Bumpus wrong to say a woman can’t handle the job
I attended a forum presented at the administrative office building which included the political candidates for the 4th District U.S. Congress, which included Mike Greene, Janice Bowling and John Bumpus.
Bill Zechman, Col. Thomas Vaughn and Amy Satterwhite formed the panel which presented questions of both the panel and the meeting’s attendees.
As a citizen of the United States, I am blessed and am a great believer in our good country, these United States, and the values, morals and equality my forefathers established for me and my fellow citizens to enjoy.
Keeping this in my mind, I was flabbergasted at the comments made by one of the panel’s candidates – John Bumpus. At one point in his comments, he made the statement that a “certain persons” should not be involved in running for this political office because it included lots of travel across 24 counties with evenings spent as late as 1 or 2 a.m. to successfully address the needs of our district.
In no uncertain terms, Mr. Bumpus was denoting WOMEN as not being qualified to be among these “certain persons” who should not be involved in attempting to run for any political office. Let me state very plainly I believe in equality of men and women under the Constitution not superiority of WOMEN over men under the Constitution.
Many different kinds of issues were addressed by the panel and although at times I had a difference of opinion on some of the issues versus the candidates, I cannot, as an American, let the citizens of Warren County and the 4th District who did not hear the forum vote unknowingly for Mr. Bumpus, who because of his own comments during the evening, does not even have the basic beliefs our forefathers established for this country.
Janice Bowling, being the only female, asked Mr. Bumpus directly why he did not think she was qualified as a woman to run for the 4th District U.S. Congress. Mr. Bumpus’ answer included phrases such as, “It was just human nature,” “there is a certain agenda that needs to be met,” and “head screwed on.”
Mr. Bumpus needs to read the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and needs to review the Supreme Court ruling that unequal treatment based only on sex violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Carolyn Boren Clemons
814 Navajo Trail
McMinnville