I had the unenviable experience this Thanksgiving of having my stepmother threaten to call the FBI due to my activities. I'm left very frightened, and wondering whether her paranoia is, in fact, more common than I would have guessed. So, I'd like to recount the story, and see if anyone out there thinks she is at all justified.

The conversation arose in a car on the way back from Thanksgiving dinner, when my dad asked how my flight students are doing, how many I have, and the like. I told him I had three going at the moment, one doing solo cross-country work and two who were pre-solo. The two, I mentioned, were friends, and had started their training at the same time. Because earlier in the night we had been discussing airline security measures put into place by the TSA, and I thought my dad and stepmother might be interested in some of the additional measures flight instructors are being told to take by the TSA, I mentioned those two students were foreign, here on work visas.

My stepmother, a conservative Republican, immediately and stridently interjected: "They're foreign?" Yes, I replied. "Have you called the FBI?" she asked.

"Why on earth would I do that?" I asked. "I don't call the FBI on people, and they're doing nothing suspicious."

She harrumphed in disbelief. "What do you mean why would you do that? They coud be terrorists!"

"They're not even from the middle east," I said. "They're from Central America. The worst they could do is run some drugs." (Apparently this wasn't the best-timed joke )

"How do you know they're from there? Because they told you so?" she continued.

"Well, their last names, their accents, it's pretty-"

"Well, if you aren't calling the FBI, I am!" she said with this note of combined scorn and incredulity that, frankly, pisses me off more than anything else she could do.

I'm speechless for a moment. Then, all that came to my mind came to my mouth: "This is what I get for opening my mouth." I sat, sullen, feeling like a teenager, and so angry I was shaking.

A few minutes later, my father, in what I guess was an attempt to lighten the tension, asked another question: "Well, are they doing well?"

I envision my stepmother taking mental notes of what I say for the benefit of the FBI, and, you know, I'm still pissed off. "I will not discuss my flight students, not up for discussion."

So, is this now Nazi Germany, where we turn in our family members for suspicion, for nothing? I don't understand how a close family member could threaten to bring the FBI down on me without even a hint of wrongdoing, and I'm considering whether to even have further contact with her. Is she justified in thinking these students are a threat? Am I justified in being this angry? What does all this mean?