Vagina Monologues Playwright Weighs in on Palin. (great read)

September 12, 2008

Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known

for " The Vagina Monologues " , wrote the following about Sarah Palin.

Drill, Drill, Drill

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member

of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved

polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe

it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the

arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the

fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar

bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to

build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard

to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more

insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and

solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to

Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth,

ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds,

deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of

my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be

so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never

recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the

rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have

seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with

regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her

world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or

evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the

storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are

all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the

endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and

plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil

is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is

here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, " It was a

task from God. "

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are

raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to

determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine

her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried

to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think

independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference.

This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the

United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the

earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has

been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from

the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when

God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's

name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of

separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever

tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our

hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S.,

but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the

earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we

move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence

through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for

oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will

free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent

on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of

killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant

society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get

Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at

the RNC, " Drill Drill Drill. " I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think

of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military

exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt,

ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the

sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more

holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

Eve Ensler

September 5, 2008

September 14, 2008

This is not a political list -please keep your views to yourself. Janet

--- On Fri, 9/12/08, Rick Stevens <ecology1st2004 wrote:

Rick Stevens <ecology1st2004

Vagina Monologues Playwright Weighs in on Palin. (great

read)

ecology1st2004

Friday, September 12, 2008, 1:03 AM

Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best

known for " The Vagina Monologues " , wrote the following about Sarah

Palin.

Drill, Drill, Drill

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member

of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved

polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe

it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in

the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is

the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar

bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life

trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It

is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all

the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the

goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to

Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth,

ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds,

deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices

of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may

be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never

recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the

rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have

seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with

regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In

her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or

evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the

storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are

all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the

endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and

plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil

is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is

here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, " It

was a task from God. "

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who

are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to

determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine

her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has

tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who

think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and

difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president

of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on

the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She

has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves

from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But

when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in

God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end

of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever