Why artists shouldn’t write about politics
October 12th 2008
I admit the title of this blog is somewhat ironic considering I am an “artist” who occasionally writes about politics. (Trust me, my interest in this subject matter will diminish after the election.) However, I just received another ridiculous email from a fellow artist who forwarded this Huffington Post article from playwright Eve Ensler best known for The Vagina Monologues.
The most upsetting thing about Ensler’s article is the many partial truths littered throughout it. Artists are not journalists so therefore they often don’t do the necessary research before voicing their opinions. Ensler is absolutely entitled to her point of view; however, she should be accurate when she discusses Sarah Palin’s record.
For example, Ensler condemns Palin’s action of shooting “hundreds of wolves from the air, ” but what she fails to mention is that this practice is legal in Alaska. It is called “predator control” because it is used to keep the populations of moose and caribou high for subsistence hunters. If one wanted to twist this fact in the opposite direction, one could suggest that Palin is providing food for the people in her state by supporting and participating in a law that allows them to kill the predators who prey on the animals that many people eat. By the way, this predator control program is limited to just 9 percent of the state’s land mass, and unlike the lower 48 states where gray wolves are endangered, they number between 7,000 — 11, 000 in Alaska.
Ensler also states that Palin is against abortion, doesn’t believe in global warming, and tried to ban books. Let’s be clear about Palin’s beliefs, which are far more nuanced than Ensler would like us to believe.
- Palin is against abortion in almost all cases except when a mother’ s life is in danger. Palin’s view stems from her belief that life begins at conception, a view shared by many religious people in this country.
- Palin believes in global warming, but she doesn’t think it is necessarily manmade. She stated in the vice presidential debate that it is part of the cyclical nature of our planet, a view shared by many scientists. Even though she doesn’t think man created it, Palin is prepared and has ideas about tackling global warming.
- Palin never tried to ban books. Look it up on factcheck.org.
Another issue Ensler has with Palin is that she owns guns. Well, the Second Amendment allows for the right “to keep and bear arms” and approximately 25 percent of Americans own a gun. Does Ensler condemn them too? Ensler also wants us to believe that Palin doesn’t support sex education; well, that’s not entirely accurate either. Palin supports abstinence-only sex education.
Some facts in Ensler’s editorial article are correct. Palin believes in God, and she does support drilling in ANWR. Senator McCain suppors the former; he opposes the latter so drilling in ANWR is unlikely to happen during his administration … should he be elected.
Perhaps Ensler’s article would have been more powerful if she hadn’t opened with her sentimental feelings about polar bears. Right away, she comes off as an extreme animal-rights activist who puts animals before people instead of an intelligent woman trying to convey her concerns about one of our vice presidential candidates. Don’t get me wrong, I love animals, and Ensler is correct in that Palin wants polar bears removed from the endangered species list because according to the Anchorage Daily News she believes the listing “will cripple oil and gas development” in Alaska’s northern coast, a prime polar bear habitat. The conclusion I draw from Palin’s opinion is that she believes energy independence is a higher priority than protecting polar bears. People before animals. I think many would agree with her.
AWW — XoXo
