Happy New Year! Around New Years I often reflect on the year that has passed an inevitability feel thankful for the many good and bad things in my life that equate to experience and growth. This New Years was no different, albeit I feel thankful on a more "macro" level about an issue that is broader then myself.

I am currently conducting some anthropological research in China relating to the internet, culture, youth and the interplay of the three. In doing my research and discussing the strange nature of American political thought (i.e. what the heck a progressive, conservative, etc. is) I have come to a sense of thankfulness for one unique aspect of the American political structure. While progressives often feel very negatively about the systemic social, economic, and political problems that harm our communities, nation, and the world I think it is important to have thanks for the ability to freely associate into political groups without having to go through official, bureaucratic, or totalitarian channels. It truly is a unique system that doesn't exist in many places and it makes one feel thankfulness for the ability to freely associate and belong to an organization - something I realized in making friends and conducting interviews here in the PRC.

I know I am preaching to the choir here, but in this New Year it is important to remember the good as one works to alleviate or counter the bad. Happy New Year to everyone!

This is something that came to me late Monday night. I had to share it with you. I believe that our country in is in a crisis. We need to come together. That is all I can say this morning...

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