Rural America awakens like a bear

All of sudden the masses are energized and others seemed to be amazed. I have been reluctant to write about political candidates because it seems as though most media outlets can’t find anything better to talk about but this is one I just cannot let pass. Sarah Palin from small town Alaska has wound up the nation and not just part of it. I am talking about most all of the nation and I know that because I am on the list serve of some of the most liberal activists in the country and they are indeed as keyed up as the conservatives. To sum it up in three words, they hate her and I love it. On the other side of the equation, the media is reporting that the conservatives of the country are excited too and that same media acts as if they didn’t know any conservatives still existed.

In fact, the Washington Post has reported in near disbelief that someone could think like this electrical engineer from Virginia. David Willis said, "Hearing her pro-life stance, her conservative values, her family orientation -- it has really resonated with the proletariat and caused people to say: 'Hey, I'm going to get involved here. This is someone I can relate with; this is someone that can win”.

For me personally, I like her as the VP selection for two reasons. First, she obviously values human life. The biggest challenge in the value system of our society today is that too many want to value the life of a dog, a car or some material possessions equal to or above that of humans beings. That is wrong and I see a person willing to say it publicly, not only with words but also with actions in her life.

Second, she can relate to the everyday citizen that has not had representation in our country’s capital for far too long. Critics say she doesn’t have enough experience. I say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Only one media outlet has carried the whole story about her acceptance speech that propelled her into the nation’s conscience. At the beginning of her speech, her teleprompter was dysfunctional and we as viewers couldn’t even notice that she was flying without the words in front of her. If fact, the one line that may help elect John McCain President of the United States was not even in her script but she ad libbed it to fill time until teleprompter could catch up. That famous line: “Do you know the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull?….Lipstick.”

The most irritating reporting about Palin’s speech began as soon as she concluded. I was initially watching the broadcast on PBS but had to switch to ABC because the government-run station couldn’t get the audio to match the video and it was too frustrating to watch. Leave it to our government to screw that up. Diane Sawyer commented that Palin was, “apparently attempting to politically motivate the small town rural communities as she obviously appealed to them.” This is the point that urban Americans don’t get: People from rural America don’t do things just for political gain. We do them because they are the right thing to do, we are proud of what we have, we are proud of the small, rural communities that we call home. It is not just another place that we stop along the way as we get transferred up the pay scale within a company. We are proud people and we don’t need teleprompted scripts in order to convey that passion.

I must add that I am proud of another woman who spoke at the convention on that same night. Carolyn Dunn, a farm wife from St. John, KS., set the stage for Mrs. Palin by addressing the entire GOP convention where she talked about the need to maintain domestic food production. She also greatly emphasized the need to retain our young people in rural communities. For far too long, our rural communities have been viewed as the “fly over region” as people shuttle from coast to coast for their seemingly important business. Now we have a couple of ladies from rural America, displaying such a pride in rural America, that most cannot even relate to it or understand where it comes from. But I am here to tell you that the only way we get our young people excited about the opportunity to raise their families in rural America is if we wear our pride on our sleeves everywhere we go.

For me, one person seems to understand the rights that we as American citizens have earned. One person seems to value human life and sees the resources of our nation that benefit human life only if we utilize those resources. One person seems to understand that with passion and faith as your motivation, you can accomplish what others may have given up on. One person seems to have awoken a hibernating bear that didn’t think about the changes that were happening around us.

Now a flashback to the State of the Union Address that was given on December 2, 1806. One of nations first Statesmen said, “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories”.

Remember that on November 4, 2008 you will be the one person that decides who most closely follows the vision of our founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson.