OT; SARAH PALIN BY EVE ENSLER | Arthritis Information

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Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist
best known for 'The Vagina Monologues', wrote the following about
Sarah Palin on the Huffington Post.


 Drill, Drill, Drill

 I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was
a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of
drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a
particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or
their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have
never seen one in person or touched one.  Maybe it is the fact that
they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar
bears.

 I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life
trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence
against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the
Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people
who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of
Feminists.

 But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical
to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving
the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls
options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence
and war.

 I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous
choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates
the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas
that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the
impact that duo would have on the rest of the world.  Unfortunately,
this is not a joke.  In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the
inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

 Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a
metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing
changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global
warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our
cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's
plan.  She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered
species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and
plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered.
The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken
and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, 'It was a task
from God.'

 Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women
who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should
have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or
not.

 She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I
imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many
babies that makes.

 Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she
has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense
with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an
environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and
might very well be the next president of the United States. She would
govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

 Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting
rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot
hundreds of wolves from the air.

 Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private
right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when
war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in
his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the
undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

 I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this
election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the
future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine
whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever
uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards
dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence
through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we
go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in
alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It
will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or
whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine
whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of
fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

 If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your
power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the
hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, 'Drill Drill Drill.' I think of
teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction.
I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force
mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity
or dissent.  I think of pain.

 Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the
floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between
nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing
we call life?

 Eve Ensler

 

HAVE YOU TRIED ABOUT 10 mg OF XANAX?? Donnn or whoever you are:
  Is it your brain that contributes to your words of wisdom or do they come from elsewhere?

 Please do not give medical advice either.
MY WORDS COME FROM MY FRIENDS, "THE POLAR BEARS"This really sums it up.  Thanks for posting this ann
 
DONN why don't you put on your wolf suit and head to Alaska
 
 
I wasn't annoyed at all.I don't agree with Eve Ensler.The title heading did include "OT" off topic to let readers know this thread isn't about RA so they could bypass it if they choose.  Folks post on a variety of subjects on this forum and the election is 50some days away so politics is on peoples minds and in their conversations.  And, isn't it a good thing, for so many voters to be engaged? 
   
Sorry you were annoyed!!!  This forum has changed tremendously since the old AI days when I first joined and much of what I see here lately is political.   This was just another viewpoint.  I haven't said I agree with her, but I think her essay is worth reading.  Take what you want and leave the rest is a good motto for the internet.
Ann
I don't agree with Eve at allThe more the liberals hyperventilate about Palin; the more I can't wait to vote McCain-Palin! Oh yeah baby! Like I have said in a previous post about this forum being a window on the thought of voters - very scary stuff.

Ann1026, you are correct. It's fine to post this. Just don't be upset when you get the response you do. Eve's view is extreme to say the least. I agree that there needs to be discussion, but making Palin out to be the anti-christ doesn't generate discussion, it generates anger. I mean really "This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet.", a bit melodramatic? I don't like Obama and some of his ideas really scare me. Redistribution of wealth has proven to be a bad thing and he advocates it major time. However, I am not simplistic enough to think that if he were to be elected, we'd face Armageddon. I know that there are nuts on my side as well, that may say that but at the end of the day, the President isn't a king or emperor. He cannot just do as he pleases with everything....

I worry more about our country that we cannot seem to have civil discourse about the differences in ideology. Know what I mean?

 

 

Friends,
Just FYI, I am neither left leaning nor right leaning.  I consider myself to be a centerist who votes the person, not the party.
I have been reading everything I can (lots on here) about Obama and McCain and his VP nominee.  Half of what is on the internet is hogwash but the other half is pretty reliable.
I take voting for president very seriously and want to be sure of my vote on election day.
There is absolutely no need to name call and be sarcastic or snide because of differing opinions.  Just yesterday, at my club, (after the football game), we had a  discussion of the election and it was wonderfully entertaining and informative.  I believe the count was 3 Democrats, 5 Republicans, and 2 or 3 independents.  Nobody was rude and we all remain friends

Keep posting political viewpoints and I will keep reading them.

Ann. 
I agree with you Ann. I am very disturbed by the polarity I see. Not sure why some feel they need to make personal attacks on others.Ann,
 
Perhaps the civil discussion you had the other day was due in part that you were all in the same room,  generally, people conduct themselves better when they are face to face, the anonyminity of the internet allows some people to be rude and insulting, no accountability for their behavior.
 
Politics has always been a heated topic, my sister bans political discussions at mealtimes and now has added Sundays (lol), but I feel the state of the country is extremely serious and the problems and solutions are complex.  As citizens and voters we must become better informed and involved, civil discourse benefits us all.
 

GIMPY IS NEVER ANNOYED. SHE'S JUST ANNOYING


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