PAGE SEVENTY
Positive-ly Palin
On p. 70, Sarah provides further words about her run for the office of Mayor of Wasilla. She writes, "I decided to challenge the mayor in the upcoming election in order to effect greater change than I could as a council member. The city's chief executive position provided much more responsibility and more opportunities to see where change could be effected. Besides, as every Iditarod musher knows, if you're not the lead dog, the view never changes.
"We had a two-term-limit law, but [Mayor John] Stein had been grandfathered, so he was running for his fourth term. I ran another very grassroots campaign, mostly with the help of my girlfriends. We painted pink-and-green signs with my familiar slogan, "Positive-ly Palin," and posted them all over town. (Pink and green because no one else ever used pink and green.) And when it was time to knock on every door in the city again, I pulled Track and Bristol in a little red wagon, and this time toted Willow in a toddler backpack.
"I promised new energy and an end to politics-as-usual. I raised some eyebrows by promising to cut property taxes. I also promised to take a pay cut. It would be a money-where-your-mouth-is move. If I was going to run as a budget cutter, I figured the cutting had to start with me.
"Plus, as a council member I had just voted against a mayoral pay raise, and it would be hypocritical to conveniently forget that vote if I were elected mayor. Todd wasn't enthused about the pay-cut promise. But Curtis [Menard] Jr. had once shared an observation with me: 'In politics, you're either eating well or sleeping well.' I wanted to sleep well."
Before I proceed to the principal line and course of reflection that these words have inspired in me, I would like to make a few quick observations.
We may note Sarah's droll sense of humor yet again in this passage: The Iditarod/ lead-dog remarks and the pink-and-green campaign signs both make us chuckle. I remember that back in '09, when GR was published, a C4P commentator said something like this: "Governor, there is a reason that no one else ever used pink and green as campaign colors!" I think that Sarah is well aware that these colors kinda clash!! She is poking fun at herself here, IMO.
We may also note Sarah's political and moral consistency: She had voted on the council against a pay raise for the mayor. She was not going to now conveniently forget that vote when she herself had a shot at the city's top spot!! As she says, "I wanted to sleep well."
The principal path of observations and remarks that I wish to follow this morning is derived from the analogous nature of the grassroots campaign that Sarah ran for mayor and the grassroots campaign that she is running and will run for POTUS. The link and bond that ties the two campaigns together is the dual nature of man/woman, namely, our physical nature and our moral/spiritual nature.
It is obvious that Sarah cannot physically approach and visit every home in America, as she visited every home in the city of Wasilla (though what a once-in-a-lifetime privilege and pleasure it would be for each one of us to entertain her in our homes, even if only for a few minutes!!)
However, we human beings can move not just with our feet, but with our minds and spirits too. I can approach someone physically; I can also approach him or her morally, in the mind.
With our feet we can traverse a room, a street, a town; with our spirit we can traverse the entire mighty majesty of the universe, indeed the universe of space and time and fertile, fruitful imagination!!
Here, I believe, is the essence of Sarah's grassroots campaign plan for the Presidency of the United States. She cannot draw nigh unto our HOMES and our HEARTHS, but she can draw nigh unto our HEARTS, unto the hearts and minds of all Americans of good will!! Like her hero, the great President Ronald Reagan, she intends to bypass all of the professional class of paid pundits and professional manufacturers of mendacity, and appeal directly to the American People.
She cannot bring her kids around to each of our homes, wheeling them around in a little red wagon, or carrying them in a toddler backpack. Her older children are grown up or are rapidly growing up. Even if they were still tiny, it would clearly be impossible for her to do this.
However, MORALLY she always carries her precious ones in her heart, wherever she goes; MORALLY speaking, UBI SARAH, IBI ET FILII FILIAEQUE EIUS--"Where Sarah is, there are her sons and her daughters too!!" So, when Sarah approaches us, it is always as a MOM, since being a mother is at the very core and essence of her persona!! No kids, no Sarah!!
We will not hear Sarah's "knock, knock" on the physical doors of wood of our homes as she campaigns in 2012. However, we will certainly perceive, indeed we can already hear, with the ears of the lively and sympathetic spirit, her soft but persistent "knock, knock" at the thresholds of our minds, our hearts, our hopes, our dreams, our aspirations...our love for our country.
Lo! I can hear it even now!!!
