Alaskan Homesteader Weighs In On Sarah!

This photo is the Kilcher Family Homestead Cabin. Following is a fascinating narrative from Mairiis Kilcher, an old friend of ours whose family homesteaded in Homer, Alaska before there was a road. Mairiis has always been a role model to me. She's tough and gritty as well as sensitive, artistic and politically astute. Extraordinary as she is she's not unlike many other Alaskan women. Alaskan women truly are a different breed. Read on and thank you Mairiis. Please comment at the bottom of the letter to let Mairiis know what you think.

I am a 66 year old , Alaska born ,pioneer woman. Sarah Palin does
not represent my values and my beliefs, nor those of countless Alaska
women, who have also hunted, fished, raised families , and cared
for a disabled family member while earning a living . I come from a
large homesteading family and grew up in a one room log cabin with 7
brothers and sisters. We hunted and fished, out of necessity, not for
recreation. My father was one of the 55 writers of the Alaska Stare
Constituion and a former State Senator. My niece is the singer,
Jewel. . I operate a small farm and run a small tourist business,
while my husband drives school bus. I am the only woman member of
the Fox River Cattlemen's Association. I am a songwriter, folksinger,
stone carver, and wildlife photographer. I have worked in the salmon
and crab canneries as a girl, on road construction crews, have gone
to college , travelled overseas, raised a family, and have a child
with special needs. Most of the Alaska women I know--whether captains
of their own fishing boats, or business owners or artists or
executives or doctors or secretaries or just plain moms,--we all
share the same passion for bettering our communities, for protecting
our environment and educating our children to be wise stewards of the
earth. Sarah does not speak for us! She has done nothing in her less
than 2 years as governor to help the women of this state. .

If there is going to be a woman in high office, it should be someone
who was not just pulled out of a hat for political purposes to
distract the public from the really important issues via their media
hype and focus on her good looks and down home hockey mom appeal. We
need someone who has worked hard, state by state, to earn their
right to be nominated . We deserve someone who has put in time in
the world arena, who knows how to work with many different kinds of
people, someone who can relate to large cities as well as a small
farm towns, someone familiar with black neighborhoods or immigrant
border towns, who can unify rather than polarize. Someone who
understand the way s of the world beyond Alaska's borders! Someone
who wold only use war as a last resort. We love Alaska, we are
strong , independent, thinking and capable Alaskan women who do
not base our vote on gender, race or religion, but on the issues.
In no way, does Sarah reflect our views or share our concerns, and
we are insulted that the McCain propaganda machine is making it sound
as if we are all supportive of her. They are using her, to distract us
all from McCain's lack of personal appeal and same old same old
political rhetoric. They are trying to make the bridge from nowhere
into their own idea, when in fact is was the democrats in Alaska who
were against it most. They make her come across like some kind of
heroine, a glamour figure, a role model for American women. NOT!

We abhor her stance against protecting Alaska from Global Warming, she
shows no concern for the threat it poses to Polar Bears and
countless first Alaskans who depend on the sea mammals for their very
lives.

We ask: Why is no one making a big deal about the fact that Palin
opposed the ALaska Clean Water Initiative (proposition 4)--which would
have imposed tighter restrictions on large scale mining operations?

We ask: what has she done for women in our state? What has she done
for health care in our state.? Nothing . I am at this moment too
broke to afford even a pair of drugstore reading glasses, let alone
expensive designer Sarah Palin glasses!

We ask: Why aren't the news media talking about of the fact that
Alaska passed a law to legalize same day shooting of wolves and
bears from an airplane as a means of "predator" control--so the likes
of Sarah Palin can shoot more moose? Why are not more people outraged
that our woman governor could tolerate such barbarism? What kind of
woman enjoys or tolerates killing for sport in the first place? Is
that being pro-life? What kind of message does that send the world ?

We ask: Why is no one making headlines out of the fact that she
supports development of on of the biggest open pit gold mines
(Pebble Mine--a Canadian, not a U.S. company) ) in the world--which
would sit right at the headwaters of the biggest SALMON fishery in the
world , destroying thousands of square acres of pristine wilderness
for the greedy few with the potential to pollute Alaska's waters with
toxic waste? And she calls herself a fisherman, and a champion of the
fishing industry?

Not all Alaskans support drilling in ANWR, and I am one of them. Lets
find new ways to make energy, or more efficient cars. I want my
Alaskan parks and refuges left wild and unscarred for the benefit of
my grandchildren. Enough Alaskan wilderness has been ruined already
by rampant logging, drilling, mining and over fishing! All Sarah
Palin wants to to do is drill, baby , drill.

Most terrifying of all, do we really want a self described PIT BULL
as our next vice president, (and , God forbid, president) Do we
really want a gun toting , shoot from the lip, in your face,
religious extremist who believes God is on her side? I thought we
were fighting a war against those kinds of guys!!.

Who can we contact to bring our concerns to the attention of the
American public before it is too late? Will the Obama campaign
contact us and invite us to speak out around the Nation, so we can
tell the world we are insulted and ashamed to be associated with Sarah
Palin? Call me, I am ready and willing to go..

SIncerely,

Mairiis Kilcher , Homer, Alaska