Sarah Palin and Working Moms

I listened to Sarah Palin's speech last night and wow, was she ever powerful, funny, ironic and tough. She took charge of the Republican convention and the TV audience even though she had to follow three pretty good speeches by much better known politicians in Rudy, Fred and Mike.

Governor Palin has come if for a lot of flack about her readiness to be the Vice President and "one heartbeat from the President". The Democrats and their associates in the TV industry have attacked her on many fronts and that is to be expected in national politics. However, one line of attack has been very surprising to me because I thought we had moved beyond the sexist crudities of past generations and because so much of the criticism is coming from the Left Wing of American life.

The Left has spent millions of dollars and billions of hours promoting the notion that women should be encouraged to do anything they want. Yet, now they are attacking Sarah because she is a woman and a mother who has a political career.

It occurred to me after hearing Sarah and reading about her that she is very much like the women I grew up around. My mother and most of the women in my area all worked at home and on the farms and in the factories. And, that was when women had few if any "labor saving devices" like micro waves and washer/dryer combinations. My grand mother Taylor ran a small grocery store while caring for her invalid husband. Mother worked at home and at a factory until she was able to get a job in the Post Office through Democrat politics. Farm wives milked the cows, drove tractors and cooked the food while every one of the kids pitched in as well.

Second, we were what is now called "Evangelicals" but no body thought working women were strange of un-biblical. Working was a necessity not a luxury; an economic fact of life not a theological option to be debated.

Governor Palin's approach to to family life is pretty much in line with the people in southern Illinois. She loves her husband and kids and is proud of them. The fact that one has a disability did not throw her into a crisis emotionally or spiritually not did she decide to destroy him because he was not "perfect". I grew up with a lot of imperfect people. We went to the same small school and had the same teacher for two or three grades and we all learned to help each other out. Our village was deeply engaged in helping each other grow up and learn how to love each other warts and all.

So, Mrs. Palin is a lot like the folks I knew and loved back home in Illinois. And, I think, she is a lot like me with similar concerns and similar approaches to life. She is a lot smarter, better organized and a better speaker than almost anyone I knew or know. She seems to have a natural grasp of how government systems ought to work and she seems to be able to move quickly to the bottom line in getting them to work.

I am shocked that so much of the political establishment finds Sarah, my background and me so far out and unusual. It never occurred to me that I would be considered a "Right Wing Radical" because I think it wrong to destroy disabled babies and right to love folks weaknesses, warts and all. But this is the world we now live in. It is a world view dominated by the far Left that pours its ideas out by the ton into the culture and is overwhelmingly difficult to change.

This is enough for now. Maybe more later on Moms and Dads and Family Relationships.