Dear Sarah, Dear Sister
By NewHampster on October 20, 2008 at 5:00 AM in Arrogance, Arugula (Elitism), Current Affairs, Media Bias, Media Handling of Story, Sarah Palin
ed. note: My friend Izarradar wrote this on Partizane at the end of September and I feel so strongly that it must be read and passed on to every woman and man we know. Please pass it on so that every feminist you know can read it.
They laugh at your voice, your accent. They make fun of how great you look, and how many kids you have. They smirk because you played the flute in a beauty contest, and strutted your stuff in a swimsuit. They say you’re dumb, you didn’t go to an Ivy League school, and God forbid you didn’t even have a passport until last year. You’re small town, from a small, unpopulated state, scrutinized, belittled, and scorned.
On the issues, you and I don’t agree.
But every time they laugh at you, they laugh at me. Every time they call you dumb, my I.Q. is questioned. When they make fun of you, they make fun of me. When they attack your family, they attack mine. When they comment on how you look, my looks are also ridiculed.
I am a Democrat. You are a Republican. But we share common ground because we are women, and in my book that means something. It means that we share a life experience, and a knowledge that bonds us. That makes us sisters in gender, if not in ideology.
I’ve never had a sister, so I’m not sure what that relationship involves. But I know what it means to have family, and when my family is attacked, bullied, or laughed at, I don’t take it lightly. Even if I disagree with my family’s way of thinking, you better believe I’ll be there for them, protecting and pushing back. Hard.
There are differences between us, Sarah. But there are some things in life that are bigger and more important. And differences really should never separate us, or cause us to disrespect one another, or call each other “less” or “other.” Audre Lorde (a very fine Black feminist of the second wave) said it best:
“We must recognize differences among women who are our equals, neither inferior or superior, and devise ways to use each others’ differences to enrich our visions and our joint struggles.”
There are those waiting for you to fail, Sarah. They want you to fall big time. They’re hoping like hell you get your ass kicked. But not me. I’m a woman, and that gender role trumps the D on my ballot anytime. Sorry, but it does. No one has ever taken advantage of me as a Democrat, but as a woman, yes. No one has ever paid me less as a Democrat, but as a woman, yes. No one has treated me inferior as a Democrat, but as a woman, yes. My dues have been paid as a woman, and not as a Democrat.
For this reason, I don’t want you to fail, Sarah.
Dear Sarah, dear sister. We are closer than you think. Not as a Democrat and Republican. But as much more—and with a stronger bond.
“We have chosen each other
and the edge of each others battles
the war is the same
if we lose
someday women’s blood will congeal
upon a dead planet
if we win
there is no telling
we seek beyond history
for a new and more possible meeting.”
Audre Lorde
The battle for November is bigger than the White House. The 21st century is upon us, and the goals are bigger now. The stakes higher. We’ve lived too many years—thousands of years following the ancient script. It’s time for a change, but real change. Not the change slogan of a male-driven marketing plan.
Lorde said it, and now, more than ever, it has truth:
“The future of our earth may depend upon the ability of all women to identify and develop new definitions of power and new patterns of relating across difference.”
Our differences, Sarah, are not what define us. Our power is what counts. We can respect our differences, acknowledge them, and move forward. For real change.
Our world needs it.
ed. note: I did not write this. My friend Izarradar wrote this on Partizane at the end of September and I feel so strongly that it must be read and passed on to every woman and man we know. Please pass it on so that every feminist you know can read it.
by Ronald Scott
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