Sarah Palin

While I normally don't speak to political issues on this blog - it's something i'm very passionate about but not interested, necessarily, in talking about in this forum. That being said, I am so concerned, so worried, about this upcoming election and the possibility of Sarah Palin being anywhere near the actual presidency - that I need to speak up. Say my peace. Share my thoughts.

And in doing so - I'm choosing to not use my own words - because someone else has expressed my own feelings so well, so exactly, and so eloquently that I will share her words with you.

I will link Rebecca Traister's fantastic Salon.com piece "The Sarah Palin Pity Party" below but also extract some of the points which echo my sentiments eactly.

"When you stage a train wreck of this magnitude -- trying to pass one underqualified chick off as another highly qualified chick with the lame hope that no one will notice -- well, then, I don't feel bad for you.

When you treat women as your toys, as gullible and insensate pawns in your Big Fat Presidential Bid -- or in Palin's case, in your Big Fat Chance to Be the First Woman Vice President Thanks to All the Cracks Hillary Put in the Ceiling -- I don't feel bad for you.

When you don't take your own career and reputation seriously enough to pause before striding onto a national stage and lying about your record of opposing a Bridge to Nowhere or using your special-needs child to garner the support of Americans in need of healthcare reform you don't support, I don't feel bad for you.

When you don't have enough regard for your country or its politics to cram effectively for the test -- a test that helps determine whether or not you get to run that country and participate in its politics -- I don't feel bad for you.

When your project is reliant on gaining the support of women whose reproductive rights you would limit, whose access to birth control and sex education you would curtail, whose healthcare options you would decrease, whose civil liberties you would take away and whose children and husbands and brothers (and sisters and daughters and friends) you would send to war in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and wherever else you saw fit without actually understanding international relations, I don't feel bad for you.

I don't want to be played by the girl-strings anymore. Shaking our heads and wringing our hands in sympathy with Sarah Palin is a disservice to every woman who has ever been unfairly dismissed based on her gender, because this is an utterly fair dismissal, based on an utter lack of ability and readiness. It's a disservice to minority populations of every stripe whose place in the political spectrum has been unfairly spotlighted as mere tokenism; it is a disservice to women throughout this country who have gone from watching a woman who -- love her or hate her -- was able to show us what female leadership could look like to squirming in front of their televisions as they watch the woman sent to replace her struggle to string a complete sentence together.

In fact, the only people I feel sorry for are Americans who invested in a hopeful, progressive vision of female leadership, but who are now stuck watching, verbatim, a "Saturday Night Live" skit.

Palin is tough as nails. She will bite the head off a moose and move on. So, no, I don't feel sorry for her. I feel sorry for women who have to live with what she and her running mate have wrought. "

Read her entire piece here: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/30/palin_pity/index1.html

RIP Paul Newman

You were an amazing man - a leader - a legend - an educator - an activist - a mentor - a fearless adventurer - a family man - and so much more.

You will be sorely missed.

Rest in Peace