Palin’s speech stunning, unfair

Denise Zito Albemarle County
Published: September 12, 2008

Since listening to Sarah Palin’s speech at the Repub-lican Convention, I’ve been bothered — but unable to put into words what it was I found so disturbing. I’m old enough to realize that politics can be ruthless and that it seems to be perfectly acceptable to distort your opponent’s position, as well as to downright tell lies about it.

So I expected that.

What I didn’t expect was such a compelling, carefully crafted and magnificently delivered address. Palin was stunning. And it was the very best speech she could possibly deliver in terms of answering the collective pause given the nation at her nomination.

But I realized at last that it was the mocking of Barack Obama’s community organizing experience that made me angry and then profoundly sad.
Many in the Republican Party think that the poor are ultimately disadvantaged when given help by the government. They don’t believe this to be the government’s role and so they work toward dismantling what others would call “the social safety net.” The Republicans, and plenty of others, believe that the poor should pull themselves up and out of poverty.

This could be considered a reasonable opinion, except that life is actually not fair, not entirely proportional and in fact rather unpredictable and sometimes random. I be-lieve it is government’s role to level the playing field when possible and especially not to deliberately keep children in poverty. That doesn’t serve us as a nation, no matter whether you think a child can be deservedly poor or not.
I’d like to ask Gov. Palin, and those who agreed with that part of the speech, how they can seemingly have it both ways: If it is not the government’s role to help the poor, why would you criticize someone doing so in a non-governmental capacity? What is it about community work with the disadvantaged that is so easily mocked?

I find that when candidates lack ideas, they turn to ri-dicule and mudslinging. I prefer a candidate who has solid ideas, built on experience with life’s realities and believes that government serves the common good. I prefer Barack Obama and Joe Biden.