Last week I travelled from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom. Doing so I crossed two other countries, Belgium and France before taking the ferry to the Island I love so much. Let me tell you a story about one of these borders I crossed, the one between Belgium and The Netherlands. When one drives from the Netherlands towards the Belgium, one can see the border from kilometres away.

Not that there is a huge fence. There is no borer patrol or customs at all.
Not that there is a life size doted line that separated both countries, there is just a blue sign welcoming you in Belgium.
Not that the landscape changes dramatically from flat Low Lands to the Belgium Alps, there is very gradually change of culture, language and landscape.

Still one is able to spot the border from far. Simply by the fact that all what is ugly in a country is moved as far away from the country as possible and placed at the edges of the geographical boundary. So high windmills delivering electricity are stacked up to pollute the horizon, nuclear power-plants are tactically moved to the edge as well as other unpopular geographical activities, all moved towards this area from both sides.

Think about this. Just as many people life in this area like any other inner country area, maybe even more. So the impact of these activities is just as big as it would be in the centre of The Netherlands or Belgium. But there are less voters in the border area for Belgium and for The Netherlands. If you don't aggregate the voters that is.

Just as many people have hinder, only half the number can complain to their local / federal government. From “The Big Picture” Point of View, doing stuff like this is complete nonsense, just as many people are impacted. From a political point of View it makes perfect sense, Not In My Back Yard!

So is this relevant for Drupal one might ask and why or how? It is relevant. And I’ll try to explain the why and how here.

I see the same happening in our community, both geographical and political wise piles of shit are shifted towards The Other. And it is not that I see this happening, I think I am one of he persons who is guilty of shifting the shit I don't want to the edges of my comfort zone and thereby maybe to you. This post is a “Sorry” for that. And a start to make sure that we all try to do the best we can for the Drupal Universe. Not just the part of the universe you (I!) are (am) located in.

If one looks at the last 5 years, there has been a clear trend that there is more friction between the EU (excluding the UK) and USA. Due to different political backgrounds, due to “oversee” wars, due to different visions about how to solve international terrorism and for example Guantanamo Bay, there is growing scepticism in many countries in the EU towards the USA. Triggering a similar reaction of those stupid fat Yankees towards the fine High Culture citizens of the EU. That was a joke. My statement is that if you cant make a joke about an argument, you are in real trouble.

This scepticism and the friction between the old and the new continent is also visible in the Drupal community, like it is in any other bilateral relationship between these two continents. While we share the four world languages (Love, Money, English, PHP) in our community, we differ in so many things we often forget to give some room to each other. It was visible from the reaction on the Paris DrupalCon silhouette to your mothers’ CMS remark, the so called Americanisation of the Drupal Association and for example the struggle to get a Code of Conduct for DrupalCons. Mind you, I have an strong opinion in all of these matters, but this posting is not here to redo these arguments, it is a posting to make room for other others. To seek for what binds us, not what separates us. I think John Postel (“two four six eight, there is someone I appreciate”) said it best when he said “Be conservative in what you send, be liberal in what you accept”. This robustness principle that is the heart of all technical protocols we use on the net, should also be the core of our genes in the Drupal community.
Not just USA vs EU, the world is bigger then those two continents and smaller then all continents.
Not just XX chromosomes vs XY. There is so much more the two genders and it is so unimportant what toilet you use.
Not just gay vs straight. Love and passion can be so much more in a community then .. Ohh, forget that last part...

But for all, everywhere. Independent what you are or where your local airport is located, we should think about the place where you want to go and how you can fly over-there. Not on how you / I can shift the pile of shit towards the end of your / my zone.

When I ask my 5 year old son what his favourite colour is, he answers “Blue”.... “And purple.. And yellow... And gold..” And the he continues some more. Let us remember that the global colour locale we share is blue. And pink. And black. And white. The complete rainbow. And 50 shades of grey, if that is your cup of tea. But mostly, it is blue.