Uneducated

Uneducated

I just flashed on an old memory and, as usual, it did not fail to amaze me.

This happened years ago, when I was a fairly new newlywed.  There was all this talk and awareness raising of nuclear bombs.  A TV movie was made which was pretty scary.  I believe it was called The Day After or something like that.  It was a huge event that was hyped for months before it aired and for months after.  People that watched the movie claimed to be really scared, so much so that they couldn’t watch the entire thing  (If I recall correctly, it was a mini series).  I watched it and while the premise was frightening, I didn’t think it was “scary.”  Everyone watched it. 

A few days after it aired, I was talking to my then sister-in-law (my ex-husband’s sister).  She talked about how scared she had been when she had seen the movie.  She said she’d talked to her sister and her mother and both had been terrified.  She asked me if my mother and sisters had been scared.  I answered that my mother and sisters had not found it to be terrifying; a frightening premise, yes, but not terrifying to watch the movie.  I think part of the reason why I said that was that she was going on and on about how she had not been able to sleep and it had made her sick to her stomach.  She was just exaggerating things, which she did often.

Her answer to me was this:  “Well, that must be because they didn’t understand it.  You know, they didn’t go to college or anything so they just aren’t educated enough to understand it.”

I was dumbfounded.  I was insulted.  I was speechless!

Through the entire time I was married to her brother (16 years), she continued to make references to the fact that my family was “uneducated.”   When I remember it now, it still angers me.  I still wonder who the “uneducated” one was.