I'm not sure what all Sarah Palin's recent Facebook post was intended to mean (and maybe she doesn't either, since it's well known she frequently employs ghostwriters for the screeds that appear above her name). It starts out talking about "March Madness" and if you only read the first paragraph or two, you might think she was just giving advice to basketball players, something she considers herself expert in.
Here's a wordle of the last two paragraphs in the post, with a little emphasis on some of the more violent warlike language:
Maybe if Sarah hadn't been widely criticized for urging her supporters to "RELOAD," I may not have grown as increasingly uncomfortable with the verbal imagery here. But I know what she's been saying recently as she stumps for John McCain and am quite familiar with her predictable rabid ferret bite-your-face-off response if you call her out on anything. Instead of backing off her language, Sarah has doubled down on her "Never retreat, instead RELOAD" exhortation. No, more like she tripled or quadrupled down! Here is a direct quote from her Facebook post:
To the teams that desire making it this far next year: Gear up! In the battle, set your sights on next season’s targets! From the shot across the bow – the first second’s tip-off – your leaders will be in the enemy’s cross hairs, so you must execute strong defensive tactics. You won’t win only playing defense, so get on offense! The crossfire is intense, so penetrate through enemy territory by bombing through the press, and use your strong weapons – your Big Guns – to drive to the hole. Shoot with accuracy; aim high and remember it takes blood, sweat and tears to win.
Focus on the goal and fight for it. If the gate is closed, go over the fence. If the fence is too high, pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, parachute in. If the other side tries to push back, your attitude should be “go for it.” Get in their faces and argue with them. (Sound familiar?!) Every possession is a battle; you’ll only win the war if you’ve picked your battles wisely. No matter how tough it gets, never retreat, instead RELOAD!
War, Fight, Intense, Remember, Battle, Tactics
Thoughts are things. Words have meaning. Language stirs emotions. Careless use of language is as potentially dangerous and harmful as driving without paying attention to the road.
Any one incendiary word taken in isolation may be excused for lack of context, and presumed spoken in innocence. A few combative terms spread out over pages of text may likewise escape notice. But dozens and dozens of militaristic words in each of two successive paragraphs cannot be mistaken for anything except warmongering and inciting to violence.
I honestly tried to read the post as if it were really only about basketball. But how does pole vaulting or parachuting relate? And since when is "get in their faces and argue" a valid tactic on a basketball court for winning anything except a prolonged time-out?
Can't reach the basket any other way? Parachute in!
Playing basketball is not at all like real war. Players on the opposing team, be it in sports or politics, are not enemies. But if you label your neighbor an enemy you make it just a little easier to put them in the crosshairs of your weapon and shoot with accuracy, aiming high, remembering there will be blood, sweat and tears also, too, you betcha.
The law of karma says that what you sow, you will eventually reap. It could even be that you have to pay back for what your ancestors did or did not do. Ideally, karma is instant and ideally you don't have to pay for your ancestors, and ideally your progeny and their children don't have to pay for your karma either.
The way I understand it is you will get back what you do in life, eventually. Therefore, if you are good and decent, generous and caring, if you give more than you get, you will be rewarded in kind. By the same token, if you are stingy and mean, if you trick and deceive to get somewhere, if you lie and fool other people, your karma will rear its head and see that you suffer as you have made others suffer.
Since innocent and blameless people do get killed in airplane crashes, car accidents, or by land mines or invading armies whose true purpose is to steal land or oil or water or other resources, we can postulate that you don't always get back, in this life, what you've put in. Thus, I have to accept the generational aspect of karma.
There are things you can do to make "good karma." Likewise, there are things you can do that create "bad karma." By my reading, Sarah Palin has accrued a whole helluva lot of bad karma. Now, this karmic debt may be visited upon her progeny but she may also experience some results while she still lives. Sarah lies -- almost as if it were in her genes to do so, she does it so smoothly. Sarah rips off others -- the state of Alaska, her devoted followers, her close associates and even those who used to call her a friend. Sarah has assumed a god-like mantle to excuse her usurping, divisiveness and grifting. Ultimately, karma is going to catch up to her as it will to all of us.
At least that is my hope...
Kudos to everyone who pays attention and serves as an agent of karma, revealing Sarah Palin's misdeeds and her unsavory history.
Disclaimer: I'm not a Bhuddist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu or a member of any other organized religious group. I have studied world religions for decades and learned the practices and the precepts of most of them. Having a set of beliefs is probably a good thing for many people. It's only when a follower begins believing that their way is the only way and when that view colors and shapes their world, their world view and their actions that trouble begins. It is infinitely improbable that any one person has a true and final answer for everyone else.
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