A Letter to Two Wives
In the 1949 film, A Letter to Three Wives, three women receive letters from an unseen character telling them that she, their friend, Addie Ross, had run off with one of their husbands. Since the Joseph Mankiewicz film dropped two of the "Five Wives" of the original story on which it was based, I feel free to drop one wife more for the purposes of this post. The letter I write below is to Michelle Obama, and to Cindy Hensley McCain, and I'm not the kind of guy to run off with either of your husbands. No Addie Ross me. But one of you will discover what it is to be deeply disappointed and sadly surprised this year, when your beloved spouse loses the big one and disappoints your hopes for him, and yourself. Both of you are strong defenders of your husbands, while being women of accomplishment. But only one of you has come under attack of the main stream press, and that says something about America today that's worth exploring.
Dear Cindy and Michelle. If you don't mind we'll start with you Cindy, after all, you are accustomed to having pride of place at any gathering. Cindy, it is hard for me to find fault with a woman who devoted her early years to treatment of children with severe disabilities, one who founded the American Voluntary Medical team to provide MASH style care to disaster areas, and personally participated in fifty five of their missions, without a blonde hair, or a remark out of place. You are Mother Theresa in an Armani suit. You are undoubtedly kind and deeply charitable. And real lucky. For eight years you have been the chair of your late father's beer business Hensley & Co, earning for yourself some four hundred thousand dollars a year. Your good works go on and on from Operation Smile to CARE to an organization that removes land mines in Cambodia. And you have learned to smile your way through some abusive language that your salt of the earth husband has aimed at you - sober. Ah, Cindy, if that was all.
Twenty years ago Cindy, you became addicted to pain killers, a slave to Vicodin and Percocet after spinal surgeries, and some say to ease the emotional pain of being caught up in your husband's influence peddling corruption during the Keating Loan scandals, where you conveniently lost the records that might have more deeply incriminated your husband, and even yourself. Then you started stealing drugs from your own charitable medical facility. When that was discovered, an intervention took place and you escaped imprisonment when the Drug Enforcement Administration limited your punishment to a fine and forced you to take part in a "program.' Again, rehab to the rescue of the super-rich. In other words, your punishment was brought down to the level of attending traffic school after running a stop sign, a school run by Mickey the clown. Imagine your fate if you were not a billionairess, if you were instead a poor black woman, an addicted hospital nurse caught stealing drugs. Ten years in the slammer, your kids taken from you and placed in foster care. Some might say it was your second major act of theft, because while your husband was still married you became his girlfriend, leading to his divorce from the woman who had waited out his years of POW incarceration. But nobody batted an eye in your world of Desperate but Affluent Housewives. That's the way it is there. You were Cindy Hensley McCain, so instead of the big house you may be going to the White House. In recent years this domicile has been the home of others from the Bush crime family, so the way has been prepared for your arrival.
Listen up, Michelle, this is about you too. As the wife of Barack, the Democratic Candidate, you were quoted as saying "And let me tell you something: For the first time in my adult lifetime I am really proud of my country," and you, Cindy, piped up with "I am proud of my country. I don't know about you -- if you heard those words earlier - I am very proud of my country. " Then you, Cindy, went on to steal some recipes and claim them as your own on the Food Network, a small but significant symbol of recidivism, today it's pot-roast, tomorrow pot. Putting your life of grand and petty larceny aside - forgetting all recipes and husband jumping - you should be proud of your country. Born into billions, with something that approaches beauty (if beauty be defined as a middle aged Barbie) you have had the best that this country could offer in opportunities for the Town and Country life. And you were able to cap it off by playing Lady Bountiful to the unwashed, downtrodden millions, and still keep your appointment with your hairdresser. Cindy, you come from the world of charity balls and big check writing - one that gives the giver a sense of moral superiority but frowns on government programs which should rightfully provide dignity, work, educational opportunity, and health care to the many. You are the poster girl for a generosity which masks the essential selfishness of the Republican ethos. No, I don't disrespect generosity - but I do question its value when it is only palliative, when it fails to address the real problems that the poor face on a daily basis in our country and through the world.
Now to you, Michelle. The fact that you made it to Princeton as an African American, by dint of your hard work and smarts, and that you are a mouthy lawyer, a shoot from the lip kind of woman, does not endear you to the Cindy McCains of the world, and to a lot of Americans. That "let me tell you something" remark was true in all ways, but truth is often an affront to propriety. Why should any African American - no matter how fortunate in being educated by the best schools, take great pride in the history of a country that suffered slavery and Jim Crow for centuries? Until the rise of your husband no black man has been taken seriously as a leader of this country. And in saying what you did you meant to speak of progress and pride. But it came out all wrong and ready to be pounced upon by the O'Reilly-Limbaugh-Colter cabal, the guys and gals who take a truth and put it up before a carnival distorting mirror to mock it. But you have to be smart enough to know that every thought you have does not need to be expressed and that there are the Cindy McCains out there waiting to leap on your remarks as if they were a capsule of Vicodin, and cast doubt upon your love of country. Of course you can love your country and be critical of it. It's the only way to love a country. We all love our kids and we are critical of them, and they matter most in our lives. But you have to put a zipper on the lip on the way to the White House, or you will find that too many gentlemen prefer blondes.
Now who did Addie Ross run off with? Go see the movie - it's a fun film by a great filmmaker, a man who knew something about class in America. You see, class doesn't necessarily come attached to a billion dollars; sometimes it's linked to a sarcastic black woman who didn't run off with another woman's husband, didn't steal drugs, studied to attain dignified work, and knows what's real and what's just the foam from Hensley's beer.
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The truth of the matter is that there is very little difference between individuals across the political landscape, and little difference between these women. The artificial competition of political parties forces each to draw a line in the sand in defence of her candidate/husband. I heard Cindy called "more exotic" and Michelle "a housewife" in appearance today. It caused me to pause a moment to consider this Princeton and Yale educated attorney referred to in terms that could be considered calculated to insult at worst, and certainly to diminish. I am sure that both women have redeeming quailities and the other truth is I won't be voting for either one or considering either one as I decide which husband will get my vote. Hopefully, both women want what the rest of America wants...the best president that we can elect. In the end that is all that matters!
Little difference between these women? Did you read the post AT ALL???
"For example, in 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life, so Mrs. McCain brought the child home to America with her. She was met at the airport by her husband, who asked what all this was about.
Mrs. McCain replied that the child desperately needed surgery and years of rehabilitation. "I hope she can stay with us," she told her husband. Mr. McCain agreed. Today that child is their teenage daughter Bridget.
I was aware of this story. What I did not know, and what I learned from Doris, is that there was a second infant Mrs. McCain brought back. She ended up being adopted by a young McCain aide and his wife.
"We were called at midnight by Cindy," Wes Gullett remembers, and "five days later we met our new daughter Nicki at the L.A. airport wearing the only clothing Cindy could find on the trip back, a 7-Up T-shirt she bought in the Bangkok airport." Today, Nicki is a high school sophomore. Mr. Gullett told me, "I never saw a hospital bill" for her care."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120951606847454685.html
I came back to see if, as usual, my comment was censored and not posted and it was. I'll try one more time. An earlier post said that at least Michelle was not a drug addict or she wouldn't be considered First Lady material or something to that effect.
My response was, Well, it's a good thing that it was Barack snorting the coke and smoking the pot then. HuffPost is the problem, not the solution. So typically republican of her to censor.
"Why should any African American - no matter how fortunate in being educated by the best schools, take great pride in the history of a country that suffered slavery and Jim Crow for centuries? "
Because that same country rose above all of its present and historical problems to have the first woman and first black legitimate candidates for the presidency. How many other countries of the world have done that?
Be proud of your country. There is none better.
"Because that same country rose above all of its present and historical problems to have the first woman and first black legitimate candidates for the presidency."
That is EXACTLY what Michelle Obama was referring to when she said she was really proud of her country for the first time in her adult life.
Maybe other countries didn't have to do that, because they never had another race as slaves. Is this a new tought for you ??? Or are you still proud of this part of american history??
Many, if not most cultures have held slaves. Arabs enslaved both Europeans and blacks for centuries in North Africa. (See barbary pirates) Arabs to this day hold huge numbers of black slaves in Sudan.
Lincoln's first general, McClellan, wanted to compromise with the Southern states and let them back in with slavery still legal. Lincoln fired McClellan, and as a result, 600,000 Americans died in the cause to end American slavery. Our bloodiest war by far was the fight to end slavery in America.
Youre right, there is none better. You can be proud of your country and critical of its government. You would think conservatives would understand that.
You should travel more.
Wow. Nailed.....perfectly.
Brilliant piece, thanks, Mr. Yellen!
I'm a bitter old white guy who's voting for Obama. As a Vietnam combat vet and war protester after I got out of the army, I don't think McCain's time as a POW qualifies him for anything special. I honor his service and his sacrifice but wonder at the extent of his psychological damage.
And only ONE of the two women has stated publicly that she has just now, for the first time, become really proud of America (now that her husband is running for president).
Well Wayne, a quick look at your profile shows that you are a fervent Obama hater, so I'd expect nothing less from you. That said, it would appear that there are a lot of Americans who agree with Mrs. Obama.
I find very little about the Bush era (error?) to be proud of. When he was selected for a second term, I can honestly say that I was ashamed for our country. We had a chance to redeem ourselves and correct the mistake of 2000, but instead we showed the world that we are collectively insane, stupid or both.
There been many things during my life that have made me proud to be an American, but I would be really proud if we could finally get over the hatred and fear that have kept minorities from being truly equal. The treatment of native Americans, blacks, women, gays and other minorities throughout this country's history has been shameful. Absolutely nothing to be proud of. You of all people should be acutely aware of that.
If you would put away your bias for a bit, you would understand exactly what she was really proud of. You don't like Obama. We get it. To take to take her remark and turn it into something she didn't intend doesn't question her integrity, it questions yours.
I hate to say it, but as political wives go, you make the case that Bill lucked out.
Wow! i learned a lot that i definitey will NEVER hear on the "fair and balanced network"!
Awesome, and completely on point!
Wow, outstanding piece!!
"Since the Joseph Mankiewicz film dropped two of the "Five Wives" of the original story on which it was based, I feel free to drop one wife more for the purposes of this post."
In this age of extremely fast journalism, thanks for taking your time to write this piece. Classy.
Beautiful piece, Mr. Yellen!
Well done!
Damn dude your rhetoric is sparking so much i think i could plug my computer into it and keep it running for days
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