Be a Friend

• Homa finds variations of the Golden Rule in all of the world’s major religions. She believes that one cannot be a good friend without putting this principle into practice. You can get started by placing a globe in a prominent location in your home and consider a world map on a wall everyone sees daily. Homa offers suggestions for internet sites to visit, books to read, and world music to listen to. You should also get passports for everyone even if you have no immediate plans for foreign travel. Be sure to take a look at your vacation budget and see if you can fit in some foreign travel.
• Making friends from different backgrounds takes effort. It may also require parents to get past some of their own prejudices. After the 9/11 attacks, Homa admits to some anxiety prior to a visit to a doctor with a muslim name. She also tells of prejudice her family experienced after the 1979 hostage crisis in Iran as they had immigrated from Iran. She offers many do’s and don’ts for making friends, a primmer on how different cultures name people, a international self-test, and many resource books.

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