# Teresa Heinz Kerry implies being a teacher is not a real job ? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 20, 2004, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241 "2004-10-20T17:03:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/81 "2004-10-21T00:51:12Z")
> [@yosemite](#): > > Ack! And I usually preview. Obviously that first comment is a reply to your most recent comment towards me, **stpauler**. > You’ve got that right. And I actually _like_ Heinz-Kerry, but this was a boneheaded comment that needn’t ever have been made. At least she never killed anyone. This is a bullshit distraction by an increasingly desparate Republican camp. The election is slipping away, not of their thrown dung sticks, and they’ve been caught trashing registrations is at least two states. Their ability to win/steal the election is minimal, and they would rather have us talk about some mean thing one of the Kerry’s supposedly said than talking about how they’ve fucked up on just about every count. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/82 "2004-10-21T00:51:19Z")
> [@skutir](#): > > Get over yourself. You’re calling everyone assholes, and I explained how you come off, Based on zero information and a vivid imagination. > [@](#): > > and you just go right back to calling us assholes, and acting like you’re the victim. I have no pity for you. None. Of course not. I expected nothing different from you. Just more of the same. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/83 "2004-10-21T00:53:38Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > I think this whole thread is a non-issue. Oh, I don’t know. I bet **Kel Varnsen** experienced some issue when he was writing it. ---
**Author:** ![Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kel_Varnsen_Latex_Division)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/84 "2004-10-21T01:08:25Z")
Just so everyone knows, I am not anti-Kerry. I will be voting for him in two weeks. I don’t see why pointing out some dumbass thing his wife said in an attack on Kerry as a candidate for President. I never said people should not vote for him because of this or even said it was relevant to the election. ---
**Author:** ![Already\_in\_Use](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/85 "2004-10-21T01:08:32Z")
[getting back to the OP] Who says teaching is necessarily a real job? Depending on where you live, the conditions of tenure can get pretty damn cushy. I survived 13 years of American public education, and we certainly had our share of lazy fuckers who may as well have been playing golf, given their consistent failure to impart any knowledge whatsoever to otherwise smart and motivated students. So no, teaching doesn’t have to be a real job if you don’t want it to be, especially if you’re one of the union honchos. If I were as lazy in any of my menial jobs as some of my teachers were, I would have gotten the sack within a week. This isn’t meant to diminish the hard work of teachers who bust their asses day after day because they actually put a value on education. Teaching is definitely a real job for them, and to be fair, I recall having more teachers like that than those of the lazy asshole variety. (Actually, the largest discrete group was the jaded cynics going through the motions, but out of the two less prevalent archetypes, I’d say there were more dedicated exponents of the value of education than useless parasites.) ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/86 "2004-10-21T01:13:28Z")
> [@Kel Varnsen - Latex Division](#): > > Just so everyone knows, I am not anti-Kerry. I will be voting for him in two weeks. I don’t see why pointing out some dumbass thing his wife said in an attack on Kerry as a candidate for President. I never said people should not vote for him because of this or even said it was relevant to the election. Maybe you can get back to us where THK “says being teacher is not a real job”. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/87 "2004-10-21T01:31:56Z")
THK forgot. [http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/20/theresa.apologizes.laura/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/20/theresa.apologizes.laura/index.html) > [@](#): > > Teresa Heinz Kerry apologized Wednesday for telling USA Today that she was unsure if first lady Laura Bush had ever held a “real job.” > > Heinz Kerry said she was “sincerely sorry” for the remark. > > “I had forgotten that Mrs. Bush had worked as a schoolteacher and librarian, and there couldn’t be a more important job than teaching our children,” Heinz Kerry said. “As someone who has been both a full time mom and full time in the workforce, I know we all have valuable experiences that shape who we are. I appreciate and honor Mrs. Bush’s service to the country as first lady, and am sincerely sorry I had not remembered her important work in the past.” ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/88 "2004-10-21T02:00:18Z")
> [@catsix](#): > > I wasn’t the first person in this thread to wonder if by saying ‘grown-up’ Heinz-Kerry meant ‘after getting married and having kids.’ No, but to be fair, you’re probably the most ignorant person to advance that argument. ---
**Author:** ![beckwall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@beckwall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beckwall)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/89 "2004-10-21T02:11:30Z")
> [@Kel Varnsen - Latex Division](#): > > Do you really think it is possible that she doesn’t know the most basic elements of Laura Bush’s history? Everybody knows she was a teacher. I honestly didn’t know that she was a teacher or librarian. Both are excellent jobs, IMHO. But I did know about the car accident thing. Neither of these issues has anything to do with the choices I make on voting day, but then again I might be in the minority. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/90 "2004-10-21T02:11:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Now she claims THK said that being a mother isn’t a real job. But, of course, THK didn’t say THAT either. Yeah, she kind of did. Read the quote again. She said that Bush hasn’t held a real job since she’s been a grown up. The OPer was claiming that Kerry was dissing teachers but was quickly shot down by people who claimed (correctly I believe), that Mrs. Kerry simply didn’t know about the 9 years Laura Bush worked a teacher. The only conclusion we can draw is that she assumed that Mrs. Bush didn’t hold an outside job and was _just_ a stay-at-home mom. But, honestly, I really don’t think she was trying to be insulting by saying it’s not a “real” job. She was just vocalizing her opinion that there’s a difference between a job in the outside world where you get your validation from an external source (e.g. money) and a job as a wife and mother where you get your validation from your husband’s/children’s accomplishments. But she worded it terribly and, of course, in this year of “us v. them” politics, some people want to take a lob and turn it into a smash. > [@](#): > > …it probably doesn’t help things in some of the more conservative and “unsophisticated” parts of the U.S. that Teresa Heinz Kerry’s first language was a Romance language (i.e., Portuguese) that’s on the same linguistic branch as (gasp! :eek French. I’m guessing that’s probably another reason why Kerry’s handlers have toned her down. NPD, I know this was supposed to be a shot at conservatives, but who’s more at fault here? The conservatives who loudly express their POV (as is their right) or the democrats who kowtow to them? Face it. The democrats don’t have the balls to stand up to the conservatives in this country. The conservatives didn’t force him to tone down his wife; Kerry made that choice all on his own. Shame on him for allowing his adversaries to define his own campaign. Re Laura Bush’s accident: A friend of mine from high school, B, who was the valedictorian of our class BTW, was driving up to Miami U with his buddy, J. B was speeding, went around a bend too fast and ran into the back of a disabled truck. The car went under the truck and J., his best friend of more than 10 years, was decapitated. Can you imagine the horror that B felt that day? It’s so easy to make a snide retort, “Not as horrible as J felt.” but it’s not quite so black and white, is it? While no one disputes that J paid the ultimate price for B’s stupidity, NOBODY felt that B. was a murderer. B pays for that mistake every day of his life because he’s had to live with the guilt. J’s parents, whom he was very close to before the accident, got divorced 2 years after the accident and after 20+ years of marriage. J’s mom went slighly loony because she couldn’t cope with the grief. Trust me, B having to live with the guilt over the fall-out from his bad decision is far worse than any sentence he could have ever received from the courts. BTW, no charges were ever filed against B. J’s\* mother \* asked the police not to file charges. Had she pushed for it, I’m sure that they would have charged B. But no punishment was ever going to bring back her son. Nor would it ever repair the damage done to her relationship with B, who had been like a son to her before the accident. There were a lot of victims that day, and no justice for anyone. That’s the crappy thing about accidents. At the end of the day, though, it _was_ an accident, not a deliberate act of violence. The distinction is critical, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/91 "2004-10-21T06:14:33Z")
Hear, hear, and thank you for sharing that with us **PunditLisa**. It can’t be among your most treasured memories, either, and I’d like to honor you for whatever grit it took for you to choose to relive it and offer some perspective. **Dio** , **skutir** , the statute of limitations has certainly run out on Laura Welsh’s tragic car accident of November, 1963 (I seem to recall the events of subsequent weeks driving that and many other matters out of a great many minds, anyway). For 2004, we have an important task ahead of us, and I think it would be wise of us to keep our eye on the ball (and no, I’m not referring to the Boston Red Sox). THK’s ill-advised, but recently apologized-for remarks, and the long and winding path of free-association that leads to parsing Laura Bush’s car accident for signs of incipient Republican malefaction are no more than distractions that remove the focus from the subject of regime change, where it belongs. **yosemite** (when did you drop the **-babe** , BTW? I only just noticed it), I’d like to honor you for the same reason I just honored **PunditLisa**. For what it’s worth, I recognized in your anecdote the sense of “There-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I” that I’m sure you intended. I first thought that **skutir** was winding you up (successfully, it appeared to me), but it went on for too long and turned mean. _Illegitimi non carborundum._ **catsix** , as you say, THK sniped at Laura Bush. She then apologized for having done so. You didn’t address the following directly to me, but I’m going to field it anyway. > [@](#): > > What on earth reason, other than being nasty, was there for Heinz-Kerry to even use the words ‘grown up’? Any answer you’re going to find here would be based on pure speculation, which, as I’ve said, we should try to avoid. Anyway it’s distracting. Eye on the ball, remember? ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lodoen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b3f665/32.png) [@Jeff\_Lodoen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lodoen)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/92 "2004-10-21T10:42:11Z")
The whole interview is a bit odd to my lights. The questioner mentioned all of THK’s potential firsts (working, foreign-born, oldest) so the final “Q: You’d be different from Laura Bush?” was entirely superfluous. Yet she tried to answer from ignorance. Even if she had knowledge of Laura Bush’s resume, THK couldn’t know her motivations or “source of validation” or what have you. It was the classic open-ended question. I know THK wasn’t on the stand, but this is high stakes. Gotta watch the vague talk, people will read in what they want. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/93 "2004-10-21T12:46:43Z")
Now James “[All Democrats Are Evil Terrorists Who Want Us to Catch the Gay](http://lileks.com/bleats/index.html)” Lileks is weighing in on the topic . . . Wish he’d stick with humor—which he’s good at—and leave his political rantings to his long-suffering wife and family. ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/94 "2004-10-21T13:11:13Z")
> [@](#): > > **kaylasdad99** said: > Any answer you’re going to find here would be based on pure speculation, which, as I’ve said, we should try to avoid. Anyway it’s distracting. Eye on the ball, remember? I’m glad that Heinz-Kerry apologized. I also hope that she will learn that there is some wisdom in knowing when to say something like ‘I don’t know if Laura Bush has ever held a job, so I feel I cannot fairly answer that question.’ In my opinion, this is not relevant to John Kerry at all, and has absolutely nothing to do with his bid for the Presidency, nor does Laura Bush’s previous employment as a teacher and a librarian. It’s just one of those times when I cringe and think that for one thing, an educated person whose statements are national news should know when not to make one, and for another, there are reactionary people out there who _do_ think that a case of foot-in-mouth by the candidate’s wife is important to the election. ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/95 "2004-10-21T13:46:49Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I first thought that **skutir** was winding you up (successfully, it appeared to me), but it went on for too long and turned mean. _Illegitimi non carborundum._ Right on both counts. I was originally being flippant, and Yo’s reaction inspired me to plain-out-meanness. Sorry, Yo. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/96 "2004-10-21T14:55:56Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > **Dio** , **skutir** , the statute of limitations has certainly run out on Laura Welsh’s tragic car accident of November, 1963 The statute of limitations **never** runs out on (dum-dum-DAH) _ **MURDER!** _😉 > [@Dio](#): > > It is not the job of a police officer to decide if you are or are not guilty of a crime. If a cop gets you out of something that doesn’t mean you didn’t do anything wrong, it means somebody else got fucked out some justice. We-e-e-ll, we do depend a lot on the discretion of police officers. Once I had just been laid off and was speeding because I was too pissed to pay attention. The cop who pulled me over let me off with a warning. Was I young, distraught, and female? No, just distraught. Was I guilty? Sure was. Did he take into account my mental state and show some sympathy? Sure did. Or let’s say the cops come to tell you your party is too loud. If you turn the music down and he leaves without arresting you is this an example of the cop exceeding his authority? Yes, since warnings are not built into the law. Do we really want cops to not use the discretion we have tacitly given them? I don’t really think so. We hope the time they don’t spend running in every jaywalker is spent instead on arresting drug dealers. In young Ms Bush’s case she probably passed the field sobriety test of the time (she didn’t smell of strong drink and wasn’t stumbling around any more than her injured condition would warrant) so, in the judgement of the officer at the scene, she did not need a blood alcohol test. The intersection was (IIRC) out in the middle of nowhere so he was probably accustomed to new drivers and out of towners running the stop sign completely by accident, which would only be a minor traffic ticket, anyway. The surviving driver was obviously distraught and remorseful and was injured herself. No need to make things worse with an arrest for manslaughter and reckless driving. Nothing to see here, everybody move along. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/97 "2004-10-21T15:12:47Z")
Total hijack - **PunditLisa** - you and I went to the same high school! I know that car accident - in fact, I happened to see J. at a bar in Clifton that weekend (we weren’t friends, I just knew who he was). I didn’t know what happened to the family afterwards, how sad. ---
**Author:** ![Coin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@Coin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coin)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/98 "2004-10-21T15:29:10Z")
That bitch. I’m not voting for her for president now. Too bad her husband isn’t running…seems like he might do a better job. ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/99 "2004-10-21T16:04:08Z")
yosemite=yosemitebabe??? Fuck I can’t keep on top of all of these old schooler SDMB namechanges. :mad: Sam ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241/100 "2004-10-21T18:26:11Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Sooo . . . Considering Kerry’s war record, Bush’s starting a war, and Laura’s unfortunate accident—Mrs. Kerry (the victim of this Pit thread) is the only one of the four who’s never killed anyone? I’m sure someone out there has had the misfortune of choking on a particularly large dose of ketchup. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teresa-heinz-kerry-implies-being-a-teacher-is-not-a-real-job/270241.md?page=6)