It seems that I have come to that place in life when there are just times that the only way I can come to that state of peace which will allow me to go to sleep is to write. My body doesn’t work very well anymore, but my mind seems to be making up for it – it’s hard for me to get it calmed down at times. Today, john mccain’s birthday, the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of a great American city (while mccain and bush ate birthday cake on a tarmac in Arizona), the day after Barack Obama’s incredible acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, and the day a woman was chosen to be the running mate of the presumptive presidential candidate of the republican party. This could be a day that goes down in infamy.

I suppose I could write about any of those topics and have a chance to sleep tonight, but I’m certain that the last one mentioned above needs to be the focus of my thoughts for selfish reasons – I have to get up early tomorrow (almost today) and, if you’ve read any of my most recent posts (as I write this I believe there is only one reader so far) you will understand why I would want to write about mccain choosing a woman as his running mate for the upcoming election. I will preface whatever remarks I might make by saying that I have been in a discussion with my oldest daughter, a beautiful woman with a level of intelligence that far excedes my own, about the reason why voters who were supporting Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries would choose to vote for mccain. I won’t go over any of that discussion again, but it is there to be read in previous posts. I will just say here that I can’t come up with a single reason why someone who would identify with Hillary could possibly vote for mccain – they are like the difference between night and day. And I say this tonight knowing that mccain has chosen Sarah Palin, the recently elected governor of the state of Alaska, formerly mayor of an Alaskan town of around 9000 people to be the first female in the history of the republican party to be chosen to run for national public office (president or vice-president).

My first thought when I heard this was that the republicans think women are stupid. They are evidently making the assumption that women will vote for a woman simply because she’s a woman. Of course, traditionally, people vote for the person who is going to be president – not the running mate. But as more information becomes public about Palin, there has to be a motive here that is very unflattering, in my mind, to women in general. Of course, this does not surprise me about mccain, because he has a long history of failing to support issues of importance to most American women – and I’m not just talking about abortion. During this campaign mccain has proven to me that he is the all-time king at pandering for votes. Depending on the audience he is more than willing to say whatever the people he’s looking at want to hear. I have heard him contradict himself many times myself during this campaign – not to mention the many gaffes that I guess he’s been able to get away with because of his age. However, it’s just that which is my first level of concern about his choice for VP.

I don’t want to, and hope that I don’t, get into any kind of character “assasination” of Governor Palin – I know nothing more about her than what I’ve heard on the various news programs today. At first I heard that she was under investigation in Alaska for firing a State Trooper supervisor for his refusal to fire the husband of her sister who was involved in a divorce proceeding that was ugly. When I heard some of the details about what the trooper was allegedly doing to her sister, I could understand why she would want him fired, but I thought it some what intriguing that they (republicans) would choose someone under an investigation. That being said, I believe her nomination makes mccain’s age even more of an issue. He’s had cancer twice, he’s 72 years old, some of his gaffes suggest he’s getting a bit confused at times (either that or he needs to work on his geography lessons a bit), and the chances of him being unable to fulfill his term are real enough that I believe it should be a significant issue of concern. On her first day Palin sent a not very subtle message to Hillary’s supporters that suggested to me that she believes Hillary’s voters voted for her because, and only because, she’s a woman. I realize they have sofisticated polling in the republican party and maybe they’re correct, but to me that was an insult to women. It really implies that they think women aren’t very smart.

I have to disagree with this vehemently, and not just because I’m even more passionately hoping for an Obama victory after the convention, but moreso because, as a school teacher, I work with so many bright, thoughtful women who – should any of them (God forbid) vote for mccain, there is no doubt in my mind that it won’t be because he picked a woman as his running mate. And my daughters, while I love the dialogue that I’m presently having with the oldest, there is no way that I wouldn’t ultimately respect whatever decision they would make in this election or on any matter of significance – they make choices based on careful thought and reflection and they have the moral character to stand firm behind what they think is right. When they disagree with me, I always learn something because their thoughts and actions always seem to me to be based on deep thought. And I can say this with the women teachers that I work with – they are extremely intelligent and I believe that the vast majority of women in this country are as well. I talk with many mothers, single mothers, who are struggling to raise children while working one or two jobs, and most of the time I am impressed with their thoughtfulness, even if they’ve made poor choices in the past putting them in tough circumstances. In fact, the reality to me, is that most of the time when there is a missing parent in the family, it is the dad. So I don’t think that mccain’s and the republicans choosing Governor Palin will net them a huge influx of disillusioned Hillary voters.

Keep in mind – with the little I know about Palin, I am certain that she would have fallen into the category of someone who would have never voted for Hillary Clinton. Each of the positions I have heard that she has taken on issues of national significance are virtually 180 degrees from Hillary. She is directly from the right wing of the republican party. Remember, if mccain wins we are likely to have a supreme court that is tilted strongly to the right for the next 30 years. The chance to right the wrongs of the bush administration regarding infringements on the constitution, will be virtually gone. I’m talking about illegal wiretapping, habeous corpus, torture, and other corporate friendly “legislation from the bench” that will be imbedded in our judicial system, certainly for the rest of my life. As far as abortion goes, I have been opposed to abortion since roe v wade was decided in the early 70’s. However, with two daughters I have always thought that if one of them were in the position to feel that abortion was a decision they needed to make – it would not be my place to do anything more than support them in any way I could. Everyone has to answer for their own decisions and, as a Christian, I firmly believe in scripture when it says judge not, lest you be judged. So it’s not my place to judge the circumstances and decisions of another person – if I’m correct about eternity, each of us will have to answer for our own choices and I have plenty of “stuff” to answer for without worrying or putting myself into someone else’s “stuff.” And I know that before roe v wade “backroom” abortions with dangerous consequences for women were common – I certainly don’t want to put my daughter or anyone else’s daughter in that place. Plus, I find it very hypocritical for people to believe in the sanctity of life – until the fetus is born and then “your on your own” not to mention the apparent lack of respect for life in places like Iraq by many of the people I know who are “pro life.” Don’t get me wrong, I believe a fetus is a human being upon conception – but I also believe that as a man, it’s not my place to be making choices for women in untenable situations. I’ve digressed, but my point is that most of us, maybe moreso for women, have a keen interest in the make-up of the supreme court – and this is one of the key issues of this campaign. Personally, I want the criminals in power presently to be held accountable for the lies, the cheating, and the fraud they have committed on this country. I believe thoughtful women understand the importance of the supreme court and will not be fooled into voting against their own beliefs because mccain picked a woman as his running mate.

According to what I’ve heard, Palin will also be a chearleader for mccain’s position on energy as stated when he was at Saddleback Church with Pastor Rick Warren, when he answered the question about his solution to the energy problem and high gas prices (before Pastor Warren had even finished asking the question) by blurting out Drill! Drill! Drill! She is a proponent of drilling in the Anwar wildlife refuge in Alaska, which will have an insignificant effect on the price of gas in America. Virtually all the experts say that it would take at least 10 years to get the oil to market, the amount it would lower the price would be negligible, the oil would go onto the world market and might not end up in America anyway, and the danger to this sensitive area would be far greater than any benefit that could be gained from violating the ban on drilling presently in effect. I just can’t see Hillary’s supporters agreeing with Governor Palin on this one.

For the rest of us, those of us who were not Hillary’s supporters, those of us who were but have fallen in behind Obama, or even mccain’s supporters. The thought of this woman who was the mayor of a very small town in a remote region of one of the two states that are not contiguous in America, who has been Governor for less than two years ( I believe about 17 or 18 months) is cause for pause. We need to know everything possible about her. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Idaho – to me that is not the education needed for someone who is president of the so-called leading country of the free world. It’s almost like me, or one of my friends suddenly put in a position of being president. I wonder what she knows about Pakistan – I hope she knows more than mccain who I’ve heard talk about the non-existent Pakistan/Iraq border as if it was actually real. I hope she knows that Chechoslovakia has not been a country for the last 15 years or so, unlike mccain. I hope she knows that there is no way that Iran is training Al Qaeda insurgents and arming them because they are bitter enemies, also unlike mccain. But we have to find out. What does she know about the economy? What does she know about the constitution? What does she know about the structure of how the federal government actually works? What does she know about the military? What does she know about the history of this great nation? What does she know about all the different governments around the world that the president has to deal with? mccain is 72 years old and has had cancer twice, as I stated above. If he’s elected there’s a good chance Governor Palin could become the president of this country! mccain has continually criticized Obama for being “unprepared” to be president. Didn’t he trump his own argument here?

I will end this by saying that Governor Palin might be a very fine, intelligent woman. I’m sure that there is no way that I could find myself in agreement with her political views. But my point here is that it is obvious to me that mccain picked her in an attempt to get a mass exodus of Hillary Clinton’s supporters to switch allegiance and vote for him because she’s on the ticket. To me, this is an insult to women – thinking that they won’t want the same questions I’ve raised here to be answered, that they don’t passionately stand for their beliefs, that somehow someone’s gender would be the only factor in their vote, that they would look past the realities of what mccain stands for because he chose a woman as his running mate. The analogy that comes to my mind when I even think about this; years ago when I was training horses for the race track, I was watching the post parade prior to one of my horses running and there are lots of people standing there checking them out as they walked by. As a horse in front of my lifted his tail and pooped on the race track, the man next to me grabbed the arm of the lady he was with and said “Number 4, go place the bet, he just pooped!” To me, mccain is essentially saying that he thinks women think about that deep. As I have spent the day digesting this choice, what it could mean to this country, what it confirms to me about the republican party, I keep saying to myself; You’ve got to be kidding!