We are all Wasillans now
Huck Kennedy
Sarah Palin was my mayor, and here is why she should not be vice
president.
Ryan Quinn
TheRoot.com
Updated: 3:00 PM ET Sep 12, 2008
Sept. 15, 2008--I'm an Alaskan. I grew up in Wasilla. Sarah Palin was
my mayor. She explored the idea of banning books at the library where
my parents taught me how to read. There have been many interesting
pieces of journalism introducing my gun-toting, moose burger-eating
former neighbors to the rest of the country, and most have focused on
how proud Alaskans are of their governor for making the surprise leap
to the big leagues.
Sarah Palin's story is compelling, but it is one that could happen
only in Alaska, where the politics and the economy are simple and
where it's not difficult to spend a lifetime sheltered from the
complexities and diversity of the outside world. I love my home state;
I wouldn't trade my childhood. I hope the Palin intrigue will
translate into a boost in tourism that will further expand the state's
$5 billion budget surplus, so that when Gov. Palin returns to Juneau
in November she can continue to serve Alaska's interests with relative
ease.
As reporters roam the streets of Wasilla, chatting with ecstatic
neighbors, I feel compelled to offer another view by pointing out that
John McCain has demonstrated an alarming lapse in judgment by choosing
Sarah Palin as his party's VP candidate. Choosing a running mate was
his first, concrete test of judgment in the campaign process. Here's
why he failed.
My fellow Alaskans have vouched for Palin as a charming, interesting
person. I can add that she is perfectly friendly. But now she is
seeking a higher office, and so it must be noted that Sarah Palin, the
friendly neighbor, is different from Sarah Palin, the executive.
The latter is a woman with intense agendas guided by a narrow set of
culturally conservative values and extreme religious views. She
believes that abstinence should be the primary form of sex education
taught to teenagers; she believes that creationism should be taught
alongside science in our schools; she is against a woman's right to
choose even in the cases of incest and rape; and her church believes
gay and lesbian Americans can and, one assumes, should be corrected,
redeemed from their deviant ways, by prayer ("pray away the gay" is
their cheery slogan).
When she was mayor of my hometown, these extreme views came off as
petty and irrelevant to people like me who did not share them. There
seemed little cause for alarm. Most Alaskans are happy to live and let
live; we don't think of ourselves as Republican or Democrat. Besides,
as mayor, it's not like she had the power to wiretap our phones, amend
our Constitution or send us to war.
But she did come dangerously close to using her power to ban books.
Wasilla's popular public librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, rightly
objected, and the community backed the librarian. Books were never
banned, though Palin did fire the librarian for not agreeing with her
political views, then rescinded the firing after it was clear she'd
made an unpopular decision. Palin's behavior is revealing: In a state
as isolated as Alaska, in a town as small as Wasilla, books are vital
to the culture and to the education of its residents. The small town
values I learned growing up included attending story hour at the
public library. Those values most certainly did not include trying to
ban books that the mayor's church friends didn't think other people
should read. That is not the kind of reform we're after.
It will be interesting to see what effect Gov. Palin's penchant for
"reform" will have on the McCain campaign.
There is no question that her convention speech, most of which she has
been repeating endlessly at campaign events since then, make for good
television and has entirely energized the Republican base. Who can
blame them? They finally have a candidate who can shoot a gun, drink a
beer AND speak in complete English sentences. This is real change for
them.
In recent days, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin have directed accusations
of elitism at the Democratic ticket, as well as at the media,
suggesting that there is something undesirable about a presidential
candidate with extensive knowledge of foreign policy, inner city
community struggles, constitutional law and the complexities of the
major domestic crises. This is baffling. Don't we want an elite
leader? Don't we want a White House made transparent by an elite
press? We are a large and complex nation with large and complex
problems. Common sense suggests, and the last eight years have shown,
that perhaps the president should be something of an elite leader.
Barack Obama studied international relations at Columbia (he also has
a law degree and has taught constitutional law) before returning to
Chicago to be a community organizer. Meanwhile, Palin ran for Miss
Alaska (she placed second) and then received a bachelor's degree in
communications-journalism from the University of Idaho. She returned
to Alaska and became a reporter at a television station's sports
desk.
For just 22 months, Sarah Palin has been the governor of a state of
just 680,000 people that is "awash" in money (as former Alaska
governor Tony Knowles put it) and receives more pork-barrel money per
capita than any other state. Alaska has no tricky border or
immigration issues with the remote parts of British Columbia and the
coast of Siberia. There are no inner cities struggling with poverty
and daily violence. There is a lot of drunk driving (Alaska is dark
and cold much of the year), though the state police force is well
funded, and the road system they patrol is startlingly simple; I can't
think of a stretch of highway lasting 15 miles that has more than four
lanes.
John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin shows that he is moving farther
and farther to the right of mainstream America. If he's doing it for
political reasons, he's no maverick. If he's doing this for reasons of
principle, he is merely out of touch with most Americans. Ninety
percent of the delegates to the Republican National Convention were
white. That might resemble the America that the Republican Party sees,
and it certainly resembles the demographics that shaped Gov. Palin
over the many years she's lived in Alaska. But it's not the America
most Americans live in. Not only is Sarah Palin's executive experience
inadequate, her worldview is not even remotely diverse or nuanced
enough to appreciate either the domestic challenges or international
complexities that a VP must grasp at the most basic level. A McCain/
Palin administration would be risky at best and potentially
disastrous.
I'm sick of Republicans suggesting I'm unpatriotic while they ruin my
country's reputation around the world. I'm sick of people casting
votes of fear because of threats that are mischaracterized and
exploited by their own political leaders. I'm sick of distorted
television commercials being my country's primary method of public
discourse. And I'm sick of being told that straight, white,
Evangelical family values are better for our country than my family's
values. Anyone who has paid lip service to the idea that America's
strength relies upon its diversity, be warned: It's actually true, and
it will be even truer in the future. I think my generation will be
known as the diversity generation. We get America. We are ready to be
leaders for the world community. We are motivated. We think. We are
patriotic.
And if we vote, we cannot be outnumbered.
[ Ryan Quinn was born and raised in Alaska. He now lives in New York
City. ]
Ralph Kennedy
"This is rsfc, not the Algonquin roundtable."
-xyzzy, 2/16/07
Emperor Wonko the Sane
Not nuanced? That's so 2004.
Doug
alic...@yahoo.com
wrote:
> Not nuanced? That's so 2004.
This paragraph made me laff:
"I'm sick of Republicans suggesting I'm unpatriotic while they ruin my
country's reputation around the world. I'm sick of people casting
votes of fear because of threats that are mischaracterized and
exploited by their own political leaders. I'm sick of distorted
television commercials being my country's primary method of public
discourse. And I'm sick of being told that straight, white,
Evangelical family values are better for our country than my family's
values. Anyone who has paid lip service to the idea that America's
strength relies upon its diversity, be warned: It's actually true, and
it will be even truer in the future. I think my generation will be
known as the diversity generation. We get America. We are ready to be
leaders for the world community. We are motivated. We think. We are
patriotic."
That's some awesome stuff.
"I think my generation will be known as the diversity generation."
BWHAHAHAHA....
-Tom Enright
> Doug
Bobs yer uncle
New York City???1!?1
Well that explains it.
Huck Kennedy
Now that you've had your little laugh at that paragraph of
liberal boilerplate, go ahead and explain away the rest of the
article, which clearly explains why Sarah Palin was a ridiculous
choice for VP. Not from a politically expedient point of view
(rallying the base), but rather from a "country first" point of view,
to wit, is she really prepared to assume the Presidency if McCain
should die in office?
It was an incredible lapse in judgment on McCain's part, and
also revealing a lack of character. He obviously cares more about his
personal ambition than the country's best interests, despite his phony
"country first" meme.
alic...@yahoo.com
He obviously loves Alaska and is a real community-oriented guy.
--------------------------------------------------
"it's not difficult to spend a lifetime sheltered from the
complexities and diversity of the outside world."
That's strange. Quinn repeatedly talks about how great diversity is
but
he says here that avoiding diversity makes for an easier life.
--------------------------------------------------
"she believes that creationism should be taught alongside science in
our schools;"
And yet she didn't push for a law to do this, despite the fact that
she could have.
--------------------------------------------------
"and her church believes gay and lesbian Americans can and, one
assumes, should be corrected, redeemed from their deviant ways, by
prayer ("pray away the gay" is their cheery slogan)."
I'm not sure I buy this. Biden's church is positively anti-abortion,
believes homsexuality is a sin...is that troubling as well?
--------------------------------------------------
"But she did come dangerously close to using her power to ban books."
Did she try to ban books? No. Did she come close to banning books?
No. How about "dangerously close"? Did she come "dangerously close"
to banning books? No. Now we know Quinn is a liar.
--------------------------------------------------
"Those values most certainly did not include trying to ban books that
the mayor's church friends didn't think other people should read. That
is not the kind of reform we're after."
That's a nice trick. Accuse her of attempting to ban books, which she
never attempted in the first place, than blame this imaginary crime on
her and her evil "church friends."
--------------------------------------------------
"In recent days, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin have directed accusations
of elitism at the Democratic ticket, as well as at the media,
suggesting that there is something undesirable about a presidential
candidate with extensive knowledge of foreign policy, inner city
community struggles, constitutional law and the complexities of the
major domestic crises."
He actually makes a good point here, but than he presses too much. It
is the Obama campaign that has been doing the "out of touch" tack,
furthermore there is nothing in Obama's resume which includes
"extensive knowledge of foreign policy" or "complexities of the major
domestic crises."
--------------------------------------------------
"For just 22 months, Sarah Palin has been the governor of a state of
just 680,000 people that is "awash" in money (as former Alaska
governor Tony Knowles put it) and receives more pork-barrel money per
capita than any other state. Alaska has no tricky border or
immigration issues with the remote parts of British Columbia and the
coast of Siberia. There are no inner cities struggling with poverty
and daily violence."
Once again he makes a good point. Palin is certainly not ready to be
president, but, by the same measure, neither is Obama. I didn't know
that Illinois or Delaware had "tricky border or immigration issues."
Obama did live in Chicago and work as a community organizer. Did his
work somehow reduce "poverty and daily violence" in Chicago? No. He
tried, he failed. How does that make him fit for the presidency? If
living in a large urban area is necessary to be Potus, the last three
DNC POTUS should never have had the job.
--------------------------------------------------
Than he finishes by saying that Palin and McCain are white so they
shouldn't be president. I'll leave the last paragraph alone becuase
there is now way I can improve on that.
-Tom Enright
alic...@yahoo.com
I agree. Palin should not be the VP. You are absolutely correct,
McCain should not have picked unless his only goal is to be elected.
And even if you agree with his policies, you should feel the same way
about Obama. I don't think YOU can honestly say that Obama is ready
but Palin is not.
-Tom Enright
Huck Kennedy
Palin has more so-called "executive" experience, but let's face
it, if a sports reporter with none of that sort of experience can be a
mayor and a governor, then it's highly overrated. Anybody can just
bark orders, as George W. Bush proved.
The problem with Palin is that Alaska really is an isolated land
off by itself in the middle of nowhere. People up there live in their
own little world and deal with their own local problems, many of which
involve things as primary as hunting for food to put on the table.
She knows next to nothing about what goes on in the lower 48,
nevermind the rest of the world.
In the Senate, Obama serves on four committees: Committee on
Foreign Relations, Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and the Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs, and as such has been dealing with
national and international problems that Palin hasn't even had to
think about up in Alaska. Plus he's dealt with difficult inner city
problems in his work in Chicago.
Dan S.
> They finally have a candidate who can shoot a gun, drink a
> beer AND speak in complete English sentences. This is real change for
> them.
and, you lost me ...
J.C. Watts Enslin
All in all, that is still pretty week.
Jon
The BorgMan
34g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:
> On Sep 17, 1:51 pm, Bobs yer uncle <mcgrisw...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> "it's not difficult to spend a lifetime sheltered from the
> complexities and diversity of the outside world."
> That's strange. Quinn repeatedly talks about how great diversity is
> but
> he says here that avoiding diversity makes for an easier life.
...and he's exactly right. Homogeneity generally makes for an easier, but
worse, society.
> "she believes that creationism should be taught alongside science in
> our schools;"
>
> And yet she didn't push for a law to do this, despite the fact that
> she could have.
Just believeing it is bad enough.
> "and her church believes gay and lesbian Americans can and, one
> assumes, should be corrected, redeemed from their deviant ways, by
> prayer ("pray away the gay" is their cheery slogan)."
>
> I'm not sure I buy this. Biden's church is positively anti-abortion,
> believes homsexuality is a sin...is that troubling as well?
Yes, it is.
> "But she did come dangerously close to using her power to ban books."
>
> Did she try to ban books? No. Did she come close to banning books?
> No. How about "dangerously close"? Did she come "dangerously close"
> to banning books? No. Now we know Quinn is a liar.
> --------------------------------------------------
Yes, she tried to ban books. Asking a librarian "What would you say if I
asked you to ban these books" IS trying to ban books.
--
Aaron
Tom Enright
> alicam...@yahoo.com wrote in news:07fdfc7c-680c-4c99-9b1b-06c8d789934f@
> > "it's not difficult to spend a lifetime sheltered from the
> > complexities and diversity of the outside world."
> > That's strange. Quinn repeatedly talks about how great diversity is
> > but
> > he says here that avoiding diversity makes for an easier life.
> ...and he's exactly right. Homogeneity generally makes for an easier, but
> worse, society.
How do you come to such a conclusion? "Diversity" is been the source
of most of the world's wars, genocides, pogroms etc.
> > "she believes that creationism should be taught alongside science in
> > our schools;"
> >
> > And yet she didn't push for a law to do this, despite the fact that
> > she could have.
> Just believeing it is bad enough.
That pretty much eliminates all four of the candidates.
> > "and her church believes gay and lesbian Americans can and, one
> > assumes, should be corrected, redeemed from their deviant ways, by
> > prayer ("pray away the gay" is their cheery slogan)."
> >
> > I'm not sure I buy this. Biden's church is positively anti-abortion,
> > believes homsexuality is a sin...is that troubling as well?
> Yes, it is.
Once again, all four candidates.
> > "But she did come dangerously close to using her power to ban books."
> > Did she try to ban books? No. Did she come close to banning books?
> > No. How about "dangerously close"? Did she come "dangerously close"
> > to banning books? No. Now we know Quinn is a liar.
> > --------------------------------------------------
> Yes, she tried to ban books. Asking a librarian "What would you say if I
> asked you to ban these books" IS trying to ban books.
Actually trying to ban books is trying to ban books. Did she ask the
librarian to ban books? Did she asked the replacement librarian to
ban books? No and no. She made no attempt ban any books.
You don't know what was said regardless.
-Tom Enright
> --
> Aaron
John Rogers
things I do! Wax paper! Boiled football leather! Dog breath!
>"and her church believes gay and lesbian Americans can and, one
>assumes, should be corrected, redeemed from their deviant ways, by
>prayer ("pray away the gay" is their cheery slogan)."
>
>I'm not sure I buy this. Biden's church is positively anti-abortion,
>believes homsexuality is a sin...is that troubling as well?
Sounds like its come time for a nice, heavy buy of Reverend Wright
commercials.
John Rogers
AU Class of 1985
The Al Del Greco of Atlanta
"I mean, you’ve got the first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate
and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a story-book, man,"
(Senator Joseph Biden)
The BorgMan
news:7a887064-f978-4e9d...@r66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com:
> On Sep 17, 4:15 pm, The BorgMan <m...@me.net> wrote:
>> alicam...@yahoo.com wrote in
>> news:07fdfc7c-680c-4c99-9b1b-06c8d789934f@
>> 34g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:
>>
>> > On Sep 17, 1:51 pm, Bobs yer uncle <mcgrisw...@aol.com> wrote:
>
>> > "it's not difficult to spend a lifetime sheltered from the
>> > complexities and diversity of the outside world."
>> > That's strange. Quinn repeatedly talks about how great diversity
>> > is but
>> > he says here that avoiding diversity makes for an easier life.
>
>> ...and he's exactly right. Homogeneity generally makes for an easier,
>> but worse, society.
>
> How do you come to such a conclusion? "Diversity" is been the source
> of most of the world's wars, genocides, pogroms etc.
No - money and natural resources have been the source of most of the
world's wars, genocides, pogroms etc. Some have also been caused by *lack
of tolerance for* diversity. Diversity itself on the other hand, not so
much.
>> > "she believes that creationism should be taught alongside science
>> > in our schools;"
>> >
>> > And yet she didn't push for a law to do this, despite the fact that
>> > she could have.
>
>> Just believeing it is bad enough.
>
> That pretty much eliminates all four of the candidates.
All four candidates believe creationism should be taught in public
schools? If so, yes - it should eliminate them.
>
>> > "and her church believes gay and lesbian Americans can and, one
>> > assumes, should be corrected, redeemed from their deviant ways, by
>> > prayer ("pray away the gay" is their cheery slogan)."
>> >
>> > I'm not sure I buy this. Biden's church is positively
>> > anti-abortion, believes homsexuality is a sin...is that troubling
>> > as well?
>
>> Yes, it is.
>
> Once again, all four candidates.
Yep - and it's troubling in all four of them. Less troubling in the ones
who think it shouldn't be codified in law, but troubling nonetheless.
>> > "But she did come dangerously close to using her power to ban
>> > books."
>
>> > Did she try to ban books? No. Did she come close to banning books
> ?
>> > No. How about "dangerously close"? Did she come "dangerously clo
> se"
>> > to banning books? No. Now we know Quinn is a liar.
>> > --------------------------------------------------
>
>> Yes, she tried to ban books. Asking a librarian "What would you say
>> if I asked you to ban these books" IS trying to ban books.
>
> Actually trying to ban books is trying to ban books. Did she ask the
> librarian to ban books? Did she asked the replacement librarian to
> ban books? No and no. She made no attempt ban any books.
Right - she asked the librarian that question out of general interests.
--
Aaron
Steve Casburn
<19960c0e-6ccf-4d20...@i20g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
Huck Kennedy <temp...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> We Are All Wasillans Now
>
> Sarah Palin was my mayor, and here is why she should not be vice
> president.
>
> Ryan Quinn
> TheRoot.com
> Updated: 3:00 PM ET Sep 12, 2008
What is the point of highlighting the fact that you are from Wasilla if
you have nothing of interest to say that is Wasilla-related?
This article is just a re-write of the standard critique of Palin. The
only local color in it is: "I can add that she is perfectly friendly."
Steve
--
Steve Casburn <steve....@gmail.com>
"Shut up he explained" - Ring Lardner, Jr.