Kate’s Blog

Main square in Mexico city during the presidential election protest July-August 2006.

I find it an interesting comment on indifference. The presidential election in Mexico last summer was a much contested one. The supposed winner Felipe Calderón won by 0.58 percentage points. Many Mexicans were upset & denounced it as fraudulent. But, unlike American Democrats, in Mexico being upset doesn’t mean being bitter & whining about injustice for 4 years. In Mexico it means heading to the streets, by the millions. It means setting up a tent city in the capitol for months. Neil and I were in Mexico City in August to see, the opposition candidate Manuel López Obrador, and his supporters organizing mass protests, marches, and civil disobedience. We made linoleum prints with the artists in the camps who were protesting full-time the evident fraud in their democracy.

“In our democracy, every vote is important!”

The campaign of the “Legitimate Government” continues today. López Obrador was in our city, San Cristobal, on Friday organzing and campaigning for himself as the rightful winner & what he calls the “Cabinet of Denounciation.” After his loss was officially declared in September his supporters proclaimed him the “Legitimate President.” López Obrador established a parallel government and shadow cabinet.

Rally of “Legitimate Government” supporters in San Cristobal.

It seems that in the US we are so removed from revolution. We are complacent. Hitting the streets to effect change is not even an option. Conversely, Mexico has held onto it’s history of revolutionary roots. I’m not sure if López Obrador is the true winner or not. It seems that no one will ever know. But, what impresses me is that individual Mexican citizens are still connected to politics. They vote. They believe in democracy & think that their votes are important. They think that who is in power at the top will effect them personally in their lives. To me, it is a refreshing contrast from the indifference of the average American eligible voter. ¡Viva Mexico!

For Sunday dinner we decided to give the company a run for their money. While the Greek garbanzo bean salad was not the most popular item, it was definitely the most beautiful. In the 11th hour Neil whipped up a batch of pineapple jello because he thought we’d run out of brownie dessert.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 (15 ounce) cans garbanzo beans, drained
• 2 cucumbers, halved lengthwise and sliced
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 (15 ounce) can black olives, drained and chopped
• 1 ounce crumbled feta cheese
• 1/2 cup Italian-style salad dressing
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine the beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, garlic, olives, cheese, salad dressing, lemon juice, garlic salt and pepper. Toss together and refrigerate 1 hour before serving. Serve chilled.

Neil was pretty protective of the feta, he kept insisting that they wouldn’t like it & that we shouldn’t waste it. Really, he is just a cheese fiend (ie one who is addicted to something: a dope fiend.) and wanted to hoard it for himself. Can’t blame him though, behind the mask of politeness I think they were gagging.

Luckily I saved him 1/2 the delicious rarity for his breakfast snack. (Yes, he does actually eat feta sandwiches for breakfast. FIEND, I tell you fiend.)

Tom here at my wedding, sporting a sheriff’s badge I gave him in middle school

The gift giver I mentioned in my last post is a friend, Tom, I’ve had since he called me a “poser” in middle school for wearing Simple shoes. The following is his response to my last post:

“I remember the person who gave you those books. As I recall, he was a terribly handsome young man with exquisite taste and a generous nature. Handsome, too.

First off, I think it is a stretch to call “Mormon America” an unequivocally “anti-Mormon” book. That designation would better fall to works of the “No Man Knows My History”-variety. “Mormon America” is biased only if you think that topics like the Mountain Meadows Massacre, polygamy, the September Six and the financial secrecy of the Church are utterly unworthy of regard when painting a picture of the faith and its adherents. Certain subjects deserve to be dealt with more than just parenthetically, and while I agree that the MMM and polygamy are mostly irrelevant to discussions of modern Mormonism, the other two aren’t, especially when one considers the fact that a prominent Mormon is vying for the Republican presidential nomination.

Also, as an atheist, I think it would be behoovey of me to point out that “my people” are even more misunderstood and mistrusted than “your people.” I couldn’t find the numbers in the poll you linked to, but I’d guarantee that an openly atheistic candidate would have even greater difficulty getting elected than a Mormon. And I speak for more than just atheists when I say that the crimes and excesses of the Bush Administration, executed under the banner of a perversely distorted brand of “Christianity,” have soured me on any candidate who claims to receive divine inspiration, or worse, claims a divine mandate to lead the nation. I don’t care at all how tight Candidate X thinks he is with Jesus. I do care whether Candidate X can speak in complete sentences and not make me embarassed to be an American. Any dialogue we’re going to have about Mormonism, or about a Mormon presidential candidate, is going to include as a corollary a discussion about things like ideological rigidity and the consequences of unorthodoxy (which is relevant more now
than ever), just as a conversation about atheism would be incomplete without a discussion of Josef Stalin and the Marquis de Sade.

Do you remember what you got me for my birthday? Cookies. I got you, well, junk (except for Bertrand Russell. That book is actually very, very good, and more of a defense of atheism than a deconstruction of Christianity), and you got me cookies. You see? It’s a microcosmic summation of the nature of our friendship, and of all my encounters with Mormons. I remember visiting you at BYU, standing outside your house with a cigarette in my hand, daring students and passersby with my steely glare to attempt to convert me, and what do I get? Polite greetings and friendly smiles, i.e., more cookies. I give you nothing, and YOU KEEP GIVING ME COOKIES! I really can say with complete honesty that Mormons are some of the smartest, friendliest, wittiest, most generous and hard-working people I’ve ever met. I read books like “Mormon America” because while I may not believe the Scripture, I’m genuinely curious about the Church, and hope you don’t see that as patronizing.

With love,

Tomas”

(”Be happy, Be Mormon” Mexican bumper sticker)

For my 17th birthday I received the following from a friend:

1. “Why I Am Not A Christian.” by Bertrand Russell
2. “Brigham Young´s 27th Wife.” A trashy novel about polygamy
3. “Orgasmo.” A trashy fictional movie about a Mormon porn star.

I first realized that people thought Mormons were strange in the perilous era of middle school. I mentioned my religion to a friend and she blurted out, “you´re Mormon, aren’t they like….” and ran off not completing the sentence. This realization has over the years turned into what I can only describe as abject confusion as to why it is seen as socially acceptable to bash Mormons. It is not viewed as “ok” to say things like “Those Jews sure are a looney bunch, man their sacred rituals are stupid!” or “Native Americans, they are CRAZY, I heard that they even believe animals and nature are Gods. IDIOTS!” But, I have seen, heard, and experienced many occasions where people leap past this double-standard to insult Mormons & Mormonism. On my mission Spaniards felt free to shout obscenities or insults at us that they would never yell to a nun or to similar Jesus freaks, like us, of other faiths.

Anti-Mormon books written by dissenters or critics are described as “unbiased & totally neutral.” While Mormon literature & culture is disdained by an unprecedented alliance of liberals & Christian Coalitioners alike. A poll conducted in June (2006) by the Los Angeles Times found that 35% of registered voters said they would not consider voting for a Mormon for President. The poll found that only Islam would be a more damaging faith for a candidate.

My blog-nemesis, dooce dot com (can´t link to my nemesis!), gets literally thousands of hits every day. Her husband quit his job because she makes tons of money off of her blog, which pretty much just consists of dissing Mormons & complaining about living in Utah.

Why is it this ubiquitous religious inside joke to make fun of Mormons? I just want to say hey guys, “Mormons are people too!” Nice, normal people for the most part. PBS recently did a documentary called “The Mormons” on the LDS faith, and while many of the people they interviewed seemed to me to be less than legit (with the generic subtitle of “author” or “poet” I am just not convinced about their authority on the subject), they covered many topics and tried to be objective. Check out the link above to view selected interviews or the full program online. It´s interesting for Mormons & non Mormons alike.

In the words of Victor Hugo, “Toleration is the best religion.”

Links to this Article:

• Religion in Everyday Life Blog Carnival

When we first arrived in Guatemala I was faced with the dilemma of every tourist, accosted by small brown children selling all kinds of wares, I thought a lot about what I have that they don´t. Pondering our (white people) luxuries & opulence led me to also think about what they (indigenous people) have that I do not & the unreachable realm they live in that I will never enter. It´s similar to the way the brother of a friend described the difference between blonds & brunettes: “brunettes… they just… know stuff.” It seemed to me that indigenous people posses an entire skill set that I will never master. They know how to survive. They know how to get food from the land, if they can´t buy it at a store. They know how to build and maintain shelter when they don´t have a house. They know how to heal themselves and others from plants & common knowledge they share. What am I without Rite Aid & money? I am a dead woman.

In his book Guns, Germs & Steel, Jared Diamond explains that, “In the centuries after AD 15 as European explorers became aware of the wide differences among the world´s peoples in technology, and political organization, they assumed that those differences arose from differences in innate ability.” He continues later, “the objection to such racist explanations is not just that they are loathsome, but that they are wrong.” From his extensive experience in New Guinea, he believes “that modern stone age peoples are on the average more intelligent, not less intelligent than industrialized peoples.” He described native New Guineans as “on the average more intelligent, more alert, more expressive and more interested in the things and people around them than the average European or American is.” He believes them to be much smarter than their white counterparts due to the skills (like the ability to make a mental map of surroundings) they learn & stimulation (constant interaction & complex tasks) they receive as children. And, additionally due to the skills they had to acquire to stay alive, whereas most white societies required less cognitive development to “survive.” And I agree!

Lately, we have been watching DVDs of “Lost” the TV series… ok, ok… I confess, we are obsessed with Lost. The other night we finished the 2nd season & ran to a market to get the 3rd season. Alas, Neil almost got in a fist fight with the guy who was buying the last pirated copy of Lost in a 5 mile radius. Another sign that we may need to tone it down a notch is that Neil dreams about Lost. Most recently that he is the Doctor & that the season was taking place at his grandma´s house in Idaho.

In our defense, there´s not much to do at night (hence the Lost & hence the toe art). This doctor Neil dreams of is the main character, Jack. I´m always impressed at what practical skills doctors have. For example, my friend John learned in medical school to make a stretcher out of trees & perform surgery on people sewing them up with their own hair. All in all these demonstrated skills, real or hypothetical, make me realize that I have NONE. I would be the first one to go on the island. Upon a small inventory I found my survival skills to be as follows:

*Keen sense of smell

*Ability to put out a fire properly

* Obsession with hygiene

*Ability to rationalize with people

*Authoritative aura

But, I do have one key thing that could help keep me alive… Neil! he´s full of all sorts of handy, boy-scouty knowledge. Let´s all hope, for my sake, that if we crash on a deserted island on the way home from Mexico, that Neil survives as well. It´s my only hope.

A typical combination key shop/ hair salon near our house. Note the fabulous choice of name. Dorky´s hair salon. Nice.

If someone ever tries to entice you into a particular hair salon by saying “it only costs $3 dollars,” my advice is DON´T TAKE THEM UP ON IT. Especially if you are in Mexico, and when you show up at the “salon” it looks more like a bomb shelter than an esthetic’s business & the client right before you in line walks out 7 min later with a bonafide Mexi-Mullet (shaved in the front, spiked on top & at least 8 inches long in the back- cut exactly straight across as if a level was a tool involved in the process).

I consider my main mistake to be describing my desired end result as simply, “the same, but shorter.” This Mexican styling matron, with bright blue-dull-kid sized paper scissors, needed some more specifics or apparently she went to auto-pilot mode of “shave the sides and thin the bangs.” On this point, I suppose, I can look on the bright side… at least she left me some bangs. That now being the primary difference between my haircut and MY HUSBAND´S.

After cutting off inches (of which I did not have to give, the initial hair length barely measuring inches) of dry hair, mind you, she declared it a finished product & proceeded to blow dry (to get the hair off & achieve a certain poof/spike effect) and laquered me up with Mexican industrial hair spray.

The daughter of the “friend” that accompanied me, whispered in horror “se parece a un hombre” (she looks like a man) which didn´t give me much confidence in the new coif.

On the bright side, it did only cost me $3. AND, now I won´t have to get my hair cut again until I return to the good ol´US of A… in 3 months!

I would like to note for the record that I basically knew how to install the wireless internet.

It went something like this: I would tell Neil what I thought we should do. He would shush me (being ignorant to all things electronic). 45 min later he would do the thing I had told him to do & it would work. Granted, I speak Spanish so I had the communicational advantage with the 17 technitions we talked to… but you would think he would have taken that into account.

Cèst la vie.

In the last entry I mentioned Neil I called him a “near stranger.” So, I guess this means I need to update my blog more often.
Well, now that we’re married we figure it’s not legit without a website. Visit www.kateandneil.com

As you can see, there has been a new addition to the tradition of 24/7 awesome hair. Namely to remove it all. I think men really have the corner on a great hairdo. It’s like a birka, but less hot. Only instead of people not being able to evaluate my body type or even facial features, they just can’t judge my lucious locks. What with not having any.