Friday, January 14, 2011

Real men cry, right?

I'm not a big fan of the new Speaker of the House.

But I support the fact that sometimes he is the Weeper of the House.

John Boehner (see picture at left), a Republican from Ohio, is prone to tearing up when he gets emotional about certain things.

Earlier this year, as he related in media interviews his personal and political journey to become speaker of the house for the 112th Congress, he'd cry.

That has let to a lot of ribbing. It was the New York Daily News who in a headline dubbed him "Weeper of the House".

But I'm OK with a guy who wears his emotions on his sleeve, or -- in Boehner's case -- on the handkerchief he keeps in his pocket to cry into.

There are some things in some people -- man or woman -- that trigger strong emotions and their outlet is to cry.

For me, anything associated with children can set me off, especially when they are my children.

Years ago, when I was editor of a local newspaper, we got into a bit of a spat over editorial content with members of the local teachers union, one of whom was my daughter's Elizabeth's grade school teacher.

I remember being at a meeting and crying over the prospect that my fight as editor of the paper with the teacher's union might somehow trickle down and affect my daughter in the classroom.
It never happened, but my thinking that it could was upsetting enough to get me to weep.

I teared up listening to President Obama the other night in Arizona talk about 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, shot dead by the gunman in the supermarket rampage. He talked of how she was becoming aware of the nation's democracy and she wanted to be a part of it.

"She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted," said the president.

"I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us - we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations."

There are other weepers I am proud to be in a league with -- tennis player Andre Agassi and baseball legend Lou Gehrig, to name two. See a Boston Globe gallery of famous men who've cried.

Boehner doesn't get my political backing. But I've got his back when it comes to crying.

Hey, I carry a handkerchief too.


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