Hi to all - I received word from John that I'd been accepted to this forum. Yay! Although at the moment, I am just thoroughly weary of all of it, I am very excited about the prospect of a place to discuss issues, without fear of retribution and attack.

I looked over some of the other postings before I began my introduction, and noticed Jay saying he felt a bit crowded out or un-responded to, perhaps, because of his more conservative leanings. But, one of the very things which has been so puzzling to me is that, although a recent forum I've been on made it impossible to discuss things, I've been able to do so face to face with a number of conservatives in a perfectly civil, even kind of enthralling way, without attack or anger on either side.

And that's exactly what I'm looking for. My political and worldviews are actually pretty diverse. I don't fit into a neat package, although neo-conservatives and radical Christians will invariably label me *liberal.* Far-left, no less.

But, I'm not. I'm actually fairly moderate. Now, it's true, I do hold pretty strongly to a communal view of the world. I spent years in academia, specifically anthropology, and had to study a lot of sociobiology, evolutionary theory, cultural evolution, etc. And all that really did for me was confirm that cooperation and communalism - maybe better, a strong spirit of community - are the keys to survival, NOT competition and "me against the world."

The good news in this is that recent work in evolutionary theory finds cooperation a much greater factor in survival than competition. So I'm happy, even though other people aren't. *big grin*

So that is probably one of the main reasons many would label me a leftist. In addition, I come from a pretty diverse background, so my life is - well, diverse. Yet another reason people would label me a liberal leftist.

But really ... kind of moderate in many ways, ad not so leftist. I'm really interested in just learning about things and trying to get to the bottom of matters.

So, that's me. I live on five acres in NE Oklahoma. At the moment, I run an online bookstore (although I have it temporarily closed so I can get some other work done) I'm curious about just about everything.

Including all of you guys. ;-)

I also know of some other people who are very interested in a safe place to discuss things. More about them in another thread tomorrow.

Okay guys, tell me about you all! Linda

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2003

Answers

Hey, hey, hey, no name calling here! Liberal, leftist....just kidding!! Welcome to the forum.

I live in NJ on 6 wooded acres where I raise Boer goats. I orginally moved to the country to have my horse in the backyard but never ride now. (everyone at my old barn warned me that this would happen) My husband of 17 years and my son of 15 years are both city boys and hate the farm, although my son was 7 when we moved in. Glenn, my husband is a police officer and commutes 1 hour each way (another reason why he hates this house) My son, Gary is a freshman in an excellerated charter school for Engineering. I work part-time in a pet store, which I love although my boss frustrates me when he doesn't listen to my suggestions. I also have problems with chemical sensitivity so if you ever need natural suggestions, Earthmama and I are the ones to see.

Talk to you soon

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2003

How-dee, Linda! And welcome.

I love how you describe your personal position. I occasionally describe myself as a conservative liberal or a liberal conservative. However, to conservatives, I'm the anti-christ, and to liberals, I'm too bourgeois and/or wishy washy. Can't please everyone!

I try to be mostly tolerant of others. If a position is well-thought and the person presenting it is sincere and not trying to harm others or grandstand in some way, I will respect it, whether or not I agree with it. (Classic liberal college education). What I REALLY DON'T LIKE are positions based on greed, although as a Christian (mainline Protestant, ho-hum), I try to be forgiving, knowing that I'm certainly not perfect either. Close though. 8-) Yeah, right...

Anyway... Welcome! Nice to have a new "face" around the neighborhood.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2003

Cmon Linda! Tell us about your home life? Husband, children, homestead and all the juicy stuff?? Ha!

As for being a save place to discuss things I must say we've lost a lot of nice people here too! Can't be helped I think. But don't let that stop you just look at Jay. He's always wrong and he still posts! Ha! JUST A JOKE JAY!! Jay's in love now so he will mellow!

Anyway enjoy yourself cause we've got a poet, a lobster trapper, cat lovers, activists and we all love to watch things grow!.....Kirk

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2003

Howdy Linda. How you doin? Glad to see you here.

I liked your description of the anthropological studies supporting the idea of communalism as a more viable and effective survival strategy. I've heard of but have not actually read a book by Charles Darwin in which he posits that love is the ultimate survival strategy. That makes alot of sense to me.

Personally I really believe the more extreme members of the right AND the left define for the moderate middle who and what is right or left. If one is left of extreme right they are labelled left and vice versa and thats a big problem because it prevents genuine dialogue and creates an artificial barrier, thus dividing the people of the nation.

When each of the major political parties, democrats and republicans, are equally corrupt owing their existance to the power of big money, they become distinctions without any real differences and thats bad for the country. Real choice is taken from the voters because in either case big money wins.

I understand Jays pov but I think its shortsighted and ultimately results in something like facism----a partnership between government and big money---and thats not what we're spossed to be about.

Hope you enjoy your new stomping grounds.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2003

Geesh, you guys!! Sometimes when you all describe yourselves I hafta go back and reread it time after time before I "get" it :-)!!!

Hey there, Linda! Welcome!! Not much to say about myself...except that I'm here and probably the oldest one here (??). I think I'm the only one who is a grandmother anyways! My hubby, Harry, and I have homesteaded on 95 acres here on the downeast coast of Maine for 26 yrs. We've "dabbled" in lots of livestock, but have finally settled on a couple of dairy goats, chickens for eggs and meat, turkeys and pigs. The turkeys and pigs are "seasonal" livestock :-)! Those are the contributing animals...we also have a horse, about a dozen barn cats and 10 permanent house cats!! We grow all our own veggies and Harry has an automotive repair/restoration home business which he runs with the help of our 30 yr. old son, Mike. We also have a 5 yr. old granddaughter who is a real delight and who also gives us the opportunity to do "correctly" the things we did "wrong" with our son :-)!!! Does that make sense?? We also do lots of boating and fishing (in our spare time!). Oh yeah...I'm the one who traps lobsters!!

This is a wonderfully intelligent, witty, friendly and diverse bunch of people...good people, too! Hope you'll stick around!! BTW...I have a younger sister named Linda. She's somewhere in the S.E. but don't know where....long, boring story :-)!!!

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2003

Hi Linda! I live in the western suburbs of Indianapolis with my SO Keith and our 3 cats. I was raised on a farm in SE Michigan and I miss the country life, so we're in the process of selling our house and moving further away from the city. We still have our city jobs so we can't go too far. I work during the day as a Regulatory Affairs Consultant and in the evenings as a Massage Therapist. I'm really interested in herbs, flower essences, and other forms of alternative healing. It makes me feel like I have a split personality at times since at my day job I interact with the FDA on a daily basis.

I guess my political views could best be summed up as libertarian, but like most labels it's not a perfect fit. I'm also Pagan, which makes me even more irked by the "God and Country" tone this administration has taken. I'd be interested in hearing more of your views about cooperation vs competition since that goes along with my spiritual beliefs. I have a circle of friends, and while an intentional community is much to formal of a term, we do want to do *something* like that. I have lots of opinions on spirituality and agriculture but I don't want to bore you to death with my very first post! :)

When I was a child when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said that I wanted to be a crazy lady who lived in a big Victorian house with 100 cats. I still want to be that when I grow up!

My use of exclamation points and smiley faces tends to increase in parallel with my caffeine intake. :)

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2003

:-) You can measure my caffeine intake by the number of smileys, too! ;-)

Okay, more about me ... no involvements right now. I did a very big turn-around in my life a little over a year ago, and am still turning around. :-) No kids - we all have that Rh Negative blood and, for us, it's ended up meaning there's not very many of us, although it doesn't cause everyone so many problems.

For a long time, I was in academia and working in local communities. But, for a lot of very complicated reasons, I abandoned all of it. My last academic stint was in an English Dept., and it was awful! I was used to being in anthropology or history departments, where there are so many ways of looking at things and people spend their time trying to dig through stuff and there's all kinds of differing viewpoints, etc.

The English department experience, however - yoikes! *eyes bugging out* Not only was there an unspoken dress code, but more or less the dictatorship of a solitary viewpoint. *eyes bugging out* Coming out of anthropology and history and linguistics (basically, I'm a linguistic anthropologist) - yoikes! They didn't like it that my classrooms were in an uproar all the time (a contained uproar) and that I considered it my job to teach my students how to take a single essay and tear it apart by looking at it from every possible angle, that I got my students actually TALKING about things and worked as hard as I could to get them to THINK and REALLY think about issues, etc.

See, in essence, I was only supposed to teach THE DEPARTMENT'S point of view. But I didn't and I wouldn't and they didn't know what to do with me and they were driving me half bats and I was reaching a point of total exhaustion and exasperation and so one day ... i just walked out. :-) And I never went back.

But, I also now know why people dislike academia so much. * eyes bugging out* The edges of the left John's referring to ... ENGLISH DEPARTMENTS, there it is! And it is just like the far right. You aren't allowed to deviate from a very set way of thinking and seeing the world.

So I ended up way out here. Originally, I ended up here because I was working with a community (a Native American community), and we were working on setting up a school and this place was to be the launching pad for it.

Then, politicians got in the middle of it all, tribal politics, and I was completely exhausted and it was quickly going from a situation in which things could get done to a just plain SCENE. People had things they wanted, the people who could and would actually do the work were falling out in the background, my home was turning into a battlefield of people wanting wanting wanting ... so, one day, I just turned the computer on, plugged in the internet and stopped answering the phone or the door. Then I fell asleep for about two months. :-)

And when I woke up, all I could think was okay, here I am at square one. What do I do now?

In other words, a complete and real live starting over experience. Nobody can believe I've done it except the people who've known me the longest and love me the best. :-) Everyone who wanted things from me, though ... they're baffled. They're certain I'm deathly ill and, when that didn't pan out, I must be profoundly depressed not to want them fighting in my living room, and when that didn't pan out, well, I must have had a complete nervous breakdown and when that didn't pan out, SURELY she needs us, surely she understands how much we love her and need her! and when that didn't pan out ...

Well, they haven't all quite given up yet. My place gets buzzed a lot. :-) But I'm just sitting here working on my online bookstore and bit by bit cleaning this place up and getting it built all by my lonesome and and and ...

Okay, this has gotten really long. But it gives you an idea of who I am and where I'm coming from. More from you guys!!!

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2003

Al right, a late intro . . . though we've read each others posts / responses for quite a while on Homesteading Today BBoards.

I'm 40 years old, married to an English teacher with two kids (4 yr. old boy / 1 year old girl). I'm an architectural draftsman who lives in a small south Texas town near the border of Mexico (up river about 60 miles of the mouth of the Rio Grande River.

Affiliations? Well, I guess I lean conservative, for the most part. I'm Catholic, and share most of their views.

But I enjoy hearing everybody's outlooks / opinions / takes on situations dealing with the world. I hope no one gets offended by any of my posts, and take no offense to ones disagreeing with my positions - I learn a lot, even if I'm too stubborn to change my opinions.

I value that. Welcome LindainOK - I hope you enjoy your experiences here. :^).

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2003

Hi, and Welcome, Linda! It will be nice to hear a new voice. A bookstore, huh? My friend Diana keeps trying to sell me her used book store, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to let the books leave - I’d just lock the door and read all day! You do know that you’ve fallen in with a pack of rabid readers here, don’t you? With varied, and dare I say, sometimes esoteric tastes. I flip-flop back and forth from trash fiction (happy endings, please!) to farming and permaculture tomes; with frequent forays into gardening, cook books, and a plethora of mags besides. So, what do you like to read? Or, what do you like to sell?

Have you taken a look through the archives of the forum? I recall a post where we all introduced ourselves early on; “Getting to know you”, I think was the title; under the Introductions topic. It’s a bit dated by now, but should still give you a bit of an idea who you are chatting with until we get around to posting more intros.

I am the other political conservative on the site; and that’s enough said about that. I practice no organized religion, nor disorganized one either. I takes my spirituality where I finds it; which is usually outside, in the garden.

I don’t like to debate ( a pleasant term for argue, IMNSHO). In the immortal words of Popeye - “I yam what I yam.” And, being as I pretty much like what I yam; and being as I feel no great need to sway others to my opinion; I pretty much (tho, unfortunately, not always) keep my notions about controversial subjects to my self. Though I love my job as an RN on a psychiatric ward, I’ve got to admit that it is wearing on the psyche sometimes. So, when I come home and have a chance to relax; I tend to steer away from contention on any front.

So, what do you do with your five acres? Or what plans do you have? Do you garden? Tell me you garden, please! I am interested in your ideas of community as I also believe that working together is necessary for survival. My choice is in working together with family; but I’ve often daydreamed of a physical community of BTSers… stopping by Sheepish’s house to pick up some hand spun wool for an afgahn, buying plants from John’s greenhouse, bribing Julie with apples for the horses in return for horse manure for the garden, admiring Jay‘s latest contraption, scheduling a massage with Sherri, babysitting for JR….. Now, if we could just find an island somewhere…

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2003