While some accuse conservatives of bashing Teresa Heinz Kerry for being outspoken, Zoya Arora takes to bashing Laura Bush for not being outspoken.

It seems to me that both women are strong, intelligent and capable of living their lives in their own way. Heinz Kerry is outspoken and opinionated, a term I have never considered to be demeaning.

Right now I am expressing my opinion and therefore consider myself to be outspoken and opinionated. Bush is opinionated as well, but chooses to quietly support her husband and the causes she feels strongly about.

One point Arora brought up is how Heinz Kerry speaks out and for some reason her husband supports her. One reason she didn’t mention (no doubt forgot) is that it was her house that was mortgaged to help fund his campaign. It isn’t the conservative Republicans who are trying to suppress her, it is her handlers from the Kerry campaign.

I noticed after her speech at the Democratic National Convention that she hasn’t been nearly as outspoken. When she speaks, she tends to come off as being somewhat snobby and elitist. I personally don’t feel this is justified, since she has devoted an enormous amount of money, time and effort to charitable causes.

In addition, how Arora makes the leap that the Bush twins are proof positive that the Bush administration relies on image rather than substance is beyond me. Jenna and Barbara aren’t even part of the Bush administration. They are merely the president’s daughters who joined his campaign from their own free will to support their father.

Arora leaves the impression that women should be empowered to make their own decisions, but when their choices support a cause different from Arora’s own in a manner she doesn’t agree with, they are compared to Stepford wives and the “political Olsen Twins.” Such obvious double standards are why many people don’t take the feminist agenda seriously anymore.

Bush is beloved by many Americans because she is what a wife should be: loving and supportive of her husband. It was Bush’s strong will and support that led the president to give up alcohol and clean up his life.

It takes more than a Stepford wife with matching accessories to accomplish something like that, especially if the president “doesn’t like advice, challenges, or any other indications that he might just be um … uhh … on the wrong track.”

Aaron Haywood

Senior

History