Here we go. We are on our way to either starting the change back toward normalcy or we will continue down the road we have been on for 8 years. When that countdown meter in the sidebar reaches 0, will we be healing or pouring salt into the wound? Obama may not be the best for the job. Is anyone, really? But the idea of McCain in the Oval Office, at 72 years old, with Sarah Palin as the Vice President, that scares me. It really does.
I was preparing a post in my head, one that I would write here. It was going to be witty but to the point. It would have been full of sarcasm. It definitely would have wandered quite a bit.
Instead, I will spare you that post. I will give you one written by someone else who is much better at words than I am. Eve Ensler wrote an article that had me near tears. The article scared me and made me realize just how much is at risk.
Drill, Drill, Drill by Eve Ensler
I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it’s their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.
I don’t like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story — connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.
Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God’s plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin’s view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, “It was a task from God.”
Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist’s baby or not.
She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.
Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.
Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.
Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God’s name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.
I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
If the Polar Bears don’t move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, “Drill Drill Drill.” I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.
Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?
A final note: the book banning incident is not exactly what the media told us.
FactCheck.org – Sliming Palin
Snopes articles on Sarah Palin
What is wrong with you that when you think of drills you think of rape? I love how all of you moron liberals talk about how we need to become energy independent, get out of Iraq, and all that other crap. How do we become energy independent if we can’t even drill the barren wastelands of ANWR? You should probably use your head before you post an article next time.
Also, guns are good. If you take guns away from people, then the only guns that are left will the the ones obtained illegally and crime rates will go up. It’s been proven. When guns are required by law, crime rate goes WAY down. Use your brain. Oh, and by the way…
Palin is going to make an awesome VP.
I refuse to debate with anyone who calls me “moron” because I have an opinion he doesn’t like.
If you want to discuss this, call my opinions anything you want. But leave the name calling to the bullies on the playground.
Glad to know I am not the only one who thinks having Palin a stroke away from the whie house is a scary thought. I love that article. She vocalizes the fears of so many women during this election time. The last few weeks are going to be mind bending.
And, yo Riley, how about you go troll someplace else. No one here is buyin the crap you are selling.
Hey it’s true! Palin will be great! Yea, great in Playboy, Maxim, and FHM! She will be a hot seller.
There! That’s MY opinion!! I guess that asshole Riley will crack on this too??
Listen jackass, like she said, state your opinion and even give a counter-argument but leave the namecalling out. Got it there ferret-face?? Slamming down someone about something political you don’t agree with makes YOU the moron and insecure because you can’t THINK of the proper way to ARGUE! Stupid… Go back and play with your padded toys before your mommy catches you.
It is amazing how ones thoughts and opinions can be used to call them a moron????? How childish. I for one think this is a great article and I believe it sums everything up perfectly. I will not be voting for Mcain/Palin, that is a choice that I as an American can make. To start calling people Morons because of their views on their OWN blog is stupid and makes no sense.
Here is my two cents. When a politician tells you he wants to make America better and how each candidate singles out a person from wherever and he or she says they want to improve their life because Johnny has no money and his teeth are falling out and (ENter Name Here) is not doing anything, but they will?
Look. It is very hard for me to see how people get so caught up in this stuff. First off. To run for President or Vice President is like an athlete who plays football. They are not your common human. An Athlete in the NFL will recover quite faster than a common human because they are built so strong and for the sport. Same in politics. A politician is not afraid of anything because their EGO is so damn big, they will do ANYTHING to get elected.
If you look back in history, how many speeches did we hear from Candidates in the last 30 years who said they will fix the National Health Care plans. We still pay out the ass for it and no one has made things better. You still have to go to ABC or 60 minutes to expose some shyster who won’t sign off on a wheelchair for Betsy etc.. You know the situation.
Secondly, as for the name calling. I have noticed ever since Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the radio and cable pundits took over, it is clearly only a debate between left or right. There is no in-between. Nope, you know why? No ratings and America is obsessed with watching people cat fight over issues. No one cares if you have a realistic debate. Case and point. I am a registered Republican. Have been for all my life, yet I loved Bill Clinton during the 90’s. Now, that would provoke Reps to cut my head off. But for me, it worked. Domestic issues were very important in the 90’s and the Clinton administration did some good things. They did bad things too, but I took the good with the bad. What is wrong with that? I love the Philadelphia Eagles, but I also used to love the Cowboys. That is what makes America great. Freedom of choice.
But there are some that can’t accept debate. Why? Mostly, because they read the first 2 paragraphs of a news article and they then make a statement. Or they get lumped in with a group that is passionate about an issue. But they are ill informed. Have you seen the shows where they go on the street and ask questions like; When Barack Obama says he wants to change Washington, what example can you provide which he will change regarding current policies? You will see their eyes glaze and they will answer, “Um… He will kick George Bush out and be president. Yeah Change… Bush sucks! He loves to Rape Women!
This is my problem. I am just as angry with Bush and Cheney and the whole administration as many others are, but I am not going to call anyone a retard or Moron, because they like Sarah Palin. She is a good pick if you can relate to her… Why not? Why can’t we have our beliefs. Hell, if she believed in UFO’s and said that the next comet coming in 10 years will take her and family for a ride across the universe, as long as she gets the deficit down, gets our troops out of the Middle East, restores or financial status to green, and makes America a proud nation again, I don’t care, I will vote for her. Now, if she is against abortion and even for Rape and incest, I think that sucks, but I am sure there are very tough decisions that you have to make about Obama too.
SO, after this long essay that is probably longer than the original post, I just have to say, “Can’t we just get along?” Can’t we just have an open debate about politics and not have to go to extremes? Because at the end of the day, after you go thru all the “Your Mama is so ugly” insults, we will still be paying for high medical insurance, retiring at 80 with no money in the funds and we will still have troops in the middle east. And the sad thing is, it will be with Obama or McCain, so when you think about it, any argument is null and void anyway because things will not be dramatically different. Until we cleanse 100% of Washington and start anew, lobbyists will still be there with incumbent politicians that are more concerned about their wealth and legacy then the American voters.
The problem with politics is that no one is clean. Sports teams and organizations have scheduled and unscheduled drug testing for a reason. There is no moral testing, however. But the main difference between the two groups is that one is a sport done for fun and profit and effects only those watching or participating. Politics, however, effects even those who could care less who is in Washington.
Bush’s Iraq war is the best example. Troops were sent into a war based on lies, twisted facts, and over ambition. The US gov’t is allowed to gather information without a warrant, without reason.
Voting has never been about putting the best person in place. It has been about putting the lesser of all the evils we have to choose from.
Riley, generally people resort to name calling when they don’t have the intelligence, facts or maturity to support their viewpoint any other way.
In regards to ANWR drilling the US GOVERNMENT has stated that it would be ten years before production could be started and the price per barrel would only be reduced one half of one percent which is insignificant. The government has also stated that only one percent of the needed oil would be produced during a timeframe of about four years and after the four years prices would revert to pre-ANWR prices. Our government stated there is much uncertainity concerning the amount, location and quality of the oil. The point is this is not even a stopgap solution for our energy crsis. We have to develop other energy sources in order to become energy independent.
Riley, you made the comment that required gun ownership reduces crime. What are you basing this on? Please name your sources or studies. Who proved it?
Take your own advice use your brain, do some research, get your facts straight and stop pulling stuff out of your butt.
Sic ‘im, girl!