Here is a perfect example of the use of appropriate customs and courtesies. “Ma’am” is the military word used for someone who outranks you and is female. “Sir” is the military word for someone who outranks you and is a male. The Webster’s Dictionary says that ‘Ma’am’ is a “polite title for a woman”.

So then, what was the General saying (in not so many words) to the Senator when he was answering her with the reply, “Yes, ma’am.”? He was acknowledging several things by his response to her questions. The General was acknowledging her higher status than him, his subservience to her, and his station in our society (the warrior class) through the use of the most respectful term that he was taught in the military for someone that is a female above himself in the food chain.

So what exactly caused Madame Boxer to have to correct the General? Is it her distaste of the word ‘ma’am’? There is a trend going around this country, and how many of you have heard of it. It goes like this: “Yes, sir.” “Oh, don’t call me ‘sir’, that was my father.” If you do not like someone calling you ‘sir’ or ‘ma’am’, exactly what are you saying? You are saying that you do not deserve the respect that that person is showing you. In your mind, is that what you deserve in your life? Think about it.

I understand that Barbara Boxer probably has no understanding of the military and its ways. I do understand though that she has bribed her way to the hill for many years. I know this isn’t her first time questioning a military person. She should have known the military uses these terms and requested from the outset that the General call her “Senator”. That is appropriate.

Sometimes, it isn’t so much what you say, but how you say it. I think that this was a lack of tact on Sen. Boxer’s part. I understand why she did it though too. Marines aren’t that dumb. She was reinforcing her station as that above the General to him as a reminder that she controls the situation and should do what she demands. Typical narcissist attitude.

“At a sometimes contentious Capitol Hill hearing Tuesday, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), had a request for Army Corps of Engineers division leader, Brigadier General Michael Walsh.

During a terse exchange, as Boxer pressed Walsh on why the levees in New Orleans are still not repaired nearly four years after Hurricane Katrina, she said to Walsh:”

(Politics Daily)