District Conference

Today is our second day in Lycksele and, this morning, we started at the wood museum. The history of this area and its relationship with woodcutting is interesting. After the visit to the museum, we attended the Rotary club luncheon and heard from a gentleman from Rotary International, attending the District conference held here, from Great Britain, discussing their goal of eradicating polio. His speech was interesting and he had a lot of good insight into the culture both here and in England. The Swedes don't usually give to any philanthropic organizations because they believe they have given through their taxes. As a result, there are virtually no nonprofit organizations here. The argument is that since they pay their taxes and the government gives to philanthropic and social programs, they need not. They feel relieved that they don't have to make a decision about the programs sponsored. I argue that they CANNOT make the decision about what they really care for, because the government is doing it for them. That mindset seems to really sail over most of these folks' heads.

I spoke with a Norwegian gentleman this evening at a special dinner hosted by the District conference and held at a museum next to the wood museum we went to earlier today. He really couldn't seem to understand why the entirety of the U.S. can't just get along and provide for a more societally focused country. He seemed very proud of the fact that Norway requires students to learn English at an early age. I told him that we could institute that sort of program but which language would we choose? If we went with the most people speaking the language world-wide, we should learn Chinese. If we went with proximity, those in the North would learn French because of French speaking Canada, while those in Texas would choose Spanish. There is not ONE language the whole country SHOULD be speaking in addition to English. We have so much ethnic and cultural diversity that I think it would boggle the minds of many in Scandinavia. The Norwegian gentleman discussed a need for tolerance. I pointed out that tolerance requires us to respect ALL those with differing opinions and religious beliefs, including the conservative Christian movement he seemed to be criticizing. I am not trying to be difficult, but if you sit in a country that has a state religion, i.e. Lutheran Christianity, and you do not have the numbers or diversity of immigrants in your country that we do, you simply cannot criticize the United States harshly. The questions should be asked but to judge us as a nation is unfair. Walk a mile in our shoes and see the tightrope we walk between individual rights and fostering the feeling of community. We have our struggles, but I think we are doing alright. Eddie pointed out that many Americans don't travel internationally because, for us, traveling from state to state deals with the same distances that Europeans travel from country to country. I am still thankful for this opportunity to be with and learn from this amazing people, but I am gaining an appreciation for my own society, with all its flaws, as well. God Bless America.