Letters to the Editor
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This is another "point of view" scandal
Remember when Kerry brought up Cheney's lesbian daughter, and the right-wingers went wild. In their minds, Kerry had insulted the family of the Vice-President. Most liberals didn't understand the issue - in our minds, this was, at most, a very minor "gotcha". We don't perceive being a lesbian, or having a lesbian daughter, as a particularly bad thing. We simply can't understand why the right-wingers would be so upset about a comment related to homosexuality.
Once again, a liberal unintentionally stepped on a cultural land mine. In the right wing world, not having children is a very bad thing. A childless woman is, at the very least, a subject of pity. A conservative childless woman is a victim of either poor choices or tragedy. Commenting on the barrenness of a childless woman is cruel to the point of being vicious. Liberals tend to assume that a woman who is career-oriented and doesn't have children made a choice in her life and is perfectly happy with that choice, so mentioning that a woman doesn't have children is no big deal. In their minds, Boxer seriously insulted Rice and Kerry seriously insulted Cheney. But we liberals are going to have a very hard time understanding why they feel that way.