In response to criticism of Senator Barbara Boxer...
This is the actual quote made by Boxer:
"Now, the issue is who pays the price, who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young. You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, within immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families, and I just want to bring us back to that fact."
If you think that Boxer was disrespecting Rice, then you must recognize that she was equally disrespecting herself. Boxer admits that she, Barbara Boxer, is not paying a price because her children are too old, and her grandchildren are too young to serve. She parallels her lack-of-loss to Rice. THEREFORE, ACCORDING TO BOXER, NEITHER ONE IS PAYING A PRICE...
Boxer is highlighting the fact that troops are treated merely as a number--and the ones who suffer to are immediate family, to whom troops are real people.
Additionally, Boxer never refers to Rice's [lack of] children. "Immediate family" can refer to a sibling for god sake.
This entire situation has been at least misunderstood...but I would take a step further and say completely blown out of proportion.
Boxer authored the Freedom of Choice Act of 2004...she clearly believes that women have choices when it comes to motherhood.
The point is, only military families fully understand a military loss. Neither Boxer nor Rice has a military family. Boxer was not "dissing" Rice.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
that was confusing to me for some reason. the whole thing. why are people mad
tiff
hey tiff...
the whole situation was mis-represented, and on top of that, the summary is "Boxer said since Rice doesn't have kids yada yada," when in fact, that is not what Boxer said--but that is the synopsis that is spreading. Maybe if the entire quote is fairly represented, this situation would be a little more under control. Rice then tried to tie this to a step backward for feminism, when that really is not the case
I am pleased that my Senator did not apologize.
I will certainly agree that the situation was blown out of proportion and that Boxer was indeed indicating that she did not pay the price along with Rice.
However, the tone of her comment was at least offensive enough to Rice, judging from her reactive facial expression. Though a public apology would be unneccesary and only promote the situation to be blown even furthur out of proportion, I do hope there was a private exchange between the women.
Post a Comment