It's not your fault, Sarah Palin, that you were chosen as John McCain's running mate not for your experience, but because you were a final save in a campaign quickly headed south. It's not your fault that he picked you over many more experienced men and women, because he wanted to pander to the far-right conservative base in an attempt to steal away the Presidency from someone who is ready to lead our country into a new, more hopeful future. It's not your fault that he chose your lightweight resume and intriguing personal history, because he thought it would get him votes and help him win, putting our nation at risk if something were to happen to him, a 72 year old man.
We have all heard your story over the last two days, that you are a mother of five, the youngest governor in Alaska's history serving for the last 18 months after two mayoral terms in the small town of Wasilla. We know you supported Pat Buchanan in 1999, and that you are considered a "maverick", a term used all too lightly these days. We have heard the pundits expound on your greatness as a working woman who is doing it all by raising a large family and meeting the challenge of having a four month old baby with Down's Syndrome.
These are all great accomplishments, Sarah Palin, but really, it is not about you.
You are a prop, a gimmick really, and a victim of Rovian politics that have been infiltrating the highest office of our country for the last 8 years. You are a distraction from the fact that a man of color gave a speech on the anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream", that brought down the mountain at Mile High Stadium. You are nothing more than a pawn, used in a game of political chess, whose only purpose is to crown the king called McCain and his court of witless jesters. There is seemingly nothing of substance in your positions, a woman who is ANTI-CHOICE, who thinks that other people should make decisions about our bodies, even in the case of rape or incest. You don't even know what the VP is supposed to do, though I'm sure once the war room is finished with you, you will have all the talking points down. You love Big Oil and the Morality Soapbox, and you don't believe that global warming is manmade.
But still, Sarah Palin, it is not about you.
It is about Roe v. Wade and the rights of women everywhere to make their own choices when it comes to reproductive rights. It is about sound environmental policies that will get us out of this mess we have made of the earth and bring about energy independence. It is about equal pay for equal work, a living wage, safety in the workplace and taking care of those who have lost their homes because predatory lenders were too busy making a buck on the backs of the working class. It is about an end to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, about keeping us safe in a world that has grown increasingly less so since George Bush was put into office. It is about the future of our courts, which could either be balanced or terrifyingly unbalanced by ideological purists who would shred our Constitution, a document you would be sworn to uphold. It is about putting real science in our schools and not creationist garbage that will do nothing for our children's educations, but will instead make us less prepared to compete in the global society. It is about elevating our standing in the world, bringing back diplomacy instead of rabid warmongering and the politics of fear, and making us once more a shining light of justice.
It is about my daughters, Sarah Palin, and our children, and our children's children. It is about our future, our belief in something better, our faith in one another and ourselves. It is about hope, truth, and freedom.
It is not about you, Sarah Palin.
It is about us.