It used to be, one had to travel abroad to get exposed to people of different cultures. I joined the Navy at the young age of 18 to accomplish just that exposure to other cultures and peoples, even beyond my melting pot childhood in the San Fernando Valley, California (that's in Los Angeles) with families of European, Asian, African, and South American ancestry in my neighborhood.

Joining the Navy allowed me to be exposed to Americans from different regions and states in the U.S. and my deployments exposed me to Panamanians, Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Malaysians, Jordanians, Kuwaitis (and other Muslims and Arab Christians), plus Britons and Australians. Seeing other countries first-hand and seeing how people live in other countries has led me to a greater appreciation of what I have here in my home and neighborhood. I would even go so far as to say that I am a better person for my experiences.

With the advent of the Internet, what I enlisted for and traveled thousands of miles to do can virtually be accomplished with a couple of mouse clicks on my computer. The world is a very small place nowadays.

Still, what my childhood, my Navy career, and my Internet writing experiences all have in common is the ease in which cultures can clash and small misunderstandings can turn into big arguments over nothing. Without stopping to consider the regional or national origin of the comments and commenter, it is far too easy to take offense where none was intended and lose sight of the fact that there is a living, breathing human being on the other end of the computer connection.

Take a breath, take a pause, come back the next day, or do whatever it takes to consider what was meant before giving a reply to something that was probably an innocent remark or comment. If we are going to survive in a global community, we need to learn to translate before we retaliate.