Since U.S. Sen. John McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin to the nation as his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket, Wasilla has been under the media’s microscope. As reporters flood into town to learn more about Palin’s past — she’s a local girl, standout basketball player for Wasilla High School, Miss Wasilla 1984, former city council member and former mayor — they’re also giving millions of viewers and readers their first impressions of Wasilla, Alaska.
Some, like the Chicago Tribune, have been taken by the area, highlighting the natural beauty that surrounds the city. Others, perhaps expecting to magically be transported into the fictional world of television’s “Northern Exposure,” have been less than impressed.
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While what some of these reports say is true — Wasilla has been affected by growth, sprawl and is beginning to attract national big box retail — it’s also not accurate. It’s as inaccurate and unfair as it would be for anyone else to define England by a stereotypical lack of dental hygiene.
Anyone spending any amount of time talking with area residents would have a hard time judging the character of a city by quick glances though an automobile window from the Parks Highway.
Alaskans are proud and independent. We’re also intelligent, well-spoken, highly skilled and ferociously political. This is what we know of ourselves and have to show the rest of America. Wasilla has suddenly been thrust from being an obscure dot on the map to the main attraction in a media fishbowl. Palin is not a rose that defied the odds by growing from a patch of weeds; she’s one of many diverse blooms that create a lovely local garden.
In the mean time, perhaps those like that reporter for The Times of London can stop to smell the flowers, and by doing so realize Wasilla is defined by more than one “ramshackle” watering hole.
Comments
14 comment(s)john stephen lewis wrote on Oct 30, 2008 11:45 PM:
Judy R. responder wrote on Sep 13, 2008 8:34 PM:
To Judy R wrote on Sep 10, 2008 8:24 PM:
Lenora wrote on Sep 8, 2008 1:07 AM:
Judy R Iowa wrote on Sep 7, 2008 6:03 PM:
MY CONDOLENCES wrote on Sep 7, 2008 10:32 AM:
It says the people of Wasilla are...
LIARS
GREEDY CROOKS
IGNORANT
CORRUPT
CAN GIVE TWO HOOTS ABOUT THEIR ENVIORNMENT
TRAILOR-TRASH
SELFISH
UNINFORMED
And THAT is not something to be proud of. I guess Ms. Palin is truely "representing".
Pathetic and shameful! "
Travis wrote on Sep 5, 2008 7:25 AM:
"Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your honor. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse."
Mark Twain "
Liz Dansro wrote on Sep 4, 2008 1:28 AM:
wasilla is more wrote on Sep 4, 2008 12:37 AM:
To be honest wrote on Sep 3, 2008 5:25 PM:
Jo wrote on Sep 3, 2008 3:10 PM:
" No sense in getting upset with what the English think of Wasilla. They are the same people who came to the Americas quite some time ago and called all they found heathens. They didn't appreciate our survial skills then,...."
My sister lives in Northern England. For the most part they are not discussing our elections at all. It is their media. Unless you are a "native" Alaskan you probably came from European ancestors too. "
K Snitker wrote on Sep 3, 2008 11:17 AM:
You cant sell out wrote on Sep 2, 2008 10:43 PM:
Paul wrote on Sep 2, 2008 1:08 PM: