Welcome to A Voce, my conversations with the world beyond my front door.

Borne of my frustrations with the November 2004 US elections, the untenable War on Terror, the highly polarized and antagonistic political climate, and the eroding line separating church from state, faith from fact, I decided to stop haranguing my husband and start writing the blog. I read all sorts of sources, both domestic and international, and, though my thoughts may well (and often do) mirror those of many others, they are my own. I am not a lemming, blindly following the hindquarters of others.

I’m socially liberal and fiscally conservative in the old-fashioned sense, which means I heartily disagree with current neo-conservative policies spending now so our children can pay for it later. I believe in a small government that protects the people, but stays out of our bedrooms.

I’m married and mother to two boys.

I’m a feminist in the old-fashioned sense, as well. Women should be considered on their own individual personal merits and inconsistencies, not graded on their plumbing, paid on their genitalia, or disregarded due to shorter vocal cords. My boys like trucks, fire engines, karate and dolls – and I have no problem with any of that.

I’m Southern by birth and by choice. I own several pairs of shoes and have all of my own teeth.

As a general rule, I like cats, tolerate medium-sized, useful dogs, and dislike the other canines. Fish are good for eating. I hate Brussels sprouts, and adore cheese. Cheese in almost any form in wonderful stuff.

Kiosan is Old High German which translates roughly into "to choose." We choose what we eat, how we dress, who we are, our friends, our enemies, our reactions to the world. Life is choices, highness, for good or for ill, and we are each ultimately responsible for our own ends.  Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

When it comes to religion, I’m a strong agnostic: I don’t know whether or not a God/god exists, and I haven’t found anyone else who does, either. Some days I’m a Deist, and some days an atheist. It’s a journey I’m still on. Regardless, I have no use for organized religion in almost any form, whatever name they use for their own version of God. I grew up in a fundamentalist protestant religion, have studied many others, and have found them almost universally internally contradictory, misogynistic, and more focused on temporal control than spiritual enlightenment.

While some may find religion comforting or helpful, and I support their right to practice privately as they choose, I believe it’s a private matter best kept out of public institutions like courthouses and schoolrooms.

I welcome thoughtful discourse on religion, and am usually eager to learn, but please don’t proselytize at me. I’ve been "in the church," and know that community quite well. I reject religion for myself, and if indoctrinated nightmares of eternal hellfire implanted in my early childhood and reinforced through my adolescence couldn’t hold me, neither will anonymous threats by internet posters who don’t bother with original, independent thought.