User:Rei

Ok, I guess I should finally make a user page.  :)

Self:

       Name: Karen Pease
       Age: 24
       Location: Iowa City, IA
       Occupation: Medical software development - programmer
       Interests: Gardening, local activism, programming, cooking, random geeky home projects
       Religion: Secular Humanist
       Diet: Vegetarian, not vegan
       Marital status: Civil union
       Party Affiliation: Democrat
       Random Dislikes: Insects, rabid right-wingers, the smell of seafood, and political smear
       Random Likes: A gentle breeze, Costa Rica, learning about how everything works, and melting into a dance club both aloof and merged with the music and motion.

Wiki-Interests: Israel/Palestine Iraq Human Rights Mushrooms Cheeses and cheesemaking Spacecraft propulsion

Situations in which I have a POV:

Israel/Palestine: Opposes the occupation, opposes Likud policies, opposes radical Zionism and settlement (colony) expansion, supports the existance of the state of Israel and a two-state solution on the 1967 green line. Opposes the wall's incursion beyond the Green Line, but would not oppose it if it were on the Green Line and did not attempt to cut off international borders, opposes all human rights violations (both suicide bombings against civilians and IDF actions that violate basic human rights and international law); supports the right for both sides to resist within the framework of the Geneva conventions, but believes nonviolent methods are the best choice of action in most cases. Most of the articles on Wikipedia concerning the subject are more pro-Israel that even the Israeli government's websites, so I've tried to add balance or create alternative-articles by use of the sort of information that has been omitted about the conflict thusfar.

Iraq and related topics: Opposed the war, and oppose the occupation. Supports Sistani's call for elections ASAP, even if they're not perfect, so long as there's a guarantee that there will be at least one more election at a specified time; it will be far better than a situation where the government isn't viewed at all of being representative, and hopefully the resistance will then die down to the level where the organized crime activities can finally be targetted by Iraqi forces. Considers the June "handover of power" to be a farce.

If there is a dispute concerning whether something I have written is POV: First, *discuss* it in the talk page. I try and put references to respectable sources on everything that I write. In articles that are meant to be geared towards one side that I oppose, and I think a fierce war will break out if I try to rebalance it, I will try to avoid contribution (except to correct factual errors) and instead create a counter-article. I would appreciate people who have a problem with the counter-article (except for factual errors) will put what they think is being omitted in the original. If people think that there *won't* be a viscious, unresolved edit war breaking out if the two points of view are attempted to be re-merged, please discuss it before attempting. This is most applicable to the Israel-Palestine situation.

Above all else is balance. I generally only insert my own POV when there is an article horribly imbalanced in favor of the opposite POV, and would much rather see a mutually agreeable solution than to make the other side leave angry. This usually begins with a process of making my changes to try and get ratios of POV statements correct. The other side generally objects to some of it, I respond by objecting to some of their POV, and the article usually settles down. There are a few users I've found, however, who refuse to negotiate, and insist on making their articles heavily lopsided with accusations and unsubstantiated statements in favor of their view. If they refuse to reference AND balance it, I am unlikely to just "let it go"; such conflicts will typically require external input and moderation.

Contact info:

   daystar_setting@myself.com (home)
   karen-pease@uiowa.edu (work)

I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below: Template:DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual