open letter

[rm]

“I agree with the Bush administration that we take the fight to them,” she said. “We never again let them come onto our soil and try to destroy not only our democracy but communities like the community of New York. Never again. So, yes, I do agree with taking the fight to the terrorists and stopping them over there.”

Dear Sarah Palin:

I have news for you. New York is not a community. It is a city with over 7 million residents with a significantly higher number of people within its limits at any given time for both work and tourism. And so New York is actually made up of hundreds of communities. Thousands.

Let me tell you something about the communities of my city: You hate most of them. For we are immigrants and artists and people who don't necessarily live, love or worship like you do. We are the strangers you fear and vilify even though we're like you in almost every way that should actually matter. We want our families to be safe, our children to be well-educated, our jobs to be secure, and our futures to be full of potential. We want nice things and lower taxes and dignity and the freedom to pursue our hobbies and our passions and our devotions.

All of which means some pretty simple stuff:

We don't have a lot of patience for you. Most of us have learned more about the world greeting our neighbors on the stairs and in our corner stores than you've learned in your entire tenure as the governor of Alaska. Within a mile of each of our homes is almost invariably a mosque and a synagogue and a dozen different denominations of Christian church. And within our city are some of the best universities and research facilities in the world.

So when you talk about keeping my community safe when you don't even know its structure or its scale, I am aghast.

When you vilify the very things which make the motor of my city run and it shine as a beacon of hope to those who have always been told that different is wrong or that hope is not possible, you betray not just your ignorance of New York and of America and of the world, but you betray us -- real people who were wounded first by 9/11, yes, but who are now bone weary with the exhaustion at being exploited for political goals we cannot support or trust or even believe weren't explicitly created to destroy the very communities you gleefully refuse to understand, recognize or even see.

So stop using my city and stop thinking aggression makes you brave. It's a child's mistake, and it cheapens us all. I refuse to be a symbol of your dreamed upon wars. Or a target of them.

Comments

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

Hear, Hear! She makes me ill every time she uses words.

[lolliejean.livejournal.com]

Amen.

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Oh man, you should send that to the New York Times.

[starkyld.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

Please send that to the Times!! It is amazing. I want to link to it. Can I?

N.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Feel free to link. And thank you but I don't really think it's in any shape to send to the Times.

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

please tell us that you're sending this to the Times.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thanks. In response to you and other with the NYT thought -- it's not really in condition or format for them.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Brava! *pounds desk*

[kaifoxx.livejournal.com]

Excellent post. I agree it should be sent on to the NY Times, we know you can get it in condition for them to accept.

:)

[maryling.livejournal.com]

communities like the community of New York

Isn't "community" a dirty word for Republicans? I know "community leader" sure is.

[these-3-remain.livejournal.com]

I know, right?

[elisem.livejournal.com]

That is gorgeous.

Must link.

Hear, hear!

[yarram.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Very nice.

Even in podunk Minneapolis, MN - well, actually, the first suburb north, but let's get to the point - even in my neighborhood, there is a mosque, a Catholic church, a Pentecostal church, a Baptist church, and a Lutheran church, all within 8 blocks of my house. The only thing we're missing is a synagogue. There's a Hindu temple 2 miles away; same for a Lao Buddhist temple and a Sikh gurudwara.

Even my Podunk, MN world is far more diverse than Palin's worst nightmare. I fear what will happen if she should have to meet with people like Manmohan Singh of India, or Tansu Ciller of Turkey, or others of their democratically-elected non-Christian ilk.

I suppose I can at least hope that as a woman, she knows better than to give drive-by backrubs to other heads-of-state...

[irismoonlight.livejournal.com]

Bravo from all the way over here in Oregon. Succinct and crystalline. Here from elisem.

May I link?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thank you, and yes you may.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Well said.

[fuyukodachi.livejournal.com]

Over eight million.

And thank you.

[christinenorris.livejournal.com]

Whoo f-ing hoo!
There are more people in the Brooklyn than in all of Alaska. She has no clue. Not a goddamn clue.

Go girl.

[st-aelphaba.livejournal.com]

Wonderful. I love this.

You know, however, that if she ever reads this, she's going to scratch her head and think, "Vilify? The only people I vilify are the terrorists. Wait. Does that mean NY is full of terrorists?" I just hope that she doesn't have to check the dictionary for "vilify" first.

[nemimi.livejournal.com]

This needs to be published somewhere Palin can see it.

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

Wow.

[sethg]

I can just hear Mayor 9/11 at the convention snarling the word "cosmopolitan".

As far as the Republicans are concerned, NYC is good enough for its loss to be exploited for political purposes, but not good enough for its residents to count as "real Americans".

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

*applauds*

I must concur that this isn't suitable for the NYT, but it speaks for and deserves a wider audience nonetheless. You certainly spoke for San Francisco as well.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thank you, seriously, for getting what I've not the energy to explain to the well-meaning enthusiasts for this little tirade.

[hmrpotter.livejournal.com]

OMFG...that was absolutely brilliant!

If you don't mind, I'm going to send this to my best friend, who is here in Atlanta but is a NYer by birth. I know she would love your words.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Sure thing, just if it goes into email keep my name on it as those things have a way of spreading.

[andromeda0604.livejournal.com]

POETRY!!!!!

[6-bleen-7.livejournal.com]

Brava! Well said!

[massai-somoni.livejournal.com]

The truth flows from you like a sublime fount of cool, life-giving succor to a parched nation.

I feel we are all blessed that you chose to share this with us. And I daresay you have given voice to the sentiments of a majority of the communities in this nation, big and small.

It may be a rant, it may not be "front page material", but it is the truth from your heart as it beats. Sometimes, that is -more- than enough. Sometimes, that is -precisely- what is needed.

So say we all.

[kayshapero]

The whole of Alaska HAS no cities on the order of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago etc. Bring up Google Earth and look at Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks, and any other city you can think of. Now go look here for population statistics. Anchorage, the biggest of the lot by a wide margin has a bit under 300,000 inhabitants. Juneau, the capital and third largest has 30,000 and change. You could squeeze the whole table of cities above 10,000 inhabitants into New York and still not appreciably increase the population. They're TINY. Heck, from the 2006 Census the whole STATE has a bit over 670,000 inhabitants.

Small wonder she has absolutely no clue.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

Alaska's population for the entire state is less than HALF the population of Brooklyn.

Palin has no understanding of scale.

N.

[corruptravnclaw.livejournal.com]

Wow.

[pagawne.livejournal.com]

That should be published in several papers across this country.