Sarah Palin: Huntress of the Wilderness

Artist Ben Nathan

When I first heard of Sarah Palin I was quite impressed. A female Vice-President is quite a step-up for the Republicans and I had hoped that maybe she would calm John McCain, and give the overtly conservative party a more modern perspective. Then I remembered she was a Republican.

 

Not only is Sarah Palin a Republican, she’s an extreme one. Which means she’s a gun-toting, pageant-winning, pro-life following small-town girl, whose motto is, “Drill, baby, drill”. I’m so reassured.

 

However, perhaps selfishly, my greatest worry is for the environment. I say perhaps selfishly as, to be honest, my main concern is her obvious disregard for animals. I say obvious because anyone who hunts as vigorously as she does cannot be a friend of the furry kingdom. As a vegetarian perhaps I am biased about this, but Sarah Palins hunting goes far beyond a couple of wolf pelts.

 

This summer she chose to fully make use of her position as mayor when she allowed hunters to shoot female black bears with cubs. This is sickening in any case, but particularly sickening when said mayor is so pro-human life that her teenage daughter cannot have an abortion. But she and her boyfriend are going to get married, so it’s all ok.

 

Luckily, Sarah Palin does not just use her position to put her own desires forward; she also wastes public money to do it. She spent $400,000 to stop the banning of aerial hunting of wolves, despite the fact that Alaskans voted twice to ban the practice. It’s questionable which is more wrong; that she did it, that she abused her power to do it, or that she used the public’s money to do it, against their wishes.

 

There’s also the fact that she happily ignores animals, especially polar bears, when it comes to making a profit from oil. Her excuse is that, they can just get used to living on dry land. But what more would we expect from a Republican whose husband works for an oil company.

 

In a world where climate change is a very real threat, possibly more dangerous than the “dangerous foreign powers” Sarah thinks the U.S. shouldn’t be relying on for oil, is a woman like Sarah Palin really cut out to be Vice-President, particularly to a 72 year old man? I think that’s one thing the Jury isn’t out on.