Separate post:

FTR, Helen Thomas was the commencement speaker for my undergrad class. Don't recall a word she said. There may have been booze involved. But as a Communications Major, I thought it very cool that head of the White House press corp was talking to us.

Didn't know about the regional heritage. Kinda shocking that it wasn't mentioned.

{{{Sean}}}

Yeah, Trudy and bt are right, she's Lebanese.

And yeah, it's not like I think she should be cut much slack, but it puts her comments more in context to know that about her.

{{{{{{{Sean}}}}} Never feel bad about asking for help. It's the only acceptable thing. We all love you.

edited to close accidental spoiler font

s coming! It's here! It has five arms and fifteen eyes! Aaaaahhh!!!

Many good thoughts and ~ma, Sean.

The hospital is ultimately what helped me, not just the actual stuff they did in the immediate aftermath but having a safe place to process and deal with everything.

Same for me.

You rock, Shir.

This.

Wish I hadn't missed the awesome language discussion! (Is the French sound getting any easier, Shir? We should attempt to chat in French again soon. Or rather, I should attempt to use the three words I can remember, and you can demonstrate how ridiculously rapidly you are surpassing me.)

My God, waking up in the morning and seeing all of this (I don't have a Facebook, so this is my source of info). {{{{{Sean}}}}}, pretty much everything clever Buffistas said. And FWIW, I'm really looking forward to meet you in person. So please, do alarm us.

____________________________

WRT Helen Thomas and her Lebanese origin: so was my grandfather and his family, and they fled from Beirut, leaving there lives, property and friends behind. Sure, everyone has circumstances, but you know what? Weeks and months in shelters in the North and a bunch of dead friends didn't make me collectively hate anyone or making stupid, racist remarks about Lebanese and/or Arabs in general, so I don't think this whole origin+suffering thing is the right argument for "I deserve some justice".

There are unjust wars. There are regrettable circumstances. But people continue to live. I don't ask from Germany, Poland, Hungary or Lebanon to let me go back there and reclaim my grandfathers and grandmothers property. We're way past the point where the thought of new territory that will be the magic cure and moving everyone of x-nationality or religion there will do the trick. We've seen that it doesn't work. So I have no idea why people keep using that argument. Give basic rights to every man, woman and child in your country, c'est tout. Give extra rights to citizens, but basic, human rights to the people (and yes, I know my country doesn't do it - but top political characters aren't saying we should banish every last Arab out of here, as well).

(Is the French sound getting any easier, Shir? We should attempt to chat in French again soon. Or rather, I should attempt to use the three words I can remember, and you can demonstrate how ridiculously rapidly you are surpassing me.)

In some parts, yes. Other parts are still vague. And hey, the test is in writing - I mostly can't pronounce that shit, but I now know in 80% of the cases when to use de, du, ou, qui or que. Now, if I could only remember the irregular verbs, that would have been great - but I hardly remember how to conjugate the regular verbs in the 7 tenses I'm supposed to know how to use.

Frankly, the fact that Helen Thomas is of Lebanese descent just makes me boggle even more at the sheer ignorance of her remarks. Does she really think all Israeli Jews are recently transplanted Europeans? Should the people whose families have lived in that region for thousands of years also go "back" to Poland?

I can't even address the "yeah, but she's old" argument. Are my grandparents really the only old people in the world who aren't secretly racist?

Well if it's a secret you wouldn't know now would ya?

I don't think, though, that in the cases of Middle Eastern relations between the different cultures can be boiled down to just racism. Racism seems to small a word and concept for it. I'm not specifically speaking about Helen Thomas, but about the generations of people that are living a life that I, personally, can not fathom. I know that there are attitudes I have that would be considered racist and I try like hell to change those when they crop up. I can't imagine what anyone living in that region on either side could be as simple as racism.

And mind, I'm not excusing Helen Thomas' comments. When I heard the first part of the interview when she said, "Get the hell out of Palestine!" I honestly thought she was pulling this dude's leg and having one off on him. Then I heard the rest and put my face in my hands. I don't, however, think that her entire life should end up being about this one statement, which it absolutely will end up being. When she dies, this incident is going to define her - not her decades of being a forerunner for women in journalism or her accomplishments - and that makes me sad. Both at her for saying such asinine shit and society for jumping up and down and having a party when someone says asinine shit.

Frankly, the fact that Helen Thomas is of Lebanese descent just makes me boggle even more at the sheer ignorance of her remarks.

This.