Sign the petition -- Sarah Palin: Please Resign.

Prominent conservative columnist and former Palin supporter Kathleen Parker called for Sarah Palin to resign from the Republican ticket. Even a conservative columnist and former Palin supporter is saying it: Palin is far from Vice-Presidential material. Can you sign our petition asking her to resign? Full petition statement:

Governor Palin, for the good of the country, please step down as John McCain's running mate.

Don't worry -- we won't spam you -- we'll just keep you updated on our campaign, and let you know about other opportunities to stop John McCain and Sarah Palin. You'll be able to unsubscribe at any time.

Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving."

—Elizabeth Cady Stanton


"And I am especially proud to say in the week we celebrate the anniversary of women's suffrage [that she is] a devoted, a devoted wife and mother of five."
—John McCain introducing Sarah Palin

"If this doesn't resonate with every woman in America, I'll eat my hat."
—Alaska delegate Bill Noll on Sarah Palin

Dear Bill, get ready to eat your hat. —The Eds.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

YES WE DID!


"Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope."
—President-elect Barack Obama


Thanks to all of our respondents and readers who kept strong hope—for a better world for their children, for the best that America can be, and for a woman in the White House, one day, who we will be extremely proud to support!

The Eds.

OBAMA!


We just want to say congratulations to our new President-elect—Barack Obama!

What a wonderful, historic, and tremendous day!

The Eds.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Texas Mom says: Thank You Sarah Palin

I would like to take a moment thank Sarah Palin. I would like to thank her for being a perfect example for my bright and creative 11 year old daughter.
Thank you, Sarah, for helping open a dialog between us to discuss the mockery of pseudo-equality and the men who hide behind a woman, putting her in a leadership role not because she exemplifies the qualities of a leader but because she *is* a woman and their denial of their own misogyny demands they nominate a figurehead with breasts.

Thank you, Sarah, for illustrating so perfectly for my ambitious 5th grader how wrong things go when one participates in spreading ugly rumors and for making my point that what you don't stand up against is just as bad as what you spread yourself.
Thank you, Sarah, for giving my intuitive and perfect girl a glimpse of understanding into how much she could lose if she allows someone else to make her decisions for her - she's already her own advocate for access to sex education, prevention and choice for both herself and for any vicitimized woman/girl who would suffer under your preferred policies on women's reproductive rights, because even a child is horrified at the thought that suffering an attack or abuse could lead to the additional mandatory mental anguish of 9 more months of suffering.
Thank you for being an example of insensitivity in office and inability to empathize with victims of atrocities.

Thank you, Gov. Palin, for being a great example that people in power can make statements opposite of the truth in an effort to put money ahead of global good since she's already understanding that no amount of money made in oil fields can insure the promise of a planet to live on for her future children.

Thank you, Gov. Palin, for being the ideal example of how maliciousness, pettiness, manipulativeness, and viciousness can hide behind an appealing, friendly smile and look and sound a lot like people you can trust.
You've been the best example I could ask for to give her the tools to evaluate the actions of someone and their effects on those around them over how they sound, what they look like, and who their friends are.

As a woman, a mom, a troop leader, a rare disease patient, a volunteer religious educator, a community activist, a believer in humanity, a struggling environmentalist, and most importantly - as a human - I do thank you, but now I want you to go back to AK and stop giving us both nightmares. Please.

-Dawn M., 31, Cedar Park, TX

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Watch the Webathon of your Letters Here!

Dear readers,

The live video is up and streaming right now at Real Women Respond to Palin.

Your letters are being read LIVE from 1 to 9pm (EST).

PLEASE FOLLOW THIS LINK
AND SPREAD THE WORD!

Enjoy!

Lyra & Quinn

Host Today's Live Webathon on Your Website

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Video: Your Letters Live! October 30th

Dear Readers,

We are excited to announce that on Thursday, October 30th, from 1 to 9 pm EST, a live webathon (internet streamed video) will be broadcast that features American women reading your letters.

As part of the website Real Women Respond to Palin, dozens of women will read from the hundreds of thousands of letters you have sent in over the past two months, which eloquently and convincingly argue why Sarah Palin does not represent you, and is an unprepared and dangerously divisive candidate.

As some of you may know, your letters on this website have received national and international attention, with articles running in the Washington Post, the New York Observer, the Huffington Post, and abroad in London's Guardian, Paris's Le Monde, ZDF Television in Germany, and the Go Africa television broadcast in 16 African countries.

The world has been very interested in what American women have had to say about Sarah Palin, and your voices are one of the places they turn to.

Please tune in tomorrow either on this website, or on Real Women Respond to Palin, to watch your letters and sentiments expressed on video. The webathon has been produced by Kathryn Velvel Jones, an American woman who received our initial email, and quickly decided that she had to do something to advance our cause. Thank you, Kathryn!

And thank all of you for sounding the alarm that has rung around the world!

-Lyra & Quinn

Monday, October 27, 2008

The Anchorage Daily and the Financial Times say: OBAMA

It was no surprise when newspapers like the New York Times or the Los Angeles Times endorsed Obama/Biden. But yesterday, Alaska's own Anchorage Daily News joined in. While they applaud Gov. Palin for her work in drawing national attention to the 49th state, they wrote:

"Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency -- but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation."

Then the conservative Financial Times came out yesterday as well for Obama, writing:

"McCain has offered risk-taking almost as his chief qualification, but gambles do not always pay off. His choice of Sarah Palin as running mate, widely acknowledged to have been a mistake, is an obtrusive case in point. Rashness is not a virtue in a president."

To read these endorsements in their entirety, please link to ADN and FT.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Already voted!

October 6 was the first day for early voting in Indiana. I took the day off from work to drive to Danville and cast my vote for Obama/Biden. There was just a small line in quiet, Republican Hendricks County, IN, but the lines have since grown. I still have fears of votes being lost or not counted. As a mother and grandmother, the idea of a McCain/Palin victory is more than I can bear. I volunteered to be a poll worker on Election Day and am being as vigilant as possible, during this most important election of my lifetime.
-Patricia C., IN

I went to vote early here in Georgia...in the middle of the morning, the line was already 1 and a 1/2 hours long! In the afternoon it was over 2 hours long! We are PASSIONATE about this race here in Georgia and we are standing in line for hours, weeks before voting day, to get our vote in. The goal? To "Turn Georgia Blue!"
-Cole, Georgia

While I did not vote in a booth early, I did however send in my absentee ballot the same day I got it. With any election, I feared my vote might get misplaced or lost all together but it's the risk I'm willing to take to make sure it counts on time. I voted in the 2004 Presidential election in a booth and when I left, the attendees were talking about how they thought they lost a few votes with a malfunction. I'll never forget that. I was devastated. I barely noticed Palin's name or any other Republican name for that matter. After a long struggle of giving up my dream of a Hillary ticket, I was so excited to be placing my vote for Obama/Biden!!
-Amanda, 27, Tacoma, WA

Friday, October 24, 2008

Early Bird Special

DID YOU VOTE EARLY?

Dear Readers,

With many states—Ohio, Florida, and New Mexico, among them—now open for early voting, it has been predicted that more than one-third of American voters will cast their vote before Election Day this year. We can't help but be envious, as our state does not have such a policy. But in light of the states that do—crucial swing states included—we'd like to invite you to write us letters about your experience casting your early vote for president in 2008.

What was it like?
What were your feelings leaving your voting booth? Empowerment, hope, fear?
How was voting this year different than when you last voted, in 2004 or at any other time?
How did seeing Sarah Palin's name in the booth affect you?

We can't help but be interested, and we are sure that our many of our readers are too.

Yours,
Lyra & Quinn

P.S. And for those of you voting November 4th, like us, we hope you'll send us your stories so that we can post them too.

With Two Weeks To Go, Floridian Women Say NO

I guess I'm the typical woman the McCain campaign must have thought would be attracted to Sarah Palin's candidacy, since I am 65, worked for years in the corporate world and was a single mother of three. However, I am also a feminist, an environmentalist, a pro-choice believer in the separation of church and state, anti-gun, pro animal, and profoundly disturbed by this woman who is so blatantly working against everything I have fought for my whole life. Palin does NOT speak for me, and I am doing everything in my power to help elect Obama.
-Lola S., 65, St. Augustine, FL

I sincerely believe that if Sarah Palin were to be elected, it would set the women's movement back a hundred years—not to mention our civilization.
-Elaine S., 65, Roseland, FL

As in "McCain is Pale-in comparison?" "Bush with heels and lip gloss?" Exactly who will be running the country? Palin's the ultimate flip flopper, as in today I'm in favor of and will vote for this bill, but tomorrow I say, it's bad. She sounds like a teenager with less knowledge and common sense than many of those. Sarah Palin wants more power than Cheney - as Biden said, the most dangerous veep ever?
"Thanks, but no thanks!"
-Diana M., 70 yrs old and proud of it, Miami, FL

I am against Sarah Palin’s values. One must live how they preach!
M. G., Delray Beach, FL

I am furious that the Republican Party would think for even one second that I would cast my "female vote" for Sarah Palin. Why would I even think to vote for anyone, male OR female, who opposes almost every simgle cause/belief that I hold dear? She is completely underqualified! Seeing her elected with McCain would make me feel embarrassed to be an American and a woman... I am through cutting her any slack simply because she's a woman.... I wouldn't support any candidate who has that ridiculous track record! Whether or not the candidate is male or female, our Vice President must be intelligent, experienced, and wise.... and Sarah Palin hasn't shown me any of these qualities.
-Laura H. Miami, FL

The selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican Vice Presidental Nominee is an insult to the women of this country. I speak to her qualifications for the second-highest office in this country. She is a cute woman, fun to watch run up the gangplank with such theatrics, presents a charming photo op with her baby strapped to her chest, and certainly makes the old man's heart beat faster. But none of these qualifications are needed as vice president. Many watching this charade would think her selection a joke, but the possible outcome is too serious. There are many women who have accomplished much, are well educated, well spoken, and would have been a welcome addition to the ticket. It is preposterous to envision Mrs. Palin's succeeding to the presidency. Intelligent, serious women who love this country are appalled and chagrinned that such a travesty could be foist upon them. Mrs. Palin's appeal to the hockey moms is understandable, but the game which she would enter if the McCain/Palin ticket were to prevail is too dangerous to imagine.
-J. M., 71, Florida

Sarah Palin does not represent the majority of women as her views are a direct opposite to all that women have worked so hard to achieve. If you read "The Handmaid's Tale" you would find several answers as to why Ms Palin has accepted the position of VP. By accepting the position on the GOP ticket despite her astonishing lack of qualifications, Palin signaled that she was prepared to be used - on the basis of her sex alone - in exchange for the promise of status and power. Surely a majority of women have not decided to abdicate all they have achieved in exchange for being used? I know that this woman has not!
-Julia H., 65, Florida/Texas Native

I am glad to see so many of my feelings reflected in these posts. I believe they are echoing the feelings of the majority of the women in this country. We have worked our whole lives to NOT be like Palin, we have worked to be educated, respectful and well-spoken. What a woman in her position should be representing are the values set forth by the last 30 years of women before us. As a gen-xer, it is my mother's generation that paved the way for women to have what we have today, including Palin. We have reaped most of the rewards that our foremothers fought for all their lives. She more than anyone should realize this and act accordingly. She is only where she is because of our mothers/women fighting men like McCain. She is not appropriate for the job, and most of us women out here "like her" (professional, career minded) actually are quite offended at her nomination. The general rule of thumb is to handle your life with "dignity and grace" - she does neither. I am quite sick of her repeated, canned speeches and how she plays the military card with her son. She responds to hecklers who give her the opportunity to speak of her son, but yet keeps quiet at shouts of real violence. It surprised me to see, in her video, that she appeared to support Obama before being selected as McCains running mate. McCain's obvious view of the ERA, according to news reports regarding women in combat, only reinforces his demeaning oppression of women. He overlooked many, many qualified women, and we should all be insulted, but not surprised, that this is what McCain believes represents the United States.
-Kescia, Palm Harbor, FL

There is little I can say that others haven't already said. I never, ever want to say anything bad about another woman but I fear so much for our country, our Constitution and our daughters and sons, that I have to say: this woman is not acceptable to me as the vice-presidential candidate. What can I mention? the girls who will lose their rights to choose their best health options; the loss of privacy; environmental problems; so much more; and the wolves - who will speak for them? I also don't want McCain as president. We have a choice of quality in Barack Obama and we should, we must pick him.
-Bonnie A., Miami, FL

I don't think Palin has a good grasp of international issues. Alaska politics are not the same as US politics. She tends to put forth a very scripted, nonspontaneous persona. In an international confrontation, I think she would tend to display a kick-ass & take-names-later attitude. Haven't we gotten ourselves into one hell of a mess with this mentality for the past eight years? We need a more diplomatic, cool-headed approach & new ideas to face the current international & economic issues in America & abroad.
-Sincerely in need of change, Donna E., Florida

Being a woman does not qualify one to be second-in-command of this great country; neither does being physically attractive and/or comfortable in front of a camera. Palin's other qualifications do not impress this woman.
-Diane T., Tallahassee, FL

She is totally unprepared to be #2 of the world's greatest superpower, much less #1 if the worst happens.
-Maria O., 57, Miami, FL