LELA-TENSAE - ETAMoonlight

The Audacity of the ‘Barracuda Lady’

Balls!  said the queen, if I had them I’d be king!

Do you get the feeling that is what Sarah “the Barracuda” Palin (as she likes to call herself), the Republican vice presidential nominee, is saying to herself these days?  Can you believe this woman and the stuff that is coming out of her mouth?  It’s like they wound up and let loose the meanest Barbie on the shelf!   Not to sound like a misogynist, but there is something unseemly about a shrill - shrieking woman who screams at the top of her lungs with a manufactured “tough gal” act in a mean and nasty way.  It feels like it goes against all the wonderful instinctive qualities a woman has like her gracefulness, her compassion, and that gentle woman’s touch.   

But to hear the Republicans speak of her, you’d think Sojourner Truth was reincarnated.  Forget the fact that the woman barely qualified and hung on as mayor of Wasilla, the Meth capital of Alaska, where she almost got recalled, or even the fact that she thinks she has plenty of foreign policy experience and knowledge only because she can see Russia from Alaska, or her declaration that the occupation in Iraq is a ‘task from God’ or her urging Alaskans to pray for pipelines to be laid in the state and the many outrageous statements she made as an elected official.   

But the most appalling thing Mrs Palin said was her belittling of Barack Obama’s record as a community organizer and by extension all community organizers, and the way she did it during her RNC speech.  It had to be embarrassing even to some of her supporters.

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities,” she said in her shrill voice.

No Mrs Palin, community service is an art as much as it is politics. It’s about helping others, who are less fortunate. It is about sacrificing your time, your energy, and sometimes risking your life and become a voice to so the many people who have been disenfranchised.  It’s about going into some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in
America and talking to people one on one – without police escort like your days as mayor of that little hamlet you were a mayor of.  Major cities like the South side of Chicago, South Central LA, South East Washington DC and Harlem.   No, it’s not the same as sharing cookies and apple juice at your local PTA meeting with your friends and exchanging moose stew recipes later on.  It’s facing a forgotten and rightfully angry community and keeping that delicate balance between outrage and hope by teaching them about empowerment. Of course, you wouldn’t know the meaning of any of that, coming from a sheltered and protected life in that corner of the country. So, I don’t expect you to volunteer for community works in the south side of Chicago soon any time soon. 

I’d like to see you spend a day at in one of those neighborhoods talking to folks and finding out what their pressing issues are.  You say that’s not fair?  Well, don’t you think part of the responsibility of the office of the Vice President entails the ability to talk to all kinds of people anywhere in the country, including minorities?  At least Obama has proven that he has the ability to reach and connect with all types of people, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native America, African – you name it. You want proof?  How do18 million votes sound to you? That is a hell of a lot more than the 651 votes you received to become mayor and the 114, 000 you got to be governor of Alaska.  Of course, you would not last an hour in any of those neighborhoods.

But you know what might be good for you and might help you adjust that cocky and galling attitude of yours?  How about spending a couple of hours with Michelle Obama and her to kids in a room?   No no, nothing rough or intimidating, although you can use some of that too, but just talking to them, heart to heart. You can bring your kids too if you want.  I bet you will come out a different person with perhaps a better disposition and a more pleasant voice too.  Have you met the Obama women by the way? They really are a nice family.  Not that you would know what family manner is if it jumped and bit you on your you know what, but you will be surprised how well mannered and smart they are for an “uppity” family, like one of your surrogates called them.  So, in the slight chance that you might become Vice President, you can use some of that manner in your office.