Palin's Darfur Lie - Alaskans Know Better

From Shannyn Moore http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/


I watched the Palin-Biden Debate with over a thousand Alaskans at the Bear Tooth Theatre in Anchorage. Our collective response was filtered through years of the Palin experience combined with the recent disillusionment courtesy of intense national media scrutiny. The debate hit a nerve when the Darfur Genocide was brought up. Palin said she led the charge to divest the Alaska Permanent Fund of Sudanese investments.

The Alaska Permanent Fund was created in 1976 in order to set aside a share of oil revenues to benefit current and future Alaskans. Many Alaskans have been encouraging the Permanent Fund Corporation’s Board to diversify our investments and move to a socially responsible investment model. I, along with many other concerned Alaskans, testified last year at the annual permanent fund board of directors meeting held in Anchorage. Norway’s successful Petroleum Fund and it’s ethics board were held up as a shining example of how divestment could both be socially responsible and profitable-investment with a conscience. I was told by Mike Burns, Executive Director and Palin Appointee, that if I wanted the investment charter to include more than just a financial directive, I would need to take it up with the legislature. The genocide in Darfur seemed urgent and evidence enough to stop investing in companies who ignore slaughter to maximize profit. If there was a chance Alaskans could help end far away atrocities by divesting our $36 Billion portfolio from these businesses, we should. My testimony was met with ambivalence; the feeling you get when someone in customer service tells you it’s ‘not their department.’ It occurred to me if the Darfur victims’ age were recorded in trimesters instead of years, the ongoing Genocide of Innocents in Africa might get the same attention and support as abortion legislation.

I was not surprised by Sarah’s debate performance. The press had set the bar so low, she would have been deemed a success if she had only pointed out America’s need for more maps, ala Miss South Carolina. Palin had been outfitted with a “Chatty Cathy Doll” box, and needed only to pull the string for the perfect Neocon talking point. I laughed at her “women’s rights” comment. I recognized her skill at avoiding the question through my own experience of interviewing her. But her comment about Darfur, taking unearned credit, and knowing how it played to Americans, sent me through the roof.

PALIN SAID: “We have a $40 billion investment fund, a savings fund called the Alaska Permanent Fund. When I and others in the legislature found out that we had hundreds of millions of dollars in Sudan, we called for divestment so we wouldn’t be doing anything that could be seen as condoning activity in Darfur. That legislation hasn’t passed yet but it needs to because all of us as individuals and humanitarians and as elected officials should do all we can to end those atrocities in that side of the world.”

PALIN LIED.

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Many good people in Alaska serve a greater humanity; feeding and housing Sudanese refuges, raising awareness, testifying to the PFD board and legislature. Sarah Palin coat tailing on the hard work of these Alaskans is disingenuous at best. Her taking credit in front of 70 million viewers was indicative of her lust for the White House and revulsion of the truth. In the meantime, innocent people are being murdered, Alaska has not divested, and our hands are covered in blood.


More here http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/palins-darfur-lie-alaskans-know-better/

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