The "California" section of the Sept 23, 2008 issue of the LA Times happened to be lying 'pon the butt gaskets in the reading room of our construction office. I succumbed. I regret it. Above the fold I found Steve Lopez' column--Nowhere exposure: visiting Wasilla, Alaska. I wrote an entry about one of his columns last year--about an airhead Beverly hills woman distraught that she didn't dream that coyotes would actually enter her Benedict Canyon property and kill the little dog she left outside in the yard.
That column was funny. It cleverly pointed out the complete empty-headedness of many cloistered residents of el Pueblo de Los Angeles. This column is very different.
I'm not sure exactly what facet of Ms Sarah Palin inflames the sensibilities of socialist newswriters, but the lady sure has something!
This time, it wasn't Ms Palin who was attacked (directly), it was the town of which she was mayor, prior to her election as Guber of the state of Alaska.
The first thing Lopez attacks, after complaining about having to stop for a moose crossing the road, is that Wasilla isn't the "quaint mountain village" he expected. It has a Wal-mart, a Target, a Lowes and the normal variety of fast food emporia. "They paved paradise...." he fairly sobs.
He thought he found "downtown" when he saw a "row of frontier-style buildings." "But," he laments, "it was just a Knott's Berry Farm-style facade...." housing mundane, ordinary small businesses, including a (shudder) gun shop.
Well, Mr Lopez, as you might have noticed, driving from Anchorage to Wasilla--a very short distance--it'd be more accurate to have observed that Wasilla is actually more of a suburb (like San Fernando or El Monte) than a "quaint mountain village." It seems that it was too much for him to take, that Alaska is no longer a 19th-century wilderness, despite all the stunningly beautiful vistas and its huge size.
Most of its productive class have regular jobs or own businesses. They drive cars and many have personal aircraft, if they must travel the state a lot. They have a far more sophisticated view of their life on the land, their relationships with the wilderness and the wildlife and their own independence than do most residents of el Pueblo de Los Angeles.
Lopez turns to the people of the town of Wasilla. According to his column, he spoke to four of them--One who told him that "This is Main Street." One who's running for Palin's old job as Mayor--who likes Palin. One who is an enthusiastic Palin partisan in whose store they sell a bumper sticker "I Thinc Im Gunna Vote Four Oboma Cuz Thems Hollywood Peoples Like Him." And finally, a "progressive" socialist who gives a left-distorted critique of Palin's religious views. Guess who gets the most sympathetic treatment.......
I'm a mite concerned about Palin's religious views, too. I'm also concerned about Obama's religious views--which seem to change every time he dumps one of his lifelong mentors. I'd prefer that the Presidential candidates have no religious views, or at the very least, never let the public know what they are.
Well, Steve Lopez is a columnist, not (here at least) a hard news writer. He can have whatever views he wants, and write about them. What I'd like to see though, is for him to research Sarah Palin--that he actually and honestly knows something about her--and then comment on her politics, her actual religious views (if he must), her record and the reasons why he agrees or disagrees with her, than trash her home town and its residents because they aren't what he wanted them to be.
I hesitate to place most of the LA Times on the bottom of Rosie's (my parrot) cage, for fear she'll develop neuroses.
They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!
Col. Hogan
Stalag California
No comments:
Post a Comment