Editor - Thank you very much for Tammy Bruce's article about Sarah Palin ("A feminist's argument for McCain's VP," Sept. 7). When Sen. John McCain first announced Palin, I knew she had to be a special woman. Alaska, the last American frontier, must be a guy's dream state in many ways. So, any woman who could get elected there sounded like she might be someone worth considering.
I also agree with Bruce regarding abortion rights. It is one thing to give a woman the choice to abort. But how about giving women the backup and support they need if they decide to have their baby? To me, that is true choice. I know many women who had children in their late teens and went on to raise good kids and pursue other interests and careers as well. As women, we have had to deal with many tough decisions and overwhelming barriers to fight for ourselves and our families. Despite Sarah Palin's recent appearance on the national stage, I wonder if she might not be a better president than McCain!
ANNE DUNEV, Valley Village (Los Angeles County)
It is indeed "one thing to give a woman the choice to abort". But per the scribbler's followup, Palin cut precisely the "backup and support" for teen mothers -- aside from her own daughter, who is quite well taken care of -- this person so sincerely endorses.
Amazingly, that appears to be the most lucid point of the entire letter. The rest of it reads as muddled and incoherent as one might find in a vodka-and-Vicodin fugue. I'm actually surprised the newspaper saw fit to bother with it, except maybe as a "see what I have to deal with?" cry for help from the beleaguered editor. This is the sort of moron that falls for Nigerian e-mail scams and work-at-home commercials.
Letter #2 opines thusly:
Editor - Regarding "A feminist's argument for McCain's VP" (Sept. 7): I, too, am a feminist. I, too, would be delighted to see many more women in higher office, including the presidency. But not just any woman, just as I wouldn't want just any man to lead our country.
Rather, a woman who understands the importance of protecting the environment, ending the war that has so damaged our economy (and the country of Iraq and our international reputation), and any number of other so-called "liberal" issues. Not just a good speaker with a colorful background, but a woman of proven experience and a specific platform of positive ideas and policies to help the have-nots and those who are struggling to hang on to what they have.
And, since Sarah Palin would breach the privacy of millions of American women, I do feel free to comment on her personal life: I don't trust a woman - or a man, for that matter - who would even consider subjecting her young and pregnant child to massive media scrutiny. Sarah Palin may be a feminist of sorts, but she's also a mediocre small-town demagogue. Our country deserves, and desperately needs, much, much better.
MELANIE LAWRENCE, Berkeley
Fair enough, up to the last sentence. I think we get what we deserve, even indirectly. As long as we put up with destructive policies, as long as we fail to turn off and tune out the cable and talk-radio screamers, as long as vast swaths of the country continue to wallow in collective spite and ignorance, as long as we continue to think that the act of voting is the extent of our responsibilities, it's not entirely undeserved. And if it takes a slap in the face to jar the right forces into appropriate action (or even inaction), it might be what is needed as well.
That all might sound cryptically counterintuitive, but it's a reasonable interpretation of this cognitive dissonance that pervades, this destructive perplexity we all feel. You can only ask "what the fuck are these morons thinking?" for so long. It no longer matters what they're thinking, to the extent that they are thinking at all, or to the extent that you can do anything about it.
Eventually you come to the conclusion that it's no longer safe nor sane to tie your fortunes to theirs so inextricably, like cinder blocks around your ankles as you dog-paddle endlessly in a diseased electoral swamp. Eventually it's time to quit asking why there are cinder blocks around your ankles, and find a way to cut them loose, and swim to shore. I'm not exactly sure what that is just yet, but I do know that the prospect of a Palin presidency would necessitate something serious, not some ludicrous retrenchment for a 2012 Hillary run. "Fuck that noise" would be a good starting point for a strategy, as well as an apropos motto.
So either a sufficient number of your countrymen have just enough wits about them to see that they're being handjobbed by an angry codger and a pathological liar, or you need to disentangle from them on some level or other anyway.
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