Archive for October, 2008

In response to an article on calling Sarah Palin the C word:

Sexism, like racism, will never burn out – only fade away, slowly, until you can barely notice it anymore, but it will always be there, lurking. It is a perspective, and you can’t eradicate a point of view. People have to actively police themselves in order to keep it under control. I remember as a kid thinking somehow if the use of the N word were only used in cases of lazy people in general, not specifically black people, that it’d be acceptable. Where was my logic? There wasn’t any. That’s probably similar to the thinking of someone who finds it acceptable to call Sarah Palin the C word – only because her views on women’s rights are more that of a domineering man wanting to control women’s bodies.

I can disagree with Sarah Palin without calling her names. Straying from the issues is being counterproductive, and we need to be proactive and focus on what matters most to us – not name calling or resorting to Chicken Little fear tactics. I wouldn’t count myself in the column of respecting Sarah Palin, but I’m not about to call her any names. Never take a name caller seriously. Long ago they obviously stopped taking themselves seriously by thinking they could resort to labels as a way to win an argument. There is no point, counterpoint with someone who resorts to finger pointing and labeling their opponent negatively – only shock and awe.

Governor Palin is not a bad person, but her patriotic scare tactics only win fearful American votes (i.e. the conservative base). It is divisive and following the same separatist logic as that of a Jim Crow segregationist – the idea that there are two United States of America: those who are proud to be American and those who are not. Just swap out American for white and you are racist. The day I’ll put my guard down on sexism and racism is the day when to be un-American is no longer a threat to this country. I do not bleed “red, white and blue” – only red. The United States of America, like any country in the world, is relative and temporary. Act accordingly. Similar to the extremely proud American conservatives who have a mental block on “liberal” news, my brain does not condition well to patriotism.

USA = temporary.

The first stage is denial, the second is anger, the third stage is bargaining, the fourth is depression, and finally the fifth stage is acceptance.

Evolve.