Contradictions

As the events of this week have unfolded I've really be struck by our common differences. I've been posting a bunch of articles to Facebook and having discussions about Sarah Palin as McCain's VP pick, as well as the unlawful arrest of Amy Goodman, the host of Democracy Now!. These are two strong women in the public eye, but my mention of either of them seems to have fueled some quite divisive fires.

My Republican friends assume that I am criticizing them personally and their choice of party when I criticize Palin for VP. I am not. Criticizing a party is not necessarily a criticism of that party's members. I don't agree with many aspects of the Democratic party and sometimes vote for the Republican candidate if they're more qualified - I did so in the most recent primaries in fact. What is most important is electing the best candidate for the position, and Sarah Palin is severely lacking in many of the important qualities for a president of the United States. That's what the vice president should be qualified for. But Gloria Steinem says it much better in this piece.

My liberal friends are all still shocked that I "mutilated" lambs. I am not an animal rights activist and I do not agree with PETA on most points. Just because I am a conservation biologist does not mean I think every fluffy animal should be treated as a pet. As long as practices are humane and environmentally rigorous, I see livestock as a source of important amino acids, minerals, and calories. People ask me all the time if it is weird for me to eat fish since I work on them. It is not weird - fish are delicious and healthful. Being a conservationist means I'm careful in my choices, but it doesn't dictate that I abstain.

Some of my liberal friends think that Amy Goodman likely provoked her own arrest at the Republican National Convention. I've watched the video and I disagree. She and her team are professional journalists who should be left to do their jobs. There have been hundreds of arrests at the RNC, many with excessive force. I'm not saying this is unique to Republicans - I experienced first-hand the overreaction of police to protests at the WTO in Seattle in '99, and that was a very Democrat-empowered time in our country. Power is being misused, and drawing attention to that is usually difficult and unpopular. To assume that someone "brought police mistreatment on themselves" ignores the corruption of power and continues to assign blame to the victim.

We are all bundles of contradictions in one way or another, and those contradictions are what make us interesting. The key is that we respect each other's differences and learn from them. Partisan politics and assumptions are what got us all into this mess in the first place, but learning to look beyond the first impression is what will get us out of it. For anything I say about Sarah Palin, I ask myself - would I say the same of Obama or his children if the shoe was on the other foot? What if a Fox News reporter had been forcefully arrested at the Democratic National Convention - would he have brought it on himself? The key to a successful and objective discourse is an open mind and everyone's participation. I'll end with my favorite quote from Terry Tempest Williams - it's what I aim for, and when I come back to the states in a couple years I plan to work even harder at it:

"The open space of democracy depends on engagement, on a firsthand accounting of what one sees, what one feels, and what one thinks, followed by the artful practice of expressing the truth of our times through our own talents, gifts and vocations. Question. Stand. Speak. Act."