http://www.alternet.org/story/104521/military_mom%3A_why_i%27m_sour_about_sarah_palin/?page=entireToday I decided that I needed to see the great communicator Sarah Palin in person at the giant Home Depot Stadium in Carson, and voice my opposition to the many public statements she has made recently about supporting the troops. The implication here is that she is, in effect, ready to abandon our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. In other words, supporting the troops means you leave them there. No need to have a reason. You see, my Marine son, Beto, has already done two tours in Iraq and is about to be deployed for his third. This is why I found it particularly offensive when she said at the debate that we just can't fly the "white flag of surrender".
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Anyway, in sails Sarah Palin fresh as a daisy. She started talking about a slogan "written' "on her Starbucks coffee, (sorry all of the peace activists I know don't think the giant Starbucks corporation is very folksy), and for me it was the moment of truth. I could just sit there and who would know the difference? But the sound of her voice -- that same one that I knew would soon start talking about sending off our families to fight in an endless, pointless war and dare to call it patriotism, would soon be singing the same song. I couldn't stand it. I just couldn't let her use her son's name again to justify this war. She would be sure to mention that because her son got the orders to go to Iraq, just like mine did , that it's patriotic to keep sending them. That's it. That's the only reason to continue the war- because they are already there. The lesson for them is say nothing, let the senseless slaughter go on indefinitely or your don't support the troops. That was it for me. The crowd got quiet. I held my sign up and took off my outer sweatshirt. I was surprised how long it took for them to catch up with me. About two applause lengths. My neighbors started asking me to put down the sign. I did off and on, but when others put their signs up, mine went up too. Then two staffers in the red shirts and brown khakis trod past the dear old lady and put their sign over mine and a man, also a staffer, sat in my seat. I couldn't sit back down. One person grabbed my "Troops Home Now" sign, and tore part of it. Then the crowd started turning on me like a McCarthy party on a commie. The rest of the sign got ripped out of my hands and someone hit me with a red pom pom! Two quite older men started yelling at me to leave. One kept screaming right in my ear , "USA", trying to hurt my ear. Then the seat stealing staffer asked me if I had a ticket. I told him I had one. When he asked me to give it to him, I went to get it from my purse and then thought better and said , " No, I have one all right, but you took my seat and they took my sign and you will take my ticket. Besides, I am not doing anything disruptive!"
Then the two other staffers tried desperately to put their McCain signs over mine. I was familiar with this dirty trick, because that's what the Schwartzenegger staffers did to me when I showed up at another republican rally in Placentia. Maybe because it was taking away from the limelight, but at least Arnold had the courtesy to tell them to leave me alone. Not so with the Palin lions. They wanted blood.
To hush my sole weak "Troops home now" shout, a whole slew of angry Palinites began yelling in unison, "USA! USA!" This caused Palin to have to stop and make some remark about how free speech was why her son was fighting in Iraq. Clearly the mob was having none of that! A really nice young African American cozied up to me and said to trust him and that the Palin people wanted to talk to me and it was a good thing. I wasn't biting. One woman said her son was in the military and I said so was mine. More folks screamed for me to go, making more noise and fuss than I ever could. Even the sweet old lady turned on me. "Get her out of her. I don't want her here", she said in her new-found authoritative voice. Finally, Mutt , (or was if Jeff?) showed up asking me to leave or they would get the sheriffs. Once again I reminded them that I wasn't doing anything wrong. The man, the daddy of the pre-teens, told them to leave me alone and that I was entitled to my opinion and he just wanted to hear Palin. But no, the sheriffs came.
I ignored them. Then, tromping across the re-energized old woman they plucked me right out of my diminishing space. I knew it would be stupid to go limp, (Protest 101), so I started screaming, "Bring out troops home. Stop the war. Bring our troops home!" all the way up and out of the stadium. I was completely surrounded by at least three sheriffs -- they had to be sheriffs because they had very shiny badges and greenish uniforms. All that work and all you can see of my big party crash with all that media coverage, is one single hand slightly above a group of sheriffs, raised in the classic peace sign. They can't take THAT away from me.
http://www.alternet.org/story/104521/military_mom%3A_why_i%27m_sour_about_sarah_palin/?page=entire
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