Safire

It is "Bring Your Child to Work Day" here at littleboxes. Wanting to get our children involved we've tried to think of some fairly simple but meaningful task that they can help us complete. Well, by 10am we had already taken out the trash twice and washed out the coffee cups. We needed something else and then we happened upon Will Safire's article in the New York Times. If it smells like...well, you know what we mean.

We've decided to let your children write some "little" comments on little Bill.

Hello! We are the children of littleboxes!
Mr. Safire makes three main points to try and prove that Kerry is a straddler of issues. We think that Mr. Safire is wrong.
Mr. Safire's first issue is
He says he opposes the death penalty - except for terrorists.
Mr. Safire claims that one must be either for or against the death penalty and cannot say that a serial rapist cannot be killed but that a terrorist can. Mr. Safire is incorrect. In every society, in every time, the death penalty has been enforced for certain crimes and not for others. Each culture has decided which crimes, if any, are punishable by death. The United States has different laws regarding the death penalty than Saudi Arabia. There are probably some Americans who feel that adultery should be punishable by death while some believe that only crimes against children should be punishable by death. Our point: a line is always drawn. John Kerry has drawn a line...so what?

Mr. Safire's second point:
Kerry has long identified himself with a woman's right to choose abortion, but recently revealed to a supporter that he believed "life begins at conception."
Mr. Safire claims that pro-choice people believe that life begins at birth and that pro-life people believe that life begins at conception. He goes onto claim that these two views cannot intersect. Again, Mr. Safire is wrong. It is possible for a person to believe that life begins at conception but still believe that a woman has a right to make a choice. Many women who have abortions feel like they lost a "child" not just a collection of cellular tissue (or whatever). Claiming that all people who have abortions don't feel like they are ending a life trivializes their decision and is an arrogant and ignorant remark. Also, not all pro-choice people have abortion or even think that abortion is ever warranted. They may be vehemently against abortion yet respect the right of others to make their own decision.

Mr. Safire's third (and final) point:
He says he is against same-sex marriage, on one hand, and against a constitutional amendment to ban it, on the other. His position: leave it to the states to battle out.
OK, so our parents haven't really explained to us yet exactly what "homosexual" means but we do know what marriage means and we don't see why anyone would want to prevent people from getting married. We think that everyone should just let people love one another. What is so wrong with that? Mr. Kerry's position does have us a bit confused though. However, he does have a right to his opinion and he is right in opposing a ban on gay marriage.


THANKS, KIDS. Well that was fun. Off to the playground and for some lunch.