My Message of Cross-Cultural Understanding

From the speech to be delivered tomorrow at The Women's Conference 2007, hosted by California First Lady Maria Shriver and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Before I start, on behalf of the people of Jordan, let me express my heartfelt concern for the citizens of southern California, as they battle atrocious and dangerous fires. And let me also pay tribute to the courage and tirelessness of the state's fire and police departments, the emergency services, volunteers and many others, who are all working around the clock...risking their own lives to save those of others. These people are real life, everyday heroes, and I think we should give them a round of applause to show our tremendous respect and admiration for the difficult job they are doing. May God be with you.

Thank you all for making me feel so at home. As someone who comes from half a world away, I appreciate the warmth of your welcome. But I am not surprised, because yours is a state that has the entire world within its borders -- a state that treasures diversity because you live it every day.

As an Arab and a Muslim, I am here today to share a message of cross-cultural understanding. And I am confident I have much to learn from you as well. Californians are proven champions of bridging cross-cultural divides. With no ethnic majority... more than 200 languages... and the daughter of such an iconic Democratic family married to a superstar Republican Governor... this state is clearly a fertile environment for cultivating common ground. In our time together, I would like to share a few stories from my life so far.

And I hope that somewhere within my stories, you will hear something that sounds familiar.

Because I am convinced that we are all much more alike than we are different... that the experiences that shape us, no matter where we grow up, bring out the same very human responses -- of tears and laughter, fear and courage, uncertainty and enlightenment. My hope is that you will see part of yourself in me, just as I have seen myself reflected in other women's lives around the world.

My first story takes place when I was five, in nursery school in Kuwait. It involves a quintessential product of American popular culture. And while I cannot say I learned everything that I really need to know in kindergarten, I did -- thanks to this cross-cultural exposure -- have what Oprah would have called an "Aha" moment.

My mother used to send me to school every day with my lunch in a lunchbox. Maybe your mother did that too -- or maybe you are the mom getting up a little earlier than everyone else to pack up the fruit, cut off the crusts, and draw a smiley face on a note. I still remember how good it felt to open up my lunchbox each day. I always knew I would find a hummus sandwich inside... and the familiar, dependable texture and taste that made me feel secure and loved.

One day, I sat next to one of my friends and watched her open her lunchbox. But what was inside? Not a hummus sandwich, but... peanut butter and jelly. And I thought -- how revolting! Or, in my five-year old lingo, "Ewww gross!" I had never seen food so strange. In fact, I felt a real sense of pity for my friend, that she was stuck with some weird peanut paste, instead of my mom's hummus.

And then one day, my friend suggested I might like to try her sandwich. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I braced myself and took a small bite. Do you remember Scooby-Doo, how Scooby would literally float off the ground at the thought of a Scooby-snack? Well that was my reaction to peanut butter and jelly. I thought it was heavenly.

And maybe you have had an experience like that too, where something you thought was foreign and strange revealed itself to be wonderful. Or when a judgment you had made on the basis of looks turned out to be totally wrong.

Even a five-year old can start to grasp the importance of an open mind.

Now, I do not want to over-dramatize the impact of peanut butter on my life. But so often today, in a world grown smaller, we are forced to confront new things - new people, new cultures, new ways of behavior -- that are different from what we are used to. And change can be scary. People often seek refuge by circling the wagons -- clinging tightly to what they know and trying to wall out what they do not.

Yet, when we do that, we diminish ourselves. We deprive ourselves of life's richness. And at worst, we perpetuate ignorance that breeds prejudice and fear.

I am afraid we are seeing that trend today in the tensions between East and West, with each side encumbered by stereotypes of what the other must be like. To hear some in the West, all Arab women are backward and oppressed... while some Arabs assume all American women are desperate housewives seeking sex in the city.

And some caricatures are not nearly as easy to laugh off... Arabs and Muslims as terrorists, for example, ... and Americans as people whose ultimate aim is to suppress Islam. If we are to get beyond stereotypes like these, we will have to really get to know one another. To taste the proverbial peanut butter -- and hummus -- instead of limiting ourselves to preconceptions.

And we should view this as a wonderful opportunity, not as a terrible burden. Because the more we try to stand in one another's shoes and appreciate one another's perspective, the more dimension, depth, and texture we'll ultimately add to our own.

Now, let's fast forward about 17 years. It's 1993 in Amman.

Picture yourself as a fresh college graduate, embarking on your career.

You have got your bachelor's degree in business ... and a great job with Citibank. You're looking forward to building on your education and experience.

Then, imagine you go to a party one night and you meet an incredible man. He's dashing and kind... sophisticated and brave... handsome and humble. A real prince.

Well, in my case he was!

And all of a sudden, I found myself facing a future I had never prepared for. We all know the story of Cinderella. But real life is not a fairy tale.

It seemed overwhelming. I was just 22. I had had a normal childhood. My closest encounters with royalty had been in the pages of People magazine. So you can imagine how anxious I felt when, shortly after I met my husband, my soon-to-be father-in-law King Hussein invited us over for lunch.

I have to confess, I envisioned a five-course banquet at a twenty-foot table. I was almost as nervous about using the right fork as I was about what I would say.

But I need not have worried. The King's favorite food was take-out falafel and pita bread from one of those amazing little hole-in-the wall restaurants that only a local would know.

Now you may be thinking - this Rania has sure learned a lot of life lessons from sandwiches!

But it was quite an experience to be meeting the king over a casual meal of falafel, just like any other Jordanian family might serve, with no protocol or pretense.

And when I think back on that moment now, it underscores for me the importance of the first pledge we have taken today - of showing up in our lives as ourselves.

Because whatever title or office we may be privileged to hold, it is what we do that defines who we are. It is how we treat others. What values we embrace. What example we set for our children. Each of us must decide what kind of person we want to be, what kind of legacy we want to pass on. It is not the rank or the role that matters. And it is not what we have. It is what we give.

No one I know gave more of himself than His Majesty King Hussein. Some of you may remember nine years ago, this week, when the king interrupted his chemotherapy treatments, literally leaving his hospital bed, to attend the Wye River peace talks in Maryland.

He was so sick... so thin... and so frail. He had lost all his hair -- even his eyebrows. And I am sure some of you have had to deal with cancer in your own family. You know what it is like to see someone you love in a battle for survival... to hold their hand in the doctor's office... and hope against hope that medical research will find a miracle cure.

His Majesty was dying. Yet he was unyielding in his total commitment to peace -- his determination to build a better tomorrow for all the children of Abraham. He breathed life into a quest for peace that many had thought was doomed. He ennobled those around him by the force of his great spirit. And that is what made him a king.

I am so proud that my husband, King Abdullah, is carrying on that legacy -- relentlessly pushing for an end to the conflicts that have torn apart our region for too long.

You and I may never get the chance to weigh in on a treaty or at a summit. But each of us, in our own small realm, can be the ones who greet the world with open arms. We can be the ones who demonstrate, in the words of King Hussein, "that peace resides ultimately not in the hands of governments but in the hands of the people." And we can teach our children that in our interdependent world, we have to be able to depend on one another.

The last story I want to tell is about a terrorist attack. Not 9/11, but 11/9. November 9, 2005 -- one of the worst days of my life... when suicide bombers struck three hotels in the heart of our capital city, Amman.

We lost 60 people that day, which in a country of just 6 million is the same proportion Americans lost the day the towers fell. In Jordan, we are a close-knit community. Everyone was touched by the tragedy. Everyone felt as though he or she had been personally attacked. There was a wedding celebration in one of the hotels. The bomber targeted the reception. And in what should have been their greatest hour of joy, the bride and groom saw their fathers killed, their families literally torn apart.

I went to the hospital to try to comfort the victims and survivors. There was a woman in her 40s who had lost her only child -- a 9-year old daughter she had tried for over 10 years to conceive. She kept asking me, "Why? Why did this have to happen?" And there was no answer to give. No words had the power to soothe her pain or lessen the scope of her sorrow.

If you had been there you would have wept with me, and our tears would have been indistinguishable, because there is no Arab way, no American way, of loving and losing a child. The voice of the heart needs no translation. The way we feel is exactly the same. Whatever we look like, wherever we live, however we pray, we respond to human suffering as human beings. But we must do more than find unity in grief. We must also find a way to share our strength. In the past, I have described this as a reverse domino effect, where we reach out and lift one another up- each woman handing another the gift of hope... and encouragement... and resilience to be passed on.

But if our "reverse domino effect" is to reach its fullest potential, the chain of caring must reach from the West to the East and back again. In a shrinking world, we cannot afford to ration our compassion. More than ever, our fates are intertwined -- and our friendship must know no boundaries.

I began by saying I knew that I had much to learn from Californians. And one of the things I will take home with me is Maria's message about the "the power of WE" -- a message of hope in a world too often divided between "us" and "them." Let us work together to extend that community of purpose to all our peoples - Californian, Jordanian, American, Arab -- joined in common values and common cause.

The words sound as sweet in any language:

* * *

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

Let us not wait any longer. It is time that both hummus and peanut butter sandwiches find their way into the lunchboxes of all our children, and generations to come.

Thank you very much.

Comments

[DaCynic]

Her Majesty's words gave me chills.

She is a true beauty, inside and out.

[allpoliticiansaretraitors]

Hmmm...I think I'll try and bridge the diffences by having a peanut butter & hummus sandwich for lunch today.

Otherwise, when 'god' goes out of the picture (on all sides) then we'll have a chance @ peace. Not until.

[vippy]

We humans are still evolving? 2000 plus years of religion and we are still killing each other.
We have not made progress. I don't know the solution to this. A person such as Rania is
a light at the end of a tunnel. We simply don't have enough of them.

[Pandu]

Hummus, PB&J, falafel...

Pious words are always appreciated, but I'm more impressed and pleased to see that none of the sandwiches mentioned included meat.

With some 65 billion animals unnecessarily slaughtered each year, world peace seems far away. Every meal is a choice of peace or violence.

[NotMyPrez]

Queen Rania,

Peace be with you, and if there are more good souls like yourself speaking out loud enough- it will drown out the hate mongers on both sides.

[Boobaloo]

hey pandu, are you this concerned about the millions of humans in Iraq that are either being killed, terrorized or humiliated on a daily basis? Or the 60 killed in terrorist bombs mentioned in the Queens comment?

Because if you do, you didnt mention them in your rant about eating carrots and saving cows.

There were over 600 000 Iraqis slaughtered in the past several years, world peace certainly is far away pandu.

[definitelyNOTmisterRIGHT]

pandu, unnecessarily slaughtered? have you not seen the great documentary "planet of the apes"? we need to come together as humans to annihilate (and eat) as many animals as possible to save mankind. plus, they are super-yummy when grilled! have a great day!

[hellinabucket]

Mmmm, hummus! I grew up on peanut butter & jelly but came to love hummus. And I thought only Jewish mothers, grandmothers, aunts, etc. knew the way to one's heart is through the stomach! If more mothers ruled the world we wouldn't be in such a pickle right now. Thank you for your very beautiful and very moving words. Peace be with us all.

[AdamWykle]

Queen Rania, I sincerely pray your that your country of origin, Palestine, gets established against all odds.

[smartstuart]

Ahem...isn't her country of origin....Jordan??

[AdamWykle]

No smartstuart, she's originally a Palestinian and married a Jordanian Prince.

[USMCMUSTANG]

It has--Jordan.

[MagisterLudi]

The Queen was born and raised in Kuwait and attended American University in Cairo ( thats in Egypt for some of you Americans).

Wait until out resident geniuses Boboloo and Polish prince (don't-kno­w-from)Ada­m claim this is revisionist Zionist slander.

[tyruler]

Palestine ain't Jordan smart alex.
It's like stating real America is Canada.

This is bigoted logic parroted by the pro-Israelis and the neocons meant totally to deprive the legitimate right of Palestinians to self-determination and eventual freedom.

I suggest you read President Carter's book, "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid" and Prof. Walt's book "Israel Lobby and US foreign policy."

[jdm58]

Thank you, Your Majesty, for the kind words you have expressed towards the peoples of this nation, even in the face of harsh criticism both here and at home. Your bravery is to be admired, hopefully the Nobel team will give you a nod one day for your efforts.
I will gladly break bread with you, and share our mutual affinity for peanut butter, and hummus, any time. May God be with you, and bring us all to lasting peace. Salaam.

[mommadona]

I have one question.

What is the TRUE status of women in Islam?
Where are the women in the discourses?

Why are they silent?
Are they afraid to confront the men?

When will the status of women change for the better?

When can they have a CHOICE of apparel without fear of attack or death?

Why would any Western woman wish to live that type of life?

These are serious questions that get to the root of most of the ills seen from the West by women today. Male domination to the detriment of the society.

[avicenna]

I would ask the same question of the American people - where is the courage to stand up to the tyranny of the Bush administration? Do all Americans agree with dealing in arms, carnage, and ecological destruction? What of the rights of women to earn the same wage and make decisions about her own body? The true status of women in Islam? Look at Pakistan, Bangledesh, Indonesia - all Muslim countries who have actually ELECTED a female head of state! Look at the articulate Queen of Jordan who is speaking, but not being heard by those wearing veils over their ears. Shirin Ebadi - Iranian noble prize winner and Muslim woman. Islam was in fact the first religion to grant women equal rights - to inheritence and education. The volitility in this world does stem from testosterone - especially young testosterone with no employment and that which has been nurtured in the environment of violence and hopelessness.

[mommadona]

Thank you. Good response.

[MagisterLudi]

avicenna,
Yes, read "Reading Lolita in Teheran" written by a courageous woman ex-professor too...
I am sure the despotism of Iranian Supreme leader (Ayatollah) towards women is also due to testosterone.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

mommadona... that's SEVERAL questions...but I agree and ask all of them.

I certainly don't think muslim women are backwards. But, if they're not opressed.. why must they cover their beauty in fear of their lives?

[jdm58]

If you are truly interested, you may find these links helpful in your quest for answers:

http://www.khrn.org/veil.htm

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/02/fffb0d7a-d80b-4bdf-a1b3-68368f2f76dc.html

You may also find it interesting that the Torah/Old Testament makes mention of headcovering: Genesis 24:65, Song of Solomon 1:7, 4:1
and the New Testament of Bible actually commands it of Christian women: 1Peter 3:3, 1Corinthians 11:5-16, and 1Timothy 2:9. In fact, it is only in the last 20 years or so that evangelical women became more tolerant of the wearing of slacks, make-up, and colored hair (Tammy Faye had a lot to do with it).
While there are a few Islamic states that actually do require headscarves, the vast majority leave it to the individual to chose. What we westerners need to do, is be more empathetic to these women, and encourage their exploration of personal freedoms on their own terms, from their own perspective. Not force our pre-conceived notions of beauty or freedom down their throats. Most beauty regimens, mascara, eyeshadow, lipstick, originated from the Middle East. If you actually read Song of Solomon, the veil itself is a seduction of the senses, luring the admirer to uncharted territory. Far cry from the west today, where we seem to promote less as more, and leave nothing to the imagination.

[mommadona]

I know...got too much in one pile, there, but - I do believe if the questions are put out there, the discourse would be very enlightening for all sides.

As women, I believe we have MUCH more in common than we do in a 'religion' paradigm, or a 'cultural' paradigm.

[maddogbitesback]

Concerned - for the same reason a Western woman covers her breasts when she swims in a public pool. Fear of getting men thinking of doing violent things to her. How come women here have no rights over their bodies. How come women in the West were chattel a hundred years ago? How come women here are beaten? How come.

[avicenna]

Do nuns (self-identified wives of Christ) fear for their lives? Is that why they wear the habit? It is both a cultural and personal representation of oneself - more so then religious. If you note, their apparel is similar to and culturally parallel to those Muslim women who wear head scarves. jdm58 has provided further insight - I find it quite amazing the degree of ethnocentrism prevalent in the United States. Travelling around the world and experiencing other perspectives, ways of life, and cultures will surely get rid of this xenophobia and judgemental views. In this respect, the world - who has privy to american culture through being forced fed the exported goods - has an upper hand in understanding that there is more then one way to skin a cat (or in my passive vegetarian case, use tofu).

[OckhamsElectricRazor]

I like how you think. One common charactisitic of fundamentalists, indeed ALL 'true believers', is the inability to acknowledege that they could be wrong about a basic tenet of faith. The domination of politics by religious fundamentalist is a common problem for both the US and the Islamic culture.

I think one of the geniuses of American democracy is how it deals with religious diversity. All religio-political movements have self destructed from a very basic characteristic of all religious movements. On one hand, a religious sect must distinguish itself as being apart from the mainstream society. As the sect (or movement) gains popularity in mainstream sosiety, it must either convert people to its particular beliefs OR compromise its own beliefs with the larger body politic. Either way it dilutes its influence, either by creating conflicts which may highlight beliefs not held by the mainstream; or by losing its identity in the process of compromise--losing the very principles that sets the sect apart from society.

There are signs that political domination by Christian fundamentalism in the US is beginning to self-destruct. Hopefully, by encouraging moderate and humane approaches to putting people and problems before ideology we can make a more peaceful world.

[mrman]

"Noblest Oblige"... Thank you for your compassionate post. Welcome to the Huffington Post! (please do not feed the animals)

[researcher]

First I hope your people do not consider all Americans bring them on and we are kicking ass cowboys (bush jr) and war for profits war mongering imperialists (Cheney).

Most Americans are but not all. If most were not George bush would not have been elected twice and we Americans would have learned our lessons from Vietnam. We Americans as a society have still not asked the Vietnamese people for forgiveness and until we do we are toast.

Maybe this slow bleed in life and treasure we are experiencing in Iraq will teach us this time not to be imperialists. But don’t count on it. Most Americans I talk to on the street, not here on huffpost of course, are upset because we are not winning not that this war was a war for oil and profits and therefore illegal.

My take on Islam and cultural differences. Religion is a lot about the male ego. As I have one of those male egos I know it first hand.

Hey it is kind of neat to be writing to a queen. Welcome to huff post.

[metamorphosis]

Don't confuse a coup with assent or a split minority as a close call. Bush was "elected" by half of half of the country or 25% - hardly "most Americans" by any measure.

I don't know what street you speak of, but "most Americans" I know, none of whom come to Huffington Post, believe this war should have never been waged and are deeply ashamed of any support they may have given in the face of our 9-11 mass insanity.

They aren't angry that we're losing - that is the republican spin. They are angry because we were duped and can't seem to figure out why. Little wonder, given the media in this country and the limited sources of information "most Americans" are privy to.

Most Americans, if given the benefit of this message, would embrace this message's simple truths and common sense wisdom. However, most Americans don't have the benefit of an Open Society anymore nor do they have equal access to alternative views.

Our country been high-jacked by a small group of smaller men. This corporatist coup has been masterful in its success and yet so simple in its working parts. From Reagan relaxing the income tax rules for our most blessed citizens and draining the federal coffers with increased "defense" spending to Clinton relaxing media ownership rules and the mass exodus of our middle-class jobs overseas to Bush's full frontal assault on our systems of government, the assault on America in complete. They won. Game over.

Yes, it was a brilliant and well-executed plan, but no coup is ever permanent. No revolution is forever. The question now is how long we allow it to continue.

The ONLY option available to us now is turn-out in record numbers and vote for something new. They have rigged the game, but it is entirely based on a delicate scam easily upset by high turn-out.

Please don't offer a one-dimensional view of Americans. We are more complex and our problems more profound than your simple characterization allows.

[nowaterboardUSA]

Good article. I hope the planet will survive this current turmoil and find peace. Many of my fellow country men (US) don't seem too interested at this time. Too busy playing cowboy. Pity.

[JCP]

First - for those Americans who continue to find fault in the cultural, and in many cases legal, insistence that Muslim women were a burqa, look in the mirror. Do you want your adult daughter heading out of the house on a hot summer day topless, even though her brother could do so without anyone batting an eye? And why not? Because she'll endanger herself to the male libido, right? Boy, you sound like the Muslim everyman, how about that?

OK? So we obviously have some shining to do with our kettle before we start complaining about the pot.

As for Queen Rania's statement: "there is no Arab way, no American way, of loving and losing a child. The voice of the heart needs no translation. The way we feel is exactly the same. Whatever we look like, wherever we live, however we pray, we respond to human suffering as human beings."

This is probably not true for "infidels" (though I suppose I prefer the term "atheists") like me. We don't believe in any "higher purpose" or that we'll be reunited with our dead children by benevolent gods in some faraway blossom-filled meadow. So we probably don't mourn the same way, actually. We also don't become crusaders or jihadists. Just sayin'.

[avicenna]

Are you saying that atheists don't mourn loss? Are all "infidels" a singular breed? Do all those who believe in a purposeful life of the belief that they will be reunited with their near and dear once their time is up in this chapter? Surely not. There was no mention of religion in the statement "there is no Arab way, no American way..." - that was inferred by you - perhaps by preconceptions. And lastly, you don't need religion as a reason for killing - oil, power, nationalism, territorialism, ethnic cleansing all have had their hand in mass murder. The real problem lies in human stupidity.

[MagisterLudi]

Still, history proves that inflexible dogmatic beliefs (mostly religions) make stupid people extremely dangerous.
Examples:Islamic conquests and mass obliteration of local cultures and customs, ruthless conquest of Iran and Byzantium by Arabs, Crusades, Protestant/ Catholic wars, Sunni-Shia wars etc.

[JCP]

Re-read my quoted segment above, there most certainly was mention of religion: ". . . however we PRAY, we respond to human suffering as human beings." Some of us don't pray at all, ok? And we atheists don't mourn the same way as religious believers do. We mourn with pure sadness, untainted by the delusion that we'll be reunited with our loved ones in Santa's golden palace in the sky. So that's a big difference, and yes, all of us "infidels" are the same in that way. And I didn't say you needed religion as a reason for killing, but it's a shame that it constitutes one significant and totally unnecessary additional reason beyond those you mention. We'll always have war over non-religious disputes, but isn't it totally senseless to fight over religious ones? Can't we put all that mythological my-god-is-­bigger-tha­n-yours crap to bed after all these millenia? It's killing people every day. Let's solve the religious disputes and then, like rational humans, we can set about dealing with the other problems, without religious leaders weaponizing people by imbuing in them from childhood a belief in an afterlife.

[sqweels]

Excellent sentiment.

However, I don't think most Westerners regard Arab women as "backward". Oppressed, yes.

There are many Muslim communitie­s--includi­ng some neighborhoods in Western countries--where a woman who appears on the street without her head covered will be called "whore" within minutes. That's not nice.

[maddogbitesback]

sqweels - Check back on women in the West a hundred years ago. They were chattel and could be beated by their husbands. At least Moslem women have economic rights and can divorce.

[MagisterLudi]

Well thabnk you for adimtting that Islamic civilization is ( at least) 100 years behind the West.
But Mr. Sharia defender, this is TWENTY FIRST CENTURY! Most of the world moved on to nano-technology, post modernism, exploration of space, string theory, AI.

You guys are going backwards!!!!
Talking about if it's right to let a womem drive a car and testify in court and produce nothing of value to the global civilization.

Don't you see how appallingly backward it seems to many in Europe Far East and Americas.
Please, spend more time on Muslem sites encouraging MUslims to stop this neuoritic obession with Israel and the West and begin your own Renaissance. Its about time.
Perhaps in a few hundred years you can catch up.. I don't mean it as an irony, but in sincerity.
You guys need to produce your own Protestants ( for economy)and humanists (to reduce the viciousness and jihadist tendencies).
Don't go pimping Western ideas--create your own.
The whole world wishes that ME would throw off the tyranny of political Islam and achieve some kid of separation of mosque and state which will result in a degree of economic advancement.

[califlefty]

Beautiful words! They need to be repeated in Saudi Arabia and Iran. Perhaps Her Majesty will also find the courage to stand with Ayaan Hirsi Ali and defend her rights of free speech as well? After all, Maria Shriver seems well protected.

[1differentdrummer]

The Middle East isn't a simple place, is it? Could it be that while some expect a huge bridge between the ME and US that myriad small bridges will do better? I am fortunate to have known people from Iran,(Persians and Fars) Saudi Arabia, Palestine and Egypt. Guess what, they were no different from Americans and some became citizens of the US. w's attack on Iran, the country that offered to help us with Afghanistan and deeply sympathized with us over 9/11, would set back the cause of peace in the ME by many years. We've meddled in Iran over oil for almost sixty years, and still Iranians and other Muslim folk think we are ok. Of course, their right wing crazies are haters like ours. Now wonderful w and company have left a mess on the carpet and we need to clean it up while preventing another mess on the Persian rug. Shouldn't we heed the grace and peace in this post? If we look for war, what will we find? If we look for peace, what might we find? Shouldn't we try for peace at every opportunity rather than look for war?

[Boobaloo]

Wow. Very well put, fantastic comment.

[Kansas Evans]

Really great comment.