From my friend and former newspaper colleague Jane Albright:
"Sarah Palin believes that she is on God's side, so everyone else is
wrong. This puts her firmly in the same camp as Osama Bin Laden. She,
too, would like to impose her narrow world view on everyone, much as any
radical Muslim fundamentalist does.
This isn't the American Way...."
Nor is it a courageous way. No-guts living is to try to require everyone else to be and do just like me. If my way is good, it can stand comparison to other ways. It can coexist.
I like Gandhi's philosophy: "I do not want my house to be walled in on (all) sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any."
I first saw this quote on a poster in the airport terminal in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, India, when I arrived there to begin my three-month stay to research my novel Sister India. It has stuck with me.
I know that I open myself here to the charge of wanting Sarah Palin to think like me. Not so. I want her to be as different from me as she wishes. I just don't want my way made illegal.
Please consider voting for American freedom.
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6 comments:
Peggy, thank you for all you are doing to educate people about the election. This is a crucial time for our country. I hope people are getting informed and being very thoughtful.
Thanks, Mamie. (Please note next day's post: Campaign Anger.) I hope things are going well as can be with your dad.
Unfortunately, neither candidate that is running would be my choice. I consider myself neither a democrat nor a republican. But after reading this post, I do recall Obama being part of a congregation, for over twenty years, whose pastor stood up boldly before his congregation and "god damned" America. I don't know about you, but I would not remain loyal to a congregation in which the pastor "god damned" my country in front of my children. Obama and family remained there until they were chided for staying associated with their America-hating pastor. Whether we agree with the policies of our country or not, there is one thing that I am sure that we all agree on. Our country is the best place to live in the world. We are not perfect, but show me a country that is closer to "perfect" than we are. Every president that we have ever had has been Christian in faith. Heck, Bill Clinton even walked around with a bible under his arm! Did that stop me from voting for him the first time around? was I "scared" that his beliefs were going to somehow negate my own? Did the site of his bible cause me to compare him to one of the most disgusting, evil monsters of our time? I am Jewish, and so there has always been a very obvious religious difference between my beliefs and any president that I have helped to elect. I am a good person, and I believe that I am somehow on God's side. I live my life to be pleasing in God's eyes. Does that make me like Osama Bin Laden? Any Christian president that we have had, including Bill Clinton(or Hilary had she had the chance), believed in some way that they were on God's side. Why are people suddenly so fearful of Sarah Palin's personal religious views? And I am curious. Exactly where and when did Ms. Palin state that since she believes she is on God's side, that everyone else is wrong? How in the world can someone compare her to Osama Bin Laden? Shame, shame on Ms. Albright. It isn't the
'American Way" to stretch the truth so that it fits our argument.(or is it?)
Like I said, none of this is about who I will vote for or why. I think the choices are dismal, at best. I agree with Gandhi. I do not require that everyone I know or support or vote for think exactly like me. I welcome peaceful, well-thought out differences of opinion. But nobody, and I mean nobody, had better tell me that because I feel that I am on God's side, that I am anything like Osama Bin Laden. Ms. Albright seems to live in that stuffed house where all of the windows and doors are walled in. In other words, if you don't think like she does, then you must be just like Osama Bin Laden.
Debbie, Thanks so much for weighing in, and with such vigor. I'm glad to hear where you are on this.
Don't lay all the blame on Jane Albright, though. I'm the one who posted her comments, and it was because I agreed with her that Palin wants to outlaw for everybody a number of private choices that she disapproves of for herself. To try to force one's view of the world on other people is what Muslim extremists, and extremists of all sorts do.
I don't like what Obama's preacher said either. But most every preacher, or speaker of any sort, I have ever heard has said something I find wrong. And yet I've found that I agreed with some of them on a lot. (Since I don't have kids, I probably don't have the same things at stake and so can stay in the room with some very troubling opinions.)
You're right, Debbie: we do agree--you and I to be sure--that the U.S. is still by far the best place to live.
I also want the country to get back the respect we once had in the eyes of the world. I miss that pride. I'm so sad, angry, and disillusioned (and guilty) since our country killed Iraqis with no justification.
I'm breaking the time-honored advice of talking about politics and religion. Are we still friends?
Peggy,
We are always friends and I still adore you. Somehow I think that our beliefs are more similar than different. It's just getting to that middle ground that's sometimes interesting.
Sleepy tonight, but will write more tomorrow.
Hugs,
Debbie
Thanks, Debbie. I'm a little worn out with this business myself.
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