An Invitation to Governor Palin

After too many long, obsessive days of inhaling campaign coverage nonstop, I was overflowing with ugliness. I had convinced myself that Sarah Palin and her neocon cheering section were intentionally trying to whip their angry supporters into homicidal frenzy.

I had started to fear that, somewhere in a desk drawer in McCain headquarters, there was polling data suggesting that only national shock, grief and rage would yield a Republican victory -- and that the GOP was willing to condone the unthinkable in pursuit of victory.

I needed some fresh air. So I grabbed my bike and headed out to my favorite path -- a long trail winding through a restored prairie in DuPage County. Hastert country.

I pedaled furiously past tall grass and cottony milkweed, still overflowing with waves of partisan rage. But then I started noticing the people sharing the forest preserve -- teenagers posing for homecoming pictures, young families on bicycles, older couples walking hand-in-hand. And I was suddenly overwhelmed by the generosity of the DuPage County property owners who had willingly paid taxes to create and maintain this beautiful refuge, and who freely opened its gates to everyone -- including Democratic out-of-towners like me.

As I rode my bike through the carefully restored prairie, I realized that Sarah Palin's skewed, constricted vision of urban America has been shaped by movies, television shows and newscasts offering gory, violent visions of city life. She doesn't know that my block, my neighborhood, my Midwestern community are as tightly interwoven, as truly American, as her own hometown.

I reminded myself that Sarah Palin was just a little girl in a tiny Alaska town when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. She has never taken the El through Chicago's West Side and seen decades-old scars of boarded-up buildings and vacant lots -- the miles of barren landscape left behind when thousands of hearts were suddenly, violently broken. She can't comprehend the fierce, fragile, and fearful hope that Senator Obama inspires in inner-city neighborhoods across America, and the pain that her ill-chosen words inflict on citizens who have been told for generations that they are not part of the "real America."

Finally exhausted, I stood beside my bike to watch a perfect Midwestern sunset. And I thought about another evening more than five years ago, when a friend dragged me to my neighbor's backyard to meet a state legislator who was beginning a hopeless campaign for the U.S. Senate. There, for the first time, I heard Barack Obama speak earnestly and intelligently about his vision for America. As I listened, I knew in my heart that here, at last, was the real deal. And I felt a sudden, reckless surge of hope for the future of our country.

Sarah Palin and her furious, overwrought supporters call me and my neighbors anti-American because they don't know us -- and we respond in kind because we don't know them, either. But if Barack Obama wins this election, we owe it to him and to our shared national future to drop the invective, the insults, the relentless snark. Whether we like it or not, we are all in this together.

Once this election is over, I invite Sarah Palin to visit my little slice of the "real America." If she comes with an open heart and mind, she will see that we grow good people -- good parents, good children, good workers and good friends -- in our suburbs and in our cities, just like we do in our small towns. And no matter where we live and who we vote for, we love our country.

So come to Illinois, Governor Palin. And bring your bike.

Comments

[billofgoods]

going through northeastern Illinois... Where property taxes are doubling, where gas is the highest , where sales tax in Baracks's chicago and Cook County is over 10%.. Where corruption and nepotism and patronage and the murder rate is winked at....This is all administered by liberal progressives

[Roelof]

Ever wonder WHY our taxes are so high in Illinois? It's because for every tax dollar we send to Washington, we get only 78 cents back. We pay high local taxes to make up for the shortfall. Where does that money go? Well... for every dollar Alaska sends to Washington, it gets $1.83 back. Seems to me that the "real" Americans in this country are us, the ones who pay the freight. Palin is just a poser and frankly, I'd like her and her prayer warfare network to stay as far away from Illinois as possible.

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

Just like NY we are kindred spirits

[kateemo]

Thanks for this beautifully written, honest account. It's a refreshing, forward-looking point of view; also, good to know that we can all get our sanity back after this knockdown-dragout. I also want to hope that SP would be open to seeing other Americas. We're not all the same, but even if we don't share these ubiquitous "common values," there's one we do: the desire to live in and promote a tolerant, free society. The simple messages have gotten trampled by ambition.

[pkscottx]

I don't much like being called un-American.

If Palin wants to point the finger at anti-Americans she need look no farther than her husband, best friend, confidant, and #1 advisor, Tod Palin.

He is a member of a party that advocates that the State of Alaska ceceed fro the USA.

I have a peripheral aquaintance with Texas cecessionists. They are taken seriously by the government. They are tolerated but MONITORED because they are perceived as a threat.

She is a woman in a glass house throwing stones.

[2876]

Hell would likely freeze over first before that happens

[BobLablah]

Sorry to bring this up but you need to make a minor correction: Hastert represented Kendall County, not DuPage County.
Here are some famous DuPage residents you could use instead: Bill Ayers, Bob Woodward, Jim and John Belushi, Sean Hayes (Will and Grace), Gary Sinese, Eugene Debs, Carl Sandburg. Hope this helps.

[alenaspoppa]

Actually, you're wrong. You need to check your facts:

John Dennis "Denny" Hastert (born January 2, 1942) is an American politician. He was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 2007, representing Illinois's 14th congressional district, and served as Speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007.

The 14th congressional district of Illinois covers a part of northern Illinois, including the cities of Aurora, Elgin, DeKalb, and Dixon, and parts of Henry, Whiteside, Lee, DeKalb, Kane, Kendall, DuPage and Bureau counties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois%27s_14th_congressional_district

[Elizabeth Austin - Huffpost Blogger]

The 14th congressional district of Illinois covers a part of northern Illinois, including the cities of Aurora, Elgin, DeKalb, and Dixon, and parts of Henry, Whiteside, Lee, DeKalb, Kane, Kendall, DuPage and Bureau counties.

[alenaspoppa]

BobLablah goes from post to post checking on everyone's facts. Trouble is, he rarely has his straight.

[BobLablah]

I'm always happy to admit it if I'm wrong. What town did you ride through Ms. Austin?

[scooperss]

"Sarah Palin and her furious, overwrought supporters call me and my neighbors anti-American because they don't know us"

I beg to disagree. They call people that in order to get votes from supporters who expect them to get down and dirty. Shameful that they have obliged the worst in people.