Open Letter to Hon. Sarah Palin

The following letter was posted by registered airmail and sent via E-mail on 20 September 2008.


Dear Governor Palin:


I strongly support your right to not use birth control, to oppose sex education for your children, to carry a Down Syndrome embryo to term, and to have a career while raising a family. I do this as a founding mother of the current feminist movement, a mother of two, grandmother of four, great-grandmother of one.

In support of our U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, which grant citizens the legal means to debate and resolve fundamental disagreement within the Rule of Law, I defend your legitimate right to seek repeal or amendment of current laws and to enact new ones that would change the status quo—a status quo that once:

• Denied women the right to vote;
• Denied women access to education;
• Prohibited both men and women from access to birth control measures that would prevent unwanted pregnancies;
• Gave women no choice over whether to carry an embryo to term, even in cases of incest or rape;
• Failed to hold men accountable for children they fathered;
• Destroyed or tainted the reputation of a woman who had sex outside of marriage, but not the reputation of her male partner;
• Prohibited legal sanction of marriage between people of different races;
• Banned teaching of Darwinian evolution in elementary schools;
• Blocked civil service employment and most civil rights to homosexuals and lesbians; and
• Banned from public libraries books disapproved of by pressure groups.

Governor Palin, it is my understanding that YOU seek, or have sought, to:

• Prohibit sex education being taught in schools;
• Repeal laws that allow women the right to use birth control, including the “morning-after” pill, even in cases of incest or rape;
• Ban from public libraries books that do not conform to your religious and/or political beliefs;
• Seek to have Creationism taught alongside Darwinism in public schools.

If I have misunderstood your positions on the above, please correct me. Also, please inform me of your position regarding:

• Enforcement of equal pay to women for equal work?
• Provision of social and economic support for unwed or single mothers?
• Establishment of affordable and freely accessible child care?
• Enactment of legislation to ensure maximum Social Security retirement benefits for women who are stay-at-home mothers?
• Rigorous enforcement of a man’s responsibility to provide monetary support for any and all children he fathers?
• Provision of universal health care, including maternity care, for all U.S. citizens?
• Strengthening and expansion of public education?
• Free or low-cost tuition for higher education?
• Re-institution of inheritance taxes (currently mislabeled as “death taxes”)?
• Provision to renters of the same State and Federal tax write-offs now given to home-buyers, thus enabling renters to save down payments for homes?
• Banning excessive profiteering by manufacturers of military weapons?
• Banning arms sales by U.S. citizens to currently proclaimed terrorist organizations?
• Blocking the sale of guns without strong background checks on potential buyers?
• Rescission of the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act that abolished firewall regulations which formerly governed transactions between commercial banks, insurance companies, securities firms and investment institutions?
• Citing and fining commercial and agricultural businesses that hire illegal immigrants?
• Abolition of trade agreements that permit U.S. businesses to close facilities here and re-establish them in countries where workers’ rights and wages undercut those guaranteed in the United States?
• Sanction the right of trade unions to organize workers?
• Granting overseas professionals work permits that will greatly reduce or abolish jobs for similarly qualified U.S. citizens?

I am a U.S. citizen currently residing in the Republic of Ireland. I will be voting in the November 2008 election via absentee ballot. Therefore, Governor Palin, I respectfully await your response prior to Wednesday, October 24, 2008 to enable sufficient time to return my absentee ballot.

Sincerely,
Margie Bernard