An open letter to Sarah Palin...

Mrs. Palin,
May I call you Sarah? After all your exposure in the press the past three years, I feel like I know you. Better than any other politician I've ever followed before in fact. More than Reagan, Bush and Nixon combined. I've seen and read more minutiae about you than at any other time during an election season. I've alternately heard how stupid you are and in the next breath, what a savvy politico you are. One of those stances has to be true. The other, by virtue of reality, must be false. I choose to believe that you are a caring human being, a good mother and wife and a patriot at heart. I believe that your vision for America closely matches my own. I refuse to believe the numerous and horrible rumors that are sometimes spread about you in the press. No one that hasn't killed 6 million Jews can be as bad as the press obviously believes you are. Having said that, I have taken quite a bit of flak for my support and admiration of you. As the old adage says however, "When you start getting flak, you must be over the target." That derision has come from both the left and the right. I am never surprised by the left's hatred of you. Yes, I use the word hatred because mild dislike doesn't prompt one to verbally abuse a special needs child or claim that you are the most incompetent and corrupt individual ever to hold public office. As I said, that doesn't really surprise me. I've grown used to hearing that kind of extremism from the voices on the left.

What does surprise me is listening to my compadres on the right say many of the same things about you. Hearing them spew the same lines that I read and hear from the mainstream press is disconcerting for me. Mind you, these are the same people who like me, were crushed when John McCain won the Republican nomination but were suddenly and thankfully buoyed by his naming you as his running mate. I voted for YOU Sarah, not for McCain. Most of the votes he won in 2008 were for you as I'm sure you already know. Fast forward to three years, countless investigations, (fruitless ones I might add) and dozens of scurrilous rumors later and many of the people who lauded your Vice Presidential selection now equate you to a walking joke in a dress and sensible shoes. I applaud your strength against the mob-like chorus that assails your every move. Lord knows I wouldn't be equal to the challenge. I honestly don't know how you do it. Maybe it's your faith, maybe it's your belief that no one can tell you who you are or maybe...just maybe it's the old "sticks and stones" thing. Regardless, you have managed dignity and composure in the face of the most hateful rhetoric I have ever seen any political personality, male or female, go through. I often wonder if Chris Matthews or Ed Schultz could stand the glare of the spotlight you have endured and still possess something resembling a "normal" family life. I suspect they wouldn't be able to take the pressure that you have taken.

Enough of me telling you what you already know though. I should get to the point of this letter before I lose you completely. The point of my letter is this:

Run Sarah. Run as fast and as hard as you can and you should reach 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by January of 2013. You know how much your country needs you, don't you? I've read your posts in Facebook and heard you speak at events all over the country so I'm certain you understand the dire situation we are all in right now. Our past is being rewritten by Harvard bookworms who have no love for those of us who still believe the dream. Our present is marred by slick talking used car salesmen who seek only to enrich themselves and our future, for the first time in 224 years...is in doubt.

There is a wonderful quote from the movie "Gladiator" that comes to my mind every time I see another of my rights infringed by our current President and it is this,

"There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish... it was so fragile. And I fear that it will not survive the winter."

Autumn approaches quickly Sarah. Do you not see the leaves turning color? Do you not feel the chill in the air? The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder with every passing day. There once was a dream that was America. It stood for freedom, liberty and self reliance. A dream that drove men to defeat arguably the strongest military power on the planet all in the name of self determination. A belief that men could rule themselves if given the chance and shown the way by honorable and trustworthy leaders. I believe that leader is you. As do many of those in my circle of friends and across the nation as well.

Run Sarah. Run and we will follow you. Lead the way for a weary nation, lost and discouraged by scandalous and unscrupulous "leaders". Disillusioned that so many of our countrymen have forgotten about the dream that was America. The dream that sought to make men free, brother against brother. The dream that drove us to the moon and beyond. The dream that filled my heart the day I stood in the National Archives and read the Declaration of Independence and the Bill Of Rights. The dream I refuse to see slip away for my children. For your children. For all children, everywhere in this most compassionate nation on Earth.

I will take my lumps for my belief that you are the right person at the right time. I will endure the ridicule of my conservative friends and the scorn and derision of my liberal friends. It is, after all, the least I can do, is it not? For it is minuscule when compared to the derision, scorn and ridicule that you and your family have faced, lo these many months.

For the dream that was America...

Run Sarah...run.