Qualifications – Up Close September 14, 2008
Posted by voolavex in Vice Presidents.Tags: Alaska, Anchorage, bengeance, Chugach, Fort Richardson, glacier, Inuit, kill, Lies, Matanuska, Mendehall, Quonset huts, Sarah Palin, subterfuge moose, Wasilla
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I said I wouldn’t address Sarah Palin again – but if the New York Times can do it – well why not I. This time will be a tad different.
When I was little girl – back at the start of Korean War and the subsequent Cold War, my dear Daddy re-upped and went back into the Army. He was an officer and gentleman and a lush but he saw the Army as damn good way to get paid for drinking in the Officer’s Club and shuffling papers. He envisioned us doing this in Belgium at NATO. Imagine his surprise when his orders came and we were sent – in a state of shock – straight to Fort Richardson, Anchorage, Alaska. Right about this time of year – I know that because the neighbors baked me a birthday cake before we had even unpacked. Such was the camaraderie of army life back then. That and no war.
Thinking back on that year – which broke my parent’s marriage, my father’s military career and some furniture from all the parties we threw, my Daddy found time to make Alaska a learning project for me. And though young, I sucked it all up like a little sponge. My father informed me in adult terms that the Bering Strait was probably a landmass at one time and that now we were neighbors – by a two short miles – with Russia – our ideological enemy. This is because The Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait number two spots on the map. Big Diomede is Russian and Little Diomede is Alaskan. He painted a scenario where the military sat and glared at each other through spyglasses day and night – hoping for a false move. I was impressed. I was further impressed by the Midnight Sun (which was actually the 2:30 a.m. sun) and the Aurora Borealis both of which he explained to me with a globe. We had a large volcanic eruption in the Chugach Mountains that year so I learned about volcanic ash and lava and the earth’s thin crust. I woke up to those beautiful peaks every morning. We had a moose hang his big old head over the railing of our quarters and it nearly gave my father a heart attack- combined with a hangover, it is indeed a sight far worse than a pink elephant. And quickly cured by Four Roses. I learned to love Quonset huts (school for a while) and still do. We got our produce from the beautiful Matanuska Valley where everything was enormous (and pricey). The Matanuska Milkman came and dropped off our milk. I loved Anchorage which was like no place I had ever seen except on TV in Boston (which BTW, we did not have in Alaska; TV not Boston – actually we didn’t have either one). I saw the massive Mendenhall glacier and it was very big then. Sadly it’s getting smaller and at top speed. Then it will be gone. I took a train from Anchorage to Seward and I saw the Russian created cities of Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka. I marveled bout the wooden streets in Ketchikan and the gold mine on the side of a mountain above Juneau. I learned from my father the word Inuit and about the people who lived there first before we took over their snow and ice and primacy. He spoke about whales and igloos and dog sleds. We did not kill a single animal in that year. Living in a territory and not a state made me feel special. The natural beauty made me feel honored. I was not yet 6 years old.
Why do I tell you this – from memory, BTW – because I think, by these long past memories, I am as qualified to be on the GOP ticket as Governor Palin with one huge difference – Alaska is a land that cries out for care and love. Not the kind you get in church or the Governor’s mansion, but the real kind that preserves Alaska’s dignity and its incomparable beauty and abundant natural resources Ms. Palin has systematically made decisions that do not support those aims. Wasilla is butt ugly. She helped. If she will do it to Alaska – with lies, greed, vengeance and subterfuge – then imagine what she will do with 49 more states to pillage. I’m not suggesting you write me in – I am simply suggesting that a grass roots groundswell needs to be created that will write her off. Fast.
Voolavex 
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