We are incredibly lucky to have this report, as it was part of Palin's contract to "keep the media out" (as we all know, there are mostly liberals in the media, and they like to report facts, which can be very annoying indeed).
By the way: Whose decision was it to keep the media out?
CNN knows:
Elizabeth Andrews, the college's communications director, called the decision "mutual."
"This was per the agreement that the College of the Ozarks had when had when we booked governor Palin for the convocation," she told CNN. "This didn't come from our end or theirs. It was a mutual consent kind of thing."
Well, whatever - who needs the media when we have our own spies! ;-)
Elizabeth Andrews, the college's communications director, called the decision "mutual."
"This was per the agreement that the College of the Ozarks had when had when we booked governor Palin for the convocation," she told CNN. "This didn't come from our end or theirs. It was a mutual consent kind of thing."
Well, whatever - who needs the media when we have our own spies! ;-)
The College of the Ozarks themselves also didn't give a real report - but they let us now that the "College of the Ozarks awarded the Governor the inaugural Great American Award" and they also provided one picture, believe it or not:
In addition, the College of the Ozarks explain in their press release:
"The Great American Awards are given by the College to individuals whose lives reflect great credit on the mission, goals and vision of College of the Ozarks. Patriotism is one of the important goals of the College. Along with Palin, seven individuals received Great American Awards. The Governor expressed that she was honored and humbled to be among such company."
Therefore the "Governor" is now officially a "Great American." I am sure that all Americans will be thrilled to hear that.
+++
Here is the report from this event:
As thousands poured into College of the Ozarks’ Keeter Gymnasium on December 2, 2009, the atmosphere fairly sparkled with excitement and anticipation. The apparently well-practiced parking of the huge number of vehicles had gone smoothly (as far as we could see), and the well-mannered and friendly students greeted and handed out programs. (Our greeters had just run out before we arrived at our upper level area, but a few minutes later I picked up two downstairs, and still later, a large supply arrived.)
The program was a handsome one, seven pages, with Sarah Palin’s portrait on the cover, the event was billed as The Leonard B. and Edith Gittinger Community Convocation, put on by The Keeter Center for Character Education. My American Heritage Dictionary defines convocation as “A group of people assembled by summons.” (As an aside: Hmmm, the press was obviously not included in the summons. I called our local NBC affiliate this morning, saying I’d seen nothing on the morning news about the event and was told they were expressly forbidden attendance. I said “Strange!” and the man at the station said “We thought so, too.”
That aside, the long-awaited evening began with good music by the college’s Concert Band, an intro, then a Presentation of Colors by the Army ROTC, the national anthem,, Pledge of Allegiance, an invocation, a welcome by the college president, Jerry C. Davis and the Inaugural Great American Award to Sarah Palin. There was also beautiful music both early and late. By the way, the program started exactly at 7 pm as scheduled. Patriotism is alive and well at C of O, and there were many manifestations, including a Parade of Colors by students of the Patriotic Education Travel Program in which students travel to former sites of wars with veterans. Some of the veterans were there and were honored. (I honor veterans, also, but I wish there were in this society honors bestowed, too, on those who fight for peace -- people like the Quakers, for example.)
Well, to get to Mrs. Palin, I must say I admire her stamina. She had already had a busy day with the Borders book signing, but she womanfully withstood the rigors of standing (in high heels) through Jerry C. Davis’ conducting of seven more Great American Awards; she handed the recipients their trophies. Davis, president of the college, is not noted for his brevity.
Anyway, finally at 8:10 pm Sarah Palin began her talk, concluding right around 9 pm. She made a comment about her (and the McCain campaign’s) treatment by the mainstream media, mentioning “We call it ‘the lame stream media.’” That remark brought a large laugh from the primarily Republican audience. (This characterization of the audience is my own assumption, not based on statistical evidence.)
At 8:40, she said “I’m a commonsense conservative,” saying there need to be more initiatives to help small businesses survive and thrive, since they are what supports our economy. She didn’t mention that lots of the stimulus funds haven’t yet been distributed, nor did she ask why, of course. As might have been expected, she criticized the present administration for its large spending, neglecting to mention that many economists seem to see seeds of this downturn many months, even years before Barack Obama became our Commander-in-Chief.
She said she is “in God’s hands” and spoke of “God’s guideposts,” but unfortunately, I didn’t get what these were. In similar vein, she said she believes nothing happens by accident. She is not ashamed to talk about her faith, she says. Although she speaks of the need for people (and legislators) to work together, she didn’t say how to work together with people whose religious beliefs do not parallel your own. And although she didn’t really deal with the right-to-life/abortion debate, she said the government should not intrude into people’s lives. (Seems to me there’s something askew here in logic; but I’ve been thinking about that for many years, long before Mrs. Palin appeared on the scene.)
She talked about having worked her way through college, which of course made a hit at CofO where all students do just that. Basketball and other sports have been important learning experiences in her life. (In fact, in his intro, Jerry Davis said she probably felt more at home in a gymnasium than any previous speaker had.) “Family values,” she felt, were often learned while participating in sports. She often spoke of “ordinary people,” like her, who can achieve success through faith, hope and the pioneer spirit. (I believe the Bible speaks of faith, hope and charity?) Charity was not mentioned. I wonder why? Come to think of it, I’m sure there’s at least one Bible translation where the triumvirate of virtues is named as faith, hope and love! On the faith part, she’s very strong, indicating faith was important in the past and is now. She also said we should learn from and follow “the lessons of history, and history’s heroes,” heroes like those whom we had with us tonight. She said those people of “the Greatest Generation” did not apologize for America. The majority of the audience liked that, too.
Former President Ronald Reagan was quoted several times, and I gather he’s a hero of hers. She strongly agrees government is the problem, not the solution. She said when Reagan was president, he “faced a worse crisis than we do now.” His solution, she said, was lowering taxes and giving people more confidence.
In regard to her unexpected departure from governorship of Alaska, she said “You don’t need a title to effect positive change.” Upon returning to her home state and duties after the loss of the election in 2008, she said she had come home to “the new normal,” and was “targeted by enemies.” Her initiatives ground to a halt. She had to defend herself against charges, it was distracting from work that needed doing, and it made governing virtually impossible. It costs nothing, she emphasized, to make charges, but it costs a lot to defend yourself against them. So, since she had a good Lt. Gov. to take over, she resigned. (AND wrote -- or rather co-wrote -- a book. If she mentioned her ghost-writer, Lynn Vincent, last night, I missed it.) However, she quoted what her father was reported to have said upon hearing the news of her leaving her job as governor: “She’s not resigning; she’s re-loading!” Perhaps a prescient remark!
In conclusion:
While Sarah Palin came across as very sincere and also was effective as a speaker, she was praising and espousing what seemed to me to be a more simplistic vision of the world than the one I see. There are no varieties of grey, but all bright light (the conservative way) or utter darkness (the liberal way). Under a Palin presidency (or as Senator or VP) I personally can’t see that bi-partisanship could regularly occur (not that it’s occurring very often now!)
Leaving the campus was more difficult than arriving, as there was a long traffic jam. Our car joined one of the lines at 9:10 and didn’t actually leave CofO until 10 pm.
On a funny side note, ours was probably the only car among the thousands there that had a fine set of Obama stickers on the back bumper. As another car pulled in beside us, I heard the woman say a single word in a surprised tone, "Obama"!
I wish Sarah Palin well with the book, and I hope she’ll have a happy life continuing to help Alaska in whatever ways she can, given her duties in caring for her family.
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