Fairness - The Commentary

There are couples and friends who get along well when they disagree about politics. This political season, however, has even strained some of those relationships. Again and again we hear how arguments over especially the presidential candidates in both the primaries and the general campaigns have actually destroyed friendships and driven couples into silence when it comes to discussing how they’re voting just among themselves. Whether or not a relationship can survive political disagreements depends upon what isn’t actually the political disagreement. It depends upon both why someone holds the political positions they do and what being right about ones politics means to their ego. We’ve heard that if we want to get along we should never discuss politics or religion. Yet it’s these two things we need to discuss with each other - not to convert our friend or partner to our position but to get to know them better. Just as relationships can work when members hold different

No, all our boys and men don’t talk like this. But, when anyone thinks that  the justification for offensive remarks about women  that amount to sexual harassment and are uttered by a presidential candidate is that they’re merely the “locker room” banter boys indulge in regularly, it’s clear that they believe that it’s an effective excuse expressing their view of American culture. Even Pat Robertson who claims to represent Christianity  dismissed the words as “macho” talk . If this justification is even used for lesser banter, it abandons our boys to the untruth that this is just how they are – “boys will be boys.” It surrenders our girls to having to just cope with a macho gender role that treats them as less than human. If this were how things just are or must be, it would mean giving in to the meme that to get their man, women will have to live down to such objectifying expectations. It would mean that our boys must forgo their humanity to get in line with treating women thi