See Saturday's entry, which awarded this week's Flying, Fickle Finger of Fate to CNN, Larry King, Campbell Brown, Soledad O'Brien, Kyra Phillips, Wolf Blitzer, and the rest of the people at CNN--witn the note that the award was really shared by US Weekly, the New York Times, and the rest of the mainstream media.
As I said, however, this is an unusual week for the Flying, Fickle Finger of Fate. It is not just the "Finger" that pointed at CNN this Saturday. It was also the finger of my deceased grandmother. THAT should really worry them. My grandmother was maybe the toughest woman I ever knew, and I have know some REALLY tough ones, even if that very toughness and stoicism made her a little hard to love.
You should remember the week long campaign by CNN to destroy Sarah Palin. It just happened, and is really continuing (just in a lull as CNN regroups after being routed, something like how Alexander the Great routed an army of 500,000 Persians, with 50,000 men or so, only to face another incompetent army of some 1,000,000 Persians).
One of the absolutely despicable, sexist elements of the CNN barrage against Sarah Palin was the idea that Palin could not handle raising 5 children (even though only 3 are much below adult age) and being Vice President. The idea was that she would have to neglect the Vice Presidential duties (whatever those are) or NEGLECT her children, including the one with Down's Syndrome. They suggested it would be even worse if Palin became PRESIDENT.
Yes, this WAS a betrayal by CNN and the rest of the most fundamental concept of feminism for at least the last century: That women do not have to be limited by their motherhood from accomplishing great things. You can go back to "Bleak House", by Charles Dickens, to see how this tension between assertive activity and motherhood have bedeviled women. Just when feminists seem to have carried the day with the idea that people like Soledad O'Brien could handle BOTH being a mother of four children under nine, AND a big time career in what now passes for "journalism", feminists are willing to throw it all away--certainly CNN is--to DESTROY Palin. CNN, of course, was aiming at "traditional" women, and sexists like me, because CNN thinks we are STUPID (to quote Barack "World" Obama). The real problem for CNN is not the betrayal of a century of feminism, or the obvious hypocrisy. The real problem for CNN is my grandmother, and women all of us "traditional" people have known. Yes, that includes my MOTHER, who raised 5 BOYS essentially alone, while often working, as my father was only sporadically around and never much involved in child rearing. But it is my grandmother who will HAUNT CNN, and probably make sure I meet them all in Hell.
My grandmother raised NINE children, and was widowed fairly young. This was in the small town in Arkansas hill country called Mt. Ida (circa, when I had extensive contact with her, 1950 to 1959--my birth being in 1947 in Mean, Arkansas, and the family moving back to Mt. Ida, which was my father's birthplace, shortly after my birth). The nine children turned out pretty well, considering Mt. ida was a town of less than 1,000 people and considering that my grandmother did not have leftists helping her. My father became a physician (GP), although bedeviled by mental demons verging on mental illness, which kept him from ever being truly a success (we were never more than middle class). One of my uncles became a pharmacist in the Dallas area. Another became a successful preacher in the same general area. One of my aunts built a major business along the lines of Mary Kay. Almost all of the nine children were moderate successes. One of the uncles had a turkey farm, but was afflicted with tuberculosis. An aunt owned one of thos crystal shop selling those really pretty crystals that you can find in the ground in Arkansas. She would die of cancer. The only real black sheep, of sorts, was the moonshiner uncle always on the run from the "revenoors". Two of her great grandchildren (which, of course, she never saw) are, or about to be, big time lawyers in big firms on Boston and New York City. Those are my two daughters, and the younger one intends to be the first U.S. woman President, and later rule the whole world, if Sarah Paline does not beat her to it.
My grandmother seemed old, and was fairly old (my father being one of her younger children) when I first remember her. As I have said, however, my most vivid memory of her is seeing her doing laundry in these HUSGE iron pots (I think there were three of them, for various stages of the process). This was not her own laundry. This is what she did for a living. I can still remember her, on a cold morning, with the wood burning under the pots to boil the clothes. She may have had some help. I don't remember, But I do remember HER out there working, at her advanced age--a woman who had raised nine children and knew no other way to be. As I have said, she had a Calvinist soul, at least from her outward manner created by a Presbyterian creed and a lifetime of child bearing and hard work, but I am sure she had deep feelings like anyone else. She just was not ready to deal with three (then, two more would come later) rambunctious boys after a lifetime of child rearing (although she was never harsh or mean--just not very affectionate or approachable).
How would my grandmother regard being a mother of 5, and being Vice President? As I have said, she would regard it as a PIECE OF CAKE. The idea that a woman could not do it would never occur to her. It never occurred to me (although it has occurred to me that perhaps women SHOULD not have the same role as men). To their everlasting shame, it DID occur to CNN and the evil sexists (or pretend sexists for political purposes) who work there. It occurred to US Weekly and the New York Times. It occurred to leftists everywhere.
What would my grandmother think of these people, even though I am sure she never considered herself a "feminist"? I can only believe she would feel a bone deep ANGER. That is certainly how I feel. So I may be projecting my feelings on her. She was a Christian. I am not. Still, I think I can see a spirit finger pointing at CNN, and damning them to Hell. If Hell exists, would not bet against it if I were one of those evil people at CNN or someone like Sally Quinn. I KNOW, even as I acknowledge that my grandmother was a nicer person than I am, that my grandmother would be SHOCKED at the idea that my grandmother could handle her life, but that Sarah Palin could not handle being both a mother and Vice President, with all of the help, including a living husband, available to her. My grandmother would also be SHOCKED at the idea a 17 year old girl cold not raise her own child, and even help with the others (if still at home). My grandmother would NOT be shocked if one of her girls, or girl grandchildren, ha gotten in trouble. That would just be something you handle, as you handle being a widow with nine children.
I could go on about pioneer women, beating off Indian attacks while working themselves into an early grave--often dying in childbirth. There was Tamsen Donner, of the infamous Donner Party, who walked off to certain death in the snow, AFTER being rescued, rather than abandon her husband. See George Stewart's excellent book, "Ordeal by Hunger"). Tmansen Dopnner "abandoned" her children, after making sure they would be taken care of (as my grandmother could rely on her relatives, firiends, and older children to help her and her younger children, if necessary). They say of Tamsen Donner that, as she walked off in the snow to her husband and her death, that she never looked back.
No. It has long been my opinion that women and men should not be the SAME. But the idea that women like Tamsen Donner and my grandmother, or my mother, could not "handle" the Vice Presidency without neglecting their children is beyond my conception. It is beyond the conception of any reasonable person. Sally Quinn, with a life of PRIVLEGE, should be ashamed. Soledad O'Brien, with a life of PRIVILEGE, should be ashamed. Campbell Brown, with a life of PRIVILEGE, soul be ashamed. They evidently have no concept of the shoulders of GIANTS they stand upon. I am not talking about the feminist icons like Susan B. Anthony. I am talking about ordinary women like my grandmother. The idea that women like those, and my impression is that Sarah Palin is one, cold not "handle" being both President and mother of a Down's Syndrome child is ludicrous.
Enough. I am willing to state flatly: CNN, Larry King, Wolf Blitzer, Campbell Brown, Soledad O'Brien, John Roberts, Kyra Phillips, and all of the rest of CNN--joined by Sally Quinn, the New York times, US Weekly, and all of the rest of the leftist hypocrites, are the MOST deserving of the Flying, Fickle Finger of Fate of any that have yet been named to receive it. Worse for them, they are the ONLLY ones so far condemned by the spirit of my grandmother--may she haunt them for the rest of their miserable lives.
Award ceremony:
As usual, this is a virtual ceremony, with no graphics. It is entirely in the imagination, which is why I suggest you use a visualization of Dick Martin (if you are familiar with him) of the old "Laugh In" as a visual aid, even though he is unconnected to this award.
Imagine Dick Martin THRUSTING the pointing finger statuette at the camera and saying: "CNN, Larry King, Wolf Blitzer, Kyra Phillips, John Roberts, Campbell Brown, Soledad O'Brien, and the rest of the mainstream media, this award is for YOU; you DESERVE it. This time, the "Finger" comes with the curse of women throughout history. You have managed to insult them ALL, except those turncoats like Sally Quinn, Campbell Brown, Kyra Phillips, and Soledad O'Brien. I am proud to present this award and curse to you ENJOY IT."
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