Josh Hawley’s manhood

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, as we’ve maybe said a time or two, is an elitist who never stops complaining about the elites and an insurrectionist who even now pretends ignorance about what he was part of on Jan. 6. No, he told Axios, he doesn’t regret that fist-pump to rioters who would have killed Vice President Mike Pence had they found him. “I don’t know who came into the Capitol or not,” he said, all innocence. “If they did come into the Capitol and they violated the laws, they’re criminals, and they should be prosecuted — and they’ll get no support from me.” If?

None of the above, however, makes it OK to answer his ridiculous recent steak tartare speech about the left’s supposed War on Men by questioning his sexuality.

The Missouri senator’s lecture to the National Conservatism Conference was his usual all-you-can-eat buffet of victimhood. Men are so fragile, he argued, that a harsh word can turn them into layabouts and porn addicts.

“The left want to define traditional masculinity as toxic,” he said. “They want to define the traditional masculine virtues — things like courage and independence and assertiveness — as a danger to society. Can we be surprised, that after years of being told … that their manhood is the problem, more and more men are withdrawing into the enclave of idleness and pornography and video games?”

Nobody sees courage as dangerous, or Hawley as courageous. But too many mocked him with innuendo that he’s gay. And that this is coming from people who would not tolerate that kind of talk from a conservative makes it even worse.

“Josh Hawley kisses his wife like his parents are making him eat broccoli for the first time,” tweeted writer and producer Chase Mitchell.

“I hope no one photoshops Josh Hawley in drag makeup,” tweeted former GOP consultant Rick Wilson. “That would be totally wrong for the champion of American masculinity. Totally. Wrong.”

“Lol,” tweeted former Rep. Katie Hill, Democrat of California, “like anyone thinks Josh Hawley is masculine.”

Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the Bush-cheney 2004 presidential campaign now running for lieutenant governor of Texas as a Democrat, tweeted, “To paraphrase Margaret Thatcher, being masculine is a lot like being a lady, if you have to tell people you are, you probably aren’t.”

And on and on and on.

Questioning Hawley’s masculinity is an ugly, odd and ineffective way to respond to someone who’s arguing for a return to old-fashioned, world-dominating, women-subjugating, good-old-days manhood.

These throwback attacks feed into the homophobia that progressives are fighting every day.

To do this is to inadvertently join Hawley in seeming to pine for 1950sstyle notions of what a man should be. Do we really want the retro-sexual comeback?

Donna Miers

Defending my wife

Ineed to respond to the non-factual allegations by Vice President David Stewart of the Boulder Valley Education Association in the Nov. 10 Open Forum. I can see why Stewart is perplexed about my wife, Donna Miers, questioning the validity of the union’s endorsements. He claimed that the union endorsed me for BVSD school board, but the union never endorsed me. The union endorsed my opponent when I ran for my first term in 2009. In 2013, I ran unopposed and BVSD canceled the election.

The union did not endorse my wife in 2017, even though she was a retired BVSD teacher and had belonged to the union in the past. She came to realize that the union did not represent all teachers and had political agendas that many teachers, including herself did not support. She also witnessed that the union did not back non-tenured teachers. The last few years before she left the union, she requested (and received) the portion of her dues that were spent on union politics. Yes, teachers can get back some of their hard-earned money that the union spends on their political agenda. The teachers who don’t agree with the union, should do that now and get a refund.

The vast majority of teachers care about the education of our children. Sadly, I cannot say that about the union. I served eight years on the school board and my wife served four years. During that time, I saw that the union cared first about their political agenda and then about the salaries and benefits of their members. My wife believes that everything that is done in the school district should be done for the best of all children and that parental choice should be respected. The union screams but their actions speak the loudest.

After he finished ROTC and graduated from CCNY he joined the US Army. After I finished my three years in the Army I went to CCNY.

Years later, in 1991 he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs overseeing the war in Iraq. I was in Baghdad with a peace group protesting the war when the war started.

Again years later, in February 2003,as Secretary of State he gave the terribly wrong WMD talk at the UN (for which he apologized in 2004). I was again in Baghdad, with a peace group, and heard his UN testimony, which ensured the U.S. would go to war.

Both of us celebrated our 84th birthdays this year. Colin since passed away due to COVID — he was given a state funeral. The final irony is that I was diagnosed with COVID at this same time — a final crossing of our paths (fortunately I am recovering).

Climate change

It is social justice

Climate change is a global emergency and it’s now or never for our government to step up in the name of social justice. Climate change disproportionately affects young people, low-income people, and people of color through environmental racism. The cost is higher than any profit made from our already dying planet.

As a young person living in Colorado I have seen the air quality decline, the fires grow even more rampant, and snow events in August, which killed bees and negatively impacted trees’ ability to take up carbon. It is evident that oil and gas negatively impacts our daily lives, from pollution, to health risks and our planet’s livelihood. I’m tired of hearing the narrative of climate change as a consumer based issue — stop blaming us for pollution. It is not the consumer’s responsibility to make up for the inaction of big corporations, and our politicians. Federal leaders have a moral and social responsibility to reduce pollution and preserve colorful Colorado for everyone, for generations to come regardless of economic status or race.

For our government to address climate change, they must address how capitalism and greed of the wealthy and powerful thrive off the expense of people of color and low-income communities. These are the people who are being exploited, as is the planet, to keep up with our consumer culture. Young people want action, and we need it now.

I urge you to let this be a call to action, to vote those out who do not see how catastrophic climate change is, and vote for the people that recognize climate justice is social justice. For me, for you, friends, family and people you don’t know: let’s make change happen and leave a healthy planet for future generations.

Alex Honnold

A lesson for politicians

Thanks to Chris Widener’s Nov. 10 story about the Honnold Foundation’s support of the Memphis Rox climbing gym, we have gained important insight into this humble but incomparable rock fox.

Many would say he could only be some ethereal spirit as he climbs ropeless and effortlessly up thousands of vertical feet of hard granite. I will offer that Alex Honnold is very down to Earth, knowing at the one time exactly where to place hands and feet and similarly possessing a heart which is in exactly the right place.

Our loquacious politicians who repeatedly extol their own virtues with billowing clouds of propaganda that rain down so generously into their re-election coffers could take a moral lesson from this otherwise reclusive cliff climber. But wait, wouldn’t that threaten the very cornerstone of what we call our system of free and fair elections: Money?