Service for Citizenship

The 11th of November is set aside in the U.S. for honoring those who are veterans of U.S. military service. My military service proved an invaluable experience for me. It's been over fifty years since  I slogged thru Southeast Asian mud so thick that we had to call in a huey (UH-1D helicopter) to pull the machine gunner out of where he had become stuck. Yet that experience still informs my thoughts on how to structure a compassionate and just society. We made mistakes. Undoubtedly we'll make them again. Still, I am proud that I did my best to represent the highest ideals of  our democracy  to the world by presenting a compassionate face to those I met as do U.S. servicemen all over the world today.

The pre-amble of Constitution of the United States of America defines its intent to include "promote the general welfare". Thus, our the founding fathers saw one intent of our government was to aid its citizens. This half of the relationship between citizen and government seems clear. It proposes that government has an obligation to its citizens. In the years I have been formulating my political philosophy, it has become clear to me that, for a citizen to contribute to the society as a whole, each of those citizens must have the necessary conditions to do so. It seems self evident these necessary conditions include food, shelter, and mental and physical health. For this reason I have long supported the idea of a guaranteed national income (what has become known as universal basic income - this could be supported by a Universal Transaction Tax in lieu of all other forms of tax.)

Yet the other half of the relationship between society and citizen, the responsibility of that citizen to the state (as administrated by the government) is not directly mentioned in our constitution. This is a serious, perhaps even fatal, lapse of rigor. There is, however, a proposed principle which could equitably rectify this lapse.

In his science fiction book, Starship Troopers, author and U.S. Navy vet Robert A. Heinlein postulated a society in which democratic participation is contingent upon (military) service. If you don't serve, you don't get to vote. Hear, hear! 

I don't expect to see even referendums disenfranchising voters any time soon. At the very least, measures requiring voters be veterans would have to be gradual. Yet veterans are the only group to have demonstrated their worthiness to vote by the reciprocal action in their relationship to the state of providing their service. We are the only ones who have proven our right by our service.

I don't propose that this service require willingness to bare arms. During the Viet Nam era in which I served, I greatly admired those of conscience who refused combat on grounds of personal conviction. I will always admire with gratitude the service of one of the medics in my unit who refused to carry weapons. Military service need not require a willingness to fight. Yet, for several reasons, I think that the obligation of an individual's service to society at large is best attained thru military service. Military service provides a common background of discipline,duty, and honor to all vets.

My service eventually provided me with the tools to participate more fully in our democracy. It gave me the confidence to assert my own path in life. It have me a broader view of the world by taking me places that introduced cultures different from my own. It gave me a broader view of the composition of my own society by introducing me to individuals, both admirable and not, of very different socio-economic backgrounds than my own. Eventually, my service helped secure an advanced education, a home, and ongoing medical care. These days, it also provides sufficient to give me have a low income, low impact, but desirable lifestyle.

It's currently considered good form to thank vets for their service. It always embarrasses me slightly as completely unnecessary. I am grateful for the experiences of my military service and for the benefits it accrued. I am convinced I am better, more informed citizen from my military experience. We vets earned the right to participate in our democracy. I think every one else should earn theirs too for their own benefit as well as societies. I support Universal Service. On this day of remembrance and re-dedication I commend this thought to all the men and women who honor their oath to the Constitution by their service past, present and future.









 

Patriotism

Yesterday I received an award for "California Patriot of the Year - 2015" from the Coalition to Honor America's Heroes. I have no idea why I was picked for this honor: somehow I got on their "one born every minute" mailing list. I know nothing about their organization. I suspect that they might think many of my views to be unpatriotic.

Nonetheless, it prompted me to scribe some thoughts I've had recently on the subjects of patriotism and heroism. I think Kipling gave the best definition of what society calls a hero in his poem if:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs...  (full poem @: "If," A Poem by Rudyard Kipling)

I don't think that doing your job in a stressful, possibly life-threatening situation is particularly heroic. In the case where I received an army award for valor I simply kept my cool while others were losing theirs. No bravery was involved, just simple self preservation. Those things which for which I was proud of my courage were small and went unnoticed at large. To me a hero is someone who puts himself on the line when he or she doesn't have to without expectation of reward or recognition.

But what I really wanted to address was the subject of "patriotism". In my experience 90% of what is called "patriotism" in the United States is not. It is jingoism. It is: let's jump on the band wagon and pound our chests while loudly proclaiming our tribe is better than anyone else's: "Our country (state,county, city, township), love it or leave it". While regional pride is a fine thing, this nonsense (I and my tribe are better than you and your tribe) is dangerous. To me, a true patriot opposes this type of thinking.

The true patriot is one who acts in a heroic manner for the good of their tribe. Especially those who sacrifice to that end. Most especially those who go oppose the mob opinion. I served in Viet Nam without regret. I laud those who throughout our history have given of themselves, perhaps risking their lives for their country.  I respect those who left the U.S. to evade the Viet Nam war but those who stayed behind and fought it were, in my book the at least as TRUE patriots.

For a democracy to function it is absolutely necessary that unpopular opinions be heard lest the democratic process be overwhelmed by the "tyranny of the majority". To publicly express an unpopular opinion requires courage. To be a heroic patriot means standing up to the crowd and saying "you're wrong" and "here's why."

Four Steps to a Rational Society

Four Steps to a Rational Society

    What does the obligation of the individual to society? What is the obligation of society to the individual?  In order to determine what a rational structure for a society might be, one must first ask what the function of that society is. In a democracy it seems clear that that function is to provide for the welfare of its members. When a society fails to provide the necessities of life for a member, that member is no longer capable of participating in the society. Thus food, shelter, clothing and health, both physical and mental are obligations of society.  Further when the society fulfills that obligation it seems only reasonable that the individual owes service of some form to that society.
    These conclusions lead to the first two of the four steps to a rational society:
1) UBI - Universal Basic Income (Guaranteed Income)
    The simplest way for a society to meet it's obligation of providing for the welfare of its members on an individual basis is what I originally called a guaranteed national income and has now come to be called "Universal Basic Income". This is a rational approach to equality under the law.
2) USvc - Universal Service (a universal draft)
    Any citizen not willing to provide service to the society in which they live is not worthy of that society. The mechanisms for providing that service under law must be, of necessity, of some complexity. However as a first pass it seems to this author that, as the working life of an adult is approximately 50 years, a draft for all citizens of 5 years service (10%h of adult working life) is not unreasonable.
    How then may the funds necessary to support step 1) and other public works be raised in an equitable? This leads to the second two steps:
3) Transaction Tax - a tax on all public exchanges of goods and services to the exclusion of all other taxes
    Providing the extensive funds necessary to finance UBI may best be achieved by a transaction tax in the absence of all other forms of taxation. The society provides the means for the transition to take place so ethical grounds for its taxation are established. The current system of taxation is so grossly unfair that it is laughable. The middle class experiences higher, & higher tax rates, while trillion dollar corporations use tax shelters to avoid paying. In the U.S. approximately 5 billion dollars in transactions occur every day. A 10% tax on these transitions would provide enough in a single day to yield over a thousand dollars for every U.S. citizen. Further, this would, in all likely-hood, result in a bureaucracy  greatly reduced from the current kludge. An old rule in design is "KISS: keep it simple, stupid." Simple is fairer.
4) Tax Use Choice - implementation of the citizen's right to determine how  his taxes are used.
    In today's society, an option that has never before been available is available: the choice of which public works (aside from the given UBI) to which the citizen's tax dollars are spent. The use of computers makes this possible. Every citizen should be able to say where their tax dollars are put to work. As an example, I am a proponent of space exploration. Many I know are not. I should be able to put my tax dollars into this public work while my neighbor, who supports better street lightening (which I think superfluous) puts their money into the lighting.
    Obviously, there are details to be worked out here should such a utopian scheme ever be adopted. Let me warn here that adoption of a 1)UBI without some form of 2)universal service can not work and I would oppose it. Today's political realities may prevent such a scheme from being adopted especially with regard to step 3) transition tax.  I am not holding my breath. . Further, there would be many technological challenges to implementing 4)a tax use choice though they are tech implementation problems, not theoretical limitations.
     Perfection is a goal that is likely unattainable practically yet should be the goal towards which we strive. I hope we have the wisdom to continue to do so.

Homecoming

Homecoming

    Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Clarke Down Station.  I am Dr. Pamela Diaz-Singh and on the behalf of Sol-Synch and Eden-Earth  I have the honor of  giving you your Earth-side orientation this morning. The Eden-Earth Corporation currently leases Clark Down for the administration of all visitors to planet-side. This gives Eden-Earth lobby influence in the Sol-Synch democracy process according to the performance of their contractual obligations.

    I want to take just a few minutes to review the briefing you received yesterday at Up Station. The crew of the Colony Research Vessel Hudson is the third to complete the return voyage to Earth.  We have found that short term memory loss  is significant for round trip passengers using cryopods. Be assured, your memory functions will soon return to normal. To assist in that, clean out remaining toxins, and rebuild muscle and bone loss for a terrestrial gravity environment you were injected yesterday with nanys. You'll probably experience some discomfort over the next couple of days so we recommend that you take it easy and rest in the guest quarters assigned you here at Clarke Down when not attending seminars. You may run slight fevers. Starting Thursday you will probably feel up to using Eden-Earth facilities and will be given passes to go any where you wish planet-side. Transport to a point within about a hundred kilometers of any destination on the planet via Entanglement Pads will be made available. Just use your ID badge at the EPad kiosk.

    As you've been told, your voyage from Bernard's Star has been highly successful. There was a 97% recovery rate. We sincerely regret the loss of  the Hudson's junior communications officer Lawrence Kelsey. There will be a memorial service in the Clarke Down chapel at 16:30 this afternoon.  Directions are in your handouts and will also be available  through the link.

    I know you were all hoping to make an important contribution to mankind's knowledge of possible human colony habitats but, as you were told yesterday, the scientific information you brought back with you is obsolete. A practical model of the Alcubierre drive was perfected 73 years after the Hudson left Earth. The SSV John Muir arrived at Benard's Star about 3 years into your return home. The information you carried including sample materials was brought here over 56 years ago by the Muir. All of this information will be available to you over the link as your nanys come on line over the day or so. We've scheduled a seminar on link use for 13:00 this afternoon in this conference room. Rest assured that your sacrifices have not gone in vain. As your individual nanys become operative (they will tell you when they are ready) we'd like you to spend an hour resting in your assigned quarters. At that time your subjective experiences will be added to the link models of many different fields including cryo-biology,  planetary formation, inter-stellar vehicle design, exo-zoology, and so on.

    I want to spend a few moments  in refresher on the salient points of earth history in the 172 years since the Hudson left Earth can be enumerated as follows:
1) At the time of the Hudson's departure increasing planetary temperature had released a number of extremely virulent pathogens from Antarctic ice where they'd been frozen since the age of the dinosaurs
2) Over 80% of Earth's human population was affected and unprecedented mass extinctions occurred in species world-wide
3) The development of successful nany technology in 2137, some fourteen years into the Hudson's outbound journey,  provided the mechanism for the inoculation of human and many other key species.
4) One specific type of nany with the ability to manipulate it's directional opacity provided for a mechanism clouds of nanys to  regulate the Earth's weather. The mean terrestrial  temperature has been reduced by 4 degrees since your departure.
5) The completion of the 5th beanstalk in Kiribati in 2142 provided sufficient orbital lift capability that mass migrations off planet to the O'Neill habitats, Luna, Mars, the belt and the outer planets began shorly afterwords.
6) During this entire time span incremental breakthroughs in chaos engineering provided the understanding to model and restore terrestrial eco-systems to park like conditions.

    Most of you will be concerned that your qualifications for employment are obsolete. While this is true, let be assure you that it is no cause for concern. First of all, no one in the Sol system needs to work unless they desire to do so.  As you have now discovered goods and services in the Sol system are not acquired by any medium of exchange.  What was called "money" no longer exists in any form as the nanys can manufacture any conceivable object on demand. However, most residents thru out the system do find some form of work fulfilling and over 98% are engaged in some employment. Should you find any field of employment that interests you, you can learn all the necessary skills for an apprentice position thru the link in a week or less. An increasing portion of Sol system population is currently engaged in arts and crafts. This form of employment now occupies over 50% of the population. I know you heard all of this yesterday at Up so forgive any boring repetition.

    Sol-Synch has automatically granted all of you citizenship for the duration of your stay in system should that be for a short time or in perpetuity. More on that in two seminars tomorrow on the Sol-Synch democratic process and on Corporate Entities such as Eden-Earth.

    I'm excited to tell you now of my own job. I'm one of the few thousand lucky people who currently have permanent residence planet-side. My job allows me Down residence and though any Sol-Synch citizen is welcome to come Down,  most only come for brief visits.

    I am, what would be called in your departure era, an ecologist.  My actual title when such rarely used things come into play is Senior System Ecological Engineer for the Greater  Grand Teton Area. It's located in the northwestern corner of what was Wyoming, U.S.A. My officious title is pretty pedantic.  I think a much more accurate description would be gardener or steward. I am happy to be one of half a dozen workers in the Grand Tetons area.

    As I said, I'm honored to have been selected to give you this briefing on the mores you'll be expected to follow while Down. Most of these involve mitigating interference with the control structures used downside and most are self evident. Firstly listen to the cautions given to you over the link. Don't kill, obstruct, or otherwise intentionally interfere with any life form. This includes things like swatting mosquitoes. For the first few days of your visit you will probably be bitten when you go outside in many areas. We are initially monitoring your blood chemistry thru the link. Some area's are fallow areas and you won't be allowed to enter them without prior approval. Some technological devices are proscribed in certain areas. As an example of this, my husband, who works in undersea engineering, is not permitted to use SONAR in several places even tho it would aid in his work.  We think that it's most unlikely but should you choose to intentionally disregard link cautions the link will, depending on circumstances, prompt you to exit Down. We haven't had a case of forcible ejection for over 30 years.

    While I was thinking of how to give this presentation on how we administrate Down, and why we do have some control restrictions,  I concluded the best way would be to give you a journal of a typical day for me. This is my story for June 23rd, three days ago local time.

    I began my day at 0700. Chandra, my husband, was already up and had made coffee for me. A quick kiss goodbye and he was off to work via telefactor. He's currently installing geothermal generators for the Eastern Pacific in the Marianas Trench. We're close enough that the machinery Moon, my husband, works with is not affected by lag and we're able to live at a nice location on Jenny Lake in the Tetons.

    While I was in the kitchen for my coffee that morning,  I noticed that a number of ants had exceeded the bounds of the desired attractor orbital and were crawling on my counter-top rather than scavinging at night on the floor. So I began my work day in my office by reprogramming the nanys I use to talk to the queen of the nearby ant mound. I instructed her via link to slightly adjust the amino acid ratios in her eggs. This caused the resulting workers to give a greater precedence to chem trails in the plane of the mound rather than chem trails in the up direction. By six that evening all of the ants had left the counter. Altogether this took about an hour and a half. I then uplinked the updated code to Sol-Synch. It will be then sent to a number of O'Neill habitats where it can be used as needed in their control systems.

    I then ran my daily monitor survey looking for any indicators of out of constraint parameters thruout the Jackson Hole area. Most everything was well within acceptable constraints but there was a minor problem with bighorn sheep over-grazing several meadows to the southeast of Mt. Moran. About two hours modeling told me that this was likely related to a lightening strike that caused a 20 acre burn-off on Paintbrush Divide two months ago. Since it wasn't a fault in the control structures for the sheep, I didn't do anything to change the programming of their nanys. We prefer to use minimal technological interferance  and completely organic controls whenever possible. This is why the burn had occurred in the first place. If you are at all familiar with chaotic systems, you will know that slight changes in initial conditions can cascade into unexpected consequences. This is not to say that chaotic systems are random, they're not. They still tend to stabilize around strange attractors. My task was to introduce the minimum control to re-stabilize the grazing of this particular herd of bighorn. I could have overlooked the over-grazing but we've been trying to reintroduce a spectacular extinct species of wild flower, the wood lily, to that area and I wanted to cut the possibility of seedlings or mature flowers being trampled by the sheep.

    As I mentioned, the preferred method of our management program is to use organic controls. It's an art form as much as a science. I decided that the best option I had to stop the over-grazing was to introduce another predator into the area. This would thin the herd slightly and could also be used as an incentive for the herd to re-adjust its grazing pattern to the southwest where there was more forage available. It's quite common to use apex predators in this manner as they are generally more intelligent individually and easier to communicate with.

    To this end I contacted an old friend. Felix is an eleven year old mountain lion whose range was centered 20 kilometers north of the area where the overgrazing had occurred. His ancestors were successfully re-introduced to the Grand Teton area around eighty years ago from frozen ARK stock. Felix had just finished siring two cubs with Felicity. Having an overlapping range with a nursing female would soon begin to cause problems anyway (as mountain lions tend to be solitary) so it was time to move him. I should mention at this point that, should you choose to visit our area, you can observe Felicity's cubs from an excellent maximal stealth vantage a quarter mile off the Whatever Ridge Trail. They are adorable and will remain with their mother in the area thruout the next year.

    I contacted Felix thru the link. I found him napping in a shaded niche between three granite boulders about 4 kilometers from Felicity's den. I began with a link to his audio nerve. I told him I wanted him to move and gave the direction south. Cats are a quite independent family of creatures but quite capable of understanding simple verbal instructions. Felix  was in a restless mood due partially to his instinct to move farther away from the den. Naturally, he balked at following instructions but I was quite ready for this. I used the nanys to stimulate hormone secretions in his brain increasing his desire to move while reinforcing the verbal connection to the direction south. I then triggered previously mapped brain areas that contained memories of our bonding sessions so that he associated these commands with a positive experience. For anyone interested in these bonding sessions feel free to join me this afternoon. I'm going to be working with a pair of black bear cubs in Paintbrush Canyon while their mother takes a siesta. I'll leave here for home via Epad at 15:00 and take a stealth lift into the canyon from there. The bonding session will finish around 17:30.

    Around 11:30 on the day I'm describing I broke for lunch with Moon and a short nap for myself. At 14:00 we both went back to work. I checked to see that Felix was, indeed, traveling to the southwest. I linked with my assistant Josh Spears who was camping near Holly lake while gathering data for wood rat modeling and asked him to keep an eye out for Felix later that night.

    Around 16:00  Moon and I took a tea break. At 16:30 we went for  short hike past Hidden Falls and up Cascade Canyon. I noticed  a large build up of downed aspen from beaver harvesting in the area and sent a link mail request to Josh that he look into that problem when he returned while I was here at Clark Down. Moon and I  returned home about 18:30 for a light meal. We spent about 2 and a half hours in and interactive fantasy VR that we both enjoy.  Around 22:00  I spent an hour analyzing the day's nany data and another half an hour uplinking all the results to Eden-Earth headquarters and to Sol-Synch. Then off to a good night's sleep. Which concludes the story of my day and my part of this seminar. I can't tell you how much I love my work and life. I assure you that such opportunities are available to each of you as are opportunities in larger, more human interactive projects such as my husbands.

    Thank you for your attention during this presentation.I hope it's given you something of an overview on how our home planet is currently managed and hope you've enjoyed it. I'm now going to turn you over to my apprentice, Will Carol, for a brief question and answer period to be followed by lunch.

    Again, on behalf of Eden Earth, welcome to paradise.

    Welcome home.

Our Patriotic Duty

Our Patriotic Duty

On Dissent

Here it is again, that day when United States citizen's celebrate thumbing our nose at an insane British monarch (George the Third, talking about the British monarch not the one we had a few years ago, ended up standing in a corner of Winsor palace thinking he was a clock (according to one source)) . There will be parades and, of course, fireworks, cheerful explosions of color to light up night skies and make every red blooded American celebrate his independence. Sorry Canada, Mexico, Belize, El Salvador,  Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama did you think you were Americans?. Sorry everybody south of there - the only real America is North America. And as for you, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and all you little island folk, we don't even know what to make of you. We're talking about America here. So we will enjoy our Jingoistic celebration without a thought of you unless somebody mentions building a wall to keep you out and then we'll probably add a few gunshot wounds to our celebration.

Now, I do like an occasional fireworks display. Not so hot on parades because I don't like crowds, and I honor the memory of all the women and men who have given of themselves in service to try and protect this fragile edifice called democracy. Some of them were my closest friends and I think they would be horrified.

In the United States it is not only fragile, it is in grave danger. Should current trends continue calling ourselves a democracy will only be lying to ourselves. The so called "Patriot Act" is the most heinous piece of tyrannical legislation imposed on the U.S. citizenry since - well maybe ever. We can credit our George III and the cowardice of congress ("Those who exchange freedom for security deserve neither."- Ben Franklin -apocryphal ). Patriotism requires courage. There will always be crazies and laws are not going to get rid of them nor protect us from them. Only continuous, directed, cognizant empathy and education can do that. Those who exchange promises of security for freedom will get neither.

The recent supreme court decisions granting even further "rights" to corporations (the same ones which we bail out again and again with taxpayer money because no individual can be held accountable for corporate actions and who's CEOs sail golden parachutes to private luxury retirement) are Machiavellian (see NPR's article When Companies Became People. Facebook has censored ISIS and ABC is censoring an unpopular opinions so the writing is in the wind..Thanks be we still have (for now) that most American of rights: the Right of Dissent.

In my opinion It is far more patriotic to burn a flag than it is to wave one. Waving one is easy. Standing up in the face of mindless Jingoism to burn a flag in protest an outrageous (real or perceived) affront to democracy shows the courage of one's convictions. I don't think ABC should censor Tim Allen's attacks on liberals. I don't even think that Facebook should censor whatever the flavor of  Islamic extremists for the week. Democracy at its very core requires dissent. It is more than a right, it is a duty. Are you listening NSA? Up yours!

I believe in the spirit of democracy. The power to govern ultimately resides in the hands of the people. We're going to make mistakes (like George the Third, ours not theirs) but it's still the best over-all form of governance that anybody's come up with and, if not in the United States, the idea will prevail. Dissent will see to it. Dissent is our patriotic duty.

Somebody famous once said "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it." That's the American spirit I'm going to be celebrating.

Better GMAIL Management

 I test a lot of programs and occasionally subscribe to newsletters or feeds. This results in a bunch of stuff I don't want to look at showing up in my gmail inbox. I recently discovered a neat trick around this that  adds email aliases to gmail . You can use the alias addresses  to auto filter  incoming mail to various labels:



Official Gmail Blog: 2 hidden ways to get more from your Gmail address

Politically Incorrect

Where I come from, being called "dude" was a double insult. A "dude" was a greenhorn likely to try & mount the wrong side of his horse. A male (I'm female) tourista wearing a cowboy hat. It was obvious that he was a tourista because his cowboy hat was clean and a real cowboy's seldom is. A "dude" was a "drugstore cowboy" I was miffed when someone called me a dude.

 But, times have changed and so has society's lexicon. We've changed "disrespect" from a noun to a verb.  Far worse in my mind, ignorant national newscasters have made "an historical occasion" instead of  "a historical occasion" the accepted phrase. The guiding rule had been "an" before a noun beginning with a vowel and "a" before a noun beginning with a consonant. The letter "h" is a consonant. ( My English teachers would have been horrified.) English is a living language, not some static thing carved in stone.

The Japanese (those from Nippon) use to call Caucasians "gaijen" meaning "foreign devil". For westerners being offended would have disrupted commerce. During the era of the civil rights movement it became polite to call a Negro person "black". This was to avoid the slurs associated with the word "nigger". Negro is a the correct English word used by ethnologists to refer to a specific race. It comes from the Spanish "negra" (meaning black) as many of the Muslim Moors were dark skinned. Likewise, the confusion of Columbus gave us the confused racial name of "Indian" for the natives that he found in the Americas.

The black (negro) folks I know are not really black. They are various shades of chocolate brown. Actually, I'm not white. I'm sort of salmon pink. Imagine the Klu Klux Klan wearing pink sheets to their meetings! Personally, I think referring to the two main divisions of race in the United States as "chocolate" and "vanilla" would be rather cool. We could throw in "strawberry" and "butterscotch" to cover the whole field.

Don't get me started on "Native American". Oops, too late. I'm a native American. The flesh of my flesh came from America. The bones of my bones are made from the calcium of American soil. To disparage this in any way disconnects me from the environment in which I live (and we're beginning to see where that leads, aren't we?).

 I used to try to refer to the peoples who's land the European settlers took as "first peoples" to try to show some respect but that's too big a mouthful.  "Indian" (still use it occasionally as old habits die hard) doesn't show that respect and is totally confusing. After 400 years we should have come up with something better but then we in the United States are still using the size of some king's foot as our standard of measurement. As far as I know,  name of the king is lost in antiquity. These days I try to remember to change the "Indian" misnomer to "Amerind". Intent seems to me to be the most element in referring to an ethic group and hopefully this is both meaningful and respectful.

I recently saw a public broadcast where a guest on an interview called out another guest for using the 60's term "black" to refer to an ethnicity. "You're supposed to say 'African American'". What complete bullsquat. This politically correct nonsense has gone too far. I had a friend who's ethnicity origin was Mexico. I called him a "chicano" as was the politically correct term at the time. "I AM not a chicano I'm a MEXCAN", was his response tho he was born in the US. Another friend of mixed Amerind & Spanish origin I frequently teased by calling a "wetback" referring to the idea that immigrants from the south often cross the border by swimming across the Rio Grande or the All-American Canal. He knew that  I was well aware that his ancestors had settled nearby long before any Europeans had even explored the area. I was teasingly acknowledging that fact and showing appreciation for the contribution his culture had made to mine.

In some communities I have seen friends of all races affectionately referring to each other as "nigger" in the same vein as "dude" is often used today. No offense is meant. I'll start saying "African American" and "Asian American" when people start calling me an "European American". I'd much rather be actually correct than be politically correct.

I don't want to go around feeling offended when the person calling me a "dude" mean no offense. So, if I say something off the cuff that offends you, please ignore it. I hardly ever mean to offend anyone and if I do I can just about guarantee that you'll know it. And, I promise I won't take offense when someone calls me a "dude" or just about anything else that's in their personal lexicon.

Let's all be more civil to each other by making this promise to ourselves: "Don't take offense where none is meant".  To do so not only hurts ourselves, it's just plain silly.

 And, always be sure to - "smile when you say that, stranger."