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• Wednesday, September 10, 2008 08:43 PM

  MLK had his Malcolm X

  What's really sad is that it's a woman we feel we can't root for. I always envisioned our first female president to be maternal, wise, witty, deeply instinctual and intelligent, peaceful, strong...not snarky, snot-nosed, insecure, inexperienced...

  I want a woman I can root for.

  That being said, and if you are still reading, I feel we must as women support all women. Before you think I'm putting flowers in my hair, read on.

  For to be truly free is to be whoever you want to be. Blacks, women, gays...any person who feels un-heard, un-seen, mocked and ignore within the system. That person must be free to reinvent themselves, to be totally and uniquely themselves WITHIN the group. Even if they become someone that brings the group down. That shoves its face in the dirt.

  Even if it is someone who brings shame. Even if it is someone who pretends to be something they are not. Even if it is someone who REJECTS THE GROUP.

  To be shackled to the need to do what your group would want you to do is not freedom. It's not fairness. It's not liberty.

  The right to be different, to be an individual, to write your own story, to make a mistake: they are all human rights. To not fit in. To not fit the bill. To fail.

  Every woman has that right.

  Every man.

  Being a woman on the presidential ticket does not mean you have to be a feminist. Does not mean you have to support women's issues. You don't even have to have a clue.

  Irony is that's the promise of the feminist revolution for every person: Self-empowerment. Self-expression. Self-realization. Self-reliance.

  Now it's biting us in the ass.

  No, we don't want to take her out for cocktails.

  No, the suffragists wouldn't have invited her to lunch.

  Yes, she makes me cringe. But that's beside the point.

  When there is so much on the line, when the game gets this big, it's always this way.

  Look at MLK. He had his Malcolm X.

  Naomi Wolf has Camille Paglia.

  George Bush had his John McCain. And look what they made McCain do.

  Bend over and take it. Let's not do that to Palin.

  Let her have her day. Take all the rope she needs.

  Listen, someone is always there to tell ya you're doin' it wrong. But SP just be doing it her way. (Cue Frankie.) Her way.

  Her fucked up, stinking way.

  But that's her right.

  And I applaud it.

  Now let's get back to solving the real issues like real women do, shall we?

  VOTE OBAMA!

  —spielbee Read spielbee's other letters
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