"The matriarchy up north" by Renee Loth | April 30, 2009
WHAT'S THE MATTER with New Hampshire? The flinty, crusty, Union Leader-reading, Labatt's-sipping, seat belt-shunning state went on a bender of progressive policy actions last month, approving legislation that might put the Cambridge City Council to shame.
First, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to raise the state's gasoline tax by 15 cents over three years. Then the House approved a bill allowing the use of medical marijuana, by a vote of 234-138. Next, it voted to repeal the state's capital punishment statute. The House wrapped up March with a vote to legalize same-sex marriage, and the Senate followed suit yesterday.
In journalism, we sometimes say that three examples of something constitute a trend. But four actions that turn the liberal litmus test strip pink - this must be a movement! Not to put too fine a point on it, the state's new Republican Party chairman, former governor John H. Sununu, called his state's legislative output "a San Francisco agenda."
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This is the more interesting question about women in power. Sure, women should be heard more in government - and the law, and science, and journalism - as a matter of sheer equity. But it's not the quantity of women so much as the different quality that can bring real change.
Women see the world as a web of relationships. They are more communitarian and less individualistic. They are less ideological and more practical. It's hard to imagine a better set of qualities for solving the intricate problems that face our world.
Please don't speak for me, lady.
And as I recall, Golda Meier was a real peach, right?
Same with war-hawk Maggie Thatcher.
My point is IT IS NOT the GENDER or RACE that is important, it is the CLASS that is NEVER DISCUSSED here in AmeriKa!!!!
A woman's face (or a black man's) on TYRANNY is STILL TYRANNY!!!!!
What's the matter with New Hampshire? Nothing. They've just seen the future up there.
--more--"Doesn't matter where you go around here....
So when is Mass gonna catch up on the pot laws, Globe?
