blame the woman

[sereneorange]

NAGAPATTINAM,
India (Reuters) - It took just a few seconds
for Shiva Shankari, like her village, to lose her future.

And her husband blames her for losing it,
for not holding on hard enough to their two sons when the Indian Ocean
tsunami swept through their south Indian village.

"I thought that my two sons were my future. With them I could
build this family," the 22-year-old said, choking back tears at a
refugee camp in the sprawling Hindu temple of Neela Dayachi Amman.

"What can I do? I am lost. My husband said, 'Why are you
alive and my sons are dead?"'

I cannot even begin to
imagine what any of these people are going through, but that right there
is just sick and sad.

There are so many things that make me
grateful to live in this country. There are cultures where the women are
expected to light themselves on fire if their husbands die or are killed.

There are cultures where only the parents of the husband are taken
care of by the couple when the parents are elderly.

We work hard,
we toil in feilds, the workplace and in the home. We carry, create and
nurture the children and in many many other cultures, women are second
class citizens.

So, despite my annoyance at the United States for
various reasons, I am so grateful to have been lucky enough to have been
born and raised here.