taipei, on Taiwan, the island I loved so much. I understood that there was an excellent American School run by the U.S. Navy where I could send my children, Jeffrey and Leslie. We were 180 wives with children, but no husbands. The State Department provided us with comfortable houses and transported the children to and from school.

Once we were settled and the children had adjusted to their new school, I knew I had made a very wise choice. I had the best of both worlds. We were allowed to use the Officers’ Club and the PX. I took my American friends to the best Chinese restaurants, and my Chinese friends to the officers’ club for steak dinners and other American-style meals.

Our husbands would come back every four or five weeks for several days and were treated like royal guests. I took over the finances and the upkeep of the car.  I never bothered to tell Dick when the children were sick - I figured he had enough to worry about in Vietnam. I played the slot machines at the officers’ club and had mahjong parties at home. Many of the wives played tennis and bridge, but I had not yet learned those games. I had two servants to take care of my children and the housekeeping, so the kids and I led a very comfortable life.

Several wives and I flew to Saigon to visit our husbands over the Easter Holiday. Dick was stationed in Can Tho, Region Four, in the south of Vietnam. I had to fly in a helicopter to visit him. The men were so happy to see us and treated us like movie stars. I would smoke a cigarette just to see all the hands outstretched with their Zippo lighters.

We could stay only for a few days, and I hated to leave. The children, of course, were not allowed to go. I think that during the two and a half years that Dick served in Vietnam, I went about three times to visit him. The wifely visits were allowed only when the authorities considered that the areas to be visited were relatively safe.

Every week two jets loaded with Americans would fly in from Vietnam to Taipei for R&R, “rest and recuperation.” They were not allowed to wear uniforms, so no one could distinguish between the officers and enlisted men. Certain wives chose to go out on dates with these men, while some of their husbands, I’m sure, had Vietnamese girlfriends. Consequently, there were a number of divorces. It was during the time of mini skirts and women looked very sexy, indeed!

Every Saturday afternoon the military would show the latest movies. State Department people were allowed to go. I always went with my best friend, Peggy, because the movie house would be filled with servicemen. One Saturday, Peggy was sick, so I took my son Jeffrey with me. It was an Alfred Hitchcock thriller and quite scary in one part. Anyway, somewhat frightened, I grabbed my son’s hand. Then, I began to rub up and down his arm, when suddenly I realized that it was covered with hair. I was rubbing the arm of an American soldier who never moved a muscle while I was doing it! My son, of course, was sitting on the other side of me. I was so embarrassed that, dragging Jeffrey with me, we quickly fled the theater. I guess that American must have thought Chinese women were pretty damn forward!

The Navy Hospital was very efficient and we took our children there whenever they needed treatment. One day, my friend, Lt. Greg Hamilton, told me that the Navy was bringing in some flouride to treat the military children. He apologized, and explained that there would not be enough to take care of the State Department children. I pondered for a moment, then said that I’d really appreciate it so very much if he could find a way to accommodate my two kids. He was a good friend and said he’d see what he could do about it. A few days later, he called and instructed me to be at the hospital with the children on Wednesday at 4 PM. I explained this to my kids, but Jeffrey was embarrassed and didn’t want to go. He had inherited his father’s virtue of always following the rules to the letter and he knew that State Department children were not included. I explained to him how important his teeth were, and that we were just going to show up and wait. If it turned out not to be possible, we would simply turn around and walk out. On Wednesday afternoon, there were many women waiting with their children, all with dental files in their hands. Of course I didn’t have a file. Jeffrey kept tugging at my arm to leave. Finally, Dr. Hamilton opened the door and announced: “I will call three names at a time and then you will follow me in.” He said, “Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Smith, please follow Mrs. Newman in.” My children had their fluoride treatment and I congratulated my friend for being such a diplomat.

After two and a half years my husband finished his tour in Vietnam and we returned home on an American President luxury liner, visiting Japan and EXPO 70 before embarking. Our next post after home leave would be Santiago, Chile.

By combining various characters, the writer can express different ideas. For example: the character “shuo” (to speak) and the character “ming” (bright) used together means “explanation”.

Chinese has at least 50,000 ideograms and no one knows them all. About 6000 characters are used in daily speaking and 3000 words have been simplified for written Chinese.

Literacy is very important in China because the pronunciation of the Chinese language varies widely from region to region, while the written language is universal. All schools in China now teach Mandarin, which has been called “the people’s language,” so as to try and standardize pronunciation and to unify the country.

Speaking the Language

Since Chinese is a tonal language, no system can exactly duplicate the actual spoken sounds of Chinese words, but they have devised a system called “pinyin” which works quite well.

Here are some examples:

• one = “yi”
• two = “er”
• three = “san”
• four = “si”
• five = “wu”
• six = “liu”
• seven = “qi”
• eight = “ba”
• nine = “ jiu”
• ten =”shi”

Here are some additional examples:

• day= “ri”
• moon = “yue”
• mountain = “shan”
• wood = “mu”
• person = “ren”
• son = “nan”
• middle  = “zhong”
• country = “guo”

Spoken Chinese has a limited range of sounds. There are about 400 sounds for 40 - 50,000 words. These sounds are made up by variations in tones. There are four tones in Mandarin.

1. High and level (as in High Noon)
2. Rising (as in asking “Here?)
3. Falling and rising (as in “please”)
4. Low and falling (as in “No”) in an argument

Here are some examples:

• Ni you bing ma? (Do you have ice?)
• Ni you bing ma? (Do you have a cookie?)
• Ni you bing ma ? (Are you sick?)

Bing also means “soldier”.

Mandarin has four tones, but Cantonese has nine. Many of the earlier immigrants to the United States came from the south of China where Cantonese was spoken, giving Americans the impression that the Chinese language had a “sing-song” sound to it.  After Mao’s  revolution everyone had to learn Mandarin, changing this perception. Mandarin has a very flat and smooth sound that is soft and pleasant to the ear.

Writing in Chinese

Chinese script is beautiful to look at. Essentially a picture language, Chinese uses calligraphy as an art, painting each character by hand with brush and ink. There are many famous wall hangings and other art pieces that use only Chinese calligraphy.

Chinese characters are made up of graphic combinations. For example: 

• The character meaning good, “hao,” uses the combined symbols of a mother and child.
• The character for peace, “an,” uses the symbol of a woman under a roof.
• The character for enlightenment, “ming,” is a combination of symbols for the sun and the moon.

The brush that moves along the paper is guided by the heart, “Shin” and by the spirit, “Chi.”

Although Chinese is a very different language from English, it can be learned if you put your mind to it. You should find the spoken language to be quite easy, but writing can be far more difficult.

I have already mentioned in my previous article [“Memories of China”] that Chinese is easy to learn because there is no grammar, genders, tenses, participles, cases, or numbers that make up most European languages. Instead, the language uses modified versions of words within context to be more specific.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article. Soon, I will be sharing with you other experiences, recipes and memories. – Chi Newman

The symbol for the Yin Yang is a perfect circle, divided by black and white.

In life you have your good and your bad days. If you believe in the Yin Yang, you would know that happiness is the opposite of sadness, and you could not feel one if you did not feel the other. If you really believe in this, then during your down time, you would not drown your sadness by doing things that would harm you, like taking drugs, drinking too much, smoking cigarettes, hurting others. All this is counter productive, it would only make you feel worse. You need to say to yourself, “This is my down and sad period, I must take advantage of this time to read a good book, volunteer, learn something new, help around the house, play a musical instrument, be considerate of others. If you practice this philosophy, you won’t mind your low periods, because you know that only after your low, can you have your high. If you were always high, you would not appreciate it, because you would not know any better. When you are feeling good again you can relish all the things you have accomplished.

The Yin Yang symbol is a perfect circle of black and white. If there were no black there would be no white, if there were no ups, there would be no downs. The circle represents balance; there are no sharp edges for you to fall off. If you follow this philosophy, you will be able to cope even during the worst of times.

Example: I have a friend who phoned to tell me that he had just been told that he had a very serious illness. He was feeling very low and curled up in bed thinking negative thoughts. So I asked him, what was his greatest regret? He answered, “I feel so bad because I have not talked to my father for nearly twelve years.” I told him that I would hang up the phone so that he could call his father immediately. I told him not to be concerned about who was right and who was wrong. Just call up and say, “Let’s get together”.

About an hour later, he called back to tell me that his father would soon be arriving for a visit. My friend’s health is better now and he is grateful that during his low period he had the courage to call his father and make things right.

In Chinese cooking, we also practice the Yin Yang philosophy. In each dish we always think of balance: color, texture, dark and light, soft and crisp, sweet and sour.

Balance in one’s life will help greatly to make a person happy and well adjusted.

After my husband finished his tour in Vietnam, we decided to pass by Kyoto, Japan, to visit EXPO 70. There was a Yin Yang booth, and of course I had to visit it. There were so many interesting things to see and learn, but the one I liked the most was the sculpture of two hands, one black and one white, by a Japanese artist whose name was Yamamoto. They were big enough to sit on. Dick took one of me sitting in one of them. It is my all time favorite photo.

It’s good to have traditions for the New Year, but not all traditions are positive. One I have done without for many years is to make a New Year’s resolution. Here’s why:

You will break it. Sad to say, nearly all New Year’s resolutions are broken, probably within a few weeks to a couple of months of their making. Oh, the motivation is pure. Say, you really, really resolve to lose that ten pounds you gained over the holidays, not to mention the three to five pounds that crept up on you over the year, like they have each year since you passed twenty-five. Don’t be too hard on yourself, it happens to the purest among us. It’s just the natural aging process, our wealthy society, our holiday binging philosophy, and just plain human nature.

The New Years resolution dilemma has one big weak link. Everyone makes resolutions at the same time each year, and when one weak soul breaks their resolution, we break ours in commiseration, because: 1. We are so compassionate. 2. We’re just waiting for an excuse to break our own resolution. I go with number two. Regardless, we all end up breaking all our resolutions and becoming each other’s co-dependents. Now we’re worse off than if we hadn’t made a resolution in the first place; no improvement and several new co-dependent relationships. Bad. Bad.

I propose the following approach to resolutions: Make resolutions; just don’t make them at the New Year. Any time of year is fine, just not the New Year.

Resolutions are best achieved when they are: realistic, backed by research, shared with a very few, and followed up with daily thought and action. Now all this is not so hard as it might appear.

Realistic: means 20 pounds over two months, not 20 pounds before the dance next week.

Backed by research: means you learn all you can about where you can cut unnecessary calories from your diet, and know exactly how many hours a week of what kind of exercise will take to reach your goal.

Share with a very few: means to share with your significant other, and at most a small group of supportive friends; don’t share with anyone who might want you to fail out of jealousy.

Take daily thought and action toward your goal: this is both the most difficult part of the equation, and the most productive. Make a chart for food intake and exercise hours, and keep it current. This is not a torture. This is a motivation.

Now you are set for achieving your goal; just wait until everyone has broken his or her New Years resolutions, and then you’ll be free of pressure and can concentrate on actually achieving yours.

Then comes the sweet part. You can brag.

I received the following email about a week ago and really wanted to publish it.  Before I did, however, I wanted to get the writer’s permission.  She agreed – as long as I kept her name and location secret.  She also asked me to fix any spelling or serious grammar errors, which I did in just three cases.

Here is her email and my reply.  I hope that you enjoy this exchange and also hope that more readers will share their thoughts about JustOneOpinion.com by writing me at editor@justoneopinion.com .

Dear John,

I don’t know if you remember me, but I am [name withheld]. We used to work together many years ago at [withheld]. We always got along and liked working with you. I hope the feeling was mutual.

I hope it is all right to send this email to you, but I wanted to write you and tell you how much I enjoy reading Just One Opinion. I signed up to have your new articles delivered to my email address and so far it seems to be working OK.

My family and closest friends are all lifetime Republicans. This year everyone says that they voted for McCain and Sarah Palin and I’m guessing that most of them did. I voted for Obama but I have to tell everyone that I voted for McCain or else I would catch so much [expletive]. It’s just not worth the hassle sometimes to tell the truth, especially when it is your own family.

When I first found your cool website I couldn’t believe it could be the same John that I knew so long ago. But I Googled your name and realized it was really you when I found some other sites that were about you. You’ve changed a lot since then but I still think you look “pretty good for an old guy!”

At first I thought you were very anti-McCain and very pro-Obama. I was really concerned that you were slamming Sarah Palin too much and that you were being very unfair to her. But as the election got closer and closer I realized that your opinion of both of the Republicans was exactly correct. By the time the election came I was so scared that Sarah Palin would be the VP and if McCain died within the next couple of years that she would be our President! That whole idea gave me the willies every time I thought about it.

You and the other writers on justoneopinion.com got it right. I told some of my family members that they should go look at your web page, but when they asked me what it was about and I told them they all said they wouldn’t read “that kind of trash.” I’m sorry, I tried, but they are all so blinded by the Republican Party.

I just wanted to write you and tell you to please keep up the good work!!! The world needs more people like you and your friends to write about the truth and about what is happening in the U.S.A. I really loved that Chinese New Year article and the one about the people parking in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I learned so much and can’t wait for more articles like that. Your writers are really, really good. Is there a way for me to write them direct and tell them myself?

Could I ask just one favor from you? Please write more articles! I can’t wait to get new ones in my email and some days I don’t get any at all. I know you must be very busy trying to keep the website going, but please, please write more articles!!!

Even though my family and Republican friends won’t read justoneopinion.com, I will tell some of my other friends about it and maybe share an article with them. Is it OK to copy an article and email it to other people? I don’t want to make you mad, but if I could that would be great and I think a lot of other people would love to read them too. I love that people can translate the articles instantly on your site. How do you do that? That is so cool! I have a Mexican lady friend who can only read in Spanish, so it is perfect for her.

So please keep up the good work and write more articles. After Christmas bills get paid I think I would like to buy a couple of the books that you advertise on the side of your web page, but right now things are just too tight.

I’m sorry this is so long, but I really wanted to write you and tell you how much I love your web page. Maybe we can meet and have lunch sometime if you are ever near where I live in [location withheld]. I’ll even buy!!!

[Name withheld at request of sender]

---

Dear [name withheld],

It was such a pleasure to hear from you again. Yes, I remember you and I can assure you that I enjoyed being around you when we worked together. Can you believe it has been so many years ago? I can still remember faces and personalities from that time in my life, but unfortunately most of the names escape me.

Thanks for the kind words about Just One Opinion. “JOO,” as we sometimes call it, is very much a labor of love for me and my co-editor, Dick Kelly. Everyone that writes articles for JOO does it without compensation, at least at this stage, so they too do it for the opportunity to express themselves and for the feedback that we can get from the website.

I haven’t been to [location withheld] in many years, but if I get out that way I will most certainly contact you and would love to meet you for lunch – especially if you are buying!

Yes, you can email our articles or send the links to the pages to your friends. Please let them know where you got the article. If you are getting the articles in your email already, then I suggest that you just forward those emails to your friends. I think that would be the simplest way to share.

Yes, you may contact our writers by email. Each writer has a website listed next to their bio and their sites have contact information available. You may also go to their articles and comment directly that way. Your comments will be forwarded to their personal emails automatically.

We will do our best to write more articles, but all of us have very busy schedules. Feel free to email me and let me know what subjects might be interesting to you and which recent articles you’ve enjoyed. We appreciate any feedback we can get. I hope you will give me permission to publish your email on JOO. I’m sure the other contributors would love to see your email.

Finally, thanks again for emailing me. It was wonderful hearing from you again. Thanks again for sharing JOO with your friends – and trust me – I understand the frustration of trying to get Republican friends and family to sample JOO.

John Hoyle
Editor / Webmaster

Twas the Week Before Christmas…

By Fred Longcoor
(as told to Craig Bieber)

Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the land,
The economy was crumbling and Armageddon was at hand.
Pink slips were coming in the holiday mail,
With everyone in hopes that Obama wouldn’t fail.

Rich bankers were nervous about ill-gotten gains,
While visions of sub-primes danced in their brains.
When down on Wall Street there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to my computer to see what was the matter.

Away to the phone I flew like a flash,
And called my broker to check on our cash.
Hang on for the ride, he continued to say,
It’ll all come back on some future day.

Paulson and Bernanke bailed out Fannie and Fred,
Franks and Dodd said “Don’t blame the Fed!”
Now comes Madoff to add to the mess,
With a Ponzi bigger than all the rest.

The famous play on, not seeming to care,
The things they get away with are just not fair.
Madonna’s third sacker plays ball all night,
While two struck-out families cried it’s not right.

Shall we make one or buy one said Angie and Brad?
While poor children in America pine for a dad.
A governor tried to sell Barack’s seat,
Saying, “I won’t quit, I did not cheat.”

When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But the American spirit, shouting, “Remember, I’m here?”
“We’re independent, free, and we stand for the best,
We’re icons to some, and shouldn’t care about the rest.

Continuing to shout, he called out some names,
The best of Americans, from all of the games.
Now, Michael, now, Tiger, now, Cal and Tom,
On, Ali, on Anna, on, Donavan’s Mom.

At the top of his lungs he shouted to me,
On, Laura, on, Faith, on, Josh and Billy G.
They were playing and preaching and singing too,
Leading a sleigh full of hope in red, white, and blue,

Ignoring the flack up to the housetop they rose,
Happy to be on the path that they chose.
Down the chimney came the Spirit we are,
A little dirt here, and there a scar.

His cheeks were so rosy, his look so wise,
His bag full of confidence twinkled in his eyes.
A bit of a wink and a smile on his face,
Gave warmth and strength to my little place.

Fearing not one bit, I listened as he spoke,
“This may sound corny, but it’s not a joke,
Land of opportunity, Land of the free,
This is the place of all places to be.”

Continuing on, he rose to full height.
Letting me know he would lead the fight.
“I am America, you can’t break me,
I am you and all who you see.”

He was gone in a flash as he gave me a nod,
But something stayed here, something quite odd.
The Spirit was here, it was inside of me,
I forgot it was there, but he made me see.

He’s coming to your house, he’s been there before,
With all of his coursers, he’ll be at your door.
The Spirit is within, he’ll remind all of you,
And together we’ll save the red, white, and blue!

And I heard him exclaim as he flew into the night,
“Merry Christmas to you, and to you a good-night.”

Read more of the wit and wisdom of Fred Longcoor
in Craig Bieber’s novel, Saylor’s Triangle,
Available on Amazon Books