THIRTY-FIVE

Helena (Lena) Andree, Todd's grandmother

On p. 35 of Going Rogue Sarah has been discussing, for about a page or so, the character and family background of Todd. Around the middle of the page she writes:

"Todd started fishing Bristol Bay at a very young age and grew up in this multigenerational industry. Lena [his grandmother] saw the fishery as a God-given resource that provided for the family. She believed in sweat equity.

"Using commercial fishing as an economic bootstrap, Todd's family owned and operated the town's hardware store, hotel, mechanic shop, and other businesses, ultimately employing scores of people. Their efforts in free enterprise became an economic engine in the region.

"The Palin-Kallstrom family was also the most generous I have ever met, willing to give the shirts off their backs for those in need. Todd's mother, Blanche Kallstrom, ran her businesses that way and has been materially blessed for being so generous to others."

With Todd's parents, Jim Palin and Blanche Kallstrom

These two paragraphs should be required reading for obama, reid, and pelosi and their whole crew of cronies. So much of what is best and finest in America is summed up and captured in these few words. Let me make just a few remarks about them.

She refers to a "multigenerational industry." What we have here is the concept that may be expressed by the Latin word traditio. The word is best translated in many contexts, not so much by its English derivative of "tradition," as by the more literal "a handing on," "a passing down." And then we must ask, "A handing on, a passing down of what?"

Here comes, I think, a crucial point. We witness here a dual "handing on," a traditio duplex, that, in conformity with man's/woman's dual nature, is both physical and non-physical, tangible and intangible. The physical businesses were handed on/passed down, with all of their tangible assets and property.

Willow, Lena, Blanche, Piper, Bristol

Perhaps even more importantly, however, principles too were handed on, the principles of free enterprise and hardy self-reliance!! There is a beauty and perfection in this traditio duplex that is so very much wedded to and in conformity with human nature, as it was created by God.

Let me note too three aspects of this family business, and the charitable practices of its proprietors, that stand out and practically yell and shout in denunciation of the current policies being practiced by the corrupt political hacks in Washington. These three aspects are justice, effectiveness, and charity. Briefly:

Justice: They give away freely what they have a right to give away, since they have earned it.

Effectiveness: The help goes directly to the beneficiaries, without the intervention of bureaucrats who are at best incompetent, and at worst thieves and plunderers.

Charity: Since the help is freely given, it benefits the donors as well as the "donees": Lovely luster and brightness of soul flows and accrues to those who give freely of their own substance to those in need.

God bless the forebears of Todd and Sarah, whose courageous and charitable Alaskana and American lives prepared the spiritual ground for this extraordinary couple and family, the family that, we ardently hope and pray, will soon be America's First Family!!!!

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