WOMEN’S VOICES

So what do women REALLY think about the Sarah Palin nomination? There is a new blog in Cyberspace called:

WOMEN AGAINST SARAH PALIN
According to its authors: “On Wednesday, September 3, we sent out an email to 40 friends and colleagues asking them to respond to Sarah Palin’s candidacy as Vice President of the United States. They forwarded the letter to their friends across America. To date, we have received more than 70,000 responses from women of all ages and backgrounds.”

Recently, this newcomer to Cyberspace has been offline due to alleged "Terms of Service" violations. Apparently any reader may report alleged "offensive content" to Blogger for review. May we surmise there are right-wingers who might want to suppress these voices, like supporters of McCain/Palin who do not want you to read these letters? And may we surmise these same supporters might want to sabotage this site by reporting fictitious "Terms of Service" violations? Fortunately, Blogger supports free speech. So far, WOMEN AGAINST SARAH PALIN is back online, accessable, and free of incident.

Have a look for yourself. Here is a sample of the 70,000+ e-mails sent in by women:

Palin, participating in this election as a trojan horse, has come with phrases that involve animals and lipsticks, bridges to nowhere, and eBay, leading americans in to an abyss of distractions pulling away from the very sobering facts that who she represents and the policies she supports are a complete replica of the current Bush administration, on paper, and without personality mud-slings, the Palin/MCCain ticket represent 4 more years of the same policies the world has come to hate.
- Mariestella, C., Georgia

Sarah Palin is the classic example of a woman being used by those in power to remove power from women. If a man, with the same abysmal record against women's and children's issues, against environmental issues, in support of teaching creationism in schools, and with a complete lack of sophistication and international experience, had been named the vice presidential candidate (as McCain's running mate, potentially the oldest president ever elected), there would have been an undisputed national outcry for his fringe and retrograde stances. It is as if, because Sarah Palin is a woman and a mother, she is above being criticized for her anti-woman and anti-child legislation and People magazine can focus on the feel-good aspects of her supporting her pregnant daughter and loving her autistic child. That's all very sweet, but it is irrelevant to the role she is seeking to fill and it can't make her horrific political profile any more palatable. I am disgusted and yet not surprised to see a woman used against women. Divide and conquer has been an effective strategy since the beginning of time.
- Iliza A., 39, San Francisco, CA

As a woman, born and living in this country my entire life, I am in disbelief about McCain's choice if this woman as his running mate. She represents everything in the way of values and beliefs that have been destroying this country. She is arrogant, has had little real governing experience, and certainly knows nothing about how the Washington "system" works. Our country will be in even more serious trouble with her as a national leader.
- Enid B., 70, Durango, CO

This evening I was out at a restaurant having dinner. Two gentlemen who work on Wall Street sat next to me and started a conversation. They cracked several jokes in reference to Sarah Palin and hunting moose. I questioned them on their meaning of these jokes. Basically, they are both McCain supporters and their main concerns are taxes and staying in Iraq for the oil (no matter that many men and women are losing their limbs, brains and lives over it). They think Sarah Palin is a joke and as one stated "yeah, the women are just eating her up - ha, ha". I raised the question of "what if McCain dies," and one of them answered, "that would be scary". So there is the disrespect - that even men in the Republican party think she's a joke and just a means to gaining the women's vote. It's obvious that she is not qualified and is just a pawn for McCain to win some votes.
- Kathleen D., 48, New York, NY

Watching her acceptance speech has left me disturbed and angry for a week, it is unbelievable that someone so unqualified and extremist could become a heartbeat away from the most powerful position in the world. And we thought things could not get any Worse than W!
- Elaine Miller, 50, Oak Park, IL


What a ludicrous, blatantly pandering, frightening irresponsible choice this was. I can only hope that ultimately women see this for what it is, an arrogant, denigrating ploy to get their vote.
- Penny W., 56, North Carolina

Sarah Palin's speech made me sick to my stomach. She was smug, self-righteous, petty, rude, arrogant and her beliefs are in complete opposition to my own. I will fight for the Democratic ticket harder because McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate.
- Gail S., 50, Austin, TX

As the granddaughter of a woman who marched for the right to organize, unionize, earn equal pay, and to be in charge of her own reproductive rights, I am dismayed. My grandmother made speeches in favor of birth control as a woman's right and spoke for Margaret Sanger in Yiddish. I'm NOT going backwards in time. That would be a travesty to the memory of my grandmother, my daughters, my granddaughters. The woman has absolutely NO experience at the national or international level--what if she has to deal with foreign governments or formulate policy. And, further, I am a librarian and member of the American Library Association. Palin's behavior is so contrary to everything the ALA endorses and promotes.
- Diane P, 68, Brooklyn, NY

I don't support Sarah Palin as a candidate for Vice President because I don't want my grandchildren to live in a nation that, in accordance with her political views, would deny them environmental protection and alternative energy development or sex education, and a right to chose. The last administration has shown us how effective the VP can be in circumventing the Constitution.
- Juanita L., 61, Lancaster, PA

Sarah Palin is a self-serving religious fundamentalist who would rather spend state money and time on personal feuds than governing for the good of all. Her extreme beliefs regarding abstinence-only education did not work even for her own daughter! and yet she wants to force it on our daughters! We will not have it. We can do better, there are stronger, more thoughtful and fair minded women in this country who are fit to run it.
- Aquene F., 26, Milwuakee, WI

If the Republican ticket wins, our country would be effectively destroyed in terms of our economy, the direction of the Supreme Court, and the elimination of rights we currently hold dear. We need to prevent this woman from pretending to be a voice for women and realize she is just a shill for the far right.
- Andrea D., 45, Rogers, Arkansas

As a wife, mother, grandmother, and educator, I was appalled at John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin for VP. Did he really think that the women of America were not smart enough to see through this ploy to attract women voters? What an insult! Gov Palin stands for everything that I am against. Not only do I want real change in America but I want it for my daughter and granddaughter along with the males in my life.
- Margaret E., 58, New Berlin, WI

I, and three of my friends, want to approve of the statement "women say no to Palin". We are all from Portland, Oregon, and live in an Assisted Living facility.
- Marilyn L. age 83; Alice Olson, 80; Doris Elle, 89; and Janet J., 86

Sarah Palin is perfectly entitled to her own beliefs, but I am vehemently against a representative of the religious right trying to legislate their brand of morality to me and my daughters (I have four). These people are two loose cannons on a rolling deck and I genuinely fear for the future of our great country. If John McCain is unable to see his term through, Sarah Palin is next in line as leader of the Free World. Not only is Ms. Palin vastly under-qualified to deal with the complex issues we face both abroad and at home, her limited world view and rigidity present a very real danger to us all. John McCain has said many times how much he loves his country and I must believe that's true. I must also believe that he is no longer mentally fit to make decisions of great import concerning the future of America, otherwise he would not have so deliberately put us in harm's way with the selection of Sarah Palin.
- Olivia R., 53, Boulder, CO

The bible says we are to be stewards of the earth. By not following the wishes of God in caring for the animals and the environment Sarah Palin is breaking the covenant set forth between God and mankind. I do not understand how Sarah Palin can promote herself as a Christian and not be willing to follow these basic rules of the Bible.
- Susan Bourdeau, Knoxville, TN

Sarah Palin sees the hand of God in a $30 billion Alaskan national gas pipeline. "I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that," she has stated. Ms. Palin and I clearly worship very different gods. I see the hand of God not in the wallets of the oil companies, but in the pristine Alaska coastline, its majestic polar bears, whales, and glaciers--all of which Big Oil will despoil.
Perhaps Ms. Palin has made the mistake that afflicts a frightening number of our citizens: confusing God with money.
- Sy M., Hancock, NH

Ms. Palin is also well documented as a local bully who tries to fire anyone who disagrees with her. After eight years of an unqualified President who has done everything in his power to position America as a global bully, this characteristic is the last quality we need in the White House for four more years.

John McCain's VP pick is a crucial test of his actual willingness to "put country first." Not only has he failed the test, but the choice of Sarah Palin makes it terrifyingly clear that neither of these Republicans belongs anywhere near the White House.
- Aimee L., 54, Los Angeles, CA

Sarah Palin seems set on reversing the hard work of my grandmothers, both of whom were active in the Women's Suffrage movement. She stands against a woman's right to choose, therefore implying that we should not even have control over our own bodies. She stands against sex education and birth control, both of which are immensely important, not only for the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, but also for health reasons. She has no foreign policy experience in a time when it is acutely needed, and she does not support alternative energy development, despite the fact that we may be out of oil very soon. Perhaps most importantly, she does not support the separation of church and state, one of the things that America was built upon. If we cannot choose what to believe in, how can we really be free?
- Sonia M., 17, Littleton, MA

Let their voices be heard and spread the word.
Update: The number of letters has climbed to 120,000 (as of September 13, 2008).