Picture: folk art painting of the Staten Island Ferry arriving at the Staten Island landing.
This morning, I got up early to go to the senior citizen center in St. George, Staten Island, for breakfast and their Friday morning Tai chi class, but the center was closed. Today, July 3, is being treated just like a holiday because July 4th is tomorrow on a Saturday. Instead of going home, I decided to take the ferry into the City although I had no idea what I would do once I got there. With me, to read on the bus and ferry, I had the book "Dreams from my Father," by Barack Obama. It's really great. Today I read the part where he's a community organizer in Chicago. If Sarah Palin had read this book, I doubt if she would have belittled him at the Republican convention for being a community organizer. I'm sure that Palin never went through a similar experience that he went through in Chicago doing community work. If she had ever read this book, I don't think she would have made jokes about him at all. Her jokes about him in her RNC Vice-President acceptance speech seemed witty, to me, at the time, but now after reading his book, they just seem crude and stupid. She even made a snide joke about him writing two books. It seems to me if one's political opponent has written two books, it would be intelligent to read them.
Just read on MSNBC about Palin intending to step down as governor of Alaska. This should officially end her political career. I'm surprised that I feel rather sad for her. The Governor's job isn't something you just quit when it gets too tough. The speculation that she did it so she would have more time to run for President, I think ridiculous. These newspaper people have to come up with some angle that hasn't been written about before just so that they can keep their jobs, no matter how absurd. No one votes for quitters (i.e., Fred Thompson). I listened to Palin's resignation speech: she made it sound that she quit her job entirely from altruistic concerns about the welfare of Alaska.
It's ironic that both Palin and Obama were high school basketball stars. It just shows how sports cuts across political lines. Palin in her resignation speech said she was passing the ball as she learned to do as a guard in highschool basketball. Obama's too sophisticated to use metaphors like that, thank God. Palin's metaphor could be used as a rationalization by anyone who wants to quit their job. Looking back on my life, I quit so many jobs just to go to another one that wasn't any better than the one I quit. However, it seems I was very strong on hope. Or, was I just a dreamer?
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