As my 75th birthday approaches, I find
myself engaged in the 9th phase of my critical thinking framework. I
added reflection to all the other critical thinking competencies we found in
the research literature. These reflections were prompted by the deteriorating
relationship between China and the USA. I have had many rewarding experiences
in China and with Chinese colleagues in the last ten plus years. Those
experiences brought to mind many other enriching experiences in other countries
including most especially Norway and Indonesia. I unconsciously grew up with a belief
that America was the best in almost any category one could name. I have come to
a much different conclusion late in life.
We are products shaped by our families, friends, education
and experiences. My mother was a plain-spoken woman who did not hold her tongue
nor hesitate to tell you directly what she thought. My father was more tactful
and aimed to instill a sense of responsibility and respect in us. His words - “be
the voice that encourages, the ear that listens, the eye that reflects, the
hand that guides, the face that does not turn away” – still echo in my
conscience. My older brother, Danny, was an accomplished Middle East scholar who
embodied both of my parents strong attributes. My sister Peggy was someone
dedicated to family, friends and strangers who was always willing to lend a
helping hand. My sister Minnie overcame a childhood disability and raised two
amazing children who live close to me here in Round Rock, Texas.
My five children have taught me far more than they are
able to realize, And I am learning so much from my six grandchildren … children
are such amazing creatures … learning … always learning … doing amazing things …
always amazing.
My early friends disappointed me in many ways but I
managed to find many friends in other countries, including Norway, Germany and Australia.
My education at the United States Air Force Academy and the University of Texas
at Austin have helped my professionally as well as personally. My experiences with
scholars in other countries, though, are what have been most prominent in my
reflections on my past, due in part to the global pandemic and worsening international
relationships among so many countries.
I met a colleague in Norway who considered hiking on
Sunday in the seven mountains around Bergen as his weekly religious obligation
experience. Indeed, giving thanks for the beauty and bounty of this planet
seems an appropriate way to say thanks to something higher. I met parents in a
remote village in Java who said they wanted their sons and daughters to go on
to high school in a faraway city and get an education even if it eventually led
to demise of their remote mountain village. They valued education of their
children more than their livelihood. Such a humbling experience and not one I can ever forget.
After many years of collaborating with colleagues in
Shanghai, Beijing, and Fuzhou I have come to the conclusion that there are many
things in China which are getting better than things in the USA = and vice
versa. Respect for elders is one thing I see very strong in China and from
which I have personally benefitted – some Chinese doctoral students even call
me their grandfather – the highest degree of respect I never earned. I see both
China and the USA exceptionally adept at political spinning of truth and facts,
although I doubt the Chinese leader has uttered 20,000 lies since becoming
President. National unity seems much stronger in China than in the USA although
my experience there is quite limited. The Chinese are apparently repressing Muslims
in Xinjiang and the USA is repressing blacks in many places. Just as no individual
is flawless, no nation is flawless. Individuals with integrity seem capable of
admitting their flaws and striving to do betters. Perhaps it is the same with
countries. Germany has admitted to the flaws of the Nazi regime and has
systematically done better in the years since WWII. I am not sure the USA has
fully admitted to dropping atomic bombs on Japan in the year I was born. We can
do better. All of us can do better. Every nation can do better. I can do better
however many years I have left to apply what I have gathered from coincidence
over the years.
I so appreciate my many friends and colleagues in
China, in Indonesia, in India, in Malaysia, in Hong Kong, in Taiwan, in
Thailand, in Tunisia, in South Africa, in Chile, in Brazil, in Canada, in
Mexico, in Norway, in Germany, in Belgium, in The Netherlands, in Portugal, in
Spain, in Crete, in Greece, in Italy, in Turkey, in Israel, in New Zealand and
in many places across the USA. From them I am slowly learning what it means to
be human, to be flawed, to be capable of becoming still more human.
