Thank you, thank you, thank you, Andrew Sullivan, for pointing out Margaret and Helen’s blog. 82-year-old Helen Philpot doesn’t like Sarah Palin (or McCain or Bush, either):
I will stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops calling Obama a terrorist sympathizer. And I will stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops calling the parts of the country where I don’t live more Pro-American than the part of the country where I do live. And I will definitely stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops acting like a bitch.
And a few posts back, in response to someone who wrote asking for advice because her grandparents tore up their ballots rather than vote for a black man:
Well Jennifer, my first instinct was to tell them to pull their heads out of their asses and start living in the 21st century. Life is too short to be hanging on to stuff we learned when we were young and didn’t know any better. But I remember those days. We didn’t know any better and some of us cling to yesterday out of fear and ignorance.
So, as an old lady who has been around the block of few times, here is what I think: Sometimes elections can be about great things… about changing the world. Think Lincoln. Think FDR. I started out in this election supporting Hillary Clinton because I believed our country needed a women’s point of view in the Oval Office. I truly believe that women approach education, war, healthcare, the environment, poverty, etc. differently. Of course then I met Sarah Palin and realized that some women are just bitches who only want to change their wardrobe and your religious freedoms.
So tell your grandparents this instead: Imagine what the world looks like on November 5th if America elects Barack Obama for President. We will have finally closed a chapter on American politics and moved into the 21st Century realizing that hatred, fear and bigotry is a waste of time and energy – both precious commodities of limited quantity. What respect we would get from around the globe. Why wouldn’t your grandparents want to be a part of such a historic moment? Why wouldn’t any of us want to be part of this historic moment — a moment when we profoundly change the world for the better?
But remember we grew up in a different time. We grew up during a time when this country didn’t understand the depths of its hatred. Don’t blame them. They don’t know any better. It is a part of who they are. But if they ignore you, you have my permission to do what I do when Harold doesn’t listen to me. Put laxatives in their pudding.
There are hundreds (probably thousands) of comments. Some of the comments wonder if the writer is for real (or a 22-year-old guy). I’m enough of a skeptic to wonder the same thing, but I laughed out loud as I read the last week or so of posts. And that’s good enough for me at this point in a presidential campaign.