TWENTY-SEVEN

"The library on Main Street was one
of my summer hideaways..."

I would like to focus on two parts of Sarah's wonderful page twenty-seven of Going Rogue!

First, on the upper half of this page Sarah, who on p. 26 had described the stratagem employed by her dad to prevent her and her siblings from watching too much of the "boob tube," writes as follows:

"My folks were smart: less TV meant more books. From The Pearl to Jonathan Livingston Seagull to Animal Farm and anything by C.S. Lewis, I would put down one book just long enough to pick up another. The library on Main Street was one of my summer hideaways.

"I wandered through the stacks, thumbing through the smallish collection as though it were a secret treasure. One of my dad's buddies said that he never stopped by the Heaths' house when we didn't have our noses in a book or one of the magazines we subscribed to..."

All right, chrissy matthews, and all you other abominable liars and slanderers of the sanctimonious, self-serving, selfish Left, are you going to issue a public apology to Sarah for spreading far and wide the falsehood that she is stupid, that she cannot read, that she has no "intellectual curiosity"??

Don't you people know that, not just in Christianity, but in ANY RELIGION, as far as I know, it is a serious sin, wrong, delict, misstep--use any term you like, it does not alter the "thing," the reality--in any religion it is wrong to lie about someone, to misrepresent or slander him/her.

If you have any fear of God, of karma, of Eternal Justice, or if you just have a shred and a shaving of plain, common decency, you will publicly apologize to Sarah for your FILTHY LIES about her, and you will ask her to forgive you. If we know our Sarah, once you publicly set the record straight and true, she will graciously and truly forgive you from her heart: That's the LADY that she is!!!

...and just from my gut, let me ask you guys and women of the Left (and of the RINO "right"): My own heart is WARMED and LIFTED by the lovely picture of the young Sarah, wandering through the library stacks, on the scent and trail of some new literary gold or silver that is hiding just around the corner, treasuring these gems and nuggets of the mind and spirit.

Are you people SO INHUMAN, SO DEAD IN SOUL AND SPIRIT, that you cannot admire and respect her at least a little bit?!? Does your RAW POWER matter so much to you that you will stoop and sink into the gutter of gutters to try to destroy this lovely, fearless, brilliant lady???

Be afraid, be very afraid, I say to you all, both of the vengeance of the Lord and the vengeance of the American People....I myself can see November, 2010 even from deep blue Berkeley, California!!!...and if I lift up the eyes of hope and of imagination a bit, I can see November, 2012 even more clearly!!! Sarah is coming for you; we are coming for you!

In the latter portion of p. 27, Sarah turns neatly from the intellectual dashes of the nimble mind and eyes, to the physical running of the feet. She writes:

"The 1970s also ushered in the running craze across America, and my family was hooked. Mom and Dad had their friends training for marathons even on subzero winter days, and in the summertime, we ran together in the sunlit nights...

"Dad qualified for the Boston Marathon and proudly represented Alaska twice at the Big Show. Mom, who was not at all athletic growing up, won her age group in the 26.2-mile Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon, a testament to how Alaska can change a person.

"At the time, running with my family was just a fun and expected thing to do, but it became a lifelong passion for me. For one thing, you don't have to be particularly coordinated or talented to do it.

"Eventually, though, I realized that the road, and especially marathon training, holds invaluable life lessons. That to reach your goal you have to put in the tough, drudging miles. That the best rewards often lie on the other side of pain. And that when it seems you can't take another step forward, there is a hidden reservoir of strength you can draw on to endure and finish well."


LACRIMAE, guys, LACRIMAE, Latin for "tears," "tears." This is so beautiful and moving that it almost seems to defy any need for any "commentary"!!! Ipsa verba eius, verba ex altissimo corde evocata et exaltata, animam eius illustrant illuminant revelantque!! "Her very words, all by themselves, words called forth and lifted on high from the very depths of her heart, shed light on, brighten, and reveal her spirit!!!!"

Nevertheless, let me observe: Our beloved Sarah did not know it at the time, but every pounding step she took and suffered on her hidden marathons of both the road and of the spirit, marathons of both body and soul, paths to glory and greatness, every sigh, every groan, every touch and tinge of pain and agony, was another spiritual stone and brick that she laid in the lovely edifice that will be a restored America, and was another nail in the joyless coffin of the hateful and heedless and mindless Left!


In tears and all alone did she plant...and plant...and plant...in marvelous millions of ecstasies and triumphs shall we all rejoice with her, the Lioness of the North, the Lady of Alaska, our Dearest Sarah, America's Sarah!!


Read It For Yourself:

Other Great Sarah Books:

Palin Essentials:

Credits:

All sidebar photos are from Wikimedia. I have tried to post all royalty-free images or to get permission, but in a few cases I could not locate the original source of a photograph or find a way to ask permission.


Contact info: bbrianus@gmail.com.

Other Great Going Rogue Reviews:

Jedediah Bila:

"Palin’s inviting first-person narration that is sometimes whimsical, often confident, and always patriotic...Going Rogue is truly one of those reads in which you put the book down after your eyes graze the final lines and you somehow feel like the writer is someone you’ve known all your life."
John Ziegler:

"I was simply blown away by Going Rogue on almost every level. For many reasons, this is by far the best book and greatest literary achievement by a political figure in my lifetime..."
Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata:
"Her book washes away all doubts that any reader might have had about her readiness to be president. She comes across as exceptionally bright, dedicated, and passionate about public service. Her moral compass is strong, pointing true North in this case. And she has a wicked sense of humor."
Don Surber:
"Conservatives know why Palin is still standing — and standing taller today than those who tried to bring her down. What does not kill you makes you stronger. Thank you, Tina Fey."

Sarah Palin is Coming to Town

Review by Stanley Fish:

When I walked into the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan last week, I headed straight for the bright young thing who wore an “Ask Me” button, and asked her to point me to the section of the store where I might find Sarah Palin’s memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life.” She looked at me as if I had requested a copy of “Mein Kampf” signed in blood by the author....


A few days later...I had begun reading Palin’s book, and while I wouldn’t count myself a fan in the sense of being a supporter, I found it compelling and very well done....

First, the art. The book has an architectonic structure that is built around a single moment, the moment when Palin receives a call from John McCain inviting her to be the vice-presidential candidate of the Republican party. When we first hear about the call it is as much a surprise to us as it was (at least as reported) to her, because for six pages she has been recounting a wonderful family outing at the Alaska State Fair. When her phone rings, she hopes it might be a call from her son Track, a soldier soon to deploy to Iraq, but “it was Senator John McCain asking if I wanted to help him change history.”

And that’s the last we hear of it for 200 pages. In between we hear a lot about Wasilla, high school, basketball, college, marriage, children, Down syndrome, Alaska politics, the environment, a daughter’s pregnancy. The re-entry of John McCain into the narrative on page 208 introduces Palin’s account of the presidential campaign and its aftermath, especially her decision to resign the governorship before the end of her term....


Paradoxically, the effect of the neatly spaced references to the call is to de-emphasize it as a dramatic moment. It is presented not as a climax, but as an interruption of matters more central to Palin’s abiding concerns — her family, Alaska’s prosperity, energy policy. (She loves to rehearse the kind of wonkish details we associate with Hillary Clinton, whom she admires.)

Indeed, it is a feature of this narrative that events we might have expected to be foregrounded are elided or passed over. Palin introduced herself to the nation with a powerful, electrifying speech accepting McCain’s invitation to join the ticket. It gets half a sentence (“I gave my speech”)....


The only event that receives an extended discussion is her resignation. It is important to her because as an act it reflects on her integrity, and she has to be sure (as she eventually was) that she was doing it for the right reasons.

Resigning was a moral act for which she was responsible. The vice-presidential candidacy just happened to her; her account of it reads like an extended “what-I-did-on-my summer-and fall-vacation” essay.


For many politicians, family life is sandwiched in between long hours in public service. Palin wants us to know that for her it is the reverse. Political success is an accident that says nothing about you. Success as a wife, mother and citizen says everything...

I find the voice undeniably authentic...It is the voice of small-town America, with its folk wisdom, regional pride, common sense, distrust of rhetoric (itself a rhetorical trope), love of country and instinctive (not doctrinal) piety.

It says, here are some of the great things that have happened to me, but they are not what makes my life great and American. (“An American life is an extraordinary life.”) It says, don’t you agree with me that family, freedom and the beauties of nature are what sustain us?


And it also says, vote for me next time. For it is the voice of a politician, of the little girl who thought she could fly, tried it, scraped her knees, dusted herself off and “kept walking.”

In the end, perseverance, the ability to absorb defeat without falling into defeatism, is the key to Palin’s character. It’s what makes her run in both senses of the word and it is no accident that the physical act of running is throughout the book the metaphor for joy and real life. Her handlers in the McCain campaign wouldn’t let her run (a mistake, I think, even at the level of photo-op), no doubt because they feared another opportunity to go “off script,” to “go rogue.”

But run she does (and falls, but so what?), and when it is all over and she has lost the vice presidency and resigned the governorship, she goes on a long run and rehearses in her mind the eventful year she has chronicled. And as she runs, she achieves equilibrium and hope: “We’ve been through amazing days, and really, there wasn’t one thing to complain about. I feel such freedom, such hope, such thankfulness for our country, a place where nothing is hopeless.”

The message is clear. America can’t be stopped. I can’t be stopped. I’ve stumbled and fallen, but I always get up and run again. Her political opponents, especially those who dismissed Ronald Reagan before he was elected, should take note. Wherever you are, you better watch out. Sarah Palin is coming to town.

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