my own real-america credentials….
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008yes, i think i have them. i was raised in san antonio, TX, a large but provincial-feeling city. before i moved to oakland, san antonio was the largest city i’d lived in. from there it went like this:
Lubbock, TX – attended texas tech university – home of buddy holly, gettin’ your guns up, prairie-dog town, dust storms and drink specials that launched a thousand alcoholics. it did have a bar that was “gay” one night a week (that would be thursday) but mostly that just meant better music. hair was big and democrats were rare. i was co-chair of the young republican campaign to elect GHW Bush. i openly mocked my one Democratic sorority sister. being dem was not socially acceptable.
Amarillo, TX – my first real job sent me to a string of towns full of “real americans”. I headed north thru a patchwork of pan-flat farms, past plainview and happy to amarillo, home of “the big texas steak ranch” where if you finish their 72 ounce steak (that’s 4 and 1/2 lbs!) it’s FREE.. it’s here that i got serious about droppin’ my g’s. everything you are about to do – you are “fixin'” to do.
Wichita Falls, TX – the two biggest things to happen to wichita falls were “the last picture show” (which was filmed just outside of town) and a 1979 F5 tornado that was so big that people were killed when they emerged, thinking the tornado had past, only to find that it was the eye of the tornado. then the back-side hit. a terrible thing, but some of the guys i worked with at jc penney’s still got a twinkle in their eye 10 years later when they talked about patrolling the parking lot with shotguns to prevent looting (tho they admitted there were no looters). here i learned about stock-car racing and my landlord ate onions like apples. in a red cross blood-drive raffle i won a night with my fiancee at the presidential suite at the wichita falls sheraton – the only thing i’ve ever won in a raffle. sigh.
Enid, OK – a turning point for me and my then-hubby john. the decade that proceeded our arrival was a tough one for enid. the oil bust hit it hard and the local folk were surly. tho they still adhered to the index-finger-steering-wheel wave on the back roads, if you headed out past the carbon-black plant or the genuine sod-house you could find small town antique stores with plenty of genuine nazi paraphernalia. enid is 90% white. fact. here i heard about annual pilgrimages to branson, MO and participated in a cultural-sensitivity training course that would make “The Office” blush. this was the worst 1.5 yrs….of….my….life. i saw unparalleled ignorance and bigotry and i’d had my fill of small-town america. i swore i’d never cross the red river into OK again and i haven’t.
so ms palin, i know of whom you speak. never EVER have i lived among more unconditionally kind, generous and extremely hard-working americans and hopeful immigrants as i live among here in the bay area of california. words cannot even convey my disgust of your ignorant comments. you are pandering to the very lowest common-denominator and if you win, it does not bode well for America.
Peggy Rehm