Racism and Sexism: Alive and Well in Central Texas?

I endured my yearly trip to my doctor this morning, and while waiting cold and naked, I vowed today to post a rant-n-rave about the pitiful state our health care system is in when hospital administrations dictate what patient care should look like. But when I opened my local newspaper today to the editorial section, I realized my words would be better spent on the letter to the editor.

The writer's name is Evelyn Poole. I want everyone on the blogosphere to know her name and have access to her First Amendment-protected speech. I know she would not be ashamed; after all, she wrote to the newspaper in hopes of being published and making her point. I searched for a link to her letter online but couldn't find one, so I'll present it to you here:

"The greatest disappointment of this election is reaction of the white women voters. Since they couldn't have Sen. Clinton for a presidential candidate or running mate, they threaten to vote for McCain and Sarah Palin.

No wonder it too so long for women to get the vote with this type of thinking. I can imagine all those women who fought so diligently to obtain this privilege turning over in their graves because of the brainless way their rights are being exploited.

But here we are, allowing Sen. McCain to make a cynical and demeaning appeal to women voters by tapping Gov. Palin as a running mate. Gov. Palin agrees with the Bush administration more than McCain and things we should show Georgia our allegiance by taking on Russia.

Only an idiot would even think of this while our country is already embroiled in two wars, one unneccessary, with thousands of lives already lost. She knows absolutely nothing about the economy, jobs, security, and our world's trashed reputation on foreign policy.

You selfish, unthinking, immature white women who threaten to jump on McCain and the soccer mom's bandwagon, go right on ahead and follow another loser because she has the right reproductive organs. See where it'll lead you, your children and grandchildren. Explain how you, with your anger and bigotry, let a man who left his crippled wife, destroy their futures because you couldn't have it your way. Russia would just love to rule America!

There are too many unethical scandals involving these politicians for conscientious Americans to ignore. Oh, I forget, if you're white, you're right, right?"

As soon as you have all picked your throbbing jaws up off the floors, you can join this rant-n-rave in progress...

OK. How shall I attack this? It's like ordering the 64 oz. steak at a local greasy spoon restaurant -- you're not quite sure upon which end you need to start, and you're already sick to your stomach at the thought of having to digest it. I guess I'll take it paragraph by paragraph.

Point #1: White women are hell-bent on voting a vagina-owner into office, regardless of what said vagina-owner endorses or believes.

Counterpoint: I'm automatically inclined to believe this writer is not white, which immediately plunges one into the cesspool of racism. She lost all credibility in my eyes with the word "white". Secondly, she insists that women vote based on gender at all costs. While I agree that there are a good many women out there who are so obtuse as to cast a vote just because it would be "cool" to finally have a woman in the White House, there are a vast majority of us who have evolved past this political knuckle-dragging to being able to walk upright on two feet to the polls. In my personal opinion, Hillary Clinton was too controversial a candidate and had probably pissed off someone with enought money and connections to have her behind handed to her. I didn't plan on voting for her to begin with, so it makes me no difference one way or the other. Also, I have to wonder about Ms. Poole. Is she one of these women who will only vote for a man because she believes that women cannot function in these roles? Is she subliminally aiming to convince women to revert back to vaccuming in our petticoats and high heels and only vote for men because it's the "right" thing to do?

Point #2: McCain only chose Palin as a running mate for demographic reasons.

Counterpoint: Um, yeah, that seems fairly obvious. In the days where you don't make choices on who is truly right for the job but rather who can bring home the electoral bacon, it would seem as though candidates today are chosen by how many demographical boxes they cover. And hey -- if you can check off any minority box, you get bonus points! I would offer to her that perhaps the only reason Barack Obama has been chosen by his own party is because he is black, since we're using Crayola terms here, not because he has a brain one or can spell the words, "Community Organizer." Seriously, folks, I cannot think of more than two men who have served as president in my lifetime that were truly viable candidates for the job, and even then, they had their problems. When are we, as a nation, going to rise up and say, "Quit giving us the spineless idiots being used as pansies for their political parties and give us a REAL leader"?!?!? Until then, we get the candidates we deserve.

Point #3: Palin has Jello for brains and couldn't possibly know anything about the list of sundry political topics, of which Ms. Poole seems to possess some untold wealth of knowledge.

Counterpoint: For crying out loud, the only person who could ever campaign with a check in the box of experience would be a current president, and even then it might be a stretch. I certainly don't expect a United States Senator to have a true grasp on the true conditions of the FOBs in Iraq or Afghanistan, nor do I expect that Ms. Poole has pulled her head far enough out of her posterior nether-regions to have much of a grasp, either. Our senators fly over to combat zones, using taxpayer dollars, for a few hours' appearance. Our soldiers are pulled away from important missions to provide security for them so they can "see what's going on on the ground." If you really wanted to know, maybe you should ruck up and deploy for a year and a half. Let your family live in government housing, enroll in TRICARE, and eat the nasty KBR food while living on a few hours of sleep every two to three days. But I digress.

And after having travelled the world and known people from far-flung places, I cannot say that I blame our world reputation on Bill Clinton or George W. Bush. I believe that all Americans should be held responsible for our reputation in the world. I was completely ashamed of this one American woman in Rome last year, creating such a scene. No wonder we are disliked! We're loud, rude, and swagger around with a sense of entitlement. On the other hand, if taking a stand for personal beliefs and not having more affairs than fingers and toes is something that earns me a less-than-stellar reputation, then go for it. I'll sit at the UN cafeteria table all by myself while all the popular nations sniggle and sneer in my general direction. I'll wear those stripes with pride.

Lastly, the topic of war. Who really wants it? It wrenching, ugly, gruesome work. No one truly wants it, yet it seems to be part of the human experience. My Iraqi cabbie in Salt Lake City was engaging me in conversation about George W. Bush, and I said, "You know what, I think we should just let our politicians have all the disagreement they want, but the rest of us don't have to be that way. There's too much we can all learn from each other." I thought the man was going to kiss me. He was a refugee, living in America for ten years. He loves the U.S. and supports everything we're doing, and I know he's not alone.

No one wants to die in battle (unless you're one of my ex-boyfriends who needs a serious dosage of Zoloft). There are hard things that must be done in life. If you are a soldier, being deployed and preparing to give your life as a sacrifice for those back home is something you chose to do, even those who belittle your efforts and spit in your face. Sometimes the wars are just; other times they are twisted and we are told half-truths. Either way, once the troops are there, there is a right way and a wrong way of conducting business. If we could leave leading our military to the people who know what they're talking about instead of out-of-touch politicians or people who emotionalize separations that military families endure, we could press on as a nation. Unfortunately, the smoldering sites of terroristic invasions in our homeland have since stopped smoking, and we're back to being the same self-centered culture we were on 9/10.

Point #4: White women are angry bigots who endorse only other white soccer moms and their vaginas, in addition to philandering men.

Counterpoint: Shall we make a list, dear readership, of just how many men, both black and white, have hooched around on their wives and won various elected offices by a landslide? Shall we invoke the name of our dear beloved JFK, flaming democrat and adulterer? Or maybe Bill Clinton would be better. Do you think he put a notch in Hillary's bedpost for every woman he shagged outside of the bounds of his marriage? And is it just me, or don't most minority females vote Democrat? Why are all soccer moms assumed to be white? Aren't families of minority backgrounds emerging into middle class, "soccer mom" culture as well? Or do all us nasty white girls sit there and polish our big pearl necklaces whilst watching "Sex And The City" DVDs in our minivans while "Hayden" and "Destynie" go to soccer practice on the field located in our gated suburban communities? Wouldn't it be something to find out poor Evelyn got tossed by her ex-husband for one of these floozies! Maybe that would explain the unfettered rage she explodes into here at the close of her literary diarrhea.

In conclusion, I don't begrudge dear Evelyn the right she has to get things off her chest. I'm just amazed that attitudes like this have survived in our modern day culture. If you put it out there, we all get to have at it, too. So take a shot at either Evelyn or me if you like. Take a stand and use the First Amendment to YOUR advantage, too!