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

[octavia-b.livejournal.com]

You are awesome. (I just needed to say that.)

[labellerose.livejournal.com]

You're my hero, Rach.

[nisaa.livejournal.com]

Mine too. I think I've said that to her before :)

[mishlai.livejournal.com]

Well said.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

What you said. Yep.

[nobodyreally.livejournal.com]

That is marvelous! I needed this today.

I've got a list of ~100 folks I'd like to read it. Is it okay to seed it in the wild like that? If so, would you it go out as a complete test or an excerpt and a link.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Feel free to send it around. I'd prefer a link w/excerpt, as then I don't have to worry about it getting someone else's name attached to it via forwards and email .sigs.

[laurab1.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. This could also apply to many of the university cities in the UK.

[soprano1.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear.

I am not a violent person but every time I see a "Women for Palin" bumper sticker I have to restrain an urge to crash into it. She even makes me feel dirty for being female.

Open Letter From A New Yorker

[cprippey.livejournal.com]

This is very good and deserves to be spread around. Doubts that the New York Times might print it is no reason not to send it to them. And if they don't, then The Nation, Move-on, or particular columnists like Rich and Maureen Dowd.

[awe-struck.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I so enjoy being on your friends list because you write things llike this. You have a great talent and it is exciting to watch it develop and to see its many facets.

[chimosa.livejournal.com]

Well put!! I can't believe she actually called NYC a "community"- I feel like her speech writers are purposely trying to make her sound as ignorant and small town as possible at this point. It's an interesting ploy... but really?

[anivyl.livejournal.com]

i may not be American, nor know much of the history or politics. I do however know enough about American politics, the recent history and what little Palin has cared to shown to agree with you.

[mobobocita.livejournal.com]

I do agree with taking the fight to the terrorists and stopping them over there.

Is she ever going to understand that SHE is the terrorist? Her whole world revolves around terrorizing people into being just like her.

[cathy-edgett.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful. I agree on sending it to the NY Times. I also think another way to distribute it is through the blogs on Live Journal. I saw your post on a friend's blog. Now, I want to put it on mine. I hope that is all right to do.

[bravencrazy.livejournal.com]

Beautifully written. I shared this on my Facebook and am going to show it to some other interested parties, as well.

[badgerthorazine.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And thanks to Ellen Kushner for pointing it out to me. This makes me satisfied. Get it published!

Three cheers from north of Boston!

[davidbr1.livejournal.com]

Very well put. Every time she opens her mouth she puts her foot in it. There are some pretty nutty, scary politicians in this country, but none quite as scary as Sarah Palin

[chipadeedoodah]

*applause*

[cassildra.livejournal.com]

You certainly spoke, I think anyway, for Pittsburgh as well.

Thank you for such eloquent words.

(here via ms_ntropy)

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

I'm Flewellyn, and I approve this message.

[batyatoon]

Yes.

(Also here via ms_ntropy.)

Community

[(Anonymous)]

Perhaps if this were not an exercise in verbiage but an exploration in wording the author would know that New York City is a community, by definition. New York State is a community. The United States of America is a community. We are a community that allows one the freedom to express one’s passionate, pompous and unfounded beliefs.

Mine is that not one of the four politicians directly involved in the main presidential/vice-presidential election for 2008 are acceptable. Not one seems capable of making fiscally sound choices at a time when common belief in an economic catastrophe is creating one. Not one is ready to make unpopular decisions for the good of the country. Not one is great or remarkable in any meaningful historical sense, nor even as good as the ineffectiveness and mediocrity embodied by Warren G Harding. This election is a disaster. Let us work as a community to ensure that the next one produces a candidate worth voting for rather than several worth voting against.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

I love you. Also, am going to link to you from Liberal Conspiracy today. Hope you don't mind.