'Palin' comparison

Last night, for halloween, I dressed up as Sarah Palin to give out candy at my coffeeshop...perfect wig, red power blazer, black heels...wideleather belt. and, oh yes, the perfect glasses and lipstick...The creepy, too-perfect replica! My personal added embellishment was a baby-doll tucked, upside down, into the belt, and a seal-pup, dead and bloodied hanging from my hip...The parents laughed. The kids, age 5 and up, all knew who I was. now that says alot about how politicalthe world is even for five year olds!

After the shop closed, I thought it was too good a costume to just use at work so I went to little Grumps, my fave n.e. bar,with some friends to scare and amuse slightly inebriated adults...As I walked in, there were 5 other Palin;'s in the bat...all played straight, no dark humorous add-ons ...we all complimented eachother for being the scariest things in the bar and laughed...they all bowed in homage to the baby"Trig" doll and dead seal pup..We laughed and had a drink. and toasted to her political demise..

For the rest of the evening there were many political discussions, animated and hopeful. Amazing, I thought, the level of hope and the level of fear, in that neighborhood bar! We all worried that somehow , inexplicably, another election and real change could be stolen once again...the hope and the fear were equally palpable...

Saw many a customer and friend there, and we laughed and toasted to Obama and hope...After a while, I sat at the bar cuz my slutty highheels were killing my feet and then, an old customer/friend sat next to me, laughing at the Palin costume. Over a beer, he pulled out his iphone to show me all of the pictures of his beautiful new daughter and waxed stunningly poeticfor such a macho construction man, about how much he loved her...how they were perfect pals from the moment he looked at her face. He talked about how he was stunned by the immediate depth of his love for her. It made me want to cry in joy for that love. We talked about our shared St. John's college education...how lucky we were for it...About how, in this time,, we needed to believe that Obama could win and help steer this crazy wounded ship called America...We talked liberation theology, we talked poetry, we talked kids and work for over two hours...it was so nice to see him so full of life...

As the night passed, I kept thinking how strange and goofy, downright bizarre it would have been to walk into that bar on that halloween night and listen to and watch everybody....him dressed as a woodsman, me as Palin, surrounded by lucha libre masks, devils, Hillary Clintons, priests, Pinocchio, a guy dressed as an anal fissure, goblins, Michael Phelps, Witches, Gargoyles...all of us talking politics...all of us so so so wanting to believe that change will come...

Slante to us all, Slante to hope, Slante to a new kinder liberal order.

I believe.