June 15, 2007: Family and Misunderstandings

Some of my family members came to visit and see the new baby the other day, and I was again confronted, and still surprised, by the ignorance (and I mean this in the true sense of the word, not being insulting) and bias that they, as well as soooooooooo many other Americans have in regards to Arabs/Muslims.
Their first concern was for my safety in living in Kuwait. I understand that, heck KW has some iffy neighbors, but when I tried to bring up the fact that we are not so secure and safe in the US, they were like, "Whaaaaaaaaaaat, what are you talking about?" (Ok, so I'll bite my tongue and move on...)
"Well what about women, then? Will you be able to drive? Will you have to wear a burqa?!" (Please, I know they did not just ask that! It's not like we haven't had this conversation over the past 14 years countless times, but I guess the more they show their spin on the news, the more I have to answer redundant questions).
"Well what about the kids and you if things go wrong...did you see (no, no, no, please don't say what I think you're going to say...) Not Without My Daughter?"(Damn!, and yes, I did)
And we are not talking about uninformed, uneducated people here. They both graduated from Ivy League schools!
I won't even go into the political discussions, cause they get me tooooo heated. Like how there was some sort of link between Saddam and Osama..."Well, don't you think Saddam was funding Osama?" (What the hay??!!!) Or "The Palestinians weren't even farming their land..." (Count to ten, twenty, thirty......ok, it's not working!!!!)
I love yall, I really do, but next time, let's just talk about the weather.