What Kind of World Do You Want....

I have thought about that Five for Fighting song a lot since Nico has come into the world. And, my thoughts have taken me to a lot of interesting places. It was a historic election year. The economy is in a state of....well, I will say a state and being at home the past 11 weeks with so much exposure to the media, it's hard for me to have the HOPE the Obama campaign and those who want to believe promise.

Today, I was in the waiting room of the clinic waiting for the results of a strep test. I had Nico on my lap and we were reading a book when a seven year old Vietnamese girl came over to "look at the baby." We played the game of "what's his name [Nico] what's your name [Hilary], how old is he [9 weeks] how old are you [7 years0...." and Hilary continued to tell me about her. She was at the doctor for an X-ray of her heart. She told me she has been in California and Las Vegas. That she "drove cars" in Las Vegas. Then she asked me if I had ever been to Vietnam. I answered "no, I have not." and she replied that she had been many times. She then offered that people "do not like Vietnamese people."

I thought about it long and hard as I wanted to offer a thoughtful and hopeful response, but I couldn't think of a quick response. Only, "WOW, would something like this ever come out of my 7 year old's mouth and if it did, why, how, what could he have possibly experienced in his short 7 years that would lead to a sentence like this.

I hope that when Nico is 7 he won't have reason to know "hate" the way this 7 year old Vietnamese girl does.