Confiding in Strangers

Yesterday I went to Michael's to buy a scrapbook for Kit. Most baby books available are completely unsuitable for adoption (The first time we saw the ultrasound!) so I decided to make one myself. I bought a really cute little baby boy scrapbook that has all kinds of fun stickers and cute paperclips and pretty paper. Everything is blue and green, but I will add other colors.

When I got to cashier, she admired the scrapbook so I decided to tell her I was adopting. I also showed her the photo of Kit I keep in my purse for just such an occasion (on a side note I've been reading Jane Austen and I think I've picked up a tiny bit of her style). The cashier admired Kit's photo and said,

"My sister adopted. She couldn't have babies of her own, so they decided to adopt."

Then she asked where Kit was now. I told her he is in Guatemala.

"Oh, his life will be so much better here! They have such terrible lives there."

Trying not to vomit, I calmly replied that there is a lot of poverty in Guatemala. I didn't want to actually get in a fight with the woman, especially since she thought she was being nice.

She replied, "Yes, we don't have poverty in America."

I just got myself out of the store and told Jack about it in the car. What bothers us most about that kind of comment is the assumption that the United States is superior to every other country. We have plenty of problems of our own here. U.S. citizens are not superior to citizens of other nations.