I want to be a part of it, New York, New York...

One of the more disturbing trends coming out of the RNC is the idea that coming from a small town makes one a better, moral, more trustworthy person and being from a big city makes one elitist, immoral, and sinful (aka gay).

Definition of elitist: consciousness of or pride in belonging to a select or favored group.

By that definition that would make the small town people at the RNC and Palin elitist.

But that is not the point I am trying to make. I do not write this to suggest that small town people or big city people are any better or worse than the other. The strengths of a big city are often the weaknesses of a small town and vice versa. I have very dear friends from both big cities and small towns, and although I live in the big city, I fantasize about moving to a small New England town. I have a problem with any campaign that writes off a huge group of American citizens because they live in big cities. McCain/Palin and the Republican spokespeople are demeaning the lives of millions of American citizens. The top 100 largest cities in the US with populations of over 200,000 add up to 60,016,343 people according the estimates for the 2007 census. If you only count Chicago and the two cities larger, that is still 14,945,525 citizens.

The worst part of the RNC's big city bashing was that they went on to exploit the images and video of 9/11 as a way to energize the crowd and inspire patriotic feelings and cheering. The NY skyline was used as a patriotic symbol when the background screen was not showing actors as wounded soldiers and random California middle schools. An inappropriate video of 9/11 was shown to re-energize the feelings of blind trust in the government. The people who died in the twin towers on 9/11 were BIG CITY PEOPLE, New Yorkers. I understand that NY is home to many images that are "American." The Statue of Liberty, The Chrysler Building, The Empire State Building, Ellis Island, Wall Street, The UN, and yes even the skyline is a patriotic symbol. So how dare they question the patriotism, work ethic, and morality of big city citizens while exploiting images and events from the big city.

Let's do the Time Warp again, and again, and again in our stump speech on the campaign trail...

Over the past week and a half I have watched politics go from a race based on issues and policies where Democrats and Republicans payed each respect, to something more akin to a High School student council election complete with lies, sneers, and bullying. I cannot just sit back and watch with my fingers crossed hoping that American's don't accept their candidates at face value, or blindly vote down their party lines based on stereotypes assigned to the opposite party. I have been thinking about how I could make a difference and get involved. I am no good at phone banks and have a hatred of getting political calls myself and I have no desire to have a viewing party in my teeny NY apartment. I do have this blog with readers all over the country and a few outside :) so for the time being I will be writing about politics.

Issue number 1. During the Republican National Convention (RNC) the comparison was drawn between experience as a Community Organizer and being the mayor of a small town. Although I have my own opinions on this experience argument, I will keep those to myself. What I want to address and fix is the time-line that was warped out of shape in Palin's acceptance speech at the RNC and as she repeats it on the campaign trail.

In 1983 Obama graduated from Columbia University and went to work as a community organizer in one of Chicago's troubled areas.

In 1984 Palin won her town beauty pagent and won second in the state.

In 1992 Palin won a seat in Wasilla's City Council. Wasilla Population 5,500.

In 1992 Obama ran Project VOTE in Chicago, registering 150,000 new voters. Having graduated from Harvard Law, he was also the lead guest lecturer at the University of Chicago's Law School. Chicago's population in 1990 (closest census) 2,783,726. The Project VOTE registered 5% of the population of Chicago at that time to vote.

In 1996 Palin was elected as Mayor of Wasilla.

In 1996 Obama was elected as a State Senator.

From there on out we know that Palin became Governor of Alaska and Obama worked in Washington as a Senator. I will go into what both did in those positions at a later date. The real purpose of laying out the beginning of the time-line is to show how ridiculous the comparison of Mayor of Wasilla and Community Organizer is in terms of experience.

Goodbye Love...

Oh this is a sad sad week for broadway. RENT is closing on Saturday. I am still debating on whether or not I am going to attempt the lottery for the final few shows since there are going to be hundreds trying. I might just sit across the street and watch the celebs arrive. Lame, ok, but I love it so pride be damned.

In other Broadway news I saw Tale of Two Cities last night. Before going I had listened to the show sound bites on their website. There was potential from the clips for something big and epic, which I love, but sadly it was a forgettable show. The set was fun, the costumes great, and the singers were amazing. The music and lyrics were boring. The only line I can remember is "Out of sight, Out of mind." Appropros, I think.