Happy Hellacious-Terribly painful-Horrendous-Yet Somehow Joyful Day of my Birth to me April 9, 2009

Every year on my birthday, my mother calls nearly every hour throughout the day to give me updates on the progress of my birth. This is a yearly tradition with her, though who knows why she wants to relive such a traumatic event, year after year after year. But, none-the-less, she finds this highly amusing.

7am: Happy Birthday! You’re not born yet though… but I’ve been in labor the past 26 hours.
9am: At the Dr. yesterday for a stress test because you are two weeks overdue. Yep, labor is confirmed! Come back later when the contractions are closer.
10am: Been at the hospital all night but only dilated to a 2. You don’t want to come out!
11am: Keeping taking the monitor off and the nurse is yelling at me to keep it on. Whatever, get this kid out of me!
12pm: Horrible painful night! Dr. came in and said, “Oh, you poor thing. I am going to order an epidural right now.” Fucker didn’t come for another 4 hours.
1pm: Anesthesiologist says, “so looks like we have had one too many ice creams during our pregnancy.” NOT something you tell a pregnant lady who is in labor! Didn’t want to piss him off with a smart ass comment since he had a 6 inch needle in his hand though….
He says arch your back, i say wait, i am having a contraction. He says, “that’s fine, I want to put this in when you are.” FUCKING ASSHOLE
So he does, he hits a nerve and I literally bounce on the table from the pain.
“Oops” he says.
2pm: Your dad goes off to get coffee because I won’t let him sleep. “If I have to suffer through this, so do you. Wake up asshole!” So he is gone and all of the sudden the nurses come screaming in my room, they are unhooking me from the monitor and doing all sorts of things to the bed. They say the baby has had a bowel movement and we need to get her out, so down the hall they roll me into the delivery room. C-Section!
Funny thing: your dad had to put on scrubs to come into delivery room and they were light yellow and he had on blue underwear and you could see them through the scrubs.
They slice me open and I immediately get air under my shoulders. The pain is horrendous but there’s nothing they can do. They have strapped me down so I can’t move my arms. You are stuck under my rib cage and they can’t get all of you out so they have to push you back in and finally, after 20 min, here you come!  Your shoulder is bruised and red from being stuck. The doctor proceeds to sew me up and then comes and stands next to me and tells me it was a very hard delivery. Then I proceed to throw up on her.
3pm: I pass out and wake up to a nurse pushing on my stomach to help the after birth come out or some bullshit story. I grab her arm in tears and beg her to stop but she says she has to do this. I am so sore from the doctors pushing on me to get you out! I pass out again, wake up in another room, but I don’t see you until 6 or 7 that evening. I can’t hold you because my stomach is hurting.  They give me morphine, which made my face itch.  Anyway that is the way you came into this world.  Happy b-day sis!

So yes, I came into this world in all my shriveled, pink glory after giving my mom hell for 36 hours, which she reminds me of yearly lest I forget! Thanks mom! Love you.

An Unfamilar Feeling April 6, 2009

I caught part of Obama’s speech to the Turkish parliament this morning on CNN, and from the brief section I was able to watch, I was extremely impressed.

I say this as the president of a country that not very long ago made it hard for somebody who looks like me to vote, much less be president of the United States. But it is precisely that capacity to change that enriches our countries. Every challenge that we face is more easily met if we tend to our own democratic foundation. This work is never over. That’s why, in the United States, we recently ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed. That’s why we prohibited – without exception or equivocation – the use of torture. All of us have to change. And sometimes change is hard.

Another issue that confronts all democracies as they move to the future is how we deal with the past. The United States is still working through some of our own darker periods in our history. Facing the Washington Monument that I spoke of is a memorial of Abraham Lincoln, the man who freed those who were enslaved even after Washington led our revolution. Our country still struggles with the legacies of slavery and segregation, the past treatment of Native Americans.

Human endeavor is by its nature imperfect. History is often tragic, but unresolved, it can be a heavy weight. Each country must work through its past. And reckoning with the past can help us seize a better future.

I’ve not heard many politicians even admit to the past misdeeds of our country, and to here our president speak of such things is extremely refreshing to me. Bush was not the type of person to ever admit to doing anything wrong, which is why many outside the U.S. have lost respect for our leaders. Being able to admit you were wrong, to admit imperfection, and to acknowledge that the U.S. makes mistakes (horrible, consequence-riddled mistakes) and can change… well, that’s something that gives me pride in my leader. For the first time ever.

I might have to get used to this pride thing. It feels kinda funny, like an itchy new sweater.  I’m used to my worn, comfortable righteous indignation. But… I’m open to new things. Maybe, if I like the way this fits, I might throw out my ragged, ill-fitting shame and my tattered anger. We’ll see.

UPDATE: Aparently, his comments were well received.

Kiran Chetry: In all, how was our president received in the muslim world?

Hisham Melhem: Well, judging by the positive headlines, by the live coverage that my network and others gave his speech yesterday in front of the Turkish parliament, the Muslim world likes what the president has been saying. Not only in Turkey, but since he was elected. And I think his words and, more importantly, his actions, have resonated positively throughout the Arab world and the Muslim world. People realize that there is a new tone, that there is a new content, that there is a new language. Gone are the combustible words that President Bush used to use like Islamo [sic] Fascism. Now the new president talks about engagement, he talks about partnership, he talks about respect, mutual interests. President Bush seemed to many Arabs and Muslims every time he talks to them as if he is talking down to them, as if he is lecturing them. This new president is trying to engage them as potential partners in the fight against the real enemy of the United States and the real enemy of these governments which is al Qaeda. The president doesn’t talk about the war on terror in general because the war on terror is a war on a tactic. He has a well-defined enemy called al Qaeda. He doesn’t clump like, President Bush, all Islamic groups. He focuses only on al Qaeda. All of these things, they are nuances and people recognizes nuances and they appreciate that.