Dear Mr. President

I have said that I would stay away from politics. And I have. I don’t think this is an exception, although some of you may feel that it is. A friend of mine sent this video to me last week and I can’t seem to get it out of my head, nor off of my computer screen. No matter on which “side of fence” you sit, please listen.

Every so often, the state of world overwhelms me. This morning, as I sat on the bus on my way to work, I saw a homeless woman pushing a shopping cart up a hill. She could barely move it. And no one helped her. I read an article in the Post about a soldier who died in Iraq. Only his story was a speck of print among the bigger stories of the day.

I don’t have all the answers, or any answers for that matter. I guess all we can do is spread the love. And we can hope that our daily acts of kindness, although small, will start a chain of goodwill, leading right up to the top. We just have to be careful when get up there. Dick Cheney likes to shoot people with guns.

Internet

For as much as I complain about spam, I realized over these past few weeks how much the Internet means to me.

You see, one fateful day a few weeks ago, a Comcast man called me at work. He explained that he was updating something and that I needed to come home so that he could reconnect my cable. As I was at work, I was unable to go home right that second. What ensued was a series of events inexplicable even for me. Something about wires.

Anyway, my Internet was out for what felt like years. I would come home from work and stare aimlessly into my desktop. I played some solitaire. I tried to read a book. I tried to watch public access television. I even made a pizza.

My life became different. I can't say it was all bad. I mean, the pizza was really good. I ate it right the heck up.

I went to bed earlier too. And I got to work in plenty time, unable to be distracted by morning cnn.com checks, iTunes downloads and mindless MySpace searching.

But something was missing. I felt disconnected from the world.

I thought a lot about this, wondering if my dependency on the Internet is a bad thing. Does it mean that I'm losing a desire for actual human contact? That I would prefer to type rather than talk? Or that my eyesight will deteriorate faster than normal?

The answers to those questions are decidedly "no." Well, I'll have to wait on the eyesight thing. But other than that, I think I keep in touch with friends and family more than a lot of people. And the Internet is what helps me do it. It also helps me stay on top of my job, world events, local happenings and, lest we forget, college basketball.

And I seem to strike a healthy balance. I love doing fun things and being outside. But how can I plan a trip to Great Falls without checking weather.com first? In a sense, the Internet helps me do more things away from it than within it. Deep thought of the day. It's good to be back online.

If you're just getting into the Internet, welcome. Here is a clip that may help you get acclimated.

Assumption

My mother, in her infinite wisdom, always told me that, "to assume was to make an ass of U. M. E." Get it? Like, "you and me?" What you're doing is taking apart the word assume and creating the phrase, "ass U. M. E.," which is not good, according to my mother. In any case...

Besides the fact that I thought it was cool that my mom cursed in front of me (she started saying that when I was about five), it turned out to be good advice.

We assume things every second of every day. I assume that if someone sneezes on me I will get sick. I assume that if someone with work clothes gets off of my bus in the morning at a certain stop they are going to the shelter for breakfast. I assume that if someone is snippy with me they don't like me. And apparently I assumed that Viagra spam emails actually came from Viagra.

To assume is dangerous. Some assumptions are innocent and merely create a little confusion. But some can be worse. Some can perpetuate a stereotype or a prejudice. Do you assume all Mexicans are lazy? Or that all gay men like Cher? Neither is true, FYI.

This past weekend I was sitting in a group of people and we were discussing someone else's recent strange behavior. This other person was not present. The group think bandwagon was in full force that night and, before I knew it, factual conversation turned to nasty gossip.

All of sudden, one participant blurted out, "You know guys, maybe there is something going on in her life that we don't know about."

And it made me stop. She was right. I was assuming that I knew the facts, but why would I? How could I? I had started to judge. And I had started to talk badly about someone who very well could be in a sad spot right now. Shame on me.

I can safely say that not a single person in my life knows every fact about me, so how can I be so presumptuous about other people? We only know what we know. Instead of getting angry, judging or assuming things about people, we should instead be open to learning more. Reach out and ask. Don't assume. Just care. Why is that so hard? Perhaps we feel threatened by what we don't know, or what may seem unusual.

I'm going to make more of an effort in my assumptions. However, I will still be annoyed when people sneeze on me. That's just gross.