Going Rogue: An American Life (122 page)

up the road and tried to see around the trees that lay ahead. The turnaround point wasn’t far off, so I retied a shoelace’and mentally shifted gears.

“Dang, I must be getting old,” I mumbled. My knees creaked underneath me as I stood up. It had been a while since I felt that stiffening and hurt you first feel when you stop in the middle of a run before picking up again.

I started running again, and it wasn’t long before I started feeling pretty good, because I started thinking about some pretty good things. We’d been through amazing days, and really, there wasn’t one thing in my

to complain about, I felt such freedom,

such hope, such thankfulness for our country, a place where nothing is hopeless. Granted, I’m very concerned about our future. I question the road that, Washington has us on with fundamental changes in economic polity that affect the free market and questionable shifts in national security priorities. And knowing that not many everyday Americans want to get involved in either major political party because we’re just plain busy, I’m concetned that “ordinary” voices could ignored, With so much going on in our lives, why would the Joe the Plumbers and the Tito the Builders want to waste time on what usually seems like a destructive exercise? Ordinary Americans feel that until both parties do some housecleaning, and until government gets back on the side of the people, their time is better spent on their families and their jobs and businesses.

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PALIN

But we must teawaken our beliefin

principles that underlie

our Constitution and the power we have when individuals stand together. And this does not mean an indifference to others. Far ftom it. We know that the most vulnerable among us deserve our protection; we value life and those who nurture it; and we want to make America a more welcoming place for those whom some may not consider “perfect:’ History has shown us that when we empower ourselves to stand up together, we become an even more blessed and prosperous nation. And we become a more generous nation, too-a nation rhat bas proved for more than two centuries its willingness to share its blessings with others.

I believe in my soul that we will be a stronger and freer America when we walk that walk. As I ran, these thoughts accompanied my steps. The nearer I got to the turnaround point ahead, the more energy I picked up. That is where America is today-nearing the turning point. Change, real change, is just around the corner. We are picking up momentum as more and more citizens rise up and say to government, “Trust us! Trust the people of this great country!

Our government is supposed to work for us; we’re not supposed to work for government!”

Our country is definitely at a crossroads. Too many Americans
no longer believe that their children will have a better future. When members of our greatest generation-the World War II generation-lose their homes and their life savings because their retirement funds were wiped out in the financial collapse, people get angry. There is a growing sentiment that says just “throw the bums out” of Washington-and by that, people mean Republicans
and
Democrats. Everyday Americans suffering from pay cuts and job losses want to know why our elected leaders aren’t tightening their own belts.

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Going Rogue

I can’t help but think of Michigan-the state where I “went rogue” trying co reach out to during the campaign. Some of the people in Michigan are hurting the most right now in our economic downturn. Michigan is a good example of why we must stand up and not give up! We must fight for teform and fight to reclaim these places suffering under the weight of decades of failed biggovernment policies-the very policies that now threaten co overtake us all. We can’t abandon Michigan and places like it. We’re Americans. We don’t give up on each other.

I turned the corner towatd my goal, and it felt so good I didn’t want CO scop. I felt light and strong and joyful, with that kind of invigorating exhaustion that comes from hard work at the end of the day.

I’ve been asked a lot lately, “Whete ate you going next?” Good question! I’ll be heading home co Alaska, of course. Back co that kitchen table. We’ll discuss the day’s news and the next stop. I always tell my kids that God doesn’t drive parked cars, so we’ll talk about getting on the next road and gearing up for hard work to ttavel down it CO reach new goals. I’m thinking when I get back I’ll bake the kids a cake. And I’ll pull out a road map-I want CO show Piper the way co Michigan.

As I was writing this book, a friend forwarded to me a widely citculated e-mail thatdesctibesoneotdinarycitizen.sview of my governorship. It is so Alaska-I had to share. I hope you get a good laugh as well!

A View from Alaska

Dewey Whetsell

The last furty-five ofmy sixty-sixyears I’ve spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska. I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well uncil this last year. Here’s the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin controversy gets it. It’s not about persona, style, rhetoric, it’s about doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I’m about to mention here..

1. Democrats forget when Palin was the Darling of the Democrats, because as soon as Palin took the governor’s office away from a fellow Republican and tough SOB,

* After twenty-eight years
as chief
of Fire/Rescue in Cordova, Alaska, Dewey
Whetsell moved to Eagle River, where he remains involved in disaster management. He is the author

and

and
Lazarus on a Spur Line,
and is a
familiar figure in the local music scene. Find him on the Web at www.dewey
wherse1l.com.

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SARAH

PALIN

Frank Murkowski, she tore into the Republicans’ “Corrupt Bastards Club” (CBC) and sent it packing. Many of its members are now residing in state housing and wearing orange jumpsuits. The Democrats reacted by skipping around the yard, throwing confetti, and singing “La la la la” (well, you know how they are). Name another governor in this country who has ever done anything similar. But while you’re thinking, I’ll continue.

2. Now, wirh the CBC gone, there were fewer Alaska politicians to protect the giant oil companies here. So Palin constructed and enacted a new system of splitting the oil profits called “ACES.” ExxonMobil (the biggest corporation in the world) protested, and Sarah told it,

“Don’t let the door hit you in the stern on your way out.” It stayed, and Alaska residents went from being merely wealthy to being filthy rich. Of course, rhe orher huge internarional oil companies fell meekly into line. Again, give me rhe name of any other governor in the country who has done anything similar.

3. The orher thing she did when she walked into the governors office is that she got the list of state requests

federal

funding for projects known as “pork.” She went through the list, took 85 percent of them out, and placed them in the “when-hell-freezes-over” srack. She let locals know rhat if we need something built, we’ll pay for it ourselves. Maybe she figured she could use the money she got from selling
the previous governor’s jet because it was extravagant.
Maybe she could use the money she saved by dismissing the governors cook (remarking that she could cook for her own family), giving back the state vehicle issued to her
. 4°6