What's What

I was watching The Today Show this morning and was a little taken aback when I saw that the Miami cell of Moorish American radical black muslims had been exposed for their plot to blow up buildings on US soil. The only reason this had any significance for me was because my ex-husband is a member (or at least was when we were together) a member of this group. Seeing it on the news at 7:01 AM took me back to my college days when my ex-husband used to talk about "the revolution", but worse, had me brainwashed to believe this was a good idea (when I thought I was beginning to understand what's what). With my son's upcoming trip to LA in the balance, I called my best friend (who used to live with us) to get her opinion on the situation.

When I asked her if she had seen the news, she told me she'd seen snipets of the story and thought it was crazy. She asked me if my ex still thought like that. I said, "Well, shortly after 9/11 I talked to him and he said, 'America got what they deserved...' after which I couldn't talk to him any more because to me...it was just wrong! I don't care if you think western society is evil...you don't kill thousands of innocent people!" I told her that it concerns me that every time my son goes to LA to visit his father, he is being programmed to think like these people. "He's got Shorty saying, 'When I grow up, I'm going to be in my dad's army,' referring to his crazy group!" Now that I'm beginning to understand "what's what", I'm not inclined to let my son be led in the wrong direction.

"Wow," she said, "My 20 year old mind can understand it, but my 32 year old mind just doesn't get it!" [I'm paraphrasing]. I tolded her that in light of the crazy ideas being shared, I'm not sure I should still send my son to LA to visit his dad this summer. We batted the idea around for a while and she finally said, "Well, he is the boy's father..." I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. To me, it's just amazing how time can change one's perspective. I just pray that I can keep my son safe long enough for him to figure out what's what on his own.