BY KAREN WEBB
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, says Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is “generally mainstream” and “not an activist,” but some of the things she has said out of the courtroom “bug the hell out of him.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, says her rulings are “pretty much in the mainstream,” but some of the things she has said in the hearings are “strikingly at odds with her past remarks” made outside the courtroom.
My senator, Tom Coburn, is “mightily impressed” with her accomplishments and her record on the court, but he is “deeply troubled” by comments she made outside the courtroom and because she didn’t answer some of his questions. That could be because she didn’t answer the way he wanted her to.
Sometimes God even says things Tom doesn’t want to hear.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-AL, is concerned that judges bring their own feeling to court; he can’t prove she has, but he still is concerned.
It is so strange; if judges bring their views to court they are fine as long as those are also the views of the Jeff Sessions.
Cornyn again: “There’s no problem if Judge Sotomayor was simply showing pride in her heritage, as we all should as a nation of immigrants. But if it suggests a judicial philosophy that says because of sex or race or ethnicity that a judge is better qualified or more likely to reach a better decisions, I simply do not understand that contention, and I would like the opportunity to ask her about it.”
I am not Latina and I am not male or African-American, but I have no idea what these white dudes have a problem with. If her personal views or remarks are so different from her judgments that she seems like a different person, doesn’t that prove she is what you guys want? Everyone, except Coburn – he wants to know her gut feelings even if she doesn’t use them in court.
Her personal views, expressed outside of court do not or have not influenced her decisions in court.
By the way, did anyone ask firefighter Frank Ricci what he would have done had only African-Americans passed the test? I am so tired of whiny white guys who finally have to prove they are more qualified and sometimes they need tests written just for proving that. I am not saying these were, but it is a little strange.
I am almost 63 and when I was in high school I couldn’t take drafting because I didn’t have a penis. When I went to work at the telephone company I had to be a clerk because I didn’t have a penis. I got paid less than clerks who did have penises for doing the same work. I wasn’t even allowed to take the qualifying tests for non-clerk jobs because I didn’t have a penis.
Until about 1972 guys with penises of a different color couldn’t have the jobs either, even if they had a college degree. I could have scored in the top 10% on any test given, but I couldn’t take the test because I didn’t have a penis.
I was accused of being a lesbian and a man-hater for even wanting to do a job I was qualified for and for which I would be paid $50 a week more.
I am so tired of whiny white guys, and I don’t care if they say it isn’t fair because we weren’t even born back then. Back then, I didn’t ask to be born female, either, but I had to put up with the crap. If you wanted a boyfriend you were supposed to let him think he was smarter and you weren’t supposed to win at any sport or game so as not to bruise his ego.
By the way, it is possible for a Latina or a woman of any ethnic group with this Latina’s education, drive and intelligence to make wiser judgments than most of the white guys voting on her nomination. That is just my feeling on the matter.
– Karen Webb lives in Moore, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer
My maternal grandmother was a teacher in Oklahoma one-room schools from the early part of the 1920’s through most of the 1950’s. Early in her career she received just a little over $30 per month while her male counterpart was paid almost $50 for the same month. The disparity never changed in her lifetime. It never changed for her daughter (my mother) either up through the early 1980’s.
The school boards would classify my grandmother as a “teacher” while the male teacher in the next school over with the same number of students was referred to as a “Headmaster” and paid more for the title.
For my mother the title “coach” was attached to practically every male teacher whether he ever set foot on a field or a court. Call him a “coach” and he could be paid more. Probably still is.
I have a really nasty feeling this sort of thing still goes on in public schools today.
My grandmother was not teaching for fun. She was not teaching to “supplement” the family income–she was the family income. Why did she deserve almost 30% less salary because she had tits and no penis?