Magpies and politics

9/3/08 Dear Friends and Family, Spring has hit Australia.  September 1st is officially the first day of spring in Australia, not September 21 as fall is in America. The crab apple trees are in bloom in all shades, from white to deep pink. Last Thursday, Mom and I went up to Red Hill. Canberra is surrounded by mountains and is in a huge valley, but in the valley are 5 huge hills at least 1500 ft high. On four of the hills you can drive up and get a spectacular view of Canberra. One of the hills has astronomical observatories that are maintained by Australian National University. In 2003 there was a massive brush and forest fire that consumed all the telescopes and buildings on the hill, as well as 300 homes in 2 suburbs of Canberra. The fire took out almost all of the forests west of the city.  Those that were here when it happened said the sky was so filled with smoke that it blocked the sun and for a day it was like the sun never rose. It was total blackness except for burning embers which where flying through the air. People had to stand on their roofs with garden hoses and water down their property or put out fires that the embers started. Today, the observatory and the homes are rebuilt and they are just finishing replanting millions of trees in area that was burnt over.   Canberra is made up of 98 suburbs of 2000-4000 people. There is no real city of Canberra. Each suburb has a name &  a local shopping center( called " the shops" )  with a small grocery store , hairdresser,  dry cleaner and post office etc.  There are 5 Huge Indoor Shopping malls located around Canberra. They are bigger than most of ours back in the States. Each has 150-200 stores.  They all have at least 2 large super markets, as well as Mom & Pop  fruit and vegetable markets , butcher shops, and  bakeries even though the super markets have all of these items in their stores. These large malls also  have all the other type stores we see in our shopping centers.  The one thing that drives me nuts though, is that you have to pay for parking in their large car parks( parking lots). Can you imagine pulling up to your favorite shopping mall and having to pay $2-3 for parking.   The mailmen ride small motor bikes or petal  bicycles equipped with baskets on their handle bars and saddle bags on the back wheel. As this is spring the Magpie's (large crow like birds that are black & white in color) are beginning to mate & nest and they are very aggressive and  territorial. Yesterday we were driving behind a mailman on a motorbike when a magpie swooped down and bashed  the helmet of the mailman with its beak  Some of the bicyclers here, who wear soft helmets, stick 6-10  plastic straws  into the top of their helmet's breathing holes/  They look like they have antennas sticking out of their helmets like men from Mars. This apparently confuses the birds and they pull up after hitting the antenna and don't bash the helmet of the riders and causing them to fall off their bikes. Luckily, the mailman had a hard motorcycle helmet on and must be use to being dive bombed at, as he did not even flinch as the bird crashed into his helmet.   The mission goes well, however, at Y.S.A.  Family Home evening last Monday, an American YSA, who has been living here in Australia for 5 years, started  bashing  the  U.S.A. and it got Mom's dander up, and I was glad I was not him. We are instructed not to discuss politics with the Aussies but seeing this guy was an American, Mom & I felt he was fair game.  The Aussies are very interested in America and in American politics and will often ask us questions about this or that and what is our opinion and we have to be very careful of what we say. Most of the YSA's are liberal in their political opinions and are idealistic in their thinking, but do nothing to act on that thinking, and as we are old conservative people,   we pretty much swallow our tongues and don't respond to some of their thoughts and ideas. What surprises me is that if you watch the TV news the 2nd or 3rd story is usually on the American presidential race. Every Wednesday we teach  at the Spiritual Living Center at Canberra University which is right after a Catholic Noon Mass. We usually talk for a while to Father John, an Australian priest, as he takes down his stuff from the mass and we set up for our class. Lately it is all about American politics and his opinion that we need to vote for John McCain. We had a conversation with him about 2 weeks ago about Mitt Romney and religion and politics, and he was very supportive as he said "we" went through the same thing with John Kennedy.    Not much of a spiritual letter so I thought I'd relate a political spiritual story. The YSA that ticked mom off so much told this story before his political statement and it  really touched us. It seems that he graduated from the University if Wisconsin like I did. At the university the Church Education coordinator  was an Allen Gudmonsen and he has a daughter who was in her mid to late teens in the late 1990's She was in one of the  public high schools in Madison Wisconsin, and during this time the Gay Lesbian community was very aggressively promoting recognition of gay lesbian ideas in the school curriculum.  There was a public forum on adding this curriculum to the high schools. It was a very heated and antagonistic meeting and he and his daughter went to listen. Every time someone would be against the gay lesbian idea they were booed and heckled. All of a sudden Bother Gudmonsen noticed that without warning his daughter walked up to line waiting to use the microphone to speak. When her turn came she said. "My parents and my kindergarten teacher told me that I have private parts of my body and no one is to touch these parts in an inappropriate manner. And I want to tell you that one of these private parts of my body is my mind and if you pass this new curriculum you will be touching it in an inappropriate manner!" He said that no one said anything after her comment, there was no heckling, and the School board curriculum committee voted not to add the gay lesbian curriculum. The power of one good person is great!                              Love Elder Mac