Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Add Upworthy to your Google News feed.
Google News Button

X.com has found a new hero. The man is Vern Hause, a Wisconsin man who was once interviewed for a 1963 issue of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He was among five people asked this simple question nearly 60 years ago: "Would a woman make a good president?" Lo an behold, Vern was the only one who even entertained the idea. He's now being heralded as someone who was way ahead of his time.

The four other interviewees, including two women, all gave a definitive "no," along with their reasoning. But Vern, the hero of the internet this week, said, "She couldn't do any worse than some we've had." Hallelujah! What a guy. Immediately, people all over Twitter stanned Vern. It's worth noting that Vern didn't say, "Of course a woman could be a good president. Women are just as capable as men of performing high-powered jobs." He basically said, "Well, men suck too, so why not?" Still, Twitter loved him.



While most people were exalting Vern and singing his praises, a few noticed that Vern might not have been the uncomplicated feminist hero some were making him out to be. "Vern: more nihilistic than misogynistic," one X user wrote.

"Everyone is praising Vern but let's go back to 1963 and ask how he feels about a Black man / woman as president and see if y'all still like him," another person wrote. Yet another person offered the succinct but surprisingly encompassing, "Go Vern?"

But Vern did seem to be a little ahead of his time, whether or not he was actually excited at the prospect of a woman president. And many are viewing his words as maybe an outlier then but a signal that from the 1960s to now, some things have changed fairly drastically.


While Vern stole the spotlight, some others took a closer look at the other four interviewees and noticed something very interesting. It seems that Tom Romanowski and his wife, Mrs. Tom Romanowski (guess she doesn't have her own name??) stumbled across the reporter while they were together because they were both interviewed for the piece.

Tom flat-out said he didn't have "much faith in women to let them run the country." And his poor, oppressed wife echoed his sentiments: "No. A woman is too likely to give in. They might not stand their ground when they should."


One (a.k.a. lots of people on the internet) wonders if Mrs. Tom Romanowski's answer would have been different if she wasn't asked while standing next to her husband or if she wasn't Mrs. Tom Romanowski at all.

What do you think? If a local newspaper today decided to ask the same question of five random people they met on the street who were inexplicably also OK with giving away the exact address at which they lived (seriously, that's the most shocking part of this whole thing), would we get five people more enthusiastic about the idea than Vern?

This article originally appeared four years ago.

More For You

Hero son

Quick-thinking saves mom

Canva

Hero son saves his sunbathing mom from death with a split-second warning

Shocking footage taken in Alpharetta, Georgia recently shows a mother relaxing by a pool while her two sons play in the water. The scene quickly changes from fun to frightening when one son warns her about a tree about to fall on her.

"I was sitting at the pool relaxing and reading a book while watching my two sons swim, when I heard a tree cracking and then my son yelled 'Run mom!' so I bolted out of my chair right before a huge tree fell right on the chair I was sitting on," the mother said, according to Viral Hog.

Keep ReadingShow less
Aviation emergency, Heroic pilots, Aircraft malfunction, Air safety, Atlanta incident, Flight control issues, Brickyard Flight 4439, Trim runaway, Pilot crisis, Aviation safety

Cockpit emergency

Canva

"We can't pitch down!": Pilots' heroic actions save flight during terrifying malfunction

Just moments after taking off from Atlanta's runway 09L, at roughly 2,200 feet, the crew of Brickyard Flight 4439 encountered a pilot’s worst nightmare: the plane’s pitch trim system suddenly went rogue. Pitch trim controls the angle of the aircraft’s nose—crucial for stable flight. As the captain realized he couldn't engage the autopilot, he immediately knew something was seriously wrong, as reported by The Aviation Herald.

As the plane began pitching sharply upward, both pilots had to physically wrestle their controls, fighting desperately to push the nose down. They quickly declared an emergency to air traffic control, reporting they had a "trim runaway" and were in a terrifying "stalling situation," unable to lower their nose.

Keep ReadingShow less

Kidnapped woman rescued by two teens after they notice her mouthing "help me" from car

With global challenges on the rise, being vigilant about our surroundings has become crucial. Often, even the most subtle signs can indicate someone in need or serve as an important warning.

Two observant teenagers demonstrated this when they saved a woman’s life a decade ago. Aaron Arias, then 19, and Jamal Harris, then 17, were driving through Dallas, Texas to pick up a friend when they spotted a young woman in the backseat of a nearby car. Harris, from the passenger seat, noticed the woman and thought she was "attractive." To their astonishment, she seemed to be mouthing words at them. According to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, Harris quickly understood that she was asking for help.

Keep ReadingShow less
How a warehouse worker’s email to Jeff Bezos uncovered a shocking payroll scandal

Jeff Bezos

How a warehouse worker’s email to Jeff Bezos uncovered a shocking payroll scandal

When a routine paycheck turned into a financial nightmare, Tara Jones, an Amazon warehouse worker and mother from Oklahoma, refused to stay silent. In 2020, Jones opened her payment notification expecting $450—only to find a mere $90 deposited. After weeks of fruitless appeals to managers, she took an unprecedented step: emailing then-CEO Jeff Bezos directly.

Representative photo of Amazon fulfillment center by Canva

Keep ReadingShow less
Kids laugh while reading through a school yearbook.

Representative Image: Yearbooks can bring back memories, the good and the bad.

This 12-year-old wrote himself a message in his empty yearbook—then everything changed

For many kids, signing yearbooks is a highlight of the school year—a way to celebrate friendships and memories. But for 12-year-old Brody Ridder, it was a painful reminder of how isolated he felt. When the sixth grader at the Academy of Charter Schools in Westminster, Colorado, came home with only a few signatures—one of which was his own—his mother, Cassandra Ridder, was heartbroken.

"Hope you make some more friends. — Brody Ridder," the boy had written in his own yearbook. Apart from his note, only two classmates and two teachers had signed.

Keep ReadingShow less