Government Dirt

Dear friends and colleagues:

Approximately one month ago, GOP presidential candidate Sen. John Mccain chose Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate. Roughly two weeks later, a close friend sent me an email written by two women in New York. It read:

"We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have felt since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. We believe that this terrible decision has surpassed mere partisanship, and that it is a dangerous farce on the part of a pandering and rudderless Presidential candidate that has a real possibility of becoming fact. Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of what Ms. Palin and her professed beliefs and proven record could lead to for ourselves and for our present or future daughters. To date, she is against sex education, birth control, the pro-choice platform, environmental protection, alternative energy development, freedom of speech (as mayor she wanted to ban books and attempted to fire the librarian who stood against her), gun control, the separation of church and state, and polar bears. To say nothing of her complete lack of real preparation to become the second-most-powerful person on the planet. We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as a woman, a mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but solely as a rash, incompetent, and altogether devastating choice for Vice President. Ms. Palin's political views are in every way a slap in the face to the accomplishments that our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers so fiercely fought for, and that we've so demonstrably benefitted from. First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not demonstrate or uphold our interests as American women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree, publicly."

The wise authors of this email solicited comments for posting on a blog site entitled "Women Against Sarah Palin." To date, the Women Against Sarah Palin blogsite has received thousands of postings. After much thought and consideration, a friend of mine and I decided to add our voices to this exceedingly important and growing movement.

We did so by creating www.girlsagainstsarahpalin.com (GASP). GASP contains a variety of information regarding Ms. Palin, including a host of video clips. But, most importantly, it contains a guestbook designed to help us track supporters and obtain feedback on the site. With a demonstrable show of strength in numbers, we may be able to attract some much-needed media attention to the impact of Ms. Palin's candidacy on female voters, many of whom are like us. Please join us in this endeavor.

Go to www.girlsagainstsarahpalin.com and sign the guestbook. It will take you less than a minute. Then send this email (or a shortened version thereof with a link to the site) to at least 10 friends, asking them to do the same. Together we can send a message that issues matter more than gender. And that our children deserve better.

Thank you.