PAGE NINE
A feisty and free-spirited girl!!!
On p.9 of Going Rogue Sarah is recounting some of her early memories of life with her family in Skagway, Alaska. Among other reminiscences, she recounts this one: "And I remember arguing with the nun who taught catechism and tried to teach me to write the letter E. It seemed a naked letter to me, so I was determined to reinvent it. I insisted she let me improve it with at least a few more horizontal lines."
This is surely a small and insignificant memory that Sarah gives here, is it not?
I rather think not. Sarah has retained this memory; further, she thought fit to include it in her book. I think that we can follow a principle that even the smallest, the tiniest incidents from the lives of great leaders can shed a bright beam of light on some corner of their characters.
Obviously, Sarah is revealed here as someone of independent mind and spirit: a feisty and free-spirited girl!!!
However, let us look a bit more closely at just how she proposed to "improve" the letter E. She wanted to add "at least a few more horizontal lines" to it. Right now, in my mind's eye, I am adding two or three more horizontal strokes to a capital E, and I am whisking through the alphabet of capital letters, A to Z, to determine whether or not the addition of these extra bars would make Sarah's improved E indistinguishable from any of the other letters. Lo! I find that the "Sarah-E" would still be readily different and distinct from any other letter!!
"Well, OK, but so what?" someone may say. This is the profound "what," I believe!!
One of the greatest of philosophical arts is the ability to distinguish what the "scholastic" theologians (e.g., St. Thomas Aquinas) call "substantial" change from "accidental" change.
For example, changing a man by adding a tattoo to his arm is "accidental" change. The change from man to dog would be "substantial" change. In the one case, the thing changed remains, in spite of the alteration, the same "thing." In the latter case, the essential nature of the thing would be altered. Similarly, as a boy or girl grows up, he or she changes in many ways, but remains essentially the same being, the same person.
Now, we can imagine a changing, a mangling of letter E that would leave it quite unrecognizable. This is not, however, the kind of change Sarah proposed. Her change leaves E "substantially" the same, but "accidentally" different. Her E is perhaps prettier or nicer, or maybe not; however, it is still E!!
Consider the United States of America. Like the boy or girl who grows up, cited above, we have grown from a thirteen-State infant Republic to the fifty-State nation of today. Yet, we have remained, so far, the United States of America.
This brings me to barack obama, nancy pelosi and other "democrat" politicos. This Chicago thug, obama, campaigned on a promise to fundamentally transform America. This is a person who would butcher the letter E beyond all recognition.
This is obama/pelosi/reid change. It is not "accidental" change for the better; it is not even "accidental" change for the worse that at least leaves the subject fundamentally unaltered. No, it is "substantial" change at which these benighted creatures aim, substantial change that will leave our country unrecognizable, if they are not stopped, and stopped very soon.
Let us follow the banner of our brave, beautiful Sarah. The little girl, who challenged the "status quo" of the letter E, yet left the letter essentially the same, has become the gallant leader who has never feared to challenge the status quo, and will, at the same time, leave our country essentially the same. If she helps bring about changes, they will be changes for the BETTER: our country will be left a FINER, NOBLER place as the result of a Palin Presidency
This is change I can believe in.
E can believe in it too!!!
This is surely a small and insignificant memory that Sarah gives here, is it not?
I rather think not. Sarah has retained this memory; further, she thought fit to include it in her book. I think that we can follow a principle that even the smallest, the tiniest incidents from the lives of great leaders can shed a bright beam of light on some corner of their characters.
Obviously, Sarah is revealed here as someone of independent mind and spirit: a feisty and free-spirited girl!!!
However, let us look a bit more closely at just how she proposed to "improve" the letter E. She wanted to add "at least a few more horizontal lines" to it. Right now, in my mind's eye, I am adding two or three more horizontal strokes to a capital E, and I am whisking through the alphabet of capital letters, A to Z, to determine whether or not the addition of these extra bars would make Sarah's improved E indistinguishable from any of the other letters. Lo! I find that the "Sarah-E" would still be readily different and distinct from any other letter!!
"Well, OK, but so what?" someone may say. This is the profound "what," I believe!!
One of the greatest of philosophical arts is the ability to distinguish what the "scholastic" theologians (e.g., St. Thomas Aquinas) call "substantial" change from "accidental" change.
For example, changing a man by adding a tattoo to his arm is "accidental" change. The change from man to dog would be "substantial" change. In the one case, the thing changed remains, in spite of the alteration, the same "thing." In the latter case, the essential nature of the thing would be altered. Similarly, as a boy or girl grows up, he or she changes in many ways, but remains essentially the same being, the same person.
Now, we can imagine a changing, a mangling of letter E that would leave it quite unrecognizable. This is not, however, the kind of change Sarah proposed. Her change leaves E "substantially" the same, but "accidentally" different. Her E is perhaps prettier or nicer, or maybe not; however, it is still E!!Consider the United States of America. Like the boy or girl who grows up, cited above, we have grown from a thirteen-State infant Republic to the fifty-State nation of today. Yet, we have remained, so far, the United States of America.
This brings me to barack obama, nancy pelosi and other "democrat" politicos. This Chicago thug, obama, campaigned on a promise to fundamentally transform America. This is a person who would butcher the letter E beyond all recognition.
This is obama/pelosi/reid change. It is not "accidental" change for the better; it is not even "accidental" change for the worse that at least leaves the subject fundamentally unaltered. No, it is "substantial" change at which these benighted creatures aim, substantial change that will leave our country unrecognizable, if they are not stopped, and stopped very soon.
Let us follow the banner of our brave, beautiful Sarah. The little girl, who challenged the "status quo" of the letter E, yet left the letter essentially the same, has become the gallant leader who has never feared to challenge the status quo, and will, at the same time, leave our country essentially the same. If she helps bring about changes, they will be changes for the BETTER: our country will be left a FINER, NOBLER place as the result of a Palin Presidency
This is change I can believe in.
E can believe in it too!!!
