Two Women - Democratic Underground

sabrina 1

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Thu Jan-13-11 09:45 AM
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Two Women

Edited on Thu Jan-13-11 10:24 AM by sabrina 1

No one had heard much from Sarah Palin over the past few days. Few really wanted to. Until yesterday.

Her 'mean girl' act just doesn't seem to resonate right now. Her signature tough girl words 'lock and load' sound chilling and disturbing now rather than edgy or cute since witnessing the deadly reality of what those two words really mean this past weekend.

Her cross-hairs map which delighted her followers to the point of near orgasm, is now viewed as grotesquely sinister, forever linked to her image together with the tragic memory of all those who died last weekend, fairly or unfairly.

Great tragedies, like 9/11 eg, tend to minimize the importance of celebrities in people's lives. The contrast between the woman who is known mostly for her violence-themed vitriol and self-promotion and the woman who is now fighting for her life in an Arizona hospital after the weekend's tragic attacks, could not be more pronounced.

The magnitude and depth of the sorrow and grief of those closest to the victims and the overwhelming sadness of people everywhere, tends to highlight the shallowness of those who, in our society, are held up as idols or heroes. And when we compare them, false heroes as they are, to genuine heroic individuals, we experience feelings of disgust for our own complicity in helping to make heroes out of these empty, selfish beings.

It's sad that to bring about that necessary consciousness of our society's priorities, it takes a tragedy like this. And it's just as certain, that as happened after 9/11, people will eventually return to their usual practices and if history is any guide, nothing much will change. Until the next time, when we will pause once again, for a while, to reflect on who we are.

After each tragedy we are desensitized a little bit more. And that desensitization is helped by the distractions that surround the tragedy itself. E.g, the effort by some in the media to try to save the image of a woman who is and always has been a complete embarrassment to this country.

In a political sense, Sarah Palin is a person of little substance, a walking cliche, an insult to our intelligence and profoundly bad for this country in every way imaginable. Her reality-show life-style and tabloid-worthy on-going domestic issues, together with her showgirl persona make her far more suited, in a sane society, to a TV Soap Opera than to the White House. It's hard to believe that someone seriously tried to install her in the White House and that some TV pundits still toy with the idea of her actually being president of the U.S. That is how bad things are in this country now.

Why is anyone in the media interested in saving her now? Why are they interested in her at all? Perhaps it is because they, the media, helped create the atmosphere of violent vitriol in which she plays a leading role, when they provided saturation coverage of the birth of the Tea Party and its violent debut at Congressional Town Hall Meetings two summers ago, never reporting on who they really were, giving them credibility as a 'grass roots' movement when nothing could have been further from the truth. Iow, perhaps they are protecting their own creation.

Sarah Palin is a big part of that media-supported culture of violence, a culture that caused Rep. Giffords and others to fear for their own safety.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is very from Sarah Palin in every imaginable way. Her record of public service is exemplary. Rep. Giffords is not a quitter. She took her job as a Congresswoman very seriously and despite threats and disturbing and frightening attacks both verbal and on her office, she never played the role of victim.

Few Americans knew much about Gabrielle Giffords until the news of the shooting reported that a member of Congress had been shot. She was not seeking the limelight, selling books or performing on reality shows. She was working for her constituents and trying to get reelected so she could continue to represent them.

A Fulbright Scholar, a successful businesswoman and now a public servant. Friends and family say she is passionate about her job. That she loves serving the people of her district, getting things done for them, listening to their thoughts, making sure she knew what she needed to get things done for her district. In her own words:

"I started to see things about Southern Arizona that were not perfect and needed to change. So I ran for office determined to make that change and put right things that were wrong and represent those who didn't have a voice. And I realized then and there what my heart was saying: that for me, the highest calling in my own life was service to others. I have not looked back since."
Gabrielle Giffords, in a 2009 commencement address at Scripps Colle

She fell in love with and married Astronaut, Mark Kelly just a few years ago. They married in a traditional Jewish ceremony although Mark is not Jewish. Gabrielle has said that her passion to serve others is rooted in Jewish values.

She is loved and respected by all those who worked with her.

On the morning of the shooting, she was doing what she loved best, talking and listening to her constituents.

If she ever decided to run for the office of President of the U.S. at least we would not have to worry about how she would represent the country.

It's probably not fair to compare these two women, at least on a personal level. But comparing them based on their careers as public servants seems fair enough. I'll just say this, Gabrielle has never promoted violent rhetoric or attacks on her political opponents. She doesn't dress up in camos and run around toting a semi-automic. We do not see pictures of her killing animals for fun.

These two women's lives are inextricably interwoven by the events of the past election season and by the terrible events of last weekend.

When Sarah Palin reappeared yesterday she offered no apologay for her behavior towards Gabrielle Giffords and others.

She might want to reflect on the words of Gaby Gillards not so long ago, as she raised the issue of the crosshair map in a TV interview. She explained to the interviewer that Sarah Palin had placed a 'bullseye' symbol on each state's representatives and went on to say:

“When people do that, you gotta realize, there’s consequences to that action,” she said in the MSNBC interview, which seems chillingly prescient after Saturday’s shooting.

Sarah Palin is feeling the consequences of her actions as was predicted. Others of course have suffered far more severe consequences at the hands of the gunman. But maybe for the first time in her life, Sarah Palin is finding out that actions do have consequences. That is not something Gaby Giffords had to learn, she already knew it.

President Obama said tonight 'we can do better'. I think we can do better in our choice of candidates for elected office. Especially when it comes to elected officials who quit halfway through their terms.

Gaby Giffords is improving each day. Hopefully she will have a full recovery and return to doing what she loves best.

As for Sarah Palin, hopefully she will disappear from the political arena now and spend the rest of HER life doing whatever she loves best.