Connecting

I'm on an email list-serv of people who are all connected to ELWA in LIberia and a letter asking for prayer for Sarah Palin has started an interesting exchange. The other thing it did was to prompt one of my childhood friends, actually a peer of my younger siblings, to contact me. We've had an interesting private exchange of letters as well.

The point of this is to say I've spent a lot of time in the last 24 hours thinking about how our childhood roots affect what we do and think as adults and wondering how people who've experienced the same general experience in childhood can develop into people with widely divergent views.

At any rate, I pointed out to my friend that the label Democrat covers a much broader range of people and views than is typically assumed. There are a lot of people who were moderate Republicans who are now Democrats. And the Democratic party stretches a lot farther into the center and even the center-right than many realize these days.

And then I ran into this video from Mississippi's Ronnie Musgrove and it is so touching. And I think that part of the reason that it hit home so strongly with me is that I'd already been pondering how our roots affect us. See what you think.