Speak Out

I am sick and tired of Sarah Palin. And John McCain keeps doing things, such as picking Palin as his running mate, that tell me the man is desperate. I love to watch Palin over and over come up with instant answers for subjects she is not knowledgeable about.

I know many women get pregnant later in life these days, but a wise woman should think carefully before becoming pregnant in her forties. Palin needs to go back to Alaska and take care of that precious child with Down syndrome who needs much loving care from his mama.

This letter comes from a simple country girl from Eastaboga who has known mistreatment and discrimination for 20 years. I sincerely wish folks would “walk a mile in my shoes” and in the shoes of many others I have come to love. I am optimistic that Barack Obama, with his fresh and new style, is going to change some of the ways people are mistreated and discriminated against.

I am totally aware that this is a Republican state and that my little ol’ vote won’t make a difference. Nonetheless, I will proudly cast a Democratic ballot.

Some might call me a “maverick.” What do you think?

Marie H. Self
Anniston

Palin what we need

I grew up in Anniston, lived in Weaver and graduated from Saks High School, but for 24 years I’ve been in Anchorage. I couldn’t be more satisfied with a leader than I am with Gov. Sarah Palin.

She’s a Republican, but she governs as an independent, with only what’s best for the people on her agenda, which has outraged the state GOP good ol’ boys. When she worked for our Republican governor and tried to report illegal happenings, our attorney general told her the law prevented her from speaking out. She chose to resign this position of $122,400 yearly because it wasn’t right to stay quiet. Political corruption continued.

She ran for governor to correct it, and she has. She defeated the incumbent governor, who was also our U.S. senator for 22 years. Behind closed doors, he had a sweetheart contract with Big Oil to reduce its taxes and prevent it from being changed for 25 years. Palin corrected this wrong, and we now have it right. This allowed Alaska to give each Alaskan $1,200 to help with high fuel prices.

She reminds me of all that is good. Her actions prove what is right comes first, and politics last.

John H. Hollaway Jr.
Anchorage, Alaska

Bob Barr for president

I watched a 1985 movie, Brazil, which took place in England, this week. Because of terrorism, the government started an Office of Information to collect information on its citizens. Because of failing businesses, the government bought up businesses, which is fascism.

Guess what? Because of 9/11 our government started a Department of Homeland Security to collect information. Because of business failures, our government has passed bailout bills to take over the debts of big business. What is that?

In the movie, some citizens got fed up and blew up the building that housed the Office of Information. I don’t advocate that, but what are we going to do about what’s happening to our country?

It is time to elect a president from a new party. Abraham Lincoln was elected from a third party, Republican. He won with 39.8 percent of the vote and was not on the ballot in nine of the 33 states.

This year we have the opportunity to elect Bob Barr, Libertarian. Some say they don’t agree with some of what the Libertarian Party stands for; I don’t agree with everything in the platform, either. But the pro-choice plank was voted in by 51 percent of the people at the convention. The other 49 percent is pro-life; Bob Barr is one of the 49 percent. He says the party has a non-interventionist plank, and that applies to unborn babies, too.

Barr is in agreement with the vast majority of the people of this country. He would not have gone to war in Iraq. He would not have bailed out Wall Street. He believes in the Constitution and the free market. Please vote Bob Barr for president in November.

Carol Hagan
Jacksonville

Democrats remain same

Re “Republicans for change?” (Speak Out, Sept. 19):

There is an old adage (paraphrased) that “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and prove the same.” Letter writer Eric Luna must not be familiar with this adage. He also must not be aware that all spending bills originate in the House of Representatives, which has been under the control of Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats for the last two years.

The collapse of the subprime mortgage industry, the financial woes on Wall Street and the rising prices of energy all happened under the Democrats’ watch. Luna probably is unaware that two of the executives responsible for cooking the books at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae now work for the Obama campaign as financial advisers. They also took millions of dollars in bonuses before they were dismissed from their previous jobs, just like the Enron executives who were hounded by Congress and the press prior to being prosecuted for their wrongdoing.

The fact that Republicans support the same positions as President Bush should come as a surprise only to a moron. I guess Luna thinks Republicans should support a woman’s “right” to murder her unborn child, as do the Democrats. I have a couple of friends who were given up for adoption at birth, and they also support the president. A mind is a terrible thing when it is only half-used.

Don Thornton
Ohatchee

Palin is one of us

Several things about Sarah Palin remind me of my twin daughters:

Like Palin, my daughters have always loved the outdoors. They have never skinned a moose like Sarah, but many days we have spent hiking in the woods near Lake Texoma or jogging on the beaches near Ft. Walton. And then there was that five-and-a-half hour “canoe trip from hell” up the Red River, against the current, and under a blazing sun when they were only 12.

Like Sarah, my daughters grew up loving basketball. They are the best and prettiest to ever walk onto a court — All-Stars in high school and at TCU. At 5-foot-9 and feminine, they mixed it up every day with girls who were much bigger and stronger. And as with Sarah, while many teenage girls were sitting at Taco Bell worrying whether Johnny liked them or not, they were living the disciplined, committed lives of top-level athletes.

Like Sarah, they were fortunate to marry good and strong young men who share their passions in life, and they have become wonderful mothers to their children, while working full-time, and also giving much moral support to their husbands’ coaching careers. They are strong young ladies.

Like Sarah, my daughters are committed Christians who love the Lord. When they go to church they study the Judeo-Christian principles that are the foundation stones of this great nation. They did not spend their formative years sitting in front of a religious hate monger or praying to a pagan god.

In short, millions of Americans — red, yellow, black and white — love Palin because she is one of us. She is not perfect, but she is also not one of those self-important politicians from Harvard or Yale who spend their lives trying to force their elitist theories of change on the rest of us — theories that never work in the real world.

My daughters are much younger than Palin, but when I look at Sarah I figure they can do anything she can do. And since John McCain had the good sense and courage to choose her, I figure the sky is the limit for all of America’s daughters.

Mike Sutton
Lewisville, Texas
(former resident of Randolph County)