While it bears repeating that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is still in serious condition, and the extent of her eventual recovery remains unclear, the news stories about her recovery continue to awe me. I'm also impressed by her husband Mark Kelly, who appears (in interviews, at least) to respect his wife's strength and autonomy -- even when getting asked questions like this one from Diane Sawyer:
Giffords and Kelly will also have to decide whether she'll resume her work.Sawyer asked, "Do you want her to go back into Congress after this?"
"That's a tough, tough decision. Probably not," Kelly said. "But I know that's probably not going to matter to her. I think she's such a devoted public servant that she's going to come out of this and be more resolved to fix things, to make things better for people."
Sawyer's asking the question in the first place seems premature; it's probably a good rule of thumb not to ask about someone returning to work until he or she is capable of expressing him- or herself. Furthermore, I don't like the assumption that, once she is in a position to make it, Giffords' decision about whether or not to return to Congress won't be entirely hers to make. Giffords and Kelly have both chosen high-profile, high-risk careers, and they appear to support each other. After all, with two space shuttle explosions in the last 25 years, being an astronaut is far more dangerous than being a member of Congress; maybe Diane Sawyer should have asked Giffords last year whether she thought Kelly should fly another shuttle mission?
Kelly clearly wasn't comfortable with the question either, emphasizing that his opinion was "probably not going to matter to her." Nevertheless, the writeup on ABC News' website maintained that "Giffords and Kelly ... will have to decide."
Technically, that's accurate. But it leaves the impression that Kelly would keep Giffords from going back -- an impression he bent over backward to avoid. It's hard to express something as nuanced as the difference between a wish and a plan in a headline, but this is a delicate situation. If ABC couldn't accurately represent Kelly's respect and Giffords' autonomy, maybe Sawyer shouldn't have asked.
--Dara Lind
