Those Who Stand Silent

I don’t take lightly the decision of whom I vote for. It is my opinion that too many people have fought for that right for me to take it lightly. And so I carefully research my votes. I pay attention to the mainstream media sources, but I always do my own research. I researched Sarah Palin’s record, her history, before I voted for her in the 2008 election. I read and watched the MSM sources. I read countless articles, most of them with a rather negative tilt. I looked at her official website. I read legislation and old articles. I looked at every blog under the sun, including all those of the liberals in Alaska. I tried to look with an open mind. I went through the same process for each candidate in the election. And I found that Sarah Palin was the person that I wanted to cast my vote for. She was the person I was willing to stake my claim with. She was the person I was willing to trust with running the country and serving me.

I’ve spent a lot of my free time over the last several months watching the way in which the governor and her family have been, and are, treated; by the MSM, by “comedians,” by “feminists,” by bloggers and commenters. I’ve spent a lot of time watching her actions and her speeches. I watched her speech in Evansville, Indiana and I watched her speeches in Auburn, New York. I read stories during the campaign of her meeting with Gold Star mothers and read blog posts by some of those who met her.

I’ve also read the posts of some bloggers and commenters that have tested my faith in humanity. That’s not something that I say lightly. My father is a Vietnam veteran. He served a year in the infantry in Vietnam. He has rarely spoken of his experiences except to make me aware, from an early age, that there is evil in the world. He also taught me to treat my fellow human beings with decency, even when I don’t agree with them, even when I find them almost untenable. He taught me that, to roughly paraphrase Ronald Reagan, “Evil can't win, if good people stand up.”

I wonder if some of those who stood by while others attacked the governor’s children ever thought about standing up. I wonder if they’ll regret some day that they did not. I wonder if they’ll wonder, maybe years from now, why they allowed their dislike of a person to so cloud their judgment that they would not stand up for children, for those weaker than they. I don’t know if they will or not. But I won’t forget that when they had the chance to take a stand for decency, to do the right thing, they stood by, silent.