7.10.08

A Small Group of Women, Talking Over Coffee

I recently had the pleasure of meeting one of these women. We were both in Hunt, TX. The Hill Country. "God's Country." Twenty minutes from Karl Rove's house. She was visiting her elderly mother, who happens to be a neighbor and friend of my Grandfather. We chatted only briefly in my Grandfather's kitchen. She mentioned she was from Alaska. Before I could figure out how to politely ask what Alaskans REALLY think of Sarah Palin, she started talking about this:

ASK YOUR TV STATIONS WHY WE DIDN’T GET TO SEE THE BIGGEST RALLY IN ALASKA

The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was to be held outside on the lawn in front of the Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage . Home made signs were encouraged, and the idea was to make a statement that Sarah Palin does not speak for all Alaska women, or men. I had no idea what to expect.

The rally was organized by a small group of women, talking over coffee. It made me wonder what other things have started with small groups of women talking over coffee. It's probably an impressive list. These women hatched the plan, printed up flyers, posted them around town, and sent notices to local media outlets. One of those media outlets was KBYR radio, home of Eddie Burke, a long-time uber-conservative Anchorage talk show host. Turns out that Eddie Burke not only announced the rally, but called the people who planned to attend the rally "a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots," and read the home phone numbers of the organizers aloud over the air, urging listeners to call and tell them what they thought. The women, of course, received some nasty, harassing and threatening messages.

I felt a bit apprehensive. I'd been disappointed before by the turnout at other rallies. Basically, in Anchorage, if you can get 25 people to show up at an event, it's a success. So, I thought to myself, if we can actually get 100 people there that aren't sent by Eddie Burke, we'll be doing good. A real statement will have been made. I confess, I still had a mental image of 15 demonstrators surrounded by hundreds of menacing "socialist baby-killing maggot" haters.

It's a good thing I wasn't tailgatin
g when I saw the crowd in front of the library or I would have ended up in somebody's trunk. When I got there, about 20 minutes early, the line of sign wavers stretched the full length of the library grounds, along the edge of the road, 6 or 7 people deep! I could hardly find a place to park. I nabbed one of the last spots in the library lot, and as I got out of the car and started walking, people seemed to join in from every direction, carrying signs.

Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage . The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn't honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn't happen here.

Then, the infamous Eddie Burke showed up. He tried to talk to the media, and was instantly surrounded by a group of 20 people who sta
rted shouting O-BA-MA so loud he couldn't be heard. Then passing cars started honking in a rhythmic pattern of 3, like the Obama chant, while the crowd cheered, hooted and waved their signs high.

So, if you've been doing the math… Yes. The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin's rally that got all the national media coverage! So take heart, sit back, and enjoy the photo gallery. Feel free to spread the pictures around to anyone who needs to know that Sarah Palin most definitely does not speak for all Alaskans. The citizens of Alaska , who know her best, have things to say.

I'm relieved to learn not all Alaskan women are wolf-shootin', bible-beatin', G-droppin', baby-poppin' freaks.

(click images to enlarge)












































7 comments:

  1. AWESOME! Who would of thought that even Alaskans have more to do than shoot wolves from helicopters but to promote OBAMA :)

    -"not really" Tina Fey :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I saw this on Mudflats right after it happened. It was fun just going through the pictures, laughing at some of the brilliant slogans people had painted on their signs.

    I saw it on Digg and suggested that all women against Palin organise their own protests on the lawns of their local libraries. The comment got lots of Diggs but I don't know if that ever happened... or, it wasn't reported in the news.

    Love your blog. GREAT title and I love light, sweet and fluffy (for obvious reasons).

    Cheers
    Trish
    Light. Sweet. Crude

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's amazing, isn't it? I met one of the women in Texas just a couple of weeks ago. She was talking about this rally she helped organized "at an Anchorage library." At the time, I thought, "Oh, cool that there are at least SOME women in Alaska who aren't wolf-shootin,' G-droppin,' baby-poppin' FREAKS.."

    Turns out, the rally was waaaay bigger. And we heard nothing about it, right? But we heard for MONTHS about Obama's minister...

    Glad you love the blog! "crude"...I LIKE it! "Because sometimes you want something a little dark, slippery and unrefined?"

    JP

    ReplyDelete
  4. I saw videos from the rally on youtube a few weeks ago and interviews from some of the women. It's really great.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Awesome! I'm going to check it out on YouTube. I'm still nervous about the election, but feel in my gut that Obama will win. ESPECIALLY after this Palin investigation and the ruling of her "abuse of power." Yeah, no duh...

    ReplyDelete
  6. I really hope he wins too of course. But since the shadiness of the past elections...it makes me wonder.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Absolutely. I've never been a conspiracy theorist. I believe Oswald acted alone; we DID walk on the moon; the Twin Towers collapsed because a bunch of crazy terrorists flew their jet-fuel laden planes into them...

    HOWEVER, those past two elections were pretty "shady," weren't they? ...

    ReplyDelete