A Plea for My Sister or What I don't Understand.

If someone were to come and observe our large family gatherings Jane Goodall style, they would probably find that politically our family could be divided into four smaller tribes: The Activists, The Dissenters, The Comedians and The Dishwashers. Which tribe you belonged to may vary from year to year. For the Bob and Susan Briggs's, your tribe association took a 180 simply driving from Arizona Street to the windy hill. Politics was never something our family shied away from discussing nor was there any political subject discussed which received unanimous support. While some members moved from tribe to tribe based on the subject discussed, there were consistent members within each tribe. On Arizona Street the (liberal) activists were usually led by Steve, Sara Scott, Bob Evans and Mom. The dissenting tribe usually consisted of Dad's calls for conservative anarchy and the NRA loving Dan and Alice. The comedians helping to lighten the mood and using humor to bring home their political points John Stewart style were Pom Pom, C.M. and Emmy. Then there was the final tribe, the tribe I proudly called home for gathering after gathering, year after year, the Dishwashers.

The dishwashers usually consisted of a motley crew of those with little interest in politics (me) or those with little interest in confrontation (Tempie). It was the dishwashing crew who would clear the table and head to the kitchen to work on the dishes until Grandma's call for dessert while the other three tribes went off to the living room for lively political discussion. The dishwasher tribe always kept one ear on the discussion in the living room, not really listening to the content of the conversation, but rather the volume, knowing that as the volume grew so did our tribe's numbers as grandma would usher in a particularly loud member of the activists or dissenters to check on the coffee or set out the pies or help with the dishes. I came to love really heated political discussions because it meant I would not have to dry as many dishes because Steve was sent in to help by Grandma, our resident United Nations.

This blog being the virtual family gathering I looked forward, during this historic election year, to some of that political dialogue I remember so fondly from the real family gatherings of my youth. Sadly, we are now less then two months from election day and this blog, this family gathering, has been strangely quiet on the political goings on of the last two years. In fact other than Emmy's post of an SNL clip (so typical of a member of the comedian tribe) this blog has been completely mute. So even though I have always been a proud member of the dishwashing crew, out of genuine concern for my baby sister, I am stepping out of the kitchen, sitting down by the fire and the Christmas tree, and bringing some politics to this family gathering.

Some of you may remember what a complete ass I was the year I turned 30. During my 29th year I was approaching a defining age milestone, broke and in debt to seemingly everyone, barely having graduating college from Western, mass transiting to the ghetto everyday for a job I was not getting paid for. This was not where I imagined I would be at 30. Taking all these factors together I was in what some might call a funk. Kalin seems to think my funk officially started on the November Tuesday when I found out the people of the United States had given George Bush a 51% mandate on all his policies. I had been pretty vocal about my concerns with a second term of Bush. Worrying if he was reelected we might see ballooning national debt, crumbling financial institutions, political corruption, a decline in America's standing in the world, a stubborn continuation of failed Iraq policies, a disregard for Afghanistan, a stubborn continuation of NCLB, and a deepening religious divide in what should be the most welcoming and tolerant country in the world. (Thank goodness I was wrong about all that.) However, in true dishwasher fashion, I never registered to vote in my new state of California or did one thing to help the Kerry crew. So here is the concern... my baby sister, Emmy, just spent a wonderful week of Emmalee celebrating her 29th year. She is heading to that 30th milestone like me in an important election year, working in a ghetto school for a declining wage (teachers in L.A. took a 3.5% wage decrease this year), wondering when she is going to start taking that next educational step. I don't want my sister to suffer the same 30th birthday depression I went through, (there have already been a number of disturbing clues that the depression is setting in - a new prison tattoo on her foot, constant sleepiness, a disturbing love of watching reruns of The West Wing). For these reasons I will be starting a new political series on our blog called "What I Don't Understand," in honor of John McCain's vast knowledge of everything, and my, as a supporter of Obama, complete lack of understanding of anything. (I am still waiting on an official count of the number of times McCain started with the condescending phrases "What Senator Obama doesn't understand" or "Senator Obama is just being naive" during the debate last night.)

The first thing I don't understand, Senator McCain, is this little puzzle of an answer given by your running mate, Sarah Palin. In all your vast wisdom and knowledge please help me to understand Palin's response to a question about the bailout...

"where it is taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy. Um, helping, oh - - it's got to be all about job creation too. Shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reigning in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade, we've got to see trade as an opportunity, not as a competitive, um, scary thing, but 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that." - Sarah Palin

This is something I don't understand. Please Senator McCain show me the light. Thank you for your concern for both me and my baby sister.