D.G. Martin

CHAPEL HILL —  “Actually, his wife is the smartest one in that family.”

We still hear that comment from time to time today even though it should have been buried as a relic from the long ago days when husbands were presumed to be the heads of families, with wives deferring to their greater wisdom and judgment.

Our models for the roles of men and women in marriage have changed. But back then the woman, as wife, was supporter and follower, an “equal partner” only in the sense that fulfilling her clearly subordinate role somehow gave her a special “equality.”

That older view holds on in places—in certain religious and cultural groups. You can see a big remnant of it in politics, too. Notwithstanding the growing success of women in elective politics, many people see think that the “ideal” candidate for major political offices is still an energetic male family man with a very supportive wife who is mother to the family’s children. She is attractive, articulate, and engaged in her community’s good causes. All well and good, but her role is subordinate to and supportive of her husband and his (or their) ambition for service and power.

Teabaggers termed twisted
in defending Big Business

I agree with (recent letters) in the Asheville Citizen-Times, arguing that the “teabaggers” have it twisted.

The original tea party protested transnational corporations that destroyed local colonial businesses. We must engage in revolution against mega-corporations of banking, Wall Street and other special interests that have already appropriated our government billions in contributions and lobbying.

They are poised for total control of our republic. Through their newly acquired Supreme Court legacy, they will blitz their way in hot pursuit of all elected officials who would oppose them or have the temerity to propose a necessary constitutional amendment that would eliminate their misbegotten “personhood” — erroneously conferred upon them in 1886, as revealed in Thom Hartmann’s book, “Unequal Protection.”

While we need millions of teabaggers, we need them to focus on real solutions to the greatest threats to our nation, a constitutional amendment and publicly supported campaign financing.

LEW PATRIE
Asheville