I've been thinking a lot about the abuse that has been heaped on Sarah Palin in recent days, and it seems an awful lot of it is based on who she is and where she is from, how she looks and how she talks, her history and her family, rather than about what she can do for us as Vice President of the United States of America. And I think I'm beginning to get mad. This, then, is my answer to the liberals who feel that Sarah Palin's hair style is a fitting subject for ridicule or somehow impacts how she would discharge her duties if she is elected, along with Senator McCain, to the White House.
Dear Liberals,
We are conservatives. Small-town boys and girls, even though many of us have graduated college and lived in the cities as well as the small towns of this nation. We grew up hunting, fishing, camping, working on farms, mowing lawns, babysitting, and delivering newspapers. We watched "Hee-Haw" on TV and loved it. We like to go bowling and We think there isn't much better than beer and brats in the backyard on a summer day with family and friends.
Yes, we go to church, and we believe in God, we accept His Son, Jesus Christ, as our Lord and Savior, and we speak naturally and openly about such things. We were not taught to be ashamed of our beliefs, although our more cosmopolitan brothers and sisters apparently find our beliefs both amusing and worthy of ridicule.
Yes, we hunt and fish and we do it without thinking a lot about how parochial it makes us look. Some of us know that our meat does not grow inside a shrink-wrapped package at the grocery strore, we know that even when we buy our meat instead of hunting it, it means an animal died to put food on our table, and we're both humble and thankful for that.
Yes, we wear our hair in styles you find less than attractive. Most of those styles are necessity-driven, because a practical hair style makes a lot more sense if you actually work than if you sit at a desk all day. And we stick with what we know and like, so our style of dress is frequently not the latest trend from Milan. Our clothes get worn until they are outgrown or worn out, because clothes cost money, so if they have a stain or a patch, or if the colors are faded or if they're a tad out-of-style, we just keep on wearing them. And none of us makes much of it.
Yes, we like simple entertainment. There aren't too many opera companies where we live, so we make do with NASCAR and Monday Night Football and we do like a Little League baseball game or a high-school basketball game more than you might think is cultured.
Some of us own guns, and bows, and other weapons that can kill. We keep them around, we use them for their intended purpose, they're just like garden shovels or hammers to us - just another tool. We don't get too wrapped around the axle about the ways in which firearms can be misused, we raise our children to respect firearms and to treat them with respect and handle them safely. Yeah, sometimes that turns out badly, but not often, and we'd rather that than have all Americans lose their rights to self-defense over the very tiny fraction of a percentage of people who can't understand how to properly store, handle, and use firearms.
We are patriots and we don't care who knows it. It's not a dirty word, and yes, if we say you're 'unpatriotic', we are saying something important that we think you ought to hear. We're not stupid, we know that our country makes mistakes, just like any other. We're not always right. But right or wrong, this is our country, and we love it, and we don't think that's wrong. Yes, we know that you have the right to object to the Pledge of Allegiance, or to refuse to stand for the National Anthem, and that's ok, but we show respect for the symbols of our nation and all we ask is that when you're in our homes, you honor us by showing us the same respect we show you.
Yes, most of us believe that life begins at conception, although many of us disagree, like the rest of the country, on the concept of abortion and if it should be something our country allows. However, even with abortion legal, as it currently is, we believe that those who choose life ought to be allowed to make that decision without mockery, without derision, and without comment, to be quite honest. Sarah Palin chose to have a baby even though she knew it would be born with Down's Syndrome. If that's not a choice you would have made for yourself or your family, that's fine. Maybe some of us wouldn't have, either. But all of us conservatives believe that it's none of your business, liberals. It was a personal choice, and it was hers and her family's to make, and they made it. It's not something to be ridiculed, or mocked. In a country where choice is the law of the land, don't tell us that choosing life is NOT an acceptable choice!
Yes, we think that sexual education is something that should be taught in the home and not the school, and we understand the irony of a conservative family that finds itself with a child who has become pregnant too young. Again, this is a private thing for the Palin family, but we conservatives know that all families have problems and that all families struggle to do the right thing. None of us is perfect, and no conservative with an ounce of common sense would claim that their family could do no wrong.
Yes, many of us have never traveled abroad. Some of us have only left the USA to serve our country in the military, which requires no passport. Tell me, liberals - how many of the young men who lie under the white crosses on the beaches in France had passports? How many of them would you dare to mock and belittle? Many have served our nation, fought, bled, and died, for us - for you - and didn't have a passport. And you would mock them? Likewise, many of us have jobs, families, and other daily concerns that don't allow us the luxury of traveling abroad. Some of us didn't get a free trip to Europe from our parents when we graduated from high school - we got a couple month's tuition at the local community college and a used car, if that. Are we then 'unintelligent'? Are we 'not inquisitive about the world'? Sarah Palin was asked how many foreign leaders she had met - the answer was none. And what should it have been? As governor of Alaska, her attention was, as it should have been, focused on Alaska. What would it have meant if she had spent her years in office gallivanting around the globe, seeking publicity and photo opportunities with various princes and potentates? Perhaps it would have meant that she was more interested in advancing her career than in being an effective leader for her constituents.
In conclusion, liberals, we think Sarah Palin is just fine. She's one of us, an ordinary person. The ultimate 'Washington Outsider', she's the first one in decades who could legitimately claim the title, and we see that as a very good thing. These sons and daughters of privilege who have spent every waking moment since law school at the public trough don't impress us, even the ones who are nominal conservatives. We like Sarah Palin, and when you insult her instead of examining her credentials, when you ridicule her wardrobe or choice of shoes instead of looking for the heart of her character, you insult us; you ridicule us.
Be very careful, liberals. Understand that you're playing with fire. Yes, we're the sons and daughters of fly-over country. We put the food on your tables, we empty your trash, we police your streets, we bury your dead. We are the average citizens, our work makes society work. You think you can mock Sarah Palin, dismiss her as merely 'pretty' instead of considering her intellect, her determination, her leadership capability, or her political beliefs; but you're wrong. When you mock her, you mock us. When you belittle her religious beliefs, you belittle us. When you curse her - as 'comedian' Sandra Bernhardt recently did, calling her a "Shiksa whore," you curse us. Be very careful, liberals. We are the average citizen, yes. But there are more of us than there are of you. We matter. We vote. And in November, we will show you how much we matter, and how little your petty insults, humiliations, and curses matter. You will lose, and it will be your own fault.
And in 2012 or 2016, we'll elect Sarah Palin President.
We are all from Wasilla now.
Sincerely,
The Waterford Diarist
Waterford, Michigan
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