Dear SP-
Well, I know one thing for sure after reading ‘Going Rogue.’ And that’s that the subtitle should read “An Alaskan Life” instead of ‘An American Life.’ I read this book to hear you out if you will, and as much as the book was written with a twinge of 8th grade jabs at various individuals, I definitely heard you loud and clear. If anyone ever pissed you off, well they can expect to see their name in print. I’m glad I went ‘rogue’ with you SP, because I needed more information and I got it and intend on sharing it with others. Please, hear me out. I promise not to go all ‘rogue’ on you like you did on us.
On your prideful nature: I’m all about hometown pride. Well, Gresham was just reported to be the most dangerous city in Oregon and fared higher in the rankings than both LA and NY I believe, but be that as it may, I grew up there. Oregon itself is fantastic. We’ve got the mountains, the beach, the lovely rain (I’m being sincere), and the gift of seasons. However, I live to travel…internationally, nationally, it is something vital to my existence. It is necessary that I communicate, eat, and walk in different backyards to create a larger understanding than what I might of just assumed is right sitting on my own couch without ever taking a journey. SP you seem to think that Alaska is MORE than enough.
You are prideful in your state to a fault. You constantly refer to the other 49 states in this union that you are “allegedly” so proud of as ‘Outsiders’ throughout the entirety of this book. I don’t know if I would ever want someone sitting in The Oval Office making decisions for a bunch of ‘Outsiders’ because how can you possibly understand us if you yourself feel this way? You were even surprised when you spotted an Alaskan reporter on the campaign trail when you wrote, “He’d made it Outside to track us down” (Palin, 255)! Yes, ever since the creation of planes, automobiles and ships, people have realized their potential to cross state and even country lines. For real.
As if being ‘Outsiders’ isn’t bad enough, you give Alaskans this ‘holier than thou’ stance while making assumptions about the residents of the other 49 states (assumptions as you apparently hadn’t gotten out much before Campaign ‘08). This first excerpt is clearly offensive to any Oregonian as we are a leader of being a “green” state.” “For many in Alaska, being “green” isn’t about wearing Birkenstocks and driving a hybrid; it’s about survival” (Palin, 28). Oh, so that’s what we all think being green is. Thanks for clearing that up.
This next excerpt may be my favorite of the entire book at your sheer incompetence about the rest of America, which you seem to love so much, but know little about. “…[W]ildfires in the Lower 48 are often treated as natural disasters. Up here, we often let them burn, knowing that from fire-blackened lands new growth will spring” (Palin, 208). Really SP? Did you just say that? While you may live in a HUGE state and constantly remind us of that (see page 133 as an example) area wise, no one lives there (Alaska is 47/50 in population)! The reason we can’t just allow wildfires to burn relentlessly on the “Outside” is because people LIVE here and we must protect their homes, possessions, and oh yeah, their lives. So yes, it IS a disaster instead of this “precocious occasion of rebirth.”
On party lines: SP, you emphasize how much you dislike political labeling, that you’d like to reach across the aisle, but describe yourself as a conservative until we find a better title. However, you consistently attach negative adjectives to liberals. Hint, when you describe yourself as “mavericky” and always “mixin things up” maybe your own book is an appropriate venue in which to can these political terms that you abhor. And tacking on ugly names onto a certain group of people that you want to work together on issues with may or may not be the best idea.
You also choose to separate instead of integrate when you talk about that damned liberal media. On one occasion you say: “the time has come to acknowledge that it is a counterfeit objectivity the liberal media try to sell consumers” (Palin, 348). Interesting, because FIVE pages prior, you mentions how FOX had started “character assassinations” on you right after the campaign. Correct me if I’m wrong, but we can agree that FOX is a more conservative than liberal news outlet, right? Then seriously…FIVE pages later you are going to attack only the liberal media, SP?? Who edited your book? Let me know so I can veto them from my list of editors.
After many statements like above where you slander liberals, you present this at the end of your book: “I also don’t like the narrow stereotypes of either the ‘conservative’ or the ‘liberal’ label, but until we change the lingo, call me a Commonsense Conservative” (Palin, 384). Reading the 383 pages prior to this sentence, a reader, a skeptical reader no less, would never have thought you had such complacent views on political party affiliation, SP. I don’t think I need to say it, but that sentence is in direct contradiction of what you’ve been saying the rest of the book! That right there is the definition of going rogue. And no, not in the folksy way you mean it, but in the true definition of “rogue” – a dishonest person.
-Teela
PS…Just because I enjoyed reading it so much the first time, I had to put it in print again. “If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat” (Palin, 133)? Which brings me to wonder SP, why then are we made out of meat?
