Sarah Palin in Laconia, NH (GG file photo)
Sarah Palin takes upstate NY by storm. From Syracuse.com, on Sarah Palin’s Founders’ Day visit to Auburn, NY, where she was the star attraction:
The sidewalks were jammed nearly shoulder-to-shoulder in many places along Genesee Street as on-lookers jockeyed to get a glimpse of Palin, her husband, Todd, and daughter, Willow.
[snip]
The GOP defeat in November hasn’t dampened the fervor of her supporters, who gathered early for to stake out prime viewing sites across from Memorial City Hall, where Palin is scheduled to deliver a brief address at noon after the parade.
While there are no doubt those who would like to never hear from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin again, for many ordinary folks her popularity has not diminished. In fact, her down to earth nature coupled with common sense and traditional values, if anything, might be more popular than ever, given she stands in sharp contrast to what the present liberal-led government is dishing out on a daily basis.
She also delivered a speech at the historic Seward House Museum. Here are a few of my favorite parts:
You can provide jobs and energy independence and national security by drilling in your sister state. Or you send jobs and you send our money to foreign countries asking them to ramp up production of energy sources so that we can import it – some of these countries not necessarily liking America – that is the choice.
[snip]
Now Alaskans get tired of hearing that Washington bureaucrats know what’s best for us. So we push and we fight and we challenge decisions made inside the Beltway when they’re not in the country’s best interest. And we know decisions being made lately, we believe are not in the nation’s best interest, not when they can’t lead us to energy independence. So though it seems that there are some attempts to try to make some from Alaska to sit down and shut up, we’re not going to sit down and shut up, we’re going to spread the message.
[snip]
You know there, like here, in Alaska, we’re a hearty folk and we are independent and we believe the roots of are country – so deep, so strong – they are what we need to cling to, and clinging to them, yeah, that includes our clinging to Second Amendment rights and to our faith in God. Many of us do cling to that strong faith in God, and it is under God, in Him do we still trust.
Here’s the full transcript of the speech in case you’d rather read it:
Thank you so much and thank you for that kind introduction. I can’t tell you how good it is to be here in Auburn and the Finger Lakes. It’s absolutely spectacular here, and really, it feels like home. The spirit of Alaska feels like it is here in these gardens. I appreciate that you all have extended that invitation to my husband Todd. My daughter Willow is here, my sister Heather and her son Kartcher, and my "right-hand man" Meghan Stapleton who is from Auburn is here; and Meghan being that example of the talent and integrity of work ethic that you produce here in central New York. Kudos to you as Meghan is such a fine example.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to celebrate fifty years of Alaska’s statehood with you at the home of he who purchased Alaska from Russia, Auburn’s own former Secretary of State William Seward. He was absolutely remarkable and what a blessed place this is where Seward is said, yes, to have loved a good party in these gardens having welcomed dignitaries — Ulysses S. Grant and John Quincy Adams and Frederick Douglass.
This was Seward’s retreat even in his Washington days and I can certainly see why; such a patriotic corner of this great, great country that we share, and the beauty of this wine country and the lake, oh, the water, and the hospitality of the people here. I can see why this was his retreat. Such a patriotic corner of the world, though, and you all, so proud to be Americans. (Applause.)
I share that with you, and I thank you….(applause)…and you recognizing that we are the greatest country on earth and we never need to fear that, though we’re not a perfect nation, that we must apologize for being proud of our country. (Applause and cheering.) And Auburn, it’s in that spirit that I’d ask that we take a moment of silence to honor those who have served our great country and those serving today at home and abroad. Let’s not forget that it was sixty-five years ago to this day that Allied forces invaded France, readying for the ultimate victory against tyranny in Nazi Germany, and that was D-Day; so remembering the selfless service to our country then, let’s pause in remembrance of them and of our proud military fighting for us today. Let’s take just a moment. (Pause.)
And I thank you so much and…(Applause.) I want to share with you…(applause)…as I got to share with others right after the parade that, um, it was earlier today I had the honor of meeting a Blue Star Mom from Auburn, so proud of her son Private First Class Patrick Devoe. This soldier was stationed at Ft. Richardson in Alaska. He was sent to Afghanistan to fight for us, to fight for our freedom, and this mom had to exchange her Blue Star for a Gold Star because Private First Class Devoe gave the ultimate sacrifice just a couple of months ago. Another of America’s sons paid the price, fighting for you and for me and for this great country; and another Port Byron grad, Jerry Bell, too, recent overseas combat. He sacrificed all for all of us. New York, I would ask that you join me in promising the Gold Star Moms that our soldiers deaths are not in vain and we will continue the fight for our security and our democracy and our freedom. (Applause and cheering.) Those are the things that our young men and women in uniform fight and die for. Auburn, these young souls are the reason that we must continue to fight for America’s peace.
I want to thank our hosts for today. Todd and I, again, just absolutely overwhelmed with the hospitality and the warm welcome. Your mayor and your city manager Mark Palesh, and Seward House director Peter Wisbey, thank you so much, and for the family of William Seward I give thanks for they having shared this day with us and a time to reflect on the deep roots that run between Auburn and Alaska. You’re gonna hear some amazing roots. It was all just kinda meant to be, that Auburn and Alaska be connected, and there’s something special about this.
Now, your city manager, for one, has personal roots. He managed our city capitol Juneau before returning South, and yes, Alaska is but a young fifty years old as states go, just a youngster, but with great potential because we are full of energy….literally. (Laughter.) And we, in Alaska, we are blessed, with God’s rich, very rich, natural resources that I believe that He created for us to use for a better world. (Applause and cheering.) (Video skips here.)
Providentially, though, could Seward even have known of the other vast resources that Alaska has ready to share with you? It’s energy; energy sources to secure America thus protecting the democracy and the freedom and the equal rights, the values that you all hold so dearly. So, as we celebrate Alaska’s richness today,we celebrate the man who connects us to central New York and those values that Auburn holds so dear and understands. You understand because your foundation here is built upon those things.
The history here amazes me and I hope that you and your children and your grandchildren don’t just take it for granted, but that you cherish it and you share it with others so that others can learn about the foundation of our country right here because there are foundation blocks here upon which America has built and progressed. It comes from Auburn.
Yesterday, we had the great privilege of visiting Harriet Tubman’s home and that was such a treat for us. It was, you know, as a little girl having read in awe her accounts of the journeys along the Underground Railroad to secure freedom and equality — her selflessness to bring others freedom and risked her life over and over again certainly not because it was the comfortable or easy path but because it was the right path.
And then we visited the Women’s Hall of Fame and learned more about the courageous women from central New York. Again, so many have gone before us from right here; others having chosen a difficult, maybe uncomfortable path, but it being the right path. So,when I consider the promises and the opportunities that so many of us have, I know it’s because we stand on the shoulders of women from Seneca Falls and from Auburn like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and Martha Coffin Wright and Frances Seward.
And, as I explained earlier, I was telling Willow, really, there is something in the water here, those heroines from past, leaders today, knowing that those accomplished– like Meg Stapleton; Greta Van Susteren, she has roots from here; John Walsh; John Foster Dulles; Thomas Mott Osborne. So many who have gone on to positively affect our culture. There’s something in the water here, so I asked Willow, please drink it up before we go back home. (Laughter.)
Just moments ago, too, having had the privilege of touring the magnificent Seward’s Home, the one man probably most responsible for Alaska, and as Governor I feel kinship with the Governor Seward because he, too, sought government reform in his time. He improved New York’s education systems and your prisons and the infrastructure here, above all. He believed in equality and the abolition of slavery and this home served as an Underground Railroad safe house. The Sewards helped Harriet Tubman in providing her shelter, then provided her property up the road.
Seward did not take the easy route through life and he faced great ridicule and mocking for his resolve — his resolve for things like purchasing Alaska. But he pressed forward with "Seward’s Folly", as it was called. It was also called "Seward’s IceBox". He pressed forward and withstood the ridicule because it was the right thing to do and it couldn’t have been an easy path for him.
He knew Alaska was a bargain. It was two cents an acre. The total bill was $7.2 million which, I’m embarrassed to say, is a tiny percentage of my entire state budget now. (Laughter.) He had to have
envisioned that Alaska would be so strategically located, our importance there, proximity to other countries, that it could protect America from harm’s way. But I don’t know if he knew that his purchase, more than 150 years later, would come to provide Americans with the opportunity to realize energy independence, but just imagine, now, your Seward’s Alaska helping to protect and take care of the rest of America.Our resources are there and the time is now — right now –and we’re ready to develop, and we already provide about 17% of the U.S. domestic supply of energy, but we can do more and it’s time. But, believe it or not, what prohibits our development, what stands in the way is government in Washington, D.C. (Groans from crowd.) I don’t think that’s what Seward had in mind. (Applause.)
Alaska can actually quench America’s thirst for hydrocarbons for years and reduce energy costs and reduce the dependence on foreign sources of energy if given the opportunities that America was founded upon. Remember that was the exploration and the innovation and the production and the hard work. Now we have opportunity to secure America’s economy and our homeland; and again, I think providentially, this is what Seward had in mind all those years ago.
We’re certainly in favor of alternative energy up in Alaska and I budgeted hundreds of millions of dollars in order to get us there, but America still needs a ready, sustain-able, reliable source of oil and gas into the forseeable future and, folks, it’s reality. What is a fairy tale is to believe that we don’t still need conventional, domestic sources of energy. (Applause.)
And a solid majority of Alaskans want the development. We want the drilling. More than 70% of Alaskans say yes, we want this to happen, including in ANWR. Maybe you guys don’t get that, that sense from Alaska back here through the media or whomever, however you’re told that Alaskans don’t want that development. We want it and we want drilling in ANWR and we know that we can do it responsibly because we have proven so and my administration takes extra steps to ensure that responsible development. We have fought government and industry corruption and environmental acts to ensure responsible, safe, ethical oil and gas development.
But drilling seems to be such a sensitive issue right now. It’s a political one that many don’t want to take on because it’s not an easy issue, even though the choice really is quite clear. It can provide jobs and energy independence and national security by drilling in your sister state, or you send jobs and you send our money to foreign countries asking them to ramp up production of energy sources so that we can import it; some of these countries not necessarily liking America. That is the choice.
And a little perspective here. If you pick a flower…not literally, I don’t wanna get in trouble for asking…..but if you pick a flower in this beautiful garden, any flower, what you’re gonna see is, considering, in relationship to all the land here at the Seward House, that flower, it’s about the size of the ANWR drilling footprint when you consider the vastness of all of Alaska. That’s the perspective.
Now, Alaskans get tired of hearing that Washington bureaucrats know what’s best for us. So we push and we fight and we challenge decisions made inside the Beltway when they’re not in the country’s best interest, and we know decisions being made lately, we believe are not in the nation’s best interest, (applause and cheering) not when they can’t lead us to energy independence. (Applause.)
So, though, it seems that there are some attempts to try to make some from Alaska sit down and shut up. We’re not gonna sit down and shut up…(applause and cheering)…we’re gonna spread the wisdom (unintelligible). (Applause and cheering). We persist. We persist because in Alaska we are independent thinkers who, like central New Yorkers, we seek to do what is right, not what is just easy, and it seems when government moves out of the way, that’s when progress can happen. That’s how we got forward movement on Alaska’s proposal to build a natural gas pipeline.
In my administration we’ve introduced, with protections for Alaska, free market competition– imagine that, today, free market competition — to move our trillions and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas into these hungry markets in the Lower 48. We continue to see great progress on this project and this is North America’s largest private sector infrastructure project in history, and we believe that gas will flow within the decade.
What we’ve gotta make sure, though, is [the] federal government allowing the opportunity to tap our resources to feed to you, and it’s promising news that we get to announce very shortly. I can’t wait until you hear about this progress very shortly. See, what we want to do, we want to work towards finding solutions and not contributing to more of the nation’s problems. (Applause.)
So, I’ll quickly tell you some other things that have happened up there in that state that Seward was wise enough to purchase. The federal stimulus package — touch on this just for a little bit — I recently turned down, or vetoed, stimulus dollars that were tied to implementing…(Applause and cheers.) These stimulus dollars were tied to some mandates from the federal government trying to take away more control of our local governments, our families and our businesses; in this case implementing universal energy building codes that some claimed, after I vetoed the money, oh, she’s just trying to make a political statement. Noooo, I’m actually trying to use some common sense, here, and some may be uncomfortable with that, but it is the right thing to do.
You know the response I got when I vetoed these dollars? Girl, are you crazy? The federal government is handing out free money and if you don’t take it, another state’s going to spend it. All this borrowed, debt-ridden, government-growing money. It is not free money,and taking it takes away anything that is free! (Applause and cheering.)
So, many in Congress warned the states about the ramifications of accepting the money and most legislatures went around governors who didn’t want to take all the money and they resolved via resolutions to take the money anyway, but opportunity for development and local control, that is what it’s taking away when all of these dollars are accepted without questioning them because, believe it or not, there are fat strings attached to this borrowed money. See that attitude of "free money" is wrong.
Finally, I have just conceded. I’ve said, ah, okay, I just won’t claim that there are no more strings attached. I won’t use that term anymore because the more we dig into these mandates, these connections that the money would have that we would spend coming from the federal government including the string attached to these dizzying federal debts that we’re handing to our kids and to their kids to pay off for us, well, I can’t say "strings attached" anymore. Now, I say, they are ropes. (Laughter.) These are…they are debt-building, binding, controlling ropes, and it is bigger government that ultimately will take away our opportunities and our freedoms.
And now the President says, government will bail you out depending on the decisions that you’ve made, if you’re not prudent with your business dollars, government will buy you out. Anyone need a car? (Laughter.) And this is a problem because we cannot afford this government largesse and control and unrestrained spending and I don’t think that that is what Seward had in mind; and I do not believe that it’s the will of the people.
Now, the strings attached to the stimulus dollars is really just the tip of the iceberg –attached to the newest federal education standards before the
latest ones have even been fully measured. It means more centralized government and less local ownership, and now, you and I, we own GM. Well, the U.S. government owns the great stake in it, but, who are we becoming more and more indebted to? It’s China. So, at this rate, you have to ask yourself who may really own the car industry ultimately. And universal health care, more government control of medicine (crowd groans) and less availability in our choices of providors. Again, I don’t know if that’s what Seward had in mind.And then we heard just a few days ago, someone says that the White House may want federal control over Alaska’s proposed natural gas pipeline. Can you imagine turning over a free market project to big government (tape skips here) owned by Washington? That’s not a good option.
And Washington now admits that, well, it looks like the only solution to all of this spending and the control is to take more of your money which takes away more of our opportunities and our freedoms and more of our control from our villages and our cities and our businesses and our families. See, now, there’s talk now of a new Value Added Tax, or VAT. It’s a fancy name for a national sales tax. Now, to me, there’s nothing"value" added in any tax unless (applause and cheering) another tax is simultaneously reduced. (Applause.)
So, here’s the caution, but here’s also the hope. We have to hang on to the hope. Somedays it may feel as though we’re almost selling our collective soul to other countries who are so heavily invested in our future now that we stand to be mere puppets on their string, or maybe those are ropes, too — and it’s just so tough to just stand by and hear, "Don’t worry, shhh," just…."Washington knows best."
We’re hearing that about things like Alaska’s missile defense system. Missile interceptors….stationed in Alaska where we are so strategically located. Our missile defense systems there, they do help secure all of you and, as Seward well knew, Alaska’s neighbors are not New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Ours are foreign countries…and you can see the foreign countries from Alaska! (Laughter, applause and cheering.) So, see, Seward knew….Seward knew that we would have these unique challenges, but also that we could provide solutions quite uniquely.
We have maritime issues and the Russians test our military air might and we’re facing oil and gas territorial issues in the Arctic as other countries are kind of scrambling to figure out who owns what and they’re staking claims underseas, claiming underseas energy resources right now. Because of our geographic location and proximity to nations such as North Korea, Alaska plays a key role in America’s security. In fact, we’re home to the largest ground-based, mid-course defense shield in all of North America. And yet, Washington thinks it’s best now to actually cut the defense spending in Alaska by hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, that, that’s an odd priority there when North Korea just launched six short-range missiles and transported its most advanced long-range missile to a test site to launch in, well, their dictator seems to claim in about a week. The missile can reach Alaska.
We can be in a position of strength. Reducing Alaska’s defense readiness in these perilous times is a show of weakness. It’s not a sign of strength. I will defend my state and maintain its strength for you and argue with every ounce of my being for Washington to pay attention! (Applause and cheering.)
And that is not always easy, but it is right and it is clear to many that some of our priorities as a nation are kind of reversed and it’s my imperative…..it should be all of our imperative that we get our government priorities right because, if they’re misdirected, obviously, America is going to turn into something that we don’t recognize.
We all need to pay attention and I challenge you, Auburn, to invite those who are calling the shots in Washington to come here. Come here where we find that right path that Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Harriet Tubman and William Seward forged. They took the right path, not the easy one –hard work, sacrifice, selflessness, equal opportunity — they believed in change on the local level according to the will of the people so that they could effect change on another level where the will of the people would be imposed upon Washington the way it should be. (Applause.)
In this..(applause and cheering). Invite them to come here in this All-American, beautiful town. They need to come here and they’ll be welcomed and they will gain much. Here, where the introduction to Alaska to America took place, where the roots of America began reaching from Auburn to Alaska so that we could grow together and stand so tall and strong together — so proudly American, united together.
You know, there, like here, in Alaska we are a hardy folk and we’re independent and we believe the roots of our country so deep, so strong, they’re what we need to cling to, and clinging to them, yeah, that includes our clinging to Second Amendment rights and to (applause and cheering)…strong faith in God. Many of us do cling to that strong faith in God, and it is under God, in Him do we still trust. (Applause and cheering.)
I am truly amazed. It was from here. It was from Auburn that the country looked north to the future. I’m thankful for your William Seward for recognizing Alaska’s potential to contribute to the rest of the country and to the world, and to bring America together from the east to the west in perilous times…despite the ridicule. He did it not because it was easy, but because it was right.
So, central New York, I thank you so much for this very warm, beautiful welcome. I say God bless you and God bless America. (Applause and cheering.)
[H/T Transcript: Why Mommy is a Republican]