Beyond Propaganda Stereotypes to Our Common Humanity

Kristina, your humble servant here did his doctoral work with students from the Middle East. He in fact became good friends with two of them, from Baghdad, Iraq, to be exact.

Both of them really put women on a pedestal. They really valued women who had dignity. For instance, one of them once told how his father was arrested and imprisoned by Saddam Hussein, and how his mother called the family together to keep them together. She took over leadership, and every day she went to a spot where her husband could see her to buck up his spirits.

My friend said he wanted to marry a woman just like his mother. Who can blame him? He now lives in San Diego, after earning his Ph.D. in water chemistry from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. The Iraqi exile community there helped him find such a woman, which is the last this writer has heard of him.

The other Iraqi earned his Ph.D. in soil sciences. Both wanted to return to Iraq to help boost agricultural production there, but when the wars came, they stayed here. Who can blame them?

Your humble servant here often wondered about the Iraqi people under our bombings.

The average person wants to eat, have clothing, housing. You get the picture. That was why these two students from Iraq were here.

Now we get the benefit of their talents. It is sad.