Thank you family, friends and visitors (and rant)

Melissa and I just want to take a moment to thank you for being a part of our journey.  You may be a family member or friend or possibly someone we have not met yet. Thanks for your prayers, thoughts, e-mail and comments. We apologize for not having time to reply to all emails and comments but we are reading and enjoying them all.  Your encouragement helps us during the tougher times.

It is the first sunny day in Zhengzhou, we are going to take a walk up the street and just check out some local shops. The biggest challenge with walking up the street is the persistent stares, it does not seem to be rude to just look/point and talk about you.  Little unnerving but Melissa pointed out we do the same thing in America but we try to hide it and look away when noticed.

------ end of pleasant blog post-------

Read on for rant or just skip if easily offended


Culturally the people are "different" but there is so much americans could learn from this nation full of history, tradition and wisdom. I was talking with our friend who is the guide for this trip (and our last five years ago) and asked her what are the reasons for such low crime and lack of road rage in a city of such poverty and obvious need for freaking out driving in these crazy roads.  I was hoping to hear something we could import to the us and lower crime in our world.

Well... We can't import it, it is not from any laws, it is not from video cameras, it is not from security systems or police presence.  Nope --- it is steeped in tradition and culture.  Everyone is taught to treat others the way they want to be treated.  Hmmmm... To love your neighbor.  So, I want to send a letter to every lawmaker and encourage them to go ahead and try something crazy... Back when the ten commandments were taken out of schools stats show that our crime rate went nuts.  Go ahead congress, let's try a tiny little 100 year experiment and teach our children the ten commandments and see what happens.  In the big picture 100 years is nothing.  Sorry for the rant but you have to see the stark contrast between how people handle life here and in the us. 

I highly recommend everyone able to come to China for yourself and experience it.  Maybe every lawmaker should do it... For about 3 weeks, and while here why not give a child a home.  Oh, well... Most lawmakers pro bably would not meet the requirements.  Can't have police record, can't be overweight, can't be divorced, can't be single and have to have a stable home and family.  Well now, I might just be on to our primary problem in the US eh?