Disappointing my mother

This morning, I received an email from my aunt, who happens to be my mother's twin sister. My mother was also a recipient of this email from my aunt, and the contents were basically: Sarah Palin is the best thing to happen to politics! Here's a poll where you can vote and say she's qualified for this gig! Which, of course, caused me to have a brain aneurysm. So I responded to my aunt and hit "reply all," copying my mother on the response, which was pretty much pulled word for word from my blog:

I hate Sarah Palin and everything she stands for. But then, I don't like most people who are diabolically anti-choice, hunt wolves by chasing them down in planes and then shooting them when they get tired, supports tearing up the environment, banning books, and privatized healthcare. So, you know. Shocker. I think she gives a bad name to feminism, and is the kind of woman who achieves her power by doing everything modern women believe they do not have to do: presenting herself as maternal and sexual, sucking up to men, evincing an absolute lack of native ambition, instead emphasizing her luck as the recipient of strong male support and approval. I don't think she's qualified. "I can see Russia from my house!" Are you kidding me with this? Shut up, lady, and quit winking at me. I think she's precisely what's wrong with the Republican party, and given that she can spend $150,000 on her clothes and hair in a month, I shudder to think what she would do with a national budget. McCain chose her solely to pander to the alienated Clinton supporters, and I find his choice in her both troubling and offensive. To say nothing of my complete disgust with McCain's rolling over and playing lapdog to the Bush administration these past 8 years. "Maverick" my ass. Voting for McCain is voting for McSame. I hope the Obama/Biden ticket TROUNCES McCain/Palin.

My mother responded with:

I am sorry you are not open and respectful of other people's beliefs. It is a side of you I haven't seen before and I feel I have failed you as a mother. I thought I had taught you that every person has worth. The Obama Media knows only how to report such negative and unfair criticism. It is ok to disagree with someone but to express such hatred is unacceptable.

This gave me a bit of pause. Mainly, the "I feel I have failed you as a mother" bit.

So this was my response to her:

Don't think you have failed me as a mother. While Sarah Palin may very well be a very nice person to meet on a one-and-one level, the hatred I express here is for her political and public persona. Which I frankly do despise. I think she presents a bad image for women everywhere. Saying that Sarah Palin is bad for feminism doesn't mean I think she's worthless. Disagreeing with her politics with fervor doesn't mean I don't respect her as a human being. But it does mean I feel nothing but contempt of her as a politician.

AND ALSO: I think you did precisely the RIGHT things for me as a mother, helping me recognize that my personal worth as a human being is not based on my looks nor my ability to convince men to like me, but rather on my intelligence, wit, and compassion and creativity. I think I am quite open-minded, thanks to you and dad, which is another reason I find the Republican Party in general and people like Sarah Palin specifically so frustrating -- there's an "all or nothing" quality. Only "real Americans" are going to be voting for McCain, the maddeningly narrow definition of the word "marriage," the idea that women and their uteruses are public policy, the fact that you're not qualified for a tax break unless you make $200,000 a year, etc.

I think, as a mother, you taught me to voice my concerns and beliefs. To stand up and shout when I see wrong things being done. After the past 8 years, I believe it is my duty as an American to stand up and point at the party in charge and say loudly, NO MORE.

I think you taught me that compassion should not stop at the white, privileged and Christian, but should extend to everyone: Gay, straight, transgendered, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Muslim, Jewish, Wiccan, male, female, poor, middle class, educated, uneducated and everyone in between.

I think you as a mother taught me that education, both personal and academic, is paramount and key to my successes. It's why I read the newspaper everyday. It's why I'm constantly reading, writing, thinking and and arming myself with information. It's why you had to pry books out of my hands and threaten to withhold them from me as punishment. It's why I'm continuing my education, why I'm constantly gratified by the support you and dad give to me. It's why I think being "elite" is a good thing, a quality to strive for.

I think you and dad taught me that I am not just an American, but also a global citizen. To realize that the choices I make in voting affect not just this country, but the entire world. That I have responsibility not just to my country, but also to brother and sisters in other nations. It's why I'm so excited to go to Wales in a few weeks; why I thank you, dad, Aunt Mary and Mom-Mom for the opportunity to go to Germany all those years ago.

I think you taught me that no matter how little money I have in the bank, how much it costs to get the car fixed or how much I may struggle to pay my bills, I am very, very, blessed, and pretty well-off. There are people who don't have what I have and not only am I lucky to have the gifts in my life, it is my responsibility to help out others less fortunate than myself. It's why I just donated money -- a small amount, only $10, all I could really afford -- to Sarah's Donor's Choose Fundraiser. It's why I donate to the Dewey Donation Drive every year, which helps fund libraries who've had their budgets consistently cut every year. It's why I mentor. It's why, at the checkout lane in the store when they ask if I want to donate a dollar to cancer research, I always say yes. It's why the change I get at Wawa in the morning goes into the Kids in Need box next to the register.

I think you, as my mother, you should pat yourself on the back.