The 1980s were a difficult time for Arab Americans. Politicians returned our contributions, rejected our endorsements, and many effectively hung “No Arab Americans allowed” signs on their campaign doors. Back then, we wrote about this situation, calling it “the politics of exclusion.”

On Friday, July 11, 2008, a resident of Arlington, Virginia, was sentenced to two concurrent one year prison terms for threatening my life and using hate-filled threats to violate my civil rights and those of my staff at the Arab American Institute. Upon release, he will be under supervised probation for three more years and be required both to perform community service and undergo psychiatric counseling.

Speaking on the Fourth of July, 1918, Wilson addressed what he called the four great “ends for which the people of the world are fighting.” One of these, he said, required that “the settlement of every question, whether of territory or sovereignty, of economic arrangement, or of political relationship, [should be determined] upon the basis of the free acceptance of that settlement by the people immediately concerned, and not upon the basis of material interest or advantage of any other nation or people which may desire a different settlement for the sake of its own exterior influence or mastery.” Though, Wilson, himself, was not always consistent in the pursuit of this goal, his anti-colonial instinct put him at odds with U.S. allies, the British and the French.

We are all the products of the relationships that shape us and the opportunities we are given. By relationships, of course, I mean the families that rear us, the mentors who guide us, the communities that sustain us, and those whom we love and who love us, and who ultimately define the persons we will be.

If you’re confused about what is going on in the U.S. Democratic Presidential primary, you are not alone. Confusion abounds here in the U.S., but not only here. Having traveled overseas four times in the past six weeks, I’ve gotten the same questions everywhere. “Can Obama win?” “What is Clinton doing?” Picking up a newspaper during a recent stopover in London, I read two bold headlines in the Times that said it all. “He knows he’s won. She knows she’s lost. But the battle goes on,” read one; while the other said, “Clinton hopes for ‘an act of God’ and keeps faith in the long game.”

The year’s Arab Broadcast Forum in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, will bring together a few hundred electronic and print journalists from across the Arab region. They will engage each other in a series of discussions in the round, covering a range of topics of critical concern.

I am just returning from a speaking trip in the Middle East. While there, I addressed two groups: a media forum in Kuwait attended by over 300 journalists from across the Arab region, and a gathering of students and academics at the American University of Cairo. I was invited to speak, but from the questions I received and from the conversations I had with many of my colleagues and others in attendance, I was also provided with an opportunity to learn.

As some of you may know, I appear weekly on “Viewpoint,” a live call-in television program on Abu Dhabi TV. I have been doing “Viewpoint” since 2001, and before that hosted “A Capital View” on MBC. Because this week, I will host my 600th show marking fifteen years of weekly television, I hope you will indulge me a bit of reflection, both on the shows I’ve hosted and the remarkable opportunities satellite television has created for us all.