I sent around an email quoting Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for “The Vagina Monologues.” In it, Ensler delineates the many frightening beliefs for which VP candidate Sarah Palin is known. After an exhaustive list that includes Palin’s devout creationism stance (which would include believing that the earth is only 6,000 years old, and evolution is a myth). Ensler elaborates:

“Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves.

She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God’s plan.

She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin’s view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, “It was a task from God.”

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist’s baby or not. She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God’s name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.”

When i received a quick response from one person on my email list to whom i sent this information, i saw this even more frightening statement:
“she just got my vote. I believe in guns.”

I firmly believe in the right to bear arms–I’m a single female who currently lives alone and I want to be able to protect myself if necessary; and though i have friends who are hunters, I have never had the stomach for it, and am fine buying my meat already prepared for me to cook–I do believe that some animals are here to feed us. It’s part of the food chain…BUT…….There is a profound difference between gun owners who use them for protection or to legally hunt in order to provide for their families and thin out overpopulated herds of animals that cause great distress to our ecology, and hunting merely for sport. What does Palin do with the wolves she kills? Make wolf-burgers? Both wolves and polar bears are endangered. What would be the point of hunting then, other than her own sick satisfaction in killing an animal?

And don’t even get me started on the creationism/fundamentalist aspects. I strongly believe that extreme religion is anathema to all of us –refer to the repeated violation of our constitution by those who want to teach “creation science” (an obvious oxymoron) in our schools, and the most vivid and horrifying example that has cost us over 500 billion dollars and the lives of thousands of people after 9-11.

Here’s some informative tidbits about Palin from Grizzly Bay
which has been online since 2007, long before Palin was selected as VP candidate. Go to the original page for verifying links off this information…

All facts below about Sarah Palin are backed up by links to credible news sources

1) She is opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest (even if victims are children)

2) She offered a bounty of $150 for each left front leg of freshly killed wolves

3) She is presently under investigation in Alaska for abuse of power

4) She strongly supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

5) She promotes aerial hunting of wolves and bears even though Alaskans voted twice to ban the practice

6) She used $400,000 of state money to fund a propaganda campaign in support of aerial hunting

7) She is a champion for big oil and her campaign slogan has become “Drill, baby, drill!”

8) She believes creationism should be taught in public schools

9) She believes man-made global warming is a farce

10) She is opposed to listing the polar bear as an endangered species because it might limit oil exploitation

11) While mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire the city librarian because the librarian refused to censor books

12) She supports the Alaskan Independence Party which seeks independence from the United States

13) As mayor of Wasilla, she made rape victims pay for their own forensic evidence kits

14) She is opposed to listing the Cook Inlet beluga whale as an endangered species

15) She obtained her first passport just last year (2007)

Photos of Palin’s Killings

Let me say that I am neither Democrat, nor Republican–I am an Independent. I choose my candidate according to whether or not they are best suited for the job of healing this broken country. So this is not a partisan argument. But the level of ignorance this email pronouncement (“she just got my vote. I believe in guns.”) illustrates, is, i believe, part and parcel of the thinking (or NOT thinking) present in far too many people in our society. The more cogent points get missed, the deeper ramifications get overlooked, and the skills of discernment and wisdom are shockingly absent. The scariest part of all? These people are allowed to vote.