“Greene faces pushback after saying Weingarten is ‘not a mother’” (The Hill):
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is facing pushback after suggesting that American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten, who’s a stepmother, is “not a mother.”
“The problem is people like you need to admit that you’re just a political activist, not a teacher, not a mother and not a medical doctor,” Greene said.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) stepped in with a point of order after Greene’s comments, calling them “unacceptable.” … “You are a mother,” he added to Weingarten. “Thank you for being a great parent.”
The journalists report as a fact that Mx. Weingarten, age 65, is a “stepmother”. Wikipedia says that Mx. Weingarten’s marriage was in 2018, when he/she/ze/they was 60 years old. Mx. Weingarten married Sharon Kleinbaum, at least 58 years old at the time. If we assembled Kentaji Brown Jackson’s panel of biologists, I think they would likely say that Mx. Kleinbaum’s children were fully grown by the time the “rabbi” was 58 (rabbi in quotes because the congregation led by Mx. Kleinbaum is “not affiliated with any denomination or branch of Judaism.”). Thus, we would need a definition of parent as something that did not require “caring for a human under age 18”.
If I were to marry Warren Buffett, for example, would Democrats say that I was a “stepdad” to his 64-year-old youngest son?
Another quote from Greene at the hearing from Yahoo! News:
“I didn’t ask you a question. What I would like to talk about is your recommendations to the CDC, as not a medical doctor, not a biological mother, and really not a teacher, either. So, what you did is you advised the CDC?” Greene said.
My personal efforts in this area haven’t been very successful. When the kids were younger I explained to them that the reason Mindy the Crippler, our golden retriever, was so tightly bonded to me was that I had given birth to her and then nursed her for 8 weeks. They refused to accept my status as a dog mom and cited Mindy’s biological mom, Chaos, as the animal’s only real mother. More recently, I used the “Mother’s Room” at a downtown Boston law firm to change from MIT teaching outfit (jeans and Oshkosh T-shirt) into testifying-at-trial outfit. For this, I was mocked by a couple of female executives from Brazil. I said “This is Massachusetts and it is my right to identify as a mother any time that I want. In fact, I can be more of a mother than either of you will ever be.” Apparently Fox News and MTG are also popular in Brazil because they responded, “You can call yourself whatever you want, but don’t expect us to cooperate.”
Related:
- “As More Teachers’ Unions Push for Remote Schooling, Parents Worry. So Do Democrats.” (New York Times, January 2022) (Democrats need not have worried! We can infer from the fall 2022 elections that voters nationwide love nothing more than closed schools.)
- “Teachers Are Wary of Returning to Class, and Online Instruction Too” (NYT, July 2022): Unions are threatening to strike if classrooms reopen, but are also pushing to limit live remote teaching. Their demands will shape pandemic education. (summary: Mx. Weingarten’s unionized teachers wanted to collect paychecks while neither working in the classroom nor at home)
Don’t see why not, good luck to he/him!
This is an interesting story but I am afraid to comment directly. Jews, blacks, and homosexuals are, well, untouchable. But thanks to DJT and his insults on Mexicans, I can talk about Mexicans, because I am Mexican-American. Just like Jackie Mason (a third generation ordained rabbi) could make fun of his co-religious. In fancy Condesa neighborhood, where many renters are young Americans who can have a great life there with dollars and rents at a far lower cost than in gentrified American cities, I have an American renter that my gaydar sees well, guess. In that neighborhood a lot of people have dogs and not children just like in the US&A. The “pets”are called “perrijos”in Spanish (Perro and hijo), or doggie-child in English? People love these “children” more than a biological child, they take them to spas, my dad didn’t. My mom in Condesa got hated by a neighbor because she got startled at an unchained dog that approached her back.
[Bowdlerized to prevent deplatforming in Google] what????
My grandparents kept a dog to protect their orchard from marauding teenagers. The dog resided in a doghouse, naturalemente. Now, I have a gata roaming in my house and sleeping in whatever bed she likes !
O tempora, o mores 🙁
The school closures are Trump’s fault!
https://twitter.com/rweingarten/status/1651959322388094977
“Covid scared the nation, but we tried to do everything we could to reopen schools safely. It would have helped if Trump/DeVos helped instead of hectored. Now we must do everything we can to help kids learn & overcome the effects of the pandemic.”
Just to be a contrarian (actually I concur that Mr. Biden is not suited for president): Enrico Dandolo was Doge of Venice. He lead the successful siege of Zadar and led the Venetians in the 4th crusade. The crusaders sacked Constantinople and temporarily dissolved the Byzantine Empire, a blow from which it never recovered to its former strength. Dandolo was 85 when elected Doge and about 96 when he led the Venetian crusaders. Venice owns now the horses of St. Mark thanks to Dandolo. Oh, and he was blind. (“You don’t need eyes to see, you need vision”, to quote from a pop song.)
Why contrarian? The stated goal of the crusaders was to recover Holy Land for Christianity and to support Holy Eastern Roman Empire, but they totally missed the goals and helped to destroy Holy Eastern Roman Empire. You evidence is supportive of @philg’s critique.