Perhaps She Did Forget

I'm willing to give Mrs. Kerry the benefit of a doubt. Maybe she did forget that Laura Bush had been a teacher, and by saying Mrs. Bush had probably never held a "real" job since she had grown up, didn't mean to demean teachers and librarians. Hmmmm....my brother and his ex-wife were teachers until they moved into Administration, his wife is a kindergarten teacher, my grandmother, both her parents, her brothers, and several of my aunts, my cousin, and my brother's daughter were or are teachers. My mother was a librarian in the Army (she met my dad in the library, no wonder books were so important in our family!). I even planned at one time to become a teacher. I'm sure that Mrs. Kerry didn't mean to denigrate oh, close to a dozen members of my own family. I have a feeling that she just opened her mouth without thinking and the words came out. The apology wasn't much better, whether she wrote it or someone wrote it for her.

Perhaps Mrs. Kerry thinks that since she never worked outside the home, Mrs. Bush didn't either. I don't have children, but I am here to tell you, judging by what I have seen of my friends lives, it's an extremely difficult responsibility raising children in today's world. Raising the future of our country? And on top of that, doing the "normal" everyday chores that the everyone does to keep a house. And on top of that, many women also have jobs outside the home. It's not to say that those with outside jobs should receive more respect than those who choose to stay at home. It's different choices and I am not going say one is "better" than the other. I'm in awe of those who have children and those who have children and a job outside the home. I have a hard enough time, keeping house and holding down a job.

I will agree with Mrs. Kerry that their life experiences made them different people. But, if I had the choice of being either one, I'd choose to be Mrs. Bush. She's a lady in every sense of the word. She has class and grace. Something the billions of dollars Mrs. Kerry has at her disposal doesn't have and can never buy for either herself or her husband.