A Moderate Voice - Working Mother of Two

This was written by a business school buddy of mine, Amanda H. She and I haven't see eye-to-eye on many issues over the course of spending 8 hours a week together for 18 months plus a sailing and 2-week long Asia trip. Nevertheless I definitely respect her intelligence, thoughtfulness and perspective. Indeed, it's easy to surround oneself with likeminded persons but growing and learning transpires through challenged and critical thinking - and she definitely does that! :)

While Colorado Women for Palin serves a specific purpose - to spread the facts about why Palin is bad for women and working families - I think it's important to hear/read other perspective. Mad wrote eloquent posts entitled "Why is Sarah Palin bad for Working Families" and "What do you want in the next President?" Robyn told her wonderful story in "Sarah Palin is a valuable lesson to our children" that is definitely worth reading whether you read the Bible or not.

Here's Amanda's:

I am on a plane returning from a work trip and reading the latest Newsweek. The cover is white with “What Woman Want from Palin,” written in red lipstick. Inside is all about Palin: Palin for Supreme Court, Palin for Vice President, Palin for Woman. I’m jazzed, “Go girl!” I yell silently. A statistic catches my eye; McCain jumps 20% in polls when he announced Palin as his running mate. One of its article’s author, Julia Baird describes Palin as an action figure: breast pump in hand, baby on her hip, dressed in a power suit, and standing at a microphone, giving democrats hell: Gals can do anything.” Hell, she is just like me. And now she represents the first real chance since 1984 of getting a woman in the Whitehouse.

“Just like me?” Less than perfect family, but loves them anyway; can be kind and beautiful, but is sometimes assertive and ugly; balances her family, career, and passions; yet probably falls short in one if not all of them from time-to-time. She is the average American, not perfect, not an Ivy-League graduate and probably worked damn hard to get where she is.

I reflect on a friend from my MBA program who started “Women Against Palin.” I didn’t sign up. I couldn’t understand why she was against a woman who represents the values we share. Is she not doing her best to navigate the superwoman path and bust through the glass ceiling? I’m concerned that we are acting like the “mean girls,” and entering yet another catfight! I remember some of the concerns she shared with me. Palin is running with a candidate who failed to support equal pay legislation and she represents a party that for the last eight years has ignored issues that provide greater equality and liberty to the American people; issues such as health equity, fair taxation, and systems that value the voices of minorities and the needs of nature.

I won’t pretend to understand the issues and choices that our leaders made over the last 8 years, however, I can put forward one truth – a leader must first serve the people he/she represents. Hmm that leads me to a question does Palin as leader represent the working mother of America; the beauty queen with the brain, and the career savvy woman who works long hours to make a difference or the silent voices of nature and the oppressed who are unable to be heard?

Recently, I have become personally aware of how a system, built by those with a voice, doesn’t serve those who had no input in its design. I am going through the procedures of divorce and find it perplexing how our system grants a marriage certificate with such ease and requires such scrutiny to issue a divorce. If I was to personify the system that decides our marriage status, I would have to say it is narcissistic and pretends to offer solution when its true desire is to sustain itself and be at the center of all affairs even if being involved creates scars and mental trauma from its intentional or unintentional attempts to excavate facts from children, parents and circumstances.

Throughout the procedures I am dodging between sacrifice, needs and wants and as I maneuver I never take my eyes off my daughters. For I know the moment I do, I become like the system and it becomes all about me and my daughters stand to lose much more than they will if I keep my focus on the best outcome for them. As a mother, my daughters are my constituents and their voices don’t directly shape the design, but by being aware of their needs maybe I can give their voice a stake in the outcome. I am responsible for all the actions in my control, so I focus on what I can control and do my best to assess the potential outcomes while knowing that I rely only on my judgment and their voices and my trusted advisors to provide a best case outcome for first my constituents, knowing that if they are ok, I will be ok.

I can’t help but think of how closely my personal situation mirrors the greater role of our leaders, who serve all the American people. It is their duty to represent and consider all voices equally and to minimize the impact of difficult, yet necessary decisions. For them to do so, they must keep their eye on their constituents, not just those who lobby or fund their campaigns.

Over the last decade we have seen more and more leaders fail their constituents in order to increase their personal power or wealth. I contemplate Palin and her qualities and realize that she lacks what I am looking for in a leader- service to her constituents. Most career women know what it means to come face-to-face with those decisions and forks in the road where we stop and ask, “why am I doing this?” I imagine I am Palin and ask myself “why am I doing this?” and find that I cannot honestly answer “for equality or to serve.” I surmise it is much easier to answer “to break the ceiling.” Not a good enough answer for the leader that I choose to represent me. Thus, for if she served the constituents whose support she is trying to engage - woman, like me, who value beauty, hard work, motherhood and representation in the American system; as well as the average American who values the land they subsist on and toil to create a better society -then I reason she would align herself with those that support the voice of all over the voice of a few.

Palin being the role-model working mother is not enough to earn her the woman’s vote. We need a leader who is about creating liberty and equality in our systems through laws and procedures that are proactive versus reactive. Let’s give the everyday American a chance to change the system in a way that it provides value to all of us. While foreign policy and global affairs are of high importance, we need to first make sure our own house is strong and return to the principles that made the U.S. the lighthouse it is. It is time we put a leader back in office that holds true to the principles of equality and liberty. The woman’s issue, if you will, is for each of us as individual women to role-model. Our belief in fairness, equality, liberty, and integrity, is our everyday call. We don’t vote for a person based on just their sex or race, we vote for a person based on their appreciation of the values we hold. The difficulty for each of us on Election Day will be in weeding through the propaganda, the issues, and the lies to discern the leader that truly holds such qualities.