Epistle to Sarah Palin

I was assigned this for my Humanities class.  I am happy with the way it turned out, so I am sharing it here.  (BTW, I got a 148/150 for it.)

Dear Sarah Palin,

You took your success as a beauty queen,

And parlayed that to the political scene.

This took you to the national stage;

With plastic surgery you hide your age.

Who cares if you’ve read any books

When all you need to use is your looks.

While you present yourself desirable to man,

You use those wiles to take all that you can.

To clean up politics was you pact,

But we now know it was all an act.

As we viewed your public record we did find

The truth, when it comes to you is far from kind.

To distract us from the fact that you lied,

You spun us a crazy tale of a “Wild Ride.”

While some said that showed you a good mother and wife,

The rest of us asked, “How could you risk your unborn’s life?”

Your response, blame all your shortcomings on us,

Then throw your pregnant daughter “under the bus.”

Fault others, play Victim, that is your game,

To which you do it well and feel no shame.

On election night, McCain began to rue

That for his Vice President, he chose you!

Then back to Alaska, the state you say you love

And “singing” of your blessings from God above.

Waiting for Him to show you the open door,

Too bad work and effort are what you abhor.

Playing Governor you thought you could fake,

But for only so long that job you could take.

So you quit your position and started SarahPAC,

Yet made no attempt to make up for what you lack.

As far as improving yourself, we’ve seen none,

So now your future in politics is over and done.

The pursuit of riches and fame is what you chose,

So you make paid speeches, and work for Fox News.

You tell everybody you’re here to stay,

But all I want you to do is GO AWAY!

Love & Kisses,

The Mighty Aquarian

Reasons Sarah Palin Scares Me: Part 4-Her Fans

Note: Even though she has announced that she is not running for President, Sarah Palin is still a prominent voice in the political arena today. Therefore, I still feel this is worth writing about. Also, I committed to this series of posts, and I will see it through. It's who I am.

I’m just going to come out and say it; her fans scare the living daylights out of me. (Yes, they are correctly called fans, not followers or constituents. She is no longer nor shows any interest of ever being a politician again. She is a celebrity now, pure and simple; a celebrity in the political arena, but a celebrity not the less.) These are people that DO NOT take even constructive criticism of their idol kindly. The way they react you would think someone was threading something truly unthinkable of their children. (And, in my opinion, I think they actually care more about her than their own children.)

They have been referred to as Palin-bots, the flying monkeys & zombie bats. These descriptive nicknames definitely don’t inspire any feel good feelings.

Anyone who is perceived as an enemy of one Sarah Louise Heath Palin is subject to the wrath of fans. What this entails is extremely nasty and poorly written emails at best, and death threats to you and your family & friends while broadcasting your personal information at worst. Just ask David Letterman. Or Alaskan bloggers Mudflats, Gryphen or Shannyn Moore. Or Alaskan State Trooper Mike Wooten. Or Levi Johnston and his family. Or Sen. Leland Yee (D-SF), Alicia Lewis & Ashley Briggs.

One of the better known and best documented display of how bad her minions can make life for someone who would have something less than flattering or myth-busting to say is journalist and author Joe McGinniss. He describes his time in Wasilla in his book “The Rouge: The Search for the Real Sarah Palin”. He recounts how the atmosphere got so bad that a number of residents offered Joe weapons so that he could protect himself, including the Mayor, Verne Rupright. As someone who has loved Alaska since researching his book “Going to Extremes”, he could not share that love with his kids and grandkids for fear for their safety. He wrote on his blog about the experience before the book was released.

Disagreement, debate and compromise have always been an important part of our political process. What has been brought forth by the likes of Palin is something completely different and frightening.

Reasons Sarah Palin Scares Me: Part 3-The Treatment of Her Kids

In the spirit of disclosure, I am the mother of two intelligent, talented and beautiful daughters. I am extremely proud of the young women they have become. So, I will be putting on my mother hat for what follows.

Every time I hear someone say, “Sarah Palin is a great mother,” I want to ask them on what do they base this statement on. I do not see it. What I see is a woman who’s only interest in her kids is in the role of political props.

I remember the first time I ever doubted that Sarah was not the great mother she claimed to be. It was during the Presidential campaign. It was the day she announced to the world that her teen daughter Bristol was pregnant. And it wasn’t because of anything that would warrant that announcement, like people suspecting it so you get ahead of the story. (And honestly, did anyone REALLY suspect anything before that?) It was for the sole purpose of SAVING HER OWN ASS!!!

I cannot even imagine doing anything REMOTELY selfish, much less to my own child. As a mother, I want to do everything in my power to protect my children. They are my first priority, and everything else in my life takes a backseat to them. I cannot describe the anger I felt as I watched her throw her daughter under the bus of her national political ambitions.

Over the years, we’ve watched this family paraded all over the media. We were all introduced to Track the Patriot, Bristol the Brave, Willow the Wise, Piper the Adorable & Trig the Miracle. They have been sold to us by the media, the Republican Party, the evangelicals and Sarah herself as the perfect family. I have one question for them. Have you been watching the actual footage of this family?

On the train wreak that was “Sarah Palin’s Alaska”, (or as we call it at our house, “Sarah Palin Actually Sees Alaska for the First Time”), Willow the Wise was shown to be disobedient, disrespectful, apathetic and mean-spirited. First, after she is told that boys are not allowed upstairs, she has one snuck up anyway. The episode where she wanted to teach Willow the value of hard work was an utter disaster. She ignored her mother, talked back to her and gave her looks that were a cross between shock that her mom was actually trying to discipline her and a knowing that any threats of punishment would not be carried out (which they weren’t, for the record).

Piper is on the road so much with her mother, anyone with half a brain has to wonder, “How is she keeping up in school?” She even admitted after the campaign that she was having a hard time making up all the work she’d missed. Then there was the bus tour/family without the family vacation/SarahPAC promo footage fiasco. Besides being the only child to be with her the whole, abbreviated time, she was shown to have to fight for her mother’s attention to the point of manhandling journalist. I never saw that she was happy in any of the footage that was shown. Especially when she is referred to as Piper the Diaper. You cannot tell me any kid would be thrilled with that nickname. And please tell me when it was ever appropriate to let a 10 year old wear high heels, makeup, tight fitting shirts with suggestive phases and short shorts.

Then there is Trig. I cannot accurately put into words how absolutely pissed off I get then I see how that poor child is treated. Let’s cover some of the highlights; he is constantly passed from one person to the next, carried around like a sack of potatoes rather than a child, displayed constantly like Simba from the Lion King, brought out into public at all hours of the night so his mom can show him off briefly to all her adoring fans, never has his glasses or hearing aids on even though we have been told by Sarah herself that he has them and is to constantly be using them, taken out in below zero temperatures wearing only a shirt and a diaper. But the most infuriating moment is during a book tour stop in Florida, where Trig, when everybody got tired of “dealing” with him, put him on the ground in a parking lot amongst the gravel, cigarette butts and broken glass to just crawl around completely unsupervised. This is just so wrong on so many levels. Who in their right mind does this with a toddler? We have not seen Trig in the public eye as of late, and I feel that is a good thing for him. I hope he is having all his needs met in his time out of the spotlight.

Track is the only one we do not see constantly and have shoved down our throats. And I say good for him. You’re life must be so peaceful. I hope one day all your siblings can have the same thing.

Sarah complains constantly that the media will not leave her children alone. Yet she is the one that put them out in the spotlight to begin with, and hasn’t stopped since. If you asked me how many other politicians’ children’s names I know, I could name almost none of them. If she wants to blame the overexposure of her kids on anyone, all she has to do is look in the mirror.

Reasons Sarah Palin Scares Me: Part 2-The Lies

Oh, the lies...

I could write a whole post on the lies. Hell, I could write a whole post about EACH lie. And, trust me that would keep me very busy for a long time.

Journalist Andrew Sullivan tried to keep up with all the lies she has told since she was picked as John McCain’s running mate. He ran a series on them called “The Odd Lies of Sarah Palin”. He had very clear ground rules for what would qualify as a lie: “Remember: we are not including contested stories that we cannot prove definitively one way or another or the usual spin that politicians use, or even hypocrisy or shading of facts. We are merely including things she has said or written that can be definitively proven as untrue, by incontestable evidence in the public record.” (From his blog, The Daily Dish) Here is a roundup he did on November 15, 2009. As of June 27, 2011, he is still counting. (Note: I tried to find a list of all of them together for weeks, but I have been unsuccessful.)

She is so notorious for her lies that noted writer and filmmaker Geoffrey Dunn wrote a book released this year called “The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power”. Yes folks, she lies so much, it warranted a whole book written about them. A WHOLE BOOK!!!

There are days that I wonder if she is aware of the existence of the internet, YouTube, television, video tape, newsprint, the printing press. Does she not know that in this day and age, when you are in the public eye, you are being recorded for all time?

Reasons Sarah Palin Scares Me: Part 1-The Enemies List

I am very aware of the fact that in politics that you are going to make enemies. That is the nature of the game. Not everybody is going to agree with you, and trying to make everyone happy is an impossible task. A good politician will see that their job, their purpose is to do what is right by the constituents they serve, and not view it as a popularity contest. This is true whether it is a community association, town, county, state or the entire country.

But one cannot do it alone. One needs to have allies to aide them in their daunting task of governing. And let's face it, there will be people that agree with your point of view and will want to help you. There will also be others that may not like you and/or agree with your way of going about things, but will see what you are trying to accomplish and will at least respect you for it. A good politician also knows this.

Then there is Sarah Palin.

Publicly, she is in a feud with someone every time you turn around. It has been estimated that she has a public feud at a rate of 2 1/2 completely different people a month. And when I say completely different, I mean someone that she has, up to that point, not had a feud with previously and any point in time. She will feud with anybody. It doesn't matter if you are a blogger, entertainer, journalist, politician, kingmaker or leader of a country. Hell, the woman even feuds with her fans. If making enemies was her profession, she would be raking in some SERIOUS bucks.

And don’t think that there aren’t people keeping track of this. Tina Dupuy, of the Young Turks started a list on November 2010 of all the very public feuds she has had. It has been updated at least three times since she posted it.

And these are just the public feuds.

As I am sure we all know, one's behavior in public is quite different in public as it is in private. In public, you are more reserved as opposed to in private where ones attitude is more "let your hair down. In other words, you are more likely to let people know what you really think of them. You are more likely to let your true colors come out. For every feud you have in public, their are many more in private. So seeing the bridges she is burning for the whole world to see, the number she's burning behind the scenes must be astronomical.

Right now, this is not so much of a problem for her, since all she is right now is a celebrity. (Let's be honest, we let our celebrities get away with A LOT.) If she decides to run for public office again, this could be catastrophic, and not just for her We would during the primary season be witness to a political bloodbath the likes we have not witnessed before, and may never again. And no one can tell me that would be good for the state of politics in this country.