In response to "Lawton endorses Clinton for '08," in
Tuesday's newspaper:
"According to (UW College Republicans Chair Sara)
Mikolajczak, it would not be a good idea to elect a woman as president while
women are still seen as the inferior sex. This would only make the United
States lose credibility in the Middle East, she said."
I would really like someone to tell me what sense it would
make for me to say that — especially given the position that I hold in the
College Republicans. That is not, by any means, what I said. Ken Harris, the
reporter, was asking me what I thought of Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton endorsing
Sen. Hillary Clinton in her run for the presidency. Honestly, I don’t really
care who Ms. Lawton endorses; it doesn’t really have any effect on me, personally.
I did say that I think it’s premature, but that’s overshadowed by the fact that
this is old news. Ms. Lawton has been endorsing Ms. Clinton for months.
Mr. Harris then asked me how I feel about Ms. Clinton and her run for the
presidency. I could have, and did, say a lot of things; there are numerous
reasons why I don’t want Ms. Clinton as our president. That women are inferior
was not one of them.
Perhaps, what Mr. Harris misunderstood was when I said that
having a woman commander in chief at a time when we’re in a country (namely,
Iraq) where women are seen as inferior could cause us to lose what little
credibility we do have in the Middle East. And nobody can really argue that in
certain areas of the Middle East women aren't seen as inferior — how else could
you explain men having the right to beat their wives, men being allowed to take
multiple wives, female genital mutilation, fathers murdering their daughters
because they were raped, etc.? There is a whole list of ways women in the Middle
East are shown to be thought of and treated as the inferior sex. I feel blessed
every day to live in a country where that is not the case.
I am not against the thought of a woman president; I simply don’t think that,
given our current situation overseas, it’s the greatest thing to be doing right
now. Especially with a candidate who, in my mind, is as weak as Ms. Clinton is.
This is not something I’ve been shy in talking about. I
think that the people who are against the United States will look at would-be
President Clinton and think it opens new targets for attacks and new reasons,
at that. I understand that many other countries have had women in charge over
the years that have been great successes. Those other countries were not in the
same position of power as the United States is, though. (I just want to point
out that I speak only for myself here, not on behalf of all the College
Republicans.)
I guess I really just don’t understand how I could be so horribly
misinterpreted on something I talk about regularly. Nobody else has ever had a
problem comprehending this viewpoint before. So maybe I really am a "sexist
bitch" as one anonymous e-mailer indicated… or maybe Mr. Harris needs to check
up on his sloppy journalism before he sends his stories to print.
Sara Mikolajczak
College Republicans Chair
