NINETY-THREE
On p. 93 of GR, Sarah is discussing her appointment by Governor Frank Murkowski to the lucrative and responsible position of chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC).
She writes, "I guess Murkowski took me seriously when I said my most important issues were energy and resource development. A couple of months into his administration, he offered me a job as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC). Established during the days when Alaska was a territory, the commission is a quasi-judicial regulatory body that has a range of duties, many of which affect people, companies, and markets in the Lower 48 and around the world. It was confirmation that having lost out on the lieutenant governor's position and the U.S. Senate appointment were actually blessings. Working at AOGCC, I could still live in Wasilla while working on the issue I cared most about for the state and our nation. The salary was eye-popping, to me, at $124,400 a year."
I would like to examine the blessings of Sarah's appointment to this position on several levels, and make a connection to the current and urgent situation of the United States of America at the end of the month of April in the Year of Grace 2012.
First, there were the obvious personal advantages that accrued to the Governor. She enumerates them: She was able to remain in her hometown; she was able to work on issues that engaged (and engage!) her avid personal interest; the pay was very lucrative.
Second, she gained invaluable experience in a position that entails duties that "affect people, companies, and markets in the Lower 48 and around the world." Her winning of this appointment was thus an important building block in the construction of the edifice of her status as a world stateswoman, since, as she says, the issues and matters with which she dealt had world-wide ramifications and implications.
The third blessing that flowed from this appointment was, IMHO, by far the greatest, even though it presents a seeming paradox.
The blessing in her gaining of the post was that she had to lose it.
Here is what I mean.
On the physical plane, when a creature reaches the bright apex of biological adulthood, it has arrived at the fullness and plenitude of development that empowers it to generate other beings of the same species.
Again, for my RC friends in particular, we have heard the episcopacy described as the "fullness of the priesthood." I think that this means that bishops can create, can ordain, other bishops and priests. Simple priests do not possess this generative faculty and power.
So, in the order of nature, dog begets dog, horse begets horse, human begets human.
What about on the moral and spiritual plane?
It is my belief that heroic souls, spirits who have passed through the testing and purifying flames of suffering and adversity, hearts that have ascended a "Jacob's ladder" of virtue rung by rung to the Heavens, such souls possess the hard-earned power to inspire, to engender, to bring to the light of birth heroism in other hearts. They are truly the PATRES MATRESQUE VIRTUTIS FORTITUDINISQUE--the fathers and mothers of virtue and fortitude!!
I have written a couple of times in the last few days to address the question of the delegates at the GOP convention in Tampa.
Is there any chance that they would dare and venture to select Sarah as the GOP presidential nominee??
Many will argue that the majority of them will have been bought off/bribed/intimidated/compromised by the well-funded, ruthless Romney forces.
Well, I think that we must, in response to an assertion like this, examine and contemplate human nature and history.
As I noted last week, while it is true that men and women can often be bribed, intimidated, etc., it is also true that they can sometimes cast off and eschew the shackles and chains of mediocrity, and ascend and rise to the heights of freedom and heroism.
But …
… to do this, they need to hear and hearken to the clarion trumpet call of a true leader.
Another way of stating this is to say that few men and women are born leaders, but many can be good followers and faithful foot soldiers.
The difference is that a good, decent-hearted follower needs to hear the battle cry and behold the eagle's eyes of a real leader in order to rise up out of his or her timidity, venality, etc.
I believe that Sarah's appointment to the AOGCC helped indeed to prepare her in a practical way for the office of Governor of Alaska and for her soon-to-be occupancy of the White House.
But most importantly, her principled resignation from the post because she refused to countenance, to "wink at" corruption, her giving up of a six-figure salary (how many Americans could or would make a sacrifice like that ?!?) was one of the PRINCIPAL AND GOLDEN RUNGS on her "ladder" of ascent to the Heights of Heroism.
Now, through this brave act and through so many others like it, she has achieved that height, that Fullness of the Days and Years of Virtue.
As a "parent" of guts, of cojones, of courage, she can now bring forth other heroes and heroines.
The Lord willing, Sarah will have at least 1,144 brave political "offspring" and followers in Tampa who will:
Disregard their own interests;
Disregard their own bank accounts;
Disregard their own safety;
Disregard their own comfort and convenience;
… and put the Country First by choosing SARAH PALIN OF ALASKA, Sarah Palin the Daughter of the Great Land, to carry America's battle standard into the coming autumntide war against the Marxist thug and usurper in Washington, and against all his host of benighted minions and purblind followers!!!
Sound, O Sarah, the "trumpet's loud clangor that excites us to arms, to arms" sound it, dear Sarah, and I am convinced that many, many of the GOP delegates will follow you, to the adornment of their own souls, and to the glory and salvation of our nation!
