This Joy’s Life

Rather unfortunately, I feel compelled to make a statement here about this whole “Joe The Plumber” thing from the debate tonight. I say “unfortunately” because it is pretty well known that talking (or typing) about politics can easily turn into the first chapter in How to LOSE friends and ALIENATE People.

Here is the video of the encounter with “Joe The Plumber” that was a hot topic at the beginning of tonight’s debate:

Chad brought this blog to my attention today. I’ve actually met Ernie’s sister-in-law once or twice at our former employer’s Xmas parties (her sister worked there with Chad). His sister-in-law, Shawna, keeps a blog. CLICK HERE to read the post she made yesterday about the encounter.

I have to say that I completely agree with her. When Chad was working as an accountant with a Big 4 firm, we did really well for a time. Enough to spend a year as Richie Rich and watch our taxes skyrocket. We used the money we saved from that time to purchase our businesses: Custom Fence Company and A&R Painting. Right here, is where I have a fundamental disagreement with the idea that “the rich” are “evil” and “greedy” in America and can’t be trusted to “do right” with our money. What happens at the $200,000/year mark that supposedly turns Chad and I from “hard-working middle class” to (gasp!) “the rich”?

But, I digress, back to the specific topic at hand. When we first bought those companies, I didn’t love the idea of being an employer who doesn’t provide health care. Providing good benefits to employees helps us keep them in the long term, which is in our best interest. So, without any government mandate to do so, we looked into our options for group health insurance that would include our employees.

What came out of this were a couple of revelations. The first, that we probably would not be able to afford to provide that benefit for at least a few years down the road. Another was that in order to provide group coverage, we had to have and maintain a minimum amount of employees to opt into the plan. When I surveyed our full time workers about our plan to offer health care, not one of them was gung-ho about it and every single one of them indicated they would rather not have to opt in to the plan. I was really shocked at this. They were mostly afraid of the cost even though we would be paying half or more of the premiums!

Tell me how our small business is supposed to survive this economy if we are, among other things, required to offer health care that we a) can’t afford b) won’t qualify for because c) our employees don’t want it? “Spread the wealth” may seem fair to some, but it hardly seems fair to me after all the sacrifices of money and time we have gone through the past two years in order to make these business work.

I’m starting to realize a couple things about myself. I believe in small government and I believe in capitalism. And, I think it is unfair to link capitalism to greed and selfishness. If you look back in our history, you’ll find numerous examples of private enterprise providing great amounts of money for the public good – our first universities and volunteer hospitals (in a time before a health care system), for instance. Take what Bill Gates has done for education as another fine example.

The last point I’ll make is that most of my friends, Republican and Democrat alike are more than willing to give their time and money to “good” causes. It is no wonder that those of them that are Democrats would support the government taking more money, as they are willing to give it to help out (that is not to say Republicans aren’t). But what I question is the notion that they are for some reason not capable of making those decisions about their money and which causes they help ON THERE OWN. Maybe it’s more that they know they will give the money but believe “the rich” won’t (because rich people are greedy is the assumption I’m familiar with.)** I think the perpetration of this idea that “the rich” are a separate breed of people from the “middle class” is a false one. Take a look at books like The Millionaire Next Door and Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I’ve seen write ups on this before, that if you poll those who qualify as “rich” and millionaires, they think of themselves in terms of “middle class”. I can state this was true for Chad and I during that one year. Neither of us suddenly thought we could upgrade our house, buy new cars or travel with no regard for what it would cost us.

Argghhh, well, sorry for the rant. I’m no Dennis Miller, I know. But this election, for the first time maybe ever, feels like it directly affects me. Maybe I’m just growing up a little and can’t be content to remain indifferent to the political machine that is Washington D.C.

As for Shawna, I’ll be interested to check back in on her blog tomorrow to see what their reaction was to the debate tonight and “Joe The Plumber’s” new found fame.

**I’m worried those sentences about “my friends that are democrats” is going to come across sounding like some kind of accusation. I can’t quite figure out if it is and if so, how to change it, but what I’m getting at is that my friends whom I know are democrats know me (and are aware of some of my republican leanings) and I don’t think any of them believe that I am greedy and wouldn’t give my time or money to help out good causes. So it’s a question about the line at which do we or do democrats, I guess, believe “the rich” will not give their money and time for such causes. When they think rich are the really thinking incomes of a million or more? A billion or more? If so, that’s a significant difference from defining “rich” at the $200,000 mark. (Though I’m not saying that I would agree that it is okay to take more money from the rich even if it was defined at that much higher level.)

This morning, Clara, my mother and I drove to Warm Springs, home of Roosevelt’s Little White House (Remember Roosevelt? You might have seen FDR on TV if you are old enough to remember it – oh wait, no, the TV hadn’t quite been invented yet).

Anyway, we just walked around the little downtown (all of one street) and ate a lunch of traditional Southern fare at The Bullock House. Here is a little of what we saw:

A cute, quaint little town. But did you get an errie feeling looking at those pix that it was a little TOO cute and a little TOO quaint. I mean, I feel like I’ve seen a lamp like that somewhere before:

Amityville Horror anyone? You can’t tell me that clown and his self portrait weren’t scary. Suzanne, you KNOW what I’m talkin’ about. And that giant green rabbit? My guess is he hasn’t finished that carrot because his belly is full of wee little infants. Halloween is coming, so maybe I’m just in the mood to get spooked. Warm Springs really is “too cute -LOL!” but I won’t be going there at night any time soon, let’s put it that way.

No matter which side you fall on for this year’s presidential election, it’s good for all of us to be able to laugh at ourselves, which is why I HAD to post this SNL skit (*forgive the advertisement at the beginning, nothing I could do about it):

Gov. Palin and Senator Clinton Address the Nation

Paul works as security in the some of condo buildings on Barrow Street and has his office in our building. He is very friendly and is one of the few black people I’ve seen, let alone met, in Ireland. He is originally from Guyana in West Africa and he had always wanted to go to America but he’s afraid to now because of the terrorists. “I think that if there is a crowd of people, like on a train or bus, then there might be a bomb under it. Also there are probably terrorists on the planes to America.” I tried to explain that this really was not the case at all and that we, in America, are not afraid like that. We might associate those types of fears in going to the Middle East ourselves.

Paul’s mother wanted to bring him to the US after she got there. (We are outside the apartment building talking about all this on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.) She sent money with a man who was to bring Paul and his brother to America. The man took them to Holland and then took off with the money. So Paul has never actually made it to America. “I would go to Chicago, I think.” If he weren’t so scared.

He ended up in Holland in his early 20s (I’d say he’s in his late 20s/early 30s now). Besides Holland, he has been to the UK and Ireland. He bought land and a hotel in Guyana and he intends to save money while he’s here in Ireland and buy up the interior supplies for his hotel (towels, microwaves, etc.) and ship them back to Guyana. Then he will go to college in London to become a general nurse. “In America they would laugh. Did you see Meet the Parents? When Ben Stiller said he was a nurse everyone laughed and said ‘male nurse.’” I assured him I harbored no prejudice toward his becoming a nurse as I have two cousins who are nurses.

When Paul finally goes back to Guyana he doesn’t want to have to buy anything for his hotel. He will take care of the things for the hotel first so that any money in his pocket will be for him. He will need it in case he ever has to call the police for an incident at his hotel. He has to be able to pay for the policemen’s petrol (gasoline) and to bribe them, if there is a thief in the hotel, to take care of it. He told me that you have to have money to bribe everyone in Africa. If you are poor you are nothing. He told how he was interested in a girl who was from the “wrong side”, the poor side. He can not date or marry her because then he will have to support all of her relatives too. Everyone will come to his house to brush their teeth with his toothbrush! So he was beaten up (his family was okay with this) and told not to see the girl anymore. This is normal and just the way things are done.

He said the former president of Guyana used to have all the criminals lined up and shot and this was good because they were probably killers. If you don’t kill them they will just bribe the police at the jail and be on the streets again. The new president is trying democracy and courts, Paul says, and it doesn’t work in a country where everyone can be bribed.

All this is what I understood from the conversation. Sometimes his accent was strong and I think English is not his native language, so that may have gotten in the way of my fully understanding what he was telling me about all this.

It seems so hard to imagine life that way and to think that it is normal. I think I would be afraid all the time of being on the short end of justice there. And it also seems ironic that he would be afraid to come to America after growing up as he did in Guyana.

After that, we talked about what he was going to name his hotel. He wasn’t sure so he asked what the hotels in America were called. I told him that I could only think of franchise names, like the Hilton, which he couldn’t use. I asked what were the names of other hotels in the area where he bought his hotel. “There’s the Florida and the Tokyo.” I mentioned that the hotels in Las Vegas had some good names like the MGM Grand. “The Grand might be a good name,” I suggested. “How about the Las Vegas Hotel,” Paul wondered aloud. “How about just Vegas?” I countered. “Hmm, Vegas Guest House. That’ll be it. Calling it a guest house is better than hotel because of taxes.” And so it is named. Next time you’re in Guyana look for the Vegas Guest House. I practically named the place!

“Where are you from?”

It’s the first question asked and the first fact learned about you (or possibly the second after the fact that you don’t know where [insert place or thing name here] is). And in registering the fact of one’s country, the inquisitor immediately pulls his internal file on what he knows about that country, what news he has heard of it, what his past interactions with people from there have been like. Now it’s up to you to prove or disprove any preconceived notions he may have about you before you’ve even gotten to know him.

Every individual, whether they want to be or not, is a representative of their country when traveling abroad. This is more than obvious when you overhear, for example, Europeans talking about their perceptions of Americans or Germans or the French or anyone from somewhere they are not. When you are lucky enough to befriend a couple from Australia, like we have been, and can discuss the stereotypes and perceptions head on, it doesn’t take much to realize that your own interactions with people on the streets, in the shops and especially when talking “craic” in the pubs of Ireland have an impact on how your country is perceived.

Our Australian friends are proud to be Australian and have said as much. They even brought a book showing the beautiful scenery of Brisbane, where they live, with them to Ireland and were anxious for us to stop by their apartment to take a look at it. They talk about Australia with infectious passion! We enjoy hearing about it immensely and are excited about visiting them in their home in Australia one day. In fact, I’m glad they made the offer because it reassures me that they may have a better opinion of Americans than they otherwise might have. We’re proof that Americans can “take the piss” (an Austrailian phrase that means to “take the joke”) where it seems generally assumed that all Americans are extremely prudish and religious and that we can’t laugh at ourselves.

Yesterday, Chad and I traveled to Ireland’s Aran Islands and learned about Pakistan. That’s right. There were three of us on the day trip out to the little island of Inismore. The third was a fellow by the name of Muneeb who is here in Dublin for 4 weeks for company training (he works for Erickson in their Islamabad office). So the three of us banded together for the day and had a wonderful time exploring the stone hillsides and fort of Dun Aengus. And, I learned a great deal more about Pakistan and its people.

We started initially talking about his eating habits over lunch. Because of the dietary restrictions of his Muslim religion (no pork allowed and chicken, beef, etc., must be slaughtered under specific conditions), when traveling abroad he is basically forced to become a vegetarian. Of course, our conversations throughout the day covered a range of topics, some more serious than others – the state of the economy and government in Pakistan and the political issues between India and Pakistan.

So, it was especially thrilling to see Muneeb talking with an Indian peer on the train as we all headed back to Dublin. I observed them conversing like long lost brothers (in a sense, I suppose that’s not an entirely inappropriate way to look at it). The fellow from India was named Vijay and they joined our table for the last part of the train ride. We got to talking about Pakistani food and how many so-called Indian restaurants are run by Pakistanis’ who fear there would be consequences to owning up to such a name (both in America and Ireland).

We got to talking again about the political issues between India and Pakistan only to observe that these two were communicating quite well with one another with no apparent ill will between them. Muneeb personally invited Vijay to come and visit Pakistan if ever he could and assured Vijay that he would be gratefully received by the Pakistani people. He spoke also about his attempts to acquire the visa that would allow him to travel in India and his great desire to see it. Muneeb was certainly proud to be a Pakistani and that pride came across in the passion with which he spoke of his country and his willingness to share it with all of us. I’d love to take him up on his offer for us to visit Pakistan based on his vivid descriptions of the culture and promise of the wonderful people we will find there.

So, pride of country is not only an American trait. This may not be a surprise, but perhaps not all of us realize how we, as individual Americans, can shape opinions of the world about America by our interactions in even the smallest matters when traveling abroad – from the way one treats a server in a restaurant to being aware of people trying to pass you on the street to making conversation on the train or bus.

Based on the feedback we have gotten from those non-Americans we have interacted with during our time here in Ireland, I think (I hope) we are reshaping and repairing some of the typical and, unfortunately, less than flattering stereotypes about Americans, one person at a time. I think the people we meet can tell that we do not fit the stereotype of Americans who think the world revolves around them, spoiled and rich with no concept of what happens outside our own country, and they appreciate our effort to learn more about them, to inquire and not just assume things about them based on traditional stereotypes.

I’m proud of myself for the little part I’m playing in changing, hopefully, any misconceptions out there about “all Americans”, even if it’s just a bit at a time, specifically because I am so proud to be an American. My hope is simply that our actions will challenge the idea that “all Americans” fit neatly into just one mold and that if we are any “so [stereotype]” – so arrogant, so rich, so spoilt – it is that we are really not so different in our wants and hopes and dreams as any person anywhere.