Bound Together, True Citizens of the World

McCain Family Photo

Cindy McCain in Vietnam 2008

USS Mercy Hospital Ship

Bound Together

A lot has recently been made of Senator Obama's reference to being a citizen of the world. My fellow blogger, CDR Salamander had a recent post. His post reveals a side of a candidate that regardless of political stripe, should make every American proud. I will post it in full.

The audacity of ignorance

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here – what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?
Barack ObamaCampaign Speech in Berlin, GermanyJuly 24, 2008

Action:
(I)n 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life, so Mrs. McCain brought the child home to America with her. She was met at the airport by her husband, who asked what all this was about.

Mrs. McCain replied that the child desperately needed surgery and years of rehabilitation. "I hope she can stay with us," she told her husband. Mr. McCain agreed.Today that child is their teenage daughter Bridget....

T)here was a second infant Mrs. McCain brought back. She ended up being adopted by a young McCain aide and his wife.

"We were called at midnight by Cindy," Wes Gullett remembers, and "five days later we met our new daughter Nicki at the L.A. airport wearing the only clothing Cindy could find on the trip back, a 7-Up T-shirt she bought in the Bangkok airport." Today, Nicki is a high school sophomore. Mr. Gullett told me, "I never saw a hospital bill" for her care.

Taking up on Cmdr Salamanders post, Mrs McCain has been recently subjected to dicing from some in the self appointed elitist media.

Joy Behar Hosts Larry King Live and Her Co-Hosts Call In (video), where she made comments how Mrs McCain was such a boooooring guest, when she was on The View, and Michelle Obama was soooooo...intelligent and interesting..and would make such a great First Lady..

Too bad she missed this about Cindy McCain,Cindy's trip to Vietnam. Mrs McCain was in Vietnam during a visit by the USNS Mercy-Hospital Ship , which during a port call in Na Trang.

Total Patients Seen: 11,576

Surgeries Performed Aboard: 234

Engineering projects were held at 5 different locations (3 local clinics; 1 rehab/education center; and 1 orphanage).Our Bio-Med technicians were able to repair and bring back into operation over $300,000 worth of medical equipment at various clinics.

Last Day in Nha Trang

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The crew of the USS Mercy are examples of Americans who are reaching out to their fellow humans and lending a hand to make a difference. They do it without fanfare and when their mission complete, return to home and their own families.

Thousands of other American citizens emulate the compassion that the McCain's privately demonstrate. Most are content to reach out to their fellow humans across the globe and share their love, compassion and support. The author of the blog that leads my list of Favorites is such a person, Thomas Barnett who in 2004 adopted a daughter from China. He chronicled the experience in a series of blog posts that endeared him to his readers. I will indulge you with a couple of them to better understand the type of person whom is willing to reach out to do what they can to make the world a better place.

Crossing into our tomorrow

I know that face (some concluding thoughts on our China adoption trip)

Some may rail that we must take care of ourselves first, the heck with the rest of the world. That is a normal reaction within every family and tribe. But, everyone in this country is geometrically better off than those living in failed states and abject poverty, and we all have the opportunity to make ourselves better off with hard work and study. We are the host nation to millions who have come here for that chance. Our immigration problem is not because we are the worlds largest welfare state. It is because of the opportunity to succeed, and for one's children to live a better life. I applaud anyone who reaches out to help here, or abroad and shares themselves and their resources by their own free choice.

One of the other links on this blog is to a book, Bound Together: by Nayan Chanda. It is most helpful to understand how the human species came to the place we are today, with billions better off than just a few decades ago.

It traces the initial globalization of the human species, when in the late Ice Age, a tiny group of our ancestors walked out of Africa in search of better food and security. In fifty thousand years of wandering along ocean coasts and chasing game across Central Asia, they finally settled on all the continents. Along the way, they changed their pigmentation and facial features, and developed different languages and cultures as well. The period of divergence came to a close with the end of the Ice Age. Traders, preachers, soldiers, and adventurers from the emerging urban civilizations of the Levant, India, and China began connecting with one another, launching the process of globalization.

If anyone wants to better understand this fact. I direct you to the National Geographic Genographic project. Where one can trace their genes back through time and understand that we are all truly bound together. As humans continue to come together at intersections, the decision is either collide, or learn to cooperate and work together. Sounds simple but we have been doing just that, in a constant yin and yang, of war and trade. Understanding of who we are and that stripping off the bark will reveal the same person underneath, is essential to continuing our existence.