I'd rather have a "Community Organizer" than a "Hockey Mom" Running the Country

I'm frankly DISGUSTED by the comments made by Sarah Palin last night in her speech at the GOP Convention in St. Paul. To belittle and degrade "community organizing" as not a competent form of experience was more than just "politics" as David Brooks suggested in interviews that followed it. It was a stinging attack that tried to frame Palin as somehow more "experienced" to lead. Specifically I wanted to wipe that smirk off her smug-ass face when she said:

"I guess -- I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."

Sure Ms. Palin - except responsibilities means getting results. Responsibilities means improving the life lot of your residents - keeping them from harm, getting them jobs. So why have your "responsibilities" left your residents of Wasilla worse off than Baltimore in some important measures. Must be "tough going" out there - but wait isn't Wassila, AL "Everytown, USA"? No, it's a town with problems. Still. Still after her leadership on city council and as mayor.

In fact after the accusations that Palin wasn't experienced enough to be V.P. to McCain the Republican mantra-machinery trotted out the idea that she has more "executive experience" than Obama. OK, so she was Mayor of Wassila, Alaska (population about 9800, 2007). Whoopee fucking doo. While the picture everyone is painting is that Wassila is "small town America" is it? Sure it has a generally lower crime rate. But in this 75% white-person town (and that's not Everytown, USA, now is it? That's Republican-Wanna-Be-Land) it was interesting to discover the following:

Wassila, AL is more violent than Baltimore, MD:

From 2001-2005 violent assaults in Wassila, AL have CONSITENTLY ranked above the rate of assaults found in Baltimore, MD - a range of 950-1618/100,000 persons for Wassila, compared to 990-1350 assaults/100,000 persons in Baltimore, for the same period of 2001-2005. This includes time while Palin was Mayor. Nice work Mayor!

And Wassila has higher arson rates than Baltimore too!

In 2002, the last year Palin was Mayor of Wassila, arson in Everytown, USA was almost three times the rate of that found in Baltimore, that same year, and most years of Baltimore's rates. (124.6/100,000 vs. 51.3/100,000).

Assaults, by the way are important crime statistics. They are even more worrisome to police than murders because murders are assaults whose intent has been completed. Assault then generally those "murders" where the people never quite end up dead - they've been violently attack with the intent to maybe carry it further. That's why we measure them - they are a better indicator of ambient violence than just measuring murder - they are a measure of the proclivity of people to actually act on harming one another. So, while Baltimore's murder rate might be higher Sarah Palin's legacy to Wasilla's is a more violent life world than Baltimore, MD - who knew.

Wasilla City Hall - Home of Experienceville, USA - Sarah Palin's legacy to her town rates of arson and assault higher than those of Baltimore, MD. Nice work Mrs. Mayor! Now THAT's what I call "executive experience" and "responsibility"!

Now Baltimore is hardly "Pleasantville" but when the Republicans use Wassila, AL as the experience touch stone of a woman that is touted as having more "executive experience" than Barak Obama and that person, Sarah Palin, is unable to keep the town as safe as Baltimore....well then it gives me pause. At least here, in Murdaland I can be more secure someone won't assault me or burn my house down than if I lived under Sarah Palin's "better executive experience" and ability to keep me secure.

So let's see Palin served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska, city council from 1992 to 1996, then won two terms as mayor of Wasilla from 1996 to 2002. And her legacy is a town with assault and arson rates higher than Baltimore and an unemployment rate above the average of other Alaska towns. So just what is this "executive experience" thing that Republicans are trotting out now, saying she has more than Obama, more than a "community organizer", and how has it served these residents so well I have to wonder.

Me, well I'm biased. I've worked as a community organizer as well. Hell if we want to compare "executive experience" I have as much as Sarah Palin - Better Waverly, the area I live in in Baltimore is comprised of about 1300 households - with about 5 persons per household let's say or a population of about 6500 people. And the challenges I've worked on, the grants and finances and planning we've done are hella more complicated and challenging then running some podunk white town. So for my part I admire "experience" that is grounded in REALITY - not some cut-off sliver. That doesn't diminish Wassila as a place, nor its people. But it does say that it cannot be held up as an example that the experiences there will necessarily translate into efficacy in other, larger, more complicated, more challenging realms. And the same goes for the Governorship "executive experience". Alaskan experience isn't simply going to cut it on the large stage - there are more voices, issues, politics and problems to deal with. It's not just a matter of scaling up the work.

And so for me I want a community organizer, not some "hockey mom" to run the country. I want a person who is experienced as an international diplomat. Not some "mini van driving" townie. And puhleeeze... the Palins are hardly "the usual folk". The "usual folk" right now can't figure out where they are going to get the money to fill the mini-van with gas. Sheila Dixon, here in Baltimore, has subscribed to some of the same kind of misplaced rhetoric as Palin here in Baltimore - saying she wants to first "be everybodies friend". Her role, and the same for Palin, is not to be a "mom" or a "friend" - it's to get shit done. It's to engage in constructive conflict (conflict is not all bad remember).

Chumming up to families is not getting stuff done. It's kissing their asses... and in the case of Palin this is while she lets others burn their houses down and let them get jumped in the alley outside some Wassila bar. Who knew I would think I would be safer in Baltimore?